There are quite a few tools that make it easier to manage course announcements in Brightspace. Easier for you and more useful for your students. Let’s take a look at them.
All of these options works from the Announcements tool or the Announcement list on your course homepage.
Copy to a different course
Now with just a few clicks you can quickly copy a current course announcement to other Brightspace courses. This is built right into the Brightspace menu, no copy and paste required.
- Click the carrot next to the announcement name to bring up the context menu.
- Choose Copy to Other Courses
- Select Publish Announcement on Copy (optional). Publishes immediately after the copy workflow otherwise the announcement is saved as a draft in the new course.
- Click the checkboxes of 1 or more (up to 10) courses to copy the announcement
- Choose Next
- On the next screen, verify the course list to copy is correct
- Click Copy
Pin to the top
Next up is highlighting an important announcement by pinning it to the top of the course announcement list. One drawback I see to this is that you cannot set an expiration date for the pin, you have to remove it manually. Hopefully Brightspace will add that option in the future.
- Click the carrot next to the announcement name to bring up the context menu.
- Choose Pin to top
The announcement will now be pinned to the top of the announcements list until you manually remove the pin. To remove the pin, click the pin icon next to the announcement title or choose Unpin from the context menu.
Reorder announcements
Updated your announcement and need to move it to the top? Pushed back an assignment? Just reorder your current announcements!
- Click More Actions
- Choose Reorder
- Change the sort order number for the relevant announcements
- Click Save
We think these simple tools can make a positive difference in your courses so let us know if you find them useful. And if you have any questions or issues, please contact IDAT Services.