Announcements to Promote Student Success

Communication is key for student success.  This is particularly true for online courses where a sense of community is a key factor in student retention and achievement.

Found under the Course Tools in Blackboard, the Announcement tool is an excellent way of increasing communication with your students and to build a community of learning that is key for student success. 

To create an announcement, just click on the tool to view all the previous announcements and:

1. Select the Create Announcement button.
2. You will have to get the announcement or title or “subject”.  It is helpful to make these brief and to the point.
3. The content editor will allow you to add:
1. Text
2. Hyperlinks
3. Youtube videos
4. Photos, or
5. Anything else you can add create with the content editor
4.   The Web Announcement Options will give you the option to immediately publish or set a time for the announcement to be revealed.  You can also choose to email the students the announcement.
5. The course link can also link the announcement to a specific content page or assessment. 
6.  Don’t forget to hit ‘submit’.

Now you know how to use the announcement tool here are four tips to use it better:

1. Regardless of whether you teach a traditional, hybrid, or online course, using the Announcement tool is a create way to keep the students engaged in the course. It offers a tool for sending reminders that can keep the students focused and on track with the course.
2. The announcements offers you a better way to reach out to your students. The phone app pushes announcements to students’ phones to ensure they get the message.  Likewise, by choosing “Send a copy of this announcement immediately” you can also send the announcement to their college email as well. 
3. Minimally try to release an announcement once a week.  This helps keep their mind on the course and increases student engagement.  You might want to pick a specific time (such as Monday morning coffee hour) to be the regular time you send out a course announcement. 
4. You can create an announcement for each week all at once in the beginning of the semester, and set each announcement to be revealed on the appropriate week – using the Date Restriction feature.  This way you can set up a regular set of announcements to remind students of milestone events all at the beginning of the course.  This front-loading the course with announcements is a smart choice that can free up more of your time for teaching and less on administrivia.  You can then go about teaching knowing that you can add specific announcement messages when the need arises. 

By taking advantage of the Announcements Tool, you can foster a sense of community in your course, keep the students focused on their tasks, and contribute to your student’s success.