How to Use Announcements in Canvas to Communicate With Your Students
Announcements
Announcements are an easy and fast way to communicate with your students. The three (3) most recent announcements will be shown at the top of your course homepage by default. As long as your students have their notification preferences turned on for announcements, they will receive an email and/or mobile push notification if they have the Canvas Student app. You can click on the title of the announcement to read it in full.
Create an Announcement
The easiest and fastest way to create a new announcement in your course is to click on the New Announcement button that appears on the right-hand sidebar menu on your course homepage.
You can also create a new announcement by going to your Announcements tab (1) found on the left-hand course navigation menu. Here, you can see a list of all of your announcements. You can multiple select your announcements by clicking on the check boxes (2) and either bulk (dis)allow comments or bulk delete (3) announcements. Click on the “+Announcement” button (4) to create a new announcement. Click on the three vertical dots (5) of an announcement to (dis)allow comments on it or delete it. Click on an announcement title to edit it.
When you create a new announcement, you will need to give it a title (1) and body text (2). Within the body, you can use all of the tools available in Canvas’s Rich Content Editor (more info about the RCE here). Choose which section of your course you wish to post to (3). Your announcement will be posted to “All Sections” by default. If you have a cross-listed course, you can create announcements so they will only be posted to certain sections. You can attach files directly from your computer by clicking on the Browse button (4).
Clicking on some of the options in announcements will expand for more options. You can set a specific date and time for an announcement to post, only allow users to see replies after they post a comment, enable a podcast feed, and allow “liking” on an announcement.
Reply to Announcements
Clicking on an individual announcement will allow you to view the announcement in full and the following options:
- Reply
- Opens a text box area to type with Canvas’s full Rich Content Editor.
- View unread replies
- Show/Hide deleted comments
- Collapse replies
- Expand replies
- Edit announcement
- Dis/allow comments or Delete the announcement
Edit Number of Recent Announcements Shown
If you are the instructor a course, you can edit the number of recent announcements shown on your course homepage by going to your Course Settings. Click on the “more options” link at the bottom.
Turn off recent announcements entirely by unchecking the box to “Show recent announcements on Course home page.” You can show anywhere from one (1) to fifteen (15) recent announcements on your homepage by clicking on the drop down number list (1). Disable comments entirely on all announcements by checking the “Disable comments on announcements” box (2). When you are finished, click on the Update Course Details button (3) to have any changes saved.
Instructor Guides on Announcements in Canvas
General Navigation
- How do I use the Announcements Index Page?
- How do I add an announcement in a course?
- How do I attach a file to an announcement in a course?
- How do I edit an announcement in a course?
- How do I delay posting an announcement until a specific date in a course?
Replies
- How do I reply to an announcement as an instructor?
- How do I allow students to like replies in a course announcement?
- How do I allow or disallow announcement replies in a course?
Direct Share
- How do I use Direct Share to copy an announcement to another course?
- How do I use Direct Share to send an announcement to another instructor?
RSS Feed
- How do I add an external RSS feed to an announcement as an instructor?
- How do I subscribe to the Announcements RSS feed as an instructor?
Student Guides on Announcements in Canvas
General Navigation
- How do I view Announcements as a student?
- How do I add an announcement in a group?
- How do I edit an announcement in a group?
Replies
- How do I reply to an announcement as a student?
- How do I like a reply in a course announcement as a student?