Blackboard Ultra (Faculty) - Start-of-Semester Activities

Creating an Announcement

Announcements appear on the Course Content page and are an effective way to share time-sensitive information with your students. To create an announcement:

1. Navigate to your Blackboard Ultra course.
2. In the course navigation panel at the top, click the Announcements link.
   
   
   
   
3. Click the plus sign (+) in the upper right corner to create a new announcement.
   
   
   
   
4. In the New Announcement panel:
   • Type your announcement Title.
   • Type your announcement Message.
   • Optionally, check the box next to Schedule announcement to post the announcement at a future date and time. Select the desired date and time.
   • Optionally, check the box next to Send an email copy to recipients to send an email to all course members when the announcement is posted.
5. Click Post to publish the announcement.
   
   

Editing, Copying, or Deleting an Announcement

Users can edit, copy, or delete announcements from the Announcements page.

1. Navigate to your Blackboard Ultra course.
2. In the course navigation panel at the top, click the Announcements link.
3. Locate the announcement you wish to edit or delete.
4. Click the More options menu (three dots) next to the announcement.
   
   
   
   
5. From the menu, choose either:
   
   • Edit: Modify the announcement title, message, or scheduling options and then click Post.
   • Copy: Make an exact copy of an existing announcement, update as needed, and then click Post.
   • Delete: Confirm the deletion when prompted. Note: Deleted announcements cannot be recovered.
     
     

Announcement Visibility

By default, announcements are visible to students immediately after you create them (unless scheduled). You can control the visibility of announcements by editing them and scheduling them for a future date or time. Once the scheduled time arrives, the announcement will become visible to students.

Scheduling Announcements in Blackboard Ultra

Blackboard Ultra allows instructors to schedule announcements, making them visible to students on a specific date and time. This can be useful for preparing announcements in advance and ensuring they are released at the appropriate moment.

Steps to Schedule an Announcement:

1. Navigate to your course in Blackboard Ultra.
2. In the course navigation panel at the top, click the Announcements link.
   
   
   
   
3. Click the plus sign (+) in the upper right corner to create a new announcement.
   
   
   
   
4. Enter a title for your announcement in the Add Announcement Title field.
5. Type your announcement content in the text editor.
6. Below the text editor, click the check box next to Schedule announcement to turn it on.
   
   
7. Set the desired Date and Time for the announcement to be released to or hidden from students.
8. Click Post.

Managing Scheduled Announcements:

Once scheduled, announcements will appear in the Announcements list with a "Scheduled" label. You can edit or delete scheduled announcements before they are released.

• To edit a scheduled announcement, click the announcement title, make your changes, and then click Post.
• To delete a scheduled announcement, click the three dots (...) next to the announcement title and select Delete. Confirm the deletion when prompted. Note: Deleted announcements cannot be recovered.
  
  

Considerations:

• Students will not see the announcement until the scheduled date and time.
• Students will not see an announcement once it is hidden.
• Verify the date and time settings are correct before saving the announcement.
• Once the announcement is released, it can no longer be scheduled. You will have to create a new announcement and delete the originally scheduled one.

Need Additional Support?

This guide aims to provide useful information, but as technology changes, interfaces or steps might vary. Please use the Comment button to let us know if anything differs from your experience. Your feedback helps us keep this information accurate. Thank you!