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Create an Announcement in Brightspace
Overview
The Brightspace Learning Environment from D2L contains three main message types related to
classroom activity: Announcements, Updates, and Notifications. These notifications help
students manage their classroom experience in Brightspace.
• Announcements: Instructors can post messages that display on the course homepage.
• Notifications: Students can subscribe to notifications to receive emails or text messages
when announcements are posted in Brightspace. This must be set by students in their
personal settings.
• Update Alerts: After students login to Brightspace, they can see an Update Alert icon at
the top of the page indicating new or updated information from all their courses.
Objectives
By following the guide, you will be able to:
Part 1: Create an Announcement in a Course.
Part 2: Help Students Subscribe to Email Announcements.
Part 3: Help Students Know Where to See Course Update Alerts.
Part 1: Create an Announcement in a Course.
1. From the Course Home, locate the Announcements widget (center of page).
2. Click the down-arrow ( ) next to ‘Announcements’.
3. In the dropdown menu, select New Announcement.
4. Click in the ‘Headline’ field and type a heading. (Ex: Welcome Class!)
5. Click in the ‘Content’ field (below the editing icons) and type an announcement.
5.1. To add a video, click the Insert Stuff ( ) icon.
• Use Insert Stuff for media such as Kaltura, YouTube, Video Note.
5.2. To insert an image, click the Insert Image ( ) icon.
• Use Insert Image to insert standard image types such as JPG, TIF, PNG, and GIF.
5.3. To insert a link, click the Insert Quicklink ( ) icon.
• Use Quicklinks for shortcuts to course materials, activities, Url links, or other files.
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6. Use the ‘Availability’ section to set any date restrictions.
6.1. Start Date: This is the date and time that the Announcement will display to learners.
• Select date and time.
6.2. End Date: (Optional) This is the date and time that the Announcement will stop
displaying.
• Click the check box to ‘Remove announcements based on end date’.
• Select date and time.
7. Locate the ‘Attachments’ section.
7.1. To add a file, click Add a File.
• Click My Computer and navigate to your course files on your computer.
• ‘Drag and Drop’ the file into the dotted area or click the Upload button to
browse and select the file on your computer.
• Click Add.
• Note: The Add a File, Record Audio, and Record Video tools all attach a
downloadable file. Unless preferred, it is not recommended to use the Record
Audio and Record Video buttons. Use the Insert Stuff tool in the HTML Editor to
attach media.
8. Click Publish at the bottom of the page.
Part 2: Help Students Subscribe to Email Announcements.
The following instructions are for any user wanting to subscribe to notifications in their
personal settings. Students should follow these instructions to receive an email announcement
when an announcement is posted in their course.
1. Click on your profile picture icon/name ( ) in the top-right corner of the page.
2. In the dropdown menu, select Notifications.
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3. Scroll down to the ‘Instant Notifications’ section. Check the two boxes for Announcements
(announcement updates & new announcement available) under the ‘Email’ column.
Part 3: Help Students Know Where to See you Course Update Alerts
1. Locate the Update alerts icon in the top-right corner of the page.
2. When an orange dot is located next to the Update alerts icon, click on the icon for a
dropdown list of the current updates. Each update will include a link.
