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Adding an Announcement to a BeachBoard Course

BeachBoard's Announcements tool lets you post timely information critical to course success. You can add, modify, and remove Announcements from the Announcements page, the first page your students see when they access your BeachBoard course. Instructors can also send the Announcement as an email to students in the course. This ensures that students receive the announcement even if they do not login to the course.

The Announcements page an ideal place to post time-sensitive material such as:

  • When assignments are due.
  • Changes in the syllabus.
  • Corrections/clarifications of materials.
  • Exam schedules.

There are also additional ideas for enhancing announcements.

Watch a closed-caption movie that shows you how to add an announcement to a BeachBoard course [opens in a new window]

Adding a New Announcement

  1. Login to BeachBoard.
  2. Under My Courses, click the name of the course in which you would like to add an Announcement.
  3. Click the course's Control Panel Image icon link.
  4. Under Course Tools, click the Announcements Image icon link.
  5. Click the Add Announcement Image icon button.
  6. Enter a subject for the Announcement. This will appear as the title of the Announcement.
  7. Enter the Announcement text by either typing directly into the field or copying and pasting text from another word processing document.
  8. Choose the appropriate availability and date options (see Options below.)
  9. Add a Course Link by clicking the Browse button. (Optional) Course Links are links that take your students to another area of your BeachBoard course. For example, if you want to not only announce that your have posted your syllabus but also include a link to your syllabus in your Announcement, click the Browse button and locate your syllabus in your course map.
  10. Choose whether or not you want to email this announcement to all course users. Note: Students who have not entered an up-to-date email address in MyCSULB will not receive BeachBoard email messages. If you send an email message to a student with an invalid email address, you will receive an error message in your email inbox. The solution is for the student to update his/her email address in MyCSULB.
  11. Click the Submit Image icon button.

Options

  • Permanent Announcement – Select Yes if you want to create a permanent Announcement. This is set to No by default. A permanent Announcement is always displayed on your course's Announcements page. There is no end date for permanent Announcements unless the Display Until option is selected.
  • Choose date restrictions – Enable both the Display After and Display Until options to control when your item is visible. This is unchecked by default.

More Information

Q: Can I have another area, instead of the Announcements page, be my course entry page?
A: Yes, although Technology Service Desk recommends against doing this. In the Control Panel under the Course Options section, click the Set Course Entry Point link to change the entry page.

Q: Can I change the order my Announcements appear to my students?
A: Yes and no. You cannot change the order the same way you do with folders and items. Instead, you can change the order by modifying an Announcement. The last modified Announcement will appear at the top.

Q: Can I make an Announcement always show up at the top for a student?
A: Yes. Enable the Always Show this Announcement on the course's main page option. This will make your Announcement permanent. It will appear before all other Announcements that have this option disabled. The last permanent Announcement you modify will be the top Announcement.

Q: Can I direct students to other sections of BeachBoard from an Announcement?
A: Yes. Use the Link location option and browse for the link in the course map that appears.

Q: I just posted an announcement that was also sent via email to all the course users and and a few minutes later I received a "Delivery Failure" message in my email inbox saying that my message could not be delivered to certain students. What should I do to fix this?
A: When you send an announcement via email to a student who has not entered a correct, up-to-date email address in MyCSULB, you will receive an error (or "bounce" or "delivery failure" ) message in your email inbox. The solution is for the student to update his/her email address in MyCSULB.

[Special thanks go to Cal Poly, Pomona for their help with this document.]

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