Create a New Announcement

 

The Announcement tool can be used to create messages for all students to view on the homepage of their course. Instructors can communicate course updates or encourage students or throughout the course. When an announcement has been published in a course, students will receive a copy of the announcement in their Updates Alert (bell icon) at the top of the page in addition to being able to view the announcement on the course homepage. This tutorial demonstrates how to create a new announcement in MyFIRE. 


1.    Access the desired course in MyFIRE. 

2.    From the course homepage, locate the announcement area. 

 

3.    Select the drop-down arrow to the right of the Announcements title.

 

4.    Select new announcement from the drop-down menu.

 

5.    When the page refreshes, title the announcement in the headline field.

 

6.    Createthe desired announcement. Note: For further instructions on how to utilize the MyFIRE editor, please refer to the How to use the MyFIRE Editor tutorial.

 

a.    To personalize the announcement and directly engage each student while addressing the entire class if desired, type your opening greeting statement (e.g. Hello, Good Afternoon, Good Morning, Welcome, etc.), and then type {FirstName},. By completing this step, when each student sees the announcement on the course homepage, they will see the announcement directed to them specifically. 

 

7.    Next, the start date is automatically enabled by default. To not show the start date to students, uncheck the always show start date checkbox.

 

8.    Choose the start date and time for the announcement. The start date & time is when the announcement will be published and visible. If no start date is selected, the announcement will be published immediately. 

 

9.    If desiring to end the announcement on a specific day, select the end date checkbox. 

 

a.    Then enter the desired date and time. Once the end date has passed, the announcement will no longer be visible to the students. 

 

10. To add an attachment select add a file, record audio or record video.

 

11. If desired, add a release condition (a prerequisite) to viewing the announcement by selecting attach existing or create and attach. If a condition is added, and the student(s) have not completed the prerequisite condition, then the students will not be able to view the announcement until the condition(s) are satisfied.  

 

a.    A pop-up window will appear. If creating a new condition, choose the desired condition type by selecting the condition type drop down menu.


b.    Next, choose the condition that the students should complete as a prerequisite under condition details. Note: The prerequisite conditions will change based on the condition type that was selected in the previous step. 


c.     Once finished selecting the condition settings, select create at the bottom of the pop-up window. 

 

12. If the announcement is not ready to publish, select save as draft 

 

13. Once the announcement is ready for the students, select publish.

 

14. If needing to create multiple similar announcements, quickly create a new announcement by selecting the drop-down arrow to the right of the announcement title. 

 

15. A drop-down menu will appear. Select copy from the list. 

 

16. Then edit the copy of the announcement by repeating steps 5-13.