About News

    Use the News tool to read instructor messages, course information, and other news updates.

    News items appear in the News widget, but you can also receive instant notifications about postings through email, SMS, and RSS feeds. See Setting your notifications to learn about creating instant notifications for news items.

    The News tool enables you to create news items that help communicate course updates, changes, and new information to your users quickly and effectively. Since My Home or Course Home is the first page that users often see when they log in or access their courses, the News widget is a good area for displaying important information.

    Access the News tool

    Do one of the following:

    • Click News on the navbar.

    • Click News in the header of the News widget.

    • Click Edit Course on the navbar, click News from the Communication section on the Course Administration page.

      Note: Global news items appear in the same My Home and Course Home pages' News widget as
      course-related news items.

    Creating a news item

    Create a news item

    1. Do one of the following:

      • Click New News Item button from the News widget menu.

      • On the News page, click New Item.

    2. Enter the news headline in the Headline field.

    3. Enter the news content in the Content field.

    4. If you want to hide your headline's date and time clear Always show start date. By default, a news item's start date and time appears below its headline when displayed in the News widget.

    5. Select the posting availability date in the Start Date and End Date drop-down lists or by clicking their Select Date icons. News items are published immediately unless you specify an alternate start date from the Start Date drop-down list.

    6. You can remove a news item on a specific date by selecting the check box Remove news item based on end date. You and administrators can still see the news item after its end date, but it will not appear in the News widget.

    7. You can include attachments and audio recordings as part of your news item:

      • To add an attachment, click Add a File in the Attachments section.

      • To record audio, click the Record Audio in the Attachments section. Click Flash Settings to make adjustments to your microphone selection and volume. Click Play to listen to your recording. Click Clear to erase your recording.


    8. Click Attach Existing or Create and Attach to include additional release conditions.

    9. Click Save as Draft to continue editing the news item (students cannot see draft news items), or click Publish to release news item to users.

    Creating a news item for a future date

      If you set a news item's start date for the future, the posting is not visible to users until that date.

      Example: If you want a news item to appear on Monday morning, specify a start date of Monday at 9:00am.

      Note  Post-dated news items are not displayed in the News widget even if users have permission to see future news items. They can be found within the list of news items on the News page.

    Managing news items