Interacting with Students

Create an Announcement

1. Log in to learn.bu.edu using your BU login name and Kerberos password
2. Select your course from the Courses page.
3. On the Control Panel, expand Course Tools and then Announcements.
4. Select Create Announcement.
5. Type a Subject, which appears as the title of the announcement on the Announcements page.
6. Type your message.
7. In the Web Announcements Options section, you can choose to restrict the announcement by date:
   • If you choose Not Date Restricted, the announcement is visible until you remove it.
   • If you choose Date Restricted, select the Display After and Display Until check boxes to enable the date and time selections. Provide the date and time restriction settings. To display an announcement from a date forward, select the Display After check box and provide a date and time, but don’t select the Display Until check box.
8. Select the Email Announcement check box to send an email with the announcement to all course members, which includes students, instructors, and teaching assistants. Choose this option if your announcement has embedded files or images.
   • This option only appears if you have a valid email address in the system.
   • Users who chose not to receive announcement notifications through email will receive this announcement email. Email announcements display your name but are sent from a “do not reply,” automated account.
   • This option doesn’t work if you chose to post the announcement in the future. You’ll receive an error and need to clear the email announcement check box.
9. Optionally, in the Course Link section, select Browse to link to a course area, tool, or item.
   • A course link won’t appear in the email announcement if you choose to send one.
10. Select Submit.

Edit and Delete Announcements

1. On the Control Panel, expand Course Tools and then Announcements.
2. Select the announcement that you would like to edit or delete.
3. Select Edit or Delete in its menu. The delete action is final and irreversible.

If you chose to send an email announcement and edit the announcement after you post it, another email is sent. When another person such as your TA edits an announcement you posted, your name is replaced. If you edit an announcement with no date restrictions, the posted date and time is changed to the current date and time after you submit. To retain the original posted date and time, select Date Restricted and the original posted date and time appears under Display After.

Unlike Learn Original courses, in Ultra courses new and active course announcements appear the first time students enter your course. Students need to close the New Course Announcements window before they can view course content. After students close the window, it won’t appear again. If you post new announcements, the window appears again with only the new announcements.

Create an Announcement

1. Log in to learn.bu.edu using your BU login name and Kerberos password
2. Select your course from the Courses page.
3. On the Course Content page in the Details & Actions panel on the left, select the Announcements link to get started. The New Announcement page appears.
4. Type a title and message for the announcement. The title has a 256-character limit. Use the options in the message editor to format text, embed multimedia, and attach files.
   
5. To send an email copy to all course members, select the Send an email copy to recipients check box.
   • Recipients need a valid email address in the system.
   • You can’t send an email copy for an announcement scheduled to display in the future.
   • Emails about announcements are always sent and aren’t controlled by the global notification settings.
   • If you post an announcement and forget to select the email copy check box, you’ll need to create a new announcement. If you edit the announcement and select email copy and post it again, the email isn’t sent.
6. Select Save to save your announcement as a draft. On the Course Announcements page, you can post announcements when you’re ready. The count of posted and total course announcements updates in the Details & Actions panel.

Schedule an Announcement

To create an announcement to be sent out at a specific time in the future, such as a reminder about a course event or due date, you can schedule announcements to post automatically in your course on the date and time you choose. You can also hide announcements when they’re no longer relevant.

1. On the New Announcement page, select the Schedule announcement check box.
2. When you schedule an announcement, a Show on date and time is required. You can’t clear that check box.
3. Optionally, select the Hide on check box and select the date and time.
   • Use the date picker to schedule announcements. If you type a date, it reverts to the default date when you save the announcement.
4. If you no longer want to schedule the announcement, clear the Schedule announcement check box.
5. On the Course Announcements page, the scheduled announcement appears with the Scheduled label in the Status column.

Copy, Edit, and Delete Announcements

You can edit, copy, or delete any announcement in your course. On the Course Announcements page, open an announcement’s menu and select an option:

1. Select Edit to change the title or message. You can also edit the scheduled time to post and turn the time on and off.
2. Select Delete to permanently remove an announcement from your course.
3. Select Copy to make an exact copy of an existing announcement and update as needed.

1. Log in to learn.bu.edu using your BU login name and Kerberos password
2. Select your course from the Courses page.
3. You can find the Blackboard email tool in these areas:
   • On the course menu, select Tools > Send Email.
   • On the Control Panel, expand Course Tools > Send Email.
4. On the Send Email page, select a link, such as All Users.
5. For Select Users or Select Groups, select the recipients in the Available to Select box and select the right-pointing arrow to move them into the Selected box. Use the left-pointing arrow to move a user out of the recipient list. Select Invert Selection to select users whose names aren’t highlighted, and deselect users whose names are highlighted.
   • To select multiple users in a list on a Windows computer, press the Shift key and select the first and last users. To select users out of sequence, press the Ctrl key and select each user needed. On a Mac, press the Command key instead of the Ctrl key. You can also use the Select All function to send an email to all users.
6. Type your Subject. Your message won’t be delivered without a subject.
7. Type a Message.
8. Select Attach a file to browse for a file from your computer. You can attach multiple files to your message.
9. Select Submit.
   
10. After you send an email, a message appears at the top of the Send Email page that lists all recipients. The message isn’t a confirmation that any users received the message, just that the message was sent.

Course messages are private and secure text-based communication that occurs within your course among course members. Although similar to email, you must be logged in to a course to read and send course messages. Messages activity remains inside the system, and you don’t have to worry about email addresses that may be incorrect or outdated.

1. Log in to learn.bu.edu using your BU login name and Kerberos password.
2. Access messages either with the Messages page on the left or within your course via the Control Panel > Course Tools > Course Messages.
   
3. On the Compose Message page, select To. A list of all course members appears. In the first box, select the recipients and select the right-pointing arrow to move them to the Recipients box.
   • You can use the options in the editor to format the text of your message. You have creative control over how your content appears and the flexibility to change the order and appearance.
4. Both incoming and outgoing messages are saved in course messages in the Inbox and Sent folders. You can’t rename these folders.
5. When you receive new course messages, a notification appears in the What’s New module on the My Institution tab and the Home Page.

You and your students can send messages to each other, multiple people, or an entire class. Messages activity remains inside the system, and you don’t have to worry about email addresses that may be incorrect or outdated. As an instructor, you can quickly send messages to all students about important deadlines and schedule changes.

1. Log in to learn.bu.edu using your BU login name and Kerberos password.
2. Access messages either with the Messages page on the left or within your course via the envelope icon at the top right in the navigation bar.
   
   
3. When you select the New Message icon on the Messages page, the New Message panel opens.
   
4. As you type in the Recipients box, matching recipient names appear in a menu for easy selection. You can continue to add as many names as you want or send to the whole class.
5. You can send an email copy of a course message. Students might see, read, and act on important announcements and course messages when they receive a copy in their inboxes. Email copies are only delivered if recipients have valid email addresses in their Blackboard Learn profiles. When you select this option, all recipients of the message receive an email copy.
6. You may choose not to allow replies for messages you create. If you choose to send a message to the whole class, no one is allowed to reply by default.

Message Permissions and Turning Off Messages

As an instructor, you can change who students are allowed to message in your Ultra course. By default, students can start new messages to all staff/instructors and other students. To change these permissions:

1. Log in to learn.bu.edu using your BU login name and Kerberos password.
2. Navigate to the Courses page using the left side base navigation panel.
3. Open the course that you want to change the message permissions for.
4. Within the Course Content page of your course, click on Course Settings in the top right corner of the page.
5. In the Course Settings panel that opens, scroll down to Course Tools.
6. Under the Messages section, select the best option that fits your needs:
   1. Students can message anyone in their course
   2. Students can only message staff and students in their groups
   3. Students can only message staff
   4. Students can only reply to messages
      
7. Once you change the messaging option, this setting will immediately be instituted.

The “Students can only reply to messages” option prevents students from being able to message instructors or other students unless you or another instructor sent them a message first.

In Blackboard Ultra you are able to send announcement messages to students separated into groups so that only those put into a specific group will see the message.

1. Navigate to the Course Content page of the course with the group you would like to message.
2. Click View Sets & Groups under Course Groups on the left side of the page.
   
3. Click on the three dots next to the Group Set containing the group you would like to message and click Edit.
   
4. Scroll to find the group that you want to message and select the three dots in the upper top corner of that group. Select Message group to open up the New Message panel.
   
5. Click the X next to any user’s name that you do not want included in the message to the group, or use the search bar to add additional recipients.
6. Use the message box and text controls to type your message.
7. Check the box for Send an email copy to recipients if you want the members to get an email of the message as well.
8. If you want the message to be an announcement that students can’t reply to, uncheck the Allow replies to this message box.