Announcements, Email, and Instant Messages in Brightspace

From the Announcements Tool, you can manage all course announcements, see past announcements, reorder them, and create new ones to post immediately or to schedule for later.

Option A

• Click the Tools link on the Navbar.
• From the drop-down menu, choose the Course Admin link.
• Click on the Announcements link.

Option B

• Navigate to your Course Homepage.
• Locate the Announcements widget (location may vary).

• Click on the arrow next to the Announcements.
• From the dropdown menu, select Go to Announcements Tool.

• Once in the Announcements tool, click on the New Announcement button.

• Add a Headline (a title) for the announcement.
• Type the message in the Content field. The Brightspace Editor allows you to embed files or multimedia in the body of the announcement using the Insert Stuff button.
• Set date and time availability restrictions (optional).
• Add attachments (optional).
• Set additional Release Conditions (optional).
• Publish, Save as Draft, or Cancel the announcement.

Note: There is no option for instructors to email Announcements to students. Whether students receive an email or SMS notification for a new announcement will depend on how they set up notifications for their own Brightspace account. When they log into Brightspace, they will see the announcement in their Update Alerts in the Minibar at the top of their screen, and they will see it in the Announcements widget on their Brightspace Homepage and on your Course Homepage.

From the Minibar at the top of the Brightspace window, click Message Alerts (the envelope icon) and then click Email. This will open the Brightspace Email tool.

• Click on Message Alerts in the Minibar.
• Click on Email.
• Click on Compose.

• In the “To” field, add the recipient’s email address.
• In the “Subject” field, add the subject of the email. Note that if you are in one of your courses, Brightspace will auto-fill the subject field with the name of the course. You can add detail or edit the subject field.
• Type your message in the Brightspace Editor.
• Click on the Accessibility Checker to resolve any accessibility issues before you send the email.
• Click the Send button or, to save the message and send it later, click on Save as Draft.

Option A

• In the Brightspace Editor for the body of the message, click on the Insert Stuff tool. This allows you to insert files from your own computer or from the course and any of the integrated multimedia platforms available to you in Brightspace.

Option B

• Scroll down to the bottom of the Compose New Message window to the Attachments box.
• Click on Upload if you wish to attach files from your computer.
• Click on Record to attach a new audio or video attachment.
• Click on Choose Existing if you wish to attach files from your course’s storage in Brightspace or from your Google Drive or your OneDrive.

You can add an email signature to your emails to ensure that every message is personal and consistent. To edit your email signature, navigate to the Brightspace Email tool.

• Click the Settings button at the top right of the Brightspace Email window.

• On the Email Settings page, in the Email Signature field, type in your signature, including any special instructions on how students should reply to your email, or when they can expect replies from you.
• Click on Save.

Brightspace has a direct messaging function that works the same way for students and instructors, called Instant Messages. From the Minibar at the top of the Brightspace window, click Message Alerts (the envelope icon) and then click Instant Messages.

This will open your Instant Messages Inbox, where you can see any messages that you’ve received and start new message threads by selecting one or more recipients from the Classlist or from your Friends list.

• In the Instant Message Inbox, click on Classlist.
• Tick the box next to the names of the recipients for your message.
• Click on the Message icon (the envelope), to create a new message thread including the selected recipients.

Note: The Classlist and Friends list will indicate whether potential recipients are online or offline. Depending on the recipients’ personal notification settings, they may not receive your message until the next time they log into Brightspace. For this reason, it’s better to think of this tool as a direct messaging system rather than an instant messaging system. Be sure to communicate with students about your own preferences for the use of this tool to communicate with you and when they can expect responses from you if they send you an instant message.