Reusing Old Announcements

One great way to build social presence is through announcements. An original announcement (one not copied over from a previous course) has the instructor’s profile picture; this reminds students that the instructor is active in the course. However, announcements copied from previous courses do not have a profile image. Unless the instructor signs their name, students may not know who posted the announcement, and social presence suffers.

The best practice for keeping track of old announcements is to copy and paste them into a Word document at the end of the term. When you teach again, paste the text into a fresh announcement and update.

With this best practice as their guide, instructional designers will not automatically copy previous announcements when they copy courses forward to new terms.

If you would like to reuse announcements from a previous term, you have two options: 

1. Save announcements in a Word document
   We recommend you save any announcements you would like to recycle in a Word document. This is the easiest way to recycle old announcements. You can copy and paste those into your course(s) as needed. This will enable you to better organize, edit, and curate your catalog of announcements. In addition, once you have your profile picture set up in your Canvas user account (this is a best practice), your image will appear next to each new announcement you create, thus bolstering your valuable social presence. 
2. Copy individual announcements with embedded multimedia from previous courses
   If you have multimedia files or links in your announcements that might break in the transfer to a Word document, you can copy individual Canvas announcements from a previous term into your current course. If you choose to do this, you will need to be vigilant about editing content and delaying posting dates. Also, your profile picture will not appear next to any announcement that is copied over in this way. Follow these directions for copying from a previous term. Do not copy all announcements through the Import Course Content tool! You could inadvertently overwrite the course content.

1. 1. Find the previous course (Click here for directions on finding completed courses)  
   2. Copy the announcement you want to save (Click here for directions on copying individual announcements) 
   3. In the new course, you must put a date on each announcement that’s been copied over (click here for directions on delaying announcements). Imported announcements that haven’t been delayed will be visible to students immediately when they enter the course. 

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Katie Venit

I received my B.A. in English with a minor in Journalism from Wake Forest University and an M.A. in Religious Studies from Indiana University Bloomington. I see the role of an instructional designer as one that removes barriers to learning online content. Those barriers might be ones of accessibility, clarity, motivation, or something else that we discover as the online education continues to be refined. My job is to collaborate with instructors to make their content shine.

Latest posts by Katie Venit (see all)

• Quick Tip: Receive Notification When Someone Posts in a Discussion - March 4, 2021
• Reusing Old Announcements - December 21, 2020
• Providing Flexibility for Students, Especially During Disruptive Times - November 25, 2020