Faculty Gold and Online Quality
Assurance at CCCOnline

Chapter 5 Announcements [ Table of Contents ]

An announcement is one-way interaction between faculty and the class; it’s not something you are using to generate a lot of interactivity. Any message you would share at the beginning of a land-based class, for example, is a candidate for an online announcement. Thus, announcements contain pertinent, up-to-date information that you want students to notice (different from a date that was in the schedule and that you did put in the course calendar before Day 1.)

Initial announcements often provide a welcome to the students, possibly give you a place to introduce yourself, and suggest to students what they should do first on their first visit to the class. Regular announcements every week or two remind students of due dates or highlight something of interest to the class.

A faculty member may post announcements in many different ways. CCCOnline is currently evaluating the various possible locations indicated below. A best practice might be to post announcements in more than one location in your course. However, we prefer that you choose just one or two of the methods and use them consistently. Repetition is important to learning, but don’t get carried away. Try to remain consistent throughout the semester. You are invited to select the methods that serve you best in your class.

Let students know where the announcements will be posted and that they should check for announcements whenever they enter the course.

Where to post Announcements:

On the course Home Page: You may post new announcements directly to the home page. You may need to archive older announcements so that students can still access them later in the course.

On the Calendar: The calendar automatically high-lights a new posting when a student first logs in, so it shouldn't be overlooked.

Email: You may choose to send the class an email announcement using WebCT's internal email. This method is convenient and the presence of new messages is automatically indicated when a student logs in.

Discussion: You may use an "Announcements" topic in the Discussions tool. This tool also automatically indicates a new posting when a student first logs in.

Rubric:

Best: Faculty uses a class announcement at least once a week to

• high-light important material for the course.
• note relevant current events
• remind students of due dates
• kick-start discussions on a topic

Announcements are placed in one location on a consistent basis, making it easy for students to find and ready them.

Past announcements are archived so that students can access them through-out the semester.

Good: Faculty uses announcements as discussed above but archive of past announcements is difficult to find or does not exist.

Needs Improvement: Announcements are rarely used or placed in various areas around the course making them difficult to locate. Archives of past announcements are difficult to find or do not exist.

Why:

Because announcements typically include information which the student needs to successfully master the course content they should be simple for the student to locate and review.