[Announcements] Publish and Unpublish Announcements

[dhulsey]

I love that Canvas can bring over announcements when I copy content from another Canvas course. This keeps me from copying and pasting announcements I make every semester.  To further develop this feature, it would be nice if Announcements were unpublished on import, meaning the instructor can see them but the students can't. With a "publish button on every announcement, instructors could release announcements quickly when they are needed without the tedious setting of a date and time on each announcement.

This feature would also bring announcements in line with other tools in Canvas that use publish and unpublish functionality and would help instructors who might unintentionally be releasing announcements to students from a past semester.

[sherry_kull]

I'm going to add my voice to this nearly 8-year old conversation. Canvas, are you listening? Anybody home?

• Announcement dates either need to be removed when imported or, better yet, able to be updated like Assignments. This is so important to avoid rolled over announcement publishing when you don't want them to or having to tediously change dates one by one.
  
  
• Allow a sorting mechanism such as by date or alphabetical

Thank you,

Sherry Kull

[DavidSchlater]

Problem statement:

Announcement carry forward during a default "all content" course import. They are then shown to new students unless an instructor takes some action. Some instructors have 100+ announcements they must deal with.

Proposed solution:

In addition to the option to "delay post" there should be another option when editing individual announcements that reads "hide from students" so students do not see these past posts in their view. Instructors should be able to select all course announcements in bulk and "hide" them from current students. When a course copy content import is made, and previous announcements are moved into a new course shell, they should all come over as "hidden from students" by default - requiring the instructor take action to unhide each one they want to show to new students. What is occurring in practice is that old announcements are constantly getting moved from semester to semester, and some inattentive instructors are not updating or deleting them, which is confusing to the new students.

It does seem this idea (from 2015) is pretty close to what I'm asking for today https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Ideas/Announcements-Publish-and-Unpublish-Announcements/id... 

The only part I'm adding is the ability to do more in bulk. I would love to be able to select all Announcements (or all on a single page) with one click, and publish or unpublish them, and not just be able to delete them. So, these can be merged but the bulk select ability could be added.

User role(s):

admin,instructor,ta,designer

[KristinL]

Hi @DavidSchlater -

There is another idea that is already aligned to a theme that may seek to solve a similar problem.

[Announcements] Publish and Unpublish Announcements 

If you feel that your thread matches or complements the existing idea, I will merge them together. If they are different problems, would you mind expanding your problem statement just a little so the Product Team better understands what you're experiencing? Thanks!

[DavidSchlater]

It does seem this idea (from 2015) is pretty close to what I'm asking for today https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Ideas/Announcements-Publish-and-Unpublish-Announcements/id... 

The only part I'm adding is the ability to do more in bulk. I would love to be able to select all Announcements (or all on a single page) with one click, and publish or unpublish them, and not just be able to delete them. So, these can be merged but the bulk select ability could be added.

[jkranzow]

Problem statement:

I teach the same courses on a rotating basis. I often import my class content from the prior time I taught it. The problem is that I post announcements on a weekly, need-to-know basis, and when I import the course, they all show up. There is not an easy or fast way to delay the announcement. I can delete it. I can go in and edit it and delay the posting, but to do that for every single announcement is extremely time-consuming (say I have 3 a week times 10 weeks, I have to alter 30 announcements the hard way).

Proposed solution:

I propose that when a course is imported, announcements are hidden by default and posted only if we post it. That way, we can focus on the most current ones and deal with the others on a weekly basis (may of which may need to be tweaked due to the makeup of the class etc.).

User role(s):

instructor

[jkranzow]

Would also still like to see the ability to organize announcements and pin an announcement.