Set default "Post to" for announcements

[BrandonLennie]

Hi,

Is it possible to globally (or by sub-account) set the default announcement "Post To" audience to nobody? I've had a look and can't find a way to change the default. Attached is an image of the "Post To" drop down menu on a New Announcement page. Currently the default is "All Sections".

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @BrandonLennie,

I don't believe there is a way to set a default for that option currently.  I also wanted to mention that even when changing the sections on a single announcement, you can't have the audience be nobody, a section is required to be populated in that box.  My guess as a Canvas admin is that the "all sections" is the default for all announcements as it would be by far the most common selection by teachers around the world.

You could certainly submit a feature idea to have a way to set an account/course default for new announcements, though that still wouldn't currently allow a setting of nobody.  You could do another feature request asking about posting to nobody, but it seems like you may have a pretty unique use case or scenario for that at your school/institution, so it might be a tough one to get traction on in my opinion.

Hope this info helps!

-Chris

[BrandonLennie]

Hi @chriscas,

Thanks for replying. The reason I ask is teaching staff have raised a concern about how easy it is to accidentally send an announcement to all sections because "Post to" is pre-populated with a default. It makes it hard to recall an announcement as all students will have received an email. By leaving "Post to" blank by default, teachers would have to manually choose the audience with the hope this would reduce the amount of announcements sent in error.

I'll submit a feature request and see how it goes. I realise this is, as you say, a unique use of announcements.

Brandon