[Announcements] Post announcements in multiple courses at once

I would like to see a feature in Canvas that allows you to create an announcement then choose multiple courses  in which you would like to see the announcement posted.  The current process is time consuming and tedious; you create the announcement then open each course and copy and paste it into each separately.
 
Note from the Community Team: We are aligning this with a very similar idea, https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/2703-common-announcement-to-all-my-classes

Added to Theme

Simplify bulk course tasks Theme Status: Identified

72 Comments
biray
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

Thank you for your idea submission,  @bonnie_le ​.

First question that comes to mind: are your 'sections' created as separate courses (aka housed in separate course shells) in Canvas? If so, you may want to look into cross-listing your courses so all of your sections are in one course. That way, when you send one annoucement, everyone in all sections will get it. See How do I cross-list a section in a course?

Second thought: Have you seen this idea " modifiedtitle="true" title="Tailor Announcements to specific sections or groups? This assumes that all sections have been cross-listed into a course and the annoucements are being tailored within a course to different sections.

Looking forward to your feedback. Smiley Happy

bonnie_le
Community Novice

The courses are all listed in the same Canvas system but each time section of each course is listed as a separate course. I do not think we are allowed to cross-list our courses as the students are automatically populated into the course by our registration system, LOLA Banner. With 7 and 8 classes, posting a general announcement to each course is tedious.

Bonnie Le, M.M.

Assistant Professor of Music

Fletcher Technical Community College

1407 Hwy. 311

Schriever, LA 70395

(985) 448-7971 (Schriever Campus)

Privileged/Confidential Information may be contained in this message. If you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for delivery of the message to such person), you may not copy or deliver this message to anyone. In such case, you should destroy this message and notify the sender by reply email. Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions, and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of Fletcher Technical Community College or its subsidiaries shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it.

kmeeusen
Community Champion

Bonnie:

Our courses are also automatically populated using an integration between our SIS and Canvas (not Banner), and we can cross-list. May want to talk to Banner about this. You have two choices when cross-listing:

  1. Copy - this copies the enrollments from one or more courses into one course, and leaves the original section shells in place.
  2. Cross-listing - moves all the enrollments and deletes the empty shells. the empty shells and their enrollments can be restored by simply undoing the cross-listing.

There may be FERPA issues associated with cross-listing, and you can learn more at New FERPA requirements for cross-listed courses!

I hope this helps.

KLM

bonnie_le
Community Novice

Thanks! I will forward this to our Canvas administrator to see if it can be done.

Bonnie Le, M.M.

Assistant Professor of Music

Fletcher Technical Community College

1407 Hwy. 311

Schriever, LA 70395

(985) 448-7971 (Schriever Campus)

Privileged/Confidential Information may be contained in this message. If you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for delivery of the message to such person), you may not copy or deliver this message to anyone. In such case, you should destroy this message and notify the sender by reply email. Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions, and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of Fletcher Technical Community College or its subsidiaries shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it.

scottdennis
Instructure
Instructure

Hey Bonnie,

Just checking back to see if you discovered more after talking with your institution's Canvas admin?

Thanks

bonnie_le
Community Novice

Yes. Cross listing would not be a viable option. I would simply like to be able to post the same announcement in multiple sections at same time. Cross listing would put all the students into one course with one gradebook.

Bonnie Le, M.M.

Assistant Professor of Music

Fletcher Technical Community College

1407 Hwy. 311

Schriever, LA 70395

(985) 448-7971 (Schriever Campus)

Privileged/Confidential Information may be contained in this message. If you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for delivery of the message to such person), you may not copy or deliver this message to anyone. In such case, you should destroy this message and notify the sender by reply email. Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions, and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of Fletcher Technical Community College or its subsidiaries shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it.

scottdennis
Instructure
Instructure

Hi Bonnie

I went ahead and edited the text of your submission slightly to match it up with the terminology of Canvas (course vs section) and opened it for vote.  Thank you for participating in the community!

bonnie_le
Community Novice

Thanks!

Bonnie Le, M.M.

Assistant Professor of Music

Fletcher Technical Community College

1407 Hwy. 311

Schriever, LA 70395

(985) 448-7971 (Schriever Campus)

Privileged/Confidential Information may be contained in this message. If you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for delivery of the message to such person), you may not copy or deliver this message to anyone. In such case, you should destroy this message and notify the sender by reply email. Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions, and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of Fletcher Technical Community College or its subsidiaries shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it.

RobDitto
Community Champion

Voted! Our faculty have repeatedly asked for this capability. I believe the original idea has also been discussed in , which received over 100 votes and Product Team commentary before being archived.

hhendren
Community Novice

It would be very helpful to be able to send a message to multiple classes at one time. I announce upcoming events or extra credit opportunities that I offer to all my classes. It would help to be able to send one message and capture all my students at one time instead of having to copy and paste into several separate classes.