[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  To further develop this feature, it would be nice if Announcements were unpublished on import, meaning the instructor can see them but the students can't. With a "publish button on every announcement, instructors could release announcements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.

[dhulsey]

That is disappointing,  @Renee_Carney ‌. I do appreciate that you have provided a status update to this feature request though as I had indeed been wondering why there was not a follow up after Peyton's optimistic post. 

[jhart3]

A simple 'end date' window will solve the problem of having future semester announcements being automatically published.  This is a basic feature in all LMS systems I've used.  Canvas provides it in quizzes and discussion board areas, why isn't it included with announcements?  I brought this up well over a year ago, and the suggestion went nowhere.  Like other instructors have mentioned previously, there is a need to recycle announcements each semester, and if they are closed, it's not a problem to create a new open/close date when it's convenient.  This feature needs to be added now.

[dhulsey]

I much prefer publish and unpublish to dates. Having both is fine because that creates a choice for announcement management, but I hate setting dates on each item. It is tedious.

[lgaughan]

Yes dates could work and should be there as well but publishing and unpublishing would be much easier as a simple toggle on n off than adding/updating end dates - especially when they are automatically copied from course to course. But the option to also delete several at a time after they are all copied over would be nice as well. 

[aubertj]

I am overjoyed to read this suggestion, and I support it wholeheartedly!!!  When copying a course to a new semester, I do not what to have to go back and reset each individual posting date.  This could be accomplished with a number of approaches - please pick one and go with it!

1) Publish/Unpublish feature with Unpublish as the default when copying

2) Allow and End Date, with the default set to end on the day a course is copied (thus masking it until the instructor chooses)

3) When setting the delay option, allow for "delay indefinitely" and default to "delay indefinitely" when copying.

Again, please pick an option and proceed.  The current setup is cumbersome for folks who want control over announcements...

[seon_chun]

I have been thinking about this for over two years - just saw a new look about Announcement - Delayed..., which is an improved feature but I still need to change date every time I teach a course. Anyhow, after seeing the new feature, I was about to make a suggestion on this idea and viola! Great minds think alike! I think having a publish button will be much less labor intensive. 

[jhart3]

I find it very frustrating that this discussion has been ongoing since Dallas Hulsey originated the idea almost three years ago!  For those who don't know, the 'publish/unpublish' and/or 'open/close date'

window features have been available to college administrators for a long time.  Why can't this admin code be implemented into the instructor shells?  Everyone who has contributed their thoughts on this are all valid points.  The solution is to offer both features of 'publish/unpublish' and 'open/close' windows which should satisfy all instructors to utilize either feature of their own preference.

[dhulsey]

Well stated, John. I keep hoping to see this feature show up in the release notes, but so many feature requests seem to be "on the radar."

[judy_harmon]

Please keep this feature in the pipeline to be added with some type of start/end dates.  I like to keep the Announcements as part of the course history/archive and not just delete them, but I would like to have them removed from the Announcement thread.

[khirschmann1]

I think it's fair to say that most of us are fans of Canvas, and think that the benefits far outweigh the costs compared to most other products out there.  But I have to admit, there are about 2-3 features that users have been asking for, for years now, that are so basic and fundamental that it almost seems laughable that it hasn't been done yet.  This is one of those (along with the student image uploads in discussions).  This is such a pain point and an annoyance for faculty, semester after semester to have to go through 2-3 courses and either delete or delay potentially dozens of announcements.  That time could be much better spent planning learning activities and assessments.  Come on Instructure, what are you waiting for?