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  To further develop this feature, it would be nice if Announcements were unpublished on import, meaning the instructor can see them but the students can't. With a "publish button on every announcement, instructors could release announcements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

[jhart31]

This idea was initially suggested by Dallas Hulsey back in 2015!  I also started a conversation on it shortly afterward.  Having the ability to 'publish / unpublish' and 'open / close' date windows for announcements is so basic that it should be an embarassment to the Canvas developers that this has not been addressed by now.  I learned from one of my schools that administrators have both features so it satisfies the needs for those who want to use either option.  Since Canvas already has the code implemented at the administration level, it mystifies me why they cannot get these options setup for instructors.

[stephanie_bevan]

Not being able to show/hide announcements is my biggest frustration with Canvas, especially with my online classes where I have 12-15 announcements per class. I was recently at a conference and spoke to a couple of people at the Canvas booth about this. They said it was a great idea and to post it on here for voting. 

[dthomas7]

Changing the date to delay posting is an annoying work-around; this is an obviously needed function.

[cwoodwar1]

I wholeheartedly agree with this thread that we need to be able to publish/unpublish announcements at a click AND that by default all imported announcements should be set to UNPUBLISHED at the moment they are imported from another course. This does not mean I want the date range feature to go away however.  I definitely want to be able to set up not only when the announcement goes live, but when it disappears for students as well.  I don't need announcements made at the start of the semester cluttering up the announcements page a student sees.

[jhart31]

It's worth noting, and very frustrating to say the least, that this idea was originally posted back in April, 2015, and still, Canvas has yet to address this much needed feature after three and half years!  It's so basic that the developers should be embarrassed this feaure has not yet been included for instructors.  As noted in previous correspondence, administrators have this feature allowing for 'publish/unpublish' and 'open/end' date announcements, so what's the problem in using the already implemented code in instructors announcement pages?  Not having these features requires more unneeded steps to correct unwanted announcements, and one item that no one has mentioned is it makes the instructor look unorganized and not in control of their material if he or she misses deleting or advancing a date on previously used announcements.

[pagebd]

Yes, Yes, Yes!  Being able to unpublish and publish announcements from a copied course would be a HUGE time saver!  The alternative is either deleting and re-creating announcements or delaying their posting and hoping to remember the changes that were made.  Please make this feature available as soon as possible.  Thanks.

[albah]

Great suggestion! Having control over announcements is a must, and a huge time saver for instructors.

[kburkes]

We just switched to Canvas.  Putting a date on each announcement is a real pain -- faculty just want to be able to hide them from the students but not have to add a date.  This is important so that they can copy announcements from a previous course and not have them all showing to students immediately. They should copy over and be hidden by default.

We have had to tell faculty to not copy their announcements over, but recreate announcements as they go thru the semester.  This is a real design flaw, so I hope this will be fixed soon.

[snugent]

I added another feature idea that asks for bulk editing options in announcements. You can vote and comment on it here. 

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/12122-bulk-editing-options-for-announcements 

[Renee_Carney]

The Radar idea stage has been removed from the Feature Idea Process.  You can read more about why in the blog post Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.

This change will only impact the stage sort of this idea and will not change how it is voted on or how it is considered during prioritization activities.  This change will streamline the list of ideas 'open for voting', making it easier for you to see the true top voted ideas in one sort, here.