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  To further develop this feature, it would be nice if Announcements were unpublished on import, meaning the instructor can see them but the students can't. With a "publish button on every announcement, instructors could release announcements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

[jsharp1]

I completely agree! Canvas, please add an Ending date option for Announcements.

[jsharp1]

Thanks, John! This letter is great! I intend to send a similar one.

[kburkes]

I just want to make sure that this feature option would include publish/unpublish.  Ends dates are good, too, but the main point of this thread is publish/unpublish for announcements.

[don_quick]

This enhancement is approaching 5 years now, with 650 votes and over 100 comments I was wondering what it would take to get it incorporated into the Announcement Tool?

Don Quick

Colorado State University

[timothy_mckean1]

Don, I suppose it would just have to be seen as being more important than other features or tools in development.  Keep in mind that developer time is a zero-sum situation. Any time put into one tool takes away from another. So while it's a valuable idea, it might not be as important as other things. 

It's a nice-to-have, as compared to a need-to-have.  

[julie_taylor1]

This is a necessary and overdue feature. It will save a substantial amount of time and energy when recycling announcements from a previous semester. 

[maureen]

Yes please!

[jsharp1]

Greetings all! What can we do to get this to Canvas' attention? I'm willing to work with anyone interested in taking this to the next level in the spirit of John Hart's letter to the CEO of Instructure.

Also, there is a related discussion to start and end dates:

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/9333-start-and-end-dates-for-announcements 

[ajw13]

I'm rehashing this old commentary because I believe this feature to be addressed.  Most comments refer to copying a course from one semester to the next, but I would find it useful for new announcements during the semester.  Seems to me this fix is not a difficult one from a technology standpoint - there are already such options in place for modules and quizzes, for example.  I get frustrated with Canvas when there appears to be a reasonable number of requests of such a simple idea that doesn't get done.  Going on five years for this request; please get it done.

[suzanne_moulton]

Canvas,

Please, please allow us to post and unpublish announcements! At this point, I would take an end date option for an announcement. My 6th grade students with a bajillion announcements for the entire year. I don't want to delete them because I want to use them the next year. I have a work around which is to dump them into a sandbox course that I have but it would be SO much easier if we could publish/unpublish announcements - especially if you use them like an agenda for students each day (which many of my colleagues who teach 6-12th grade already do). Hope you are listening Canvas/Instructure! You are usually super responsive to feedback from user so I hope this gets bumped up as a priority.

Thanks!