Cannot activate Announcements

[JudithLundberg-]

Hi!

I am trying to activate the Announcements ("Anslag" in my Swedish version) in a course, but despite them being in the list of menu points being visible to students, they show up with the crossed-over eye in the menu on the left. I attach a screenshot. Does anybody know why that is and how I can make sure announcements will be visible?

There are no announcements yet, and there are no discussions yet. However when I moved the discussions menu point to the visible section it appeared without the crossed-over eye. I concluded form that that the absence of any items in this category wasn't the reason why it continued to show up crossed-over. I tried already to move the announcements item into the invisible list and back to visible but that didn't help either.

Looking forward to some help.

Best wishes,

Judith

[SusanNiemeyer · Accepted solution]

Hi Judith,

There is a very simple fix for this. As soon as you send your first Announcement, the crossed-out eyeball will go away! Just send an Announcement. 😀

TO THE CANVAS DEVELOPERS:   The crossed-out eyeball here serves no function whatsoever. Instead, It confuses lots and lots of instructors.  Please get rid of it. (I have given this same explanation at least two dozen times!)

[SusanNiemeyer]

Just to add, "Modules" will also show in the Course Navigation Bar with a crossed-out eyeball if all of the modules are unpublished. The crossed-out eyeball will disappear as soon as a module is published. Again, this can be very confusing for instructors will are new to Canvas. As @JudithLundberg-  has pointed out, the use of the crossed-out eyeball is inconsistent. 

AGAIN, TO THE CANVAS DEVELOPMENT TEAM, consistency is everything. Don't treat "Announcments" and "Modules" differently than other items. If Announcements and Modules are "enabled" in the instructor's Course Settings, then just get rid of the crossed-out eyeballs!

[JudithLundberg-]

Thanks a lot @SusanNiemeyer ! That was very helpful to know. And I agree, it's somewhat inconsistent for a scientists that draws conclusions and applies them to similar problems 😉

[SusanNiemeyer]

@JudithLundberg-  Since we're on the subject of Announcements, I thought it might be helpful to ask if you need any assistance on "pinning" the most recent Announcements to the top of your Home Page. (It took me a few months of using Canvas to figure out how to do so.)

[JudithLundberg-]

Thanks for asking! Is this in the settings all on the bottom by clicking on the blue text? Where one can choose how many are displayed/pinned? I found instructions on that here in the community while searching whether anyone had reported a similar issue with the announcement problem I had. I didn't know about that but it seems very practical. If you mean something different, let me know. I'm happy to learn more functions in Canvas 🙂

[SusanNiemeyer]

Yes, that's it. At the bottom of Course Settings, there's a small blue link labeled "More Options." Clicking on that will bring up the option to "pin" Announcements to the Home Page. 

[Chris_Hofer]

@JudithLundberg- and @SusanNiemeyer ...

A good conversation going on here.  Just for those that might be reading this conversation... the Guide for this is:

How do I show recent announcements in the Course H... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

[SusanNiemeyer]

Hi @Chris_Hofer,

My suggestion is that the Canvas Developers move everything related to Announcements away from "Course Settings - More Options" to the Announcements section. They could create a Gear Icon (just like in the Gradebook). It would be much more intuitive and user-friendly,

[Chris_Hofer]

@SusanNiemeyer ...

Yup...I understand, and I would support your idea.  As you know, Feature Ideas are one of the best (but not the only) ways to keep the conversation going about this.