T2MTU: Customizing Announcements on the Canvas Homepage

February 15, 2022

Canvas Announcements can be a great way for instructors to share information with students; they show up in the students’ Canvas To-Do list, and they can contain links or embedded content to make it very easy for students to find specific information within a course.

However, it can be a bit tricky to figure out just what aspects of your Announcements will show up on the Canvas homepage.

In this week’s Tuesday 2-Minute Tune Up Video, I’ll show you what you can customize when it comes to how Canvas Announcements display on your course’s homepage.

Click on the video below, or keep scrolling for written directions (AND this week’s Giveaway Entry form)!!

Customizing Announcements on your Canvas Course Homepage

Part 1: Determining how many Announcements you want displayed on the homepage.

  • Go to your Course Settings, scroll down to the bottom, and click on the “More Options” link.
  • Check the first checkbox to “turn on” Announcements on your course homepage (whether it is set to be a page, or the Modules, Assignments, etc.). Use the drop down menu to select how many recent announcements you want showing on the homepage. (Students will be able to get to old Announcements via the Announcements navigation link, as long as you have made it visible to them.) Hit Update Course Details when you have changed the Announcement settings as you want.

Tips for Maximizing Announcement Effectiveness on your Course Homepage

Now that you have made announcements visible on your course homepage, let’s talk about ways you can really maximize them to make them more effective for students.

  • If your announcement is going to consist of one sentence (3 lines or less), considering writing the whole thing in the subject line. Canvas will show up to about 3 lines of subject line, but only one line of Announcement “body” on your course homepage.
    • There is a limit to how many characters you can fit inside your Announcement headline field. (The image below shows this maxed out.) There is no limit to what you can fit in the body of your announcement.
  • If you have links inside the body of your Announcement (which is a great way to help nudge students to where you want them clicking in your course), students will need to click on that Announcement headline to access those links. If this applies to you, consider adding the phrase “Click HERE to Open” or something similar at the start of your announcement headline.
  • Consider using šŸ˜Ž emojis in the headline and body of your Announcement to draw the students’ attention. (Note: some emojis may not display in color in all browsers. Try to choose an emoji that will convey the meaning you want in grayscale if necessary.) Click here for a tutorial on how to do this.
  • If you have a very important announcement, and need to really grab students’ attention, you could temporarily change your Canvas user profile pic to something more eye-catching. (Though keep in mind, this will change this image for all your courses in which it appears.)

If you have any questions about this or any other tutorial on this website, please reach out to your ID3 Instructional Design Specialist.

Contact: Tami | Tanffy | Carlos | Simon | Amanda | Whitley

Week 3 Giveaway Form

Click here for more information about the February Two-Nup Challenge Giveaway for FT Instructors.
Click here to complete your Course Inventory (which qualifies you to win the giveaway).

Complete the form below to earn 2 more “points” (entries) in the ID3 Two-Nup Thunder Tickets Giveaway Challenge.

Similar Posts