How to Add Announcements in a Course | Canvas

Overview

You can create an announcement to share important information with all users within your course and with users in sections of a course. In your notification preferences, you can choose to receive notifications for announcements created by you as well as replies to announcements you've created.

Please be advised:

Your course must be published for students to receive announcement notifications. If you import an announcement from another Canvas course, new announcement notifications will not send to course users.
If an announcement is created before the course start date and the Students can only participate in the course between these dates setting is enabled, students will not receive announcement notifications.
Notifications are not sent for announcements created before the course has been published.
Student app users cannot view announcements on the homepage. However, they can view announcements in the course's Announcements navigation.

Click Courses.
Click Announcements.
Click +Announcement.
Add a Topic Title.
Enter the Announcement content in the Content Editor field.
In the Post to field, select the Sections to post to.
- To select specific sections for your announcement, click the Post to drop-down menu and select sections from the list provided. By default, Canvas will send your announcement to all sections within your course. If your course does not have sections, Canvas will still show the All Sections option, and all course users can view the announcement.
Set Options.
Click Publish.

Here’s a quick visual checklist for verifying whether a Canvas announcement is section-specific or course-wide, and ensuring it shows up for all sections:

Canvas Announcement Checklist: Section vs. Course-Wide

Step What to Check ✅ / ❌ Notes 1 Open Announcement
Navigate to Announcements in the course. 2 Click Edit
Look for the “Post to” or Sections dropdown. 3 Check Sections Listed
- Only one section → Section-specific
- All sections → Course-wide 4 Identify Main Course Shell
Go to Settings → Sections. If multiple sections appear → main shell. 5 If Section-Specific, Copy Content
Copy text, links, attachments to avoid retyping. 6 Create New Announcement in Main Shell
Click + Announcement, paste content, select All Sections in “Post to”. 7 Set Dates (Optional)
Add start/end or availability dates if desired. 8 Save & Verify
Check each section (P01, P02, etc.) to confirm visibility.

Canvas Corner on USD259's Innov8.

How to Add Announcements in a Course | Canvas