Moodle Announcements forum

The Announcements forum is a special type of discussion forum that is included as a default in every Moodle site. Unlike other forum activities, the Announcements forum posts cannot be unsubscribed from and are sent as a copy to students' email addresses. 

Why?

Communicating important information to students is essential in both synchronous (real-time) and asynchronous (non-real-time) learning experiences. In a synchronous learning experience (such as an online Webex/Zoom meeting, or face-to-face class on-campus) you might verbally communicate important information to your students such as a reminder for an upcoming assessment task due date, or a change in location for an on-campus class. The communication of important information can also occur through your subject Moodle site via the announcements forum.

While SOLSMail is the official and primary method for the University to communicate important academic and administrative messages directly and securely with students, the Announcements Forum can be used as a supplementary channel for communicating important information to students.

How?

An Announcements forum is automatically created with your Moodle site. By default, it is included at the top of a Moodle site and can be moved. 

The key characteristics of the Announcements forum:

• Students are automatically subscribed to this forum and they cannot unsubscribe (i.e. they will always receive notifications of posts made in this forum).
• When you make a post in the Announcements forum, students will receive an email on their UOW student email address containing the entire post content.
  
  Note: This is an important characteristic that differs from the notifications that students receive about SOLSMail, which only tell students they have a SOLSMail and should log in to check it.
• Text, images, video, links, and attachments can be included in your post.
• Only teaching staff are able to make posts in the Announcements forum; students can read the posts but cannot create new ones.

Post in the Announcements forum

To make a post in the Announcements Forum:

1. Click on the Announcements forum.
2. Click the Add discussion topic button.
   
3. Enter the name of the post in the Subject text box.
4. Enter the content of the post in the Message text box.
5. If you want to access further settings such as adding attachments to your post or ‘pinning’ the post (pinning a post makes the post always appear at the top of the Announcements Forum), click the Advanced link.
   
6. Click the Post to forum button.