| The news tool is an extremely powerful way to communicate updates, changes and new information to your course participants quickly and effectively. The news tool is located in the middle of the page on the course home. Since this is the first page the user will see when they enter into their course, news will appear first. The news tool is a great way to display pertinent information for your course. The news tool can also be updated regularly with pictures, quotes, URLS, outlines, and links to various updates via the HTML Editor. Creating a News Posting 1. On your course home, click the Add button at the top of the News Box. If you wish to specify a removal date for your news posting, select the box beside "Should News be Removed Based on Date?" and specify the date from the droplist. 
2 .Enter the posting headline in the Headline field and then type a plain message in the Content Box. If you would like to add pictures, quotes, URLS, outlines, and links, click the HTML Editor Icon  to add your objects and fancy text. 
3. You can use dates to help control what students are seeing and you can also add attachments here as well, but be careful with attachments. We recommend using Content to house most of your course materials including your syllabus. 4. Click Save or Save and New if you want to add a second message. 5. After saving the News Item you will need to click on Course Home in the NavBar to return to the main page of your course. 
Adding a News Posting for a Future Date 1. Click on the Add button at the top of the News box on the Course Home page 2. Enter the title in the Headline field. Type your posting text in the text box. 3. Select the Date and Time in which you want the News to be available. Click save to return to your course home. 4.Your news now has a future shown in blue besides the news headline, this represents the posting will be shown on a future date. Participants will not see the posting until that date. 
Editing a News Posting 1. Click on the Edit button beside your news posting headline. This returns you to the Edit News page. 2. Make your changes and click Save. 3. Then click Course Home in the NavBar to return to your course home.
Deleting a News Posting 1. Click on the Edit button beside any News headline and then click on the news icon in the upper left hand corner of the screen. If you have put the News Link in your course NavBar then you could also click the link and end up in the same place. 
2. Click on the Trash Can located on the right side the particular news announcement you would like to get rid of. 3. Click on OK on the confirmation page to delete News Item.
Adding an Attachment to a News Posting 1. Click on the Edit button beside your News headline. 2. Click on the Browse button at the bottom of the Edit News page. Locate your file and click Open. if you want more than one file click Add underneath the boxes and repeat this step. Remove any unused boxes. 
3. Your attachment is shown in the news display next to an icon representing the file type. To open the file, click on the link and it will open the file in the same page. Right click on the file name to download the file. 
Changing the Order of News Postings 1. Click on the Change Order button from your course home. 
2. Select the proper numerical order in the Order boxes beside each news article listed. 3. Click Save.
Student View of your tool or course
If you would like to view what your course or tools look like in the eyes of a student, you can do so using the Role Switch tool from the Course Home. By changing your role to "Student" you can navigate your class and see the course as a student would. Please note that under the student role you will be unable to view the gradebook, take quizzes, or view any items with conditional releases. Once you are finished using the student role, you can switch back to your instructor role by going back to the role switch tool in the Course Home and selecting "My Default Role."
Student View of the News Tool
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