I think I remember that the Announcements Module was going to get an overhaul sometime in the future (on the task list). Here are a few suggestions:

Radio buttons:
Display this announcement all the time (default)
Display this announcement only if logged in
Display this announcement only if not logged in

Radio buttons:
Display this announcement above main content
Display this announcement below main content

Or make a number, like 5000 be the split point. Any announcement with a sort order below 5000 will display above the main content. Any announcement with a sort order above 5000 will display below the main content. The sort order will still determine the order of the announcements.

The three new radio buttons you propose are excellent! That makes perfect sense. I should have thought of that myself... Thanks for that! Now on Task List.

Regarding posting Announcements both above and below body content, I'm mostly opposed to this for the following reasons:

1) Personally I think Announcements should appear together. Readers don't look for Announcements in two different places simultaneously. I think permitting this will cause some readers to actually miss Announcements if the Admin chooses to split them up this way.

2) It's something in the interface I think we can do without. Yes, you can give all kinds of options, but there's also a point when too many things in the interface start detracting. There's something to be said for keeping things understandable and usable. Giving a default option to split Announcements, in my opinion anyway, detracts from usability.

3) If somebody really wants an Announcement both at the top of the page, and at the bottom of the page, they can simply type their Announcements in those locations. There's no law that says people have to use the built in feature -- it's just a gray table that anybody could mimic in 10 seconds. Yea, I realize they wouldn't have the automated features of the Announcements function, but for anyone who really wants to split announcements like this, I think manually emulating the board will have to suffice.

Brad Switzer wrote:

Not everything is an IMPORTANT announcement, for example, there are countdown clocks, etc. These can be put in the announcements so they are easy to find/edit.

All of the important announcements could be grouped together (at the top of the page), the not-so-important announcements could be grouped at the bottom of the page.

If they just MIMIC the announcements with a table, how would they create a non-logged in announcement vs a logged in announcement?

The reason for the Logged in/ not logged in announcements would be because some things might be private/personal and just meant for classmates (weddings, births, etc) and the classmates should login to see them.

I hear ya. I have to think of everyone from advanced users such as yourself, to the 30 or so new schools who join Class Creator daily, and everyone inbetween. My gut feeling is splitting announcements into two different areas is probably not the clearest or best idea, particularly for viewers who would typically expect all Announcements to appear in 1 Announcement area... If we did it would we show two exact copies of the Announcements board, one at the top of the page and another exact copy at the bottom of the page? Having two duplicate Announcements boards would be a little odd? Or so it seems to me.

sorry if I didn't get the search criteria correct, but was wondering the follow suggestion has made it on the "to do" list?

Quote:

Yes all of that is there. It'll work as a dropdown, but yes, all of those options will be included. We'll try to hit this right after the home page edit area enhancement, now underway.

Fantastic.

Thanks you, that will give an extra avenue for one of our book writers to canvas our alumni. Via email to all (Admin assist) and on-going to alumni that join.