You can use the 'Announcements Forum' for one-way communication with participants. Participants cannot leave replies to posts. For participants to do that, please refer to the Forums activity.

The 'Announcements Forum' is automatically created for each Moodle space and is located below the header in the centre. The location can however be altered as for any other activity. Only participants with editing rights may add posts or reply to posts. Posts in the Announcements Forum are also sent as a notification e-mail to all participants enrolled on a Moodle space. The forum has 'forced subscription' (everyone is subscribed and cannot unsubscribe) set by default.

Announcements can be used in conjunction with Groups to enable more granular communications (see below).

Add an Announcements Forum

If required, additionally to the default one, further Announcements Forums can be added to a Moodle space:

1. Click on the gear icon (cog icon) in the top right corner to open the action menu.
2. In the action menu, click on 'Turn editing on'.
3. Click on 'Edit' for the existing Announcements Forum.
4. Select 'Duplicate' from the action menu.
5. Hover over the four headed arrow to drag and drop the new Announcements Forum to the appropriate location.
6. Make changes to the name and settings as required.

Add a post to an Announcements Forum

1. Click on 'Announcements' in the Moodle space.
2. Click on 'Add a new topic'.
3. Type a 'Subject', and then add content to the 'Message' field. This can include text, images, video etc. using the tool-bar options.
4. You can add 'Attachments' to the 'Announcement' by simply dragging and dropping a file into the 'Attachment' box.

Using announcements with Groups

In order for participants to receive announcements based on their group membership:

1. Create the groups and add the relevant participants (see guide on how to create groups).
2. Set your announcement forum to use groups (under Common Module Settings) - use 'Separate groups' to prevent groups seeing announcements sent to other groups.
3. Create a new announcement and choose the relevant group from the drop down (NB a new Group section appears below Attachment - note the checkbox to 'Post a copy to all groups')

For more advanced guidance on the 'Announcements Forum' please see:

• Announcements (Moodle Docs)