Use the bulletin board to share general course information with your students. Post your expectations, syllabus, grading rubric, downloads, links, and other media students will need from the first day to the last. You can also add announcements, news and events you want students to see immediately when they land on the class page. This article will discuss creating a layout, importing old materials and creating new materials. Setting up your Bulletin Board is very similar to setting up a Topics page.
When you first access your bulletin board, it will be blank. To edit your bulletin board, click 
 in the top right of the window.
The Layout
To edit your layout, click on "Change Layout" in the menu on the left. A drop-down menu will appear with multiple options for your layout. Choose your desired layout by clicking on it. Think carefully about how you want your information to appear because the Topics feature will have similar layout options. Being consistent about where you put your information and making things as convenient as possible for students are important considerations. For example, three equal columns allows you to give three different types of information equal priority, without the need for a student to scroll down the page. A banner on top gives one item top priority.
Importing
If you have material on SIS from other classes this year or from previous years, you can import it by clicking on the button under the course name in the menu on the left. A window will pop up with categories, such as "Links" or "Expectations" in bold. Click on the carat on the left to reveal a menu of previously published items. Click on the grey check mark to include the item in your page.
Materials
Three steps are required to display materials on your Bulletin Board. First, you must arrange categories of information on your layout. Then you must add material to those categories. Finally, you must publish your changes. This last step is required to save your changes.
1. Arranging Categories
Fourteen categories of materials are listed in the menu on the left (Audio, Events, etc.). Scroll down in the menu if you don't see all of them. Add a category by dragging the grey box from the menu into the proper row or column of your layout. You need to drag until a box composed of dashed lines appears, and then let go in order to drop the grey box. The box will then change to allow you to add, edit or organize content.
2. Adding Content
By default categories are empty. To add content to any material click on 
. A window will pop up allowing you to input your desired information. When you are done click "Save" or "Save & Add Another", if you click "Cancel" your information will be lost.
You can edit descriptions of content by clicking 
. It will prompt the same window that was prompted when you added the content. Clicking "Cancel", will return the content to its state before you edited it, and clicking "Save" will save it.
To delete any content, click on the trash can.
3. Previewing and Publishing (Saving)
The menubar at the bottom of your edit screen allows to preview and publish (i.e. save) your page. Click "Preview Page" to see what the page will look like. Remember to be predictable and consistent in your arrangement to make comprehension as easy as possible for the students.
When you are satisfied with your Bulletin Board, click either "Publish Layout Changes" (to save and stay on your current page) or "Publish Layout & Go to Page." Click "Cancel" to discard all changes.
Updated 7/26/2019
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