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Faculty who wish to e-mail their students with information about their courses before<\/em><\/strong> the start of the semester are frustrated by the fact that they can only do so through WIReD<\/em> and only<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>if they have Microsoft Outlook <\/em>installed and configured on their computer.<\/p>\n Did you know, though, that you can use Blackboard <\/em>to contact your students prior to the start of the semester?<\/p>\n What you do is compose a Blackboard <\/em>announcement in which you include whatever information (textbook or contact information, etc.) that you want to pass along to your students. Next, under 2. Web Announcement Options<\/strong>, select the check box that says Send a copy of this announcement immediately<\/strong>. When you then select Submit <\/strong>to post your announcement, a copy of your announcement will go out to each student who is currently enrolled in your course.<\/p>\n The only \u201ccatch\u201d to doing this is that only students who have paid their tuition and fees will appear as enrolled users in your course(s). Consequently, students who have yet to pay their tuition and fees will not receive copies of your announcement.<\/p>\n