Your first announcement may be used to welcome and orientate students to your course. 

Based on Minimum Presence in Blackboard, course sites (with at least a welcome message) should be made available to students as early as possible, and at least one week prior to the first teaching activity

Welcome message resources

Text Welcome message

To create a welcome message refer to the Announcement guide by Anthology. 

Note: course linkage functionality is not available for Announcements.