Besides the Inline Announcement/Discussion layout, you can choose the Slide Split view to allow you to better focus on one announcement/discussion thread at a time on the side bar.

You can mention a user by the use of the “@” symbol then adding the user’s name in an announcement or discussion reply.

Instructors can view the name of the user who deleted a reply and the date and time the reply was deleted. More so, instructors can see the reply history within an announcement or discussion.