[Mobile - Canvas] Access to Groups in phone app

[cohenf]

People>Groups not available in the phone app. I really could use this feature. Canvas web pages, I find, don't optimize well on mobile browsers, at least not on Droid phones.  On the phone app, there's only "People." The only way to reach "Groups" (Discussions, Pages, etc.) through a smart phone is through a mobile browser.It's ok. It can work for now, but it's a little confusing when I ask students or colleagues (I have a "course" set up for fellow faculty on a couple of subject.) to use the Canvas Mobile App but now have to provide a qualification, "except when accessing Groups."

  Comments from Instructure

This feature was made available for Canvas Student for Android with the release of Canvas Student 6.24

[RobDitto]

 @cohenf , I'm sharing this idea with the Canvas Mobile Users Group‌. Which apps do you want to see Groups functionality in: Canvas Student, Canvas Teacher, and/or Canvas Parent?  Also, which features are most important for groups at your institution -- for example, https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/12049-group-calendars-for-mobile" modifiedtitle="true" title="...?

For our business school, we need:

• In Canvas Student, for students to be able to create student groups and join, leave, or switch to other course groups.
• In Canvas Teacher, for instructors & TAs to:
  • View and use an app-formatted roster of groups by set (category, presented as tabs on the web - a design which might not work on mobile).
  • View unassigned students;
  • Change or remove the size limit on a group;
  • Vary certain group category settings such as self-signup on/off, overall size, and leader settings.

[cohenf]

 @RobDitto ‌, thank you for your feedback and questions.

Canvas Parent is no concern of mine. 

Ideally, it would be nice if "Groups" worked on the Canvas Student and Teacher apps exactly as it does on the desktop. What I need minimally, is for students and teachers to have access to (By "access," I mean view, create, post.) "Groups" content (i.e., the left-margin items of Discussions, Announcements, Pages, and Files). 

However, I would find it desirable if your needs, as you define them, were met. I'd assume the functionality I am looking for would be available if that were to happen.

[rseilham]

This is quite an intriguing idea. On the surface, it sounds like a simple request -- just make groups work on mobile like they do on the web -- but as I can see from your example and  @RobDitto ‌ that there are different ideas and scenarios wrapped up in one. Right now students have a fair amount of access to view, create, and post. It's on the teacher side that this is non-existent when it comes to accessing groups specifically. Teacher can still view group assignments on mobile. I do agree that the biggest idea I see here is giving teachers direct access to the groups that they create. Since you can't even create an assignment on Canvas Teacher, I doubt we'll see any sort of group administration on the mobile device anytime soon (my words, not Canvas), since it's goes against the spirit of the app. This is great idea and I'm curious to see where it leads. 

[f_g_bouwman]

On UTwente we see students use the Canvas student app a lot. They would also like to use the app to join groups and see in what groups they participate and who their fellow group members are. Of course full group functionality would be great but the mentioned functionalities would be a good start.

[cmingyar]

Given the degree to which we want students to collaborate (appropriately) in their online classes, and given the degree to which people depend upon their phones, having meaningful functionality in the app seems to be an essential element of the system--in the vernacular, a "no-brainer". To my way of thinking, the lack of meaningful functionality in Groups feature on the mobile app is a significant deficiency in the system, and needs to be added to the apps. 

[hurdlefast]

My class sizes are large, so every discussion I create is broken into groups. Yet in the Canvas Teacher app, I cannot view or make posts in the discussions because of the existence of groups.  Ideally this could be fixed, but a possible workaround would be adding the teacher to all the groups? Is this possible?

[dslevine]

Michaela, I went thru our help desk and had them raise it up with Canvas Help. Here is the answer I recv'd (4/16/2019) "It seems the Canvas Teacher app lacks the same functionality as the regular site does. This is not a glitch and instructors cannot view group discussions on the app."

This, to me, is unacceptable. What is the purpose of the phone/tablet app if we can not even comments/reply to group discussions? This function appears to work in non-group discussions.

[tsvoboda]

Just want to support this idea.  I'd love to be able to view and respond to group discussions using the mobile app rather than a desktop browser.  

[s_j_beale]

We've been through some user testing with students and many requested this feature. It would be a very welcome addition.

[kswatzell]

Has there been any progress on this issue?