Submission comments appear in Inbox indicator

Idea created by Michael McCurdy on Sep 20, 2015

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As an teacher, I would like the numbered indicator next to the Inbox link include how many unread Submission comments I have. Although I keep my Canvas to email notifications turned on, a large number of our faculty turn off their email notifications. (As a Canvas admin at our institution, I hear how often this occurs.) They manually check the Inbox for submission comments.

This feature request fulfillment may also include displaying submission comments with Unread Messages in the Inbox, similar to Add Inbox + Submission Comments Filter in Conversations .

Excelsior!

62 Comments

biray@instructure.com Sep 21, 2015 12:06 AM
Thank you for your submission Michael McCurdy.

Is this what you're looking for?
If so, why wouldn't you want this number next to inbox and unread? Or, the other side to this: why wouldn't you just go into submission comments and see your newest comments?

I guess I'm trying to understand where this would bring more efficiency to a teacher's workflow.

Looking forward to your feedback.
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- Michael McCurdy @ biray@instructure.com on Sep 21, 2015 4:38 AM
  HI Biray:
  
  Thank you for your reply. For the indicator I was referring to the one next to the Inbox on the dashboard
  
  In our instance of Canvas (cloud-hosted), our unread submission comments are not reflected in the numbered Indicator next to the Inbox. Canvas currently does an awesome job of alerting us to New Submissions and to New Conversations directly on the Dashboard. If we could be alerted to New Submission Comments directly on the dashboard, then that would improve efficiency because faculty would not need to manually go to the Inbox and check for new submissions comments.
  
  However, if the Inbox on the dashboard should display the number of unread submission comments, then we will contact our CSM to have this awesome feature turned on.
  
  Many thanks.
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- Robert Sparrow @ biray@instructure.com on Oct 7, 2015 11:55 AM
  I have had several instructors make this discovery as well. They've noticed that the Inbox will not alert them of a new submission comment--they have to check that folder manually. I think for many of our instructors that thinking is, "If my submission comments are located in Inbox, why do I not get the same alert in the global help menu like I do for general message notifications?" If we could get that notification to also display submission comment alerts, that would be a positive step for our faculty's workflow.
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jordan@instructure.com Oct 7, 2015 10:17 AM
This idea has moved to the next stage and will be open for voting among the Canvas Community, from Wed. October 7, 2015 - Wed. January 6, 2015.

Check out this doc for additional details about how the voting process works!
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Terry Hill Dec 11, 2015 9:02 AM
Yes, please! I would like the numbered indicator next to the Inbox link to include how many unread Submission comments I have. Options to manually checking the Inbox for submission comments is appreciated.
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SHILOH WINSOR Jan 7, 2016 2:31 PM
This would be great. A few iterations of Canvas ago, the inbox would just automatically contain both submission and message items in the same inbox--that would be the most convenient. It was great because I could go to a student and see a record of all communication in Canvas (both messages and submission comments and replies).
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Kona Jones Jan 7, 2016 2:40 PM
Just as an FYI, you can also set it up via Canvas notifications so you get an email (or text, or whatever you prefer) when a student makes a submission comment. This has actually worked the best for me and I don't mess with my Canvas Inbox for submission comments unless I want to double-check something.
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- SHILOH WINSOR @ Kona Jones on Mar 24, 2016 8:59 PM
  I do this too, and it is a pretty effective workaround for me. But if I reply to the submission comment, it goes back to the submission on the assignment and will not be visible right away to a student unless the student has also updated his or her notification preferences.
  
  When submission comments were part of the regular inbox, all interactions with the student could be found together in the inbox. This had the pedagogical effect of allowing me to see the student in a more holistic way--i.e. I could see that I was having a lot of interactions about a particular issue with a student when I pulled up the student in the inbox since I was seeing every back and forth with that student without having to go to particular assignments one at a time.
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  - dhulsey@nmjc.edu @ SHILOH WINSOR on Jan 13, 2016 7:35 AM
    Yes. Shiloh is correct. Months and months later, I am still saddened by the loss of comments in the inbox. Right now, the only way to receive notification of comments is to set up an email alert as Kona suggests, but users should not have to rely on external notifications to know what is happening in Canvas. I should know something is new when I log into Canvas. Assignment comments need a notification device within Canvas, and the way it used to be in the inbox was perfect.
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allison@instructure.com Jan 14, 2016 3:12 PM
Kona Jones, thanks for your suggestion regarding the Submission Comment notification. From my perspective (and I would love your comments on this), the real problem is that teachers are missing some of the new replies left by their students. The reverse is probably also true: students are potentially missing comments left by their teachers. I'm thinking that tracking student-teacher communication is SO vital to student success that it should exist somewhere outside of Conversations. What comes to mind immediately is that the trigger for reading recent comments could be better highlighted in the SpeedGrader and/or on the Dashboard in the To Do/Upcoming Events/Feedback sidebar.

I'd like to invite voters on their thread to step outside of the Inbox for a moment and think about where else in Canvas you might want to see the information related to student/teacher feedback. If your vote is for this to exist IN the inbox, tell me more about why seeing it there would be more useful than in other areas of Canvas or in your email inbox via Canvas notifications.

Looking forward to hearing your ideas!
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- dhulsey@nmjc.edu @ allison@instructure.com on Jan 14, 2016 8:30 PM
  The inbox is the ideal place. The inbox indicator appears on every page in Canvas . On every single page, there is a persistant reminder that a user has unread messages. No matter where in Canvas a user starts their session, that inbox indicator is there. Further, conversations stimulate dialogue. I have never had more interaction with students about feedback than when comments appeared in the inbox. It was awesome, Allison. It was one of my favorite Canvas features. Can I have it back, please?
  
  whatever happens, some indication of new comments is a must, and I would settle for a dashboard notification on the course tile.
  
  Thanks for asking!
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- Kona Jones @ allison@instructure.com on Jan 15, 2016 8:03 AM
  Allison, I completely agree with this, "the real problem is that teachers are missing some of the new replies left by their students. The reverse is probably also true: students are potentially missing comments left by their teachers."
  
  For me, and I'm a Canvas admin and teach using Canvas, I have to agree with Dallas about the inbox (with indicator) being the best way to make sure everyone notices comments. As Dallas mentioned, the Inbox indicator shows up no matter where you are in Canvas - reminding you that "Hey, there's something you need to check out here!"
  
  To be honest I don't always check/look at my To Do/Upcoming Events sidebar that much. Why? I have assignments due at regular intervals and I have the days/times that I do my grading, so unless I'm getting ready to grade (or a student has messaged me and let me know they resubmitted something or if I could look at something) I don't really pay attention to the sidebar. Yes, I could change my work-flow to watch out for comments, but in all honesty I'm not sure how much my faculty use the sidebar (or at least to what extent). For students, I'd say that is a different story completely (and unfortunately). Our students live and die by the sidebar and if a notification was added there students would probably be more likely to see and check them out. Yet, is that more effective than having an indicator for the Inbox? I'm not sure and if anything would want it in both places to be safe.
  
  Same thing goes for an indicator being in Speedgrader. I'm not sure how much sense that makes (and maybe I'm misunderstanding something), but if I've already graded and left comments then I'm not likely to go back into Speedgrader for that same assignment unless I know a student has commented on it or resubmitted something. In addition, similar to the sidebar, I don't log into Canvas and go into Speedgrader every day. Thus me seeing the comments would likely be delayed.
  
  Overall I'm not opposed to an indicator being in the sidebar or Speedgrader (sidebar more so than Speedgrader), but I think the primary location for most visibility is still the inbox.
  
  As for other possible places to have an indicator, I'm team Inbox, but it might be useful to have a notification in the gradebook - possibly showing the exact assignment and student (so a specific square on the gradebook grid) of who has posted a comment/follow-up comment.
  
  Hope this helps!
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  - Sarah Kalert @ Kona Jones on Mar 24, 2016 2:25 PM
    Kona, I agree with you. Is there anyway to include a live link in the recent feedback section of the dashboard? Whether or not you are a student or an instruction, a submission comment could be considered recent feedback, and as such should be alerted. I am not sure I like the idea of having it stored ONLY in the inbox and the assignment. Our instructors would prefer to have access to it in the dashboard.
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- STEVE CLOSE @ allison@instructure.com on Feb 23, 2016 10:22 AM
  I agree that an indicator next to the inbox would be an appropriate way of making these comments visible to teachers, but I'm not sure why student comments within a drop box aren't treated like any other submission to that drop box.
  
  Everyone uses Canvas in a different way. I use speedgrader for a given drop box, and once I'm done, I don't return to the drop box. If a student submits a new assignment, I get a notification that this has happened and I return to the drop box. I would expect that if a student submits a comment, I would get a similar notification.
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- Michael McCurdy @ allison@instructure.com on Feb 23, 2016 10:51 AM
  For students they see comments under "Recent Feedback" on their dashboard and inside the course. Instructors do not. Though students seeing 3-5 individual comments from 2-3 courses may be more manageable than an instructor seeing 10-20-30 comments from 3-5 courses. Again, great product! But consider creating Canvas UI notification for submission comments to instructors, as the only way to know a student submitted a comment is to check an email address or to manually go in to the Inbox > Submission comments.
  Excelsior!
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allison@instructure.com Mar 22, 2016 7:00 PM
Follow-up question for voters on this thread:

If we were to include the number of unread submission comments in the indicator badge next to the Inbox button:

would folks still want to see the count in the Submission Comment sub-menu?
or would you see that as superfluous? If we removed it, would it disrupt your workflow?
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- dhulsey@nmjc.edu @ allison@instructure.com on Mar 23, 2016 8:06 AM
  If submission comments appeared on the counter and the comments themselves were in the inbox, I would not need a counter in the sub menu. If submission comments appear on the inbox counter without the comments themselves being in the inbox, well, I believe there would be many confused instructors and students looking for messages they were missing. Thanks for asking, Allison!
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- Kelley L. Meeusen @ allison@instructure.com on Mar 23, 2016 8:11 AM
  Allison:
  
  Not quite sure what you are asking, but................
  
  Yes, I would like to see submission comments included in the Unread-Indicator for the Inbox, but I would not like to loose the ability to filter by submission comments. Horrible disruption for some who depend on the inbox, instead of their classrooms for managing submission comments.
  
  KLM
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  - dhulsey@nmjc.edu @ Kelley L. Meeusen on Mar 23, 2016 9:32 AM
    The best of all worlds, perhaps is if we have another filter in conversations: "inbox plus submission comments." Combined with the ability for the user to set a default filter, each user could decide what she wants to see in her inbox.
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    - Rob Ditto @ dhulsey@nmjc.edu on Mar 23, 2016 10:22 AM
      I love these two ideas. Taken together, a user's default filter choice could govern what the Inbox indicator count actually means.
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- Stefanie Sanders @ allison@instructure.com on Mar 23, 2016 9:17 AM
  Allison, I agree with Dallas--I think. For some reason I seem to recall a time when submission comments were included in the Inbox stream. A hue and cry from the Community at the time resulted in having them removed from the Inbox stream and placed in their own filter. At that point, I think unread submission comments were briefly still included in the Inbox unread items badge, and this caused confusion among our users who didn't know why they couldn't get their badge counter to zero after reading their inbox messages and weren't yet accustomed to using the drop-down to filter the view to Submission comments.
  
  So if my recalled history lesson is at all accurate, doesn't including submission comments in the Inbox essentially mean that we're going back to an earlier iteration of the Inbox? And if so, would we once again have the hue and cry from those who didn't want them there then and wouldn't want them there now?
  
  Forgive me if I'm mis-remembering. But I think my vague unease and misgivings over this feature idea are why I never upvoted it. At the end of the day I guess I'm agreeing with Kelley--I would like to maintain the ability to filter submission comments, and for my purposes, since I receive notifications of all submission comments (and those notifications take me directly to the SpeedGrader where the comment was made), I don't want to have to go to my Inbox to clear out an "unread" indicator for comments I've actually already read in my email inbox and in the SpeedGrader.
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- Michael McCurdy @ allison@instructure.com on Mar 23, 2016 9:50 AM
  Hi Allison et al:
  
  Having a count in the Submission Comment sub-menu would be advantageous to quickly see where to go in the Inbox.
  
  Remember, the main concern here is there is no alert in Canvas to let faculty know they have a submission comment. There's no alert in the inbox, nor in the dashboard (right-hand side panel.) Yes, I do have the comment notifications, coming to my work email. But this is about consistency within Canvas. When a student submits an assignment, there's an alert about the submission in Canvas for me. When I make a comment to the student, there's an alert about the comment in Canvas for the student. However, and here's the purpose of this feature request, when a student makes a comment for an assignment, there is no alert about the submission comment in Canvas for me. Whether the alert is in the Inbox AND/OR in the dashboard (right-hand side) with all the other Alerts, an alert in Canvas is the priority.
  
  Again, Canvas is an awesome product and has an awesome community and development team that continually works on consistency through its platform.
  
  Excelsior!
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  - Stefanie Sanders @ Michael McCurdy on Mar 23, 2016 10:21 AM
    Michael, I agree with you--in principle. But here's the part I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around:
    
    Having a count in the Submission Comment sub-menu would be advantageous to quickly see where to go in the Inbox.
    
    So, we've got a user (student or teacher) who sees the number 6 on the badge, but only four messages appear in the default Inbox view. The user reads the four messages, yet the numeral 2 remains on the Inbox badge. What would prompt our user to know to access the toggle, change the filter to Submission Comments to see that there is a badge next to it, and view the two remaining unread messages there? (This is the problem that I recall resulted in a fair number of help tickets, at the time that the Inbox indicator did include unread submission comments.) The main Inbox badge wouldn't make it clear that the unread message badge is in the sub-menu--unless, of course, you could hover over the badge to see the breakdown of unread messages (aha!). Having said that, I imagine that a popup on hover that is accessible through browsers would not be available in mobile.
    
    I appreciate this conversation--especially since I completely agree that we need consistency within Canvas. I hope we can come to a resolution that will please everyone (well, most everyone).
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    - Kona Jones @ Stefanie Sanders on Mar 23, 2016 10:25 AM
      I'm trying to wrap my brain around how to clearly show the Instructor that there are new submission comments (I like the idea of the indicator number for the Inbox), make it easy for find the submission comments in the inbox (so they can't be hidden and only available from the drop-down menu), and yet not get them confused with regular inbox messages (for me at least I want to know what is a submission comment - and what assignment it goes with - and what is a regular inbox message).
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      - STEVE CLOSE @ Kona Jones on Mar 23, 2016 11:02 AM
        For me, follow-up comments to my submission comments are no different from regular inbox messages. A student is trying to contact me regarding the comment I left, or the assignment. In the student's mind, putting a comment there is a way of contacting the instructor.
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        dhulsey@nmjc.edu @ STEVE CLOSE on Mar 23, 2016 11:28 AM
        Steve has stated the case concisely and eloquently.
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        Kona Jones @ STEVE CLOSE on Mar 23, 2016 11:32 AM
        I guess I want to make sure I know which is which because it's important for me to quickly (and easily) know if the question/comment is in relation to a specific assignment or if it's more general (or related to something completely different). I don't mind necessarily if they are together as long as it is clear which is which, and which comments go with which assignments.
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        Janell Amely @ Kona Jones on Mar 24, 2016 9:11 AM
        Maybe by adding a large header bar across the top of the message like this:
        Submission Comment
        
        Would be helpful if both inbox and submission comments were streamed together.
        
        As a student using Canvas for 6 years, I have only had 1 class where my instructors wrote a comment and then saw/answered my return comment. It almost doesn't count, since these instructors both work for USU CIDI, so they happen to know more of the functionality of Canvas than the typical faculty does ;p
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        Stefanie Sanders @ STEVE CLOSE on Mar 23, 2016 11:59 AM
        Steve, I absolutely agree with you. Yet I feel compelled to reiterate that I'm nearly positive that it used to be exactly that way in the Inbox, and that the feature idea (then called "feature request") to remove those submission comments from the inbox stream was so overwhelmingly popular in the old community that it (amending the inbox filter to include submission comments, thereby removing those comments from the main feed) was implemented without much fuss.
        
        We need Instructure's grey-haired (ha!) Inbox Historian to weigh in on this.
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        dhulsey@nmjc.edu @ Stefanie Sanders on Mar 23, 2016 8:02 PM
        I recall there being a hot debate when submission comments were removed, and Instructure said that they could not easily revert to having submission comments in the inbox because this was part of the reconfiguring of "New Conversations" that occured when the "old community" site was still in place. The later addition of the "submission comment" filter was put forth as a compromise because, apparently, this is an issue where users on both sides feel strongly.
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        Kona Jones @ dhulsey@nmjc.edu on Mar 24, 2016 8:49 AM
        Yes, I think Dallas is right. It's been so long since we switched to the newer Inbox that I'd forgotten that.
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        Stefanie Sanders @ dhulsey@nmjc.edu on Mar 24, 2016 3:37 AM
        Yes, "New Conversations"! Thanks, Dallas--I completely forgot about that missing piece!
        
        And that's a key piece of this discussion. Although I personally was happy when submission comments were part of the inbox stream, and I'm equally content with the current design that incorporates the Submission Comments toggle with unread comments not included in the Inbox indicator--as Dallas says, "this is an issue where users on both sides feel strongly." So I would be very concerned if all of the proponents of this feature idea chime in on this thread to hammer out the details of a change, whereupon we discover that those who are not participating in this conversation (and let's face it, that's the overwhelming majority of users) get blindsided by what might be for many an unwanted change. That's the horse I have in this race.
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        STEVE CLOSE @ Stefanie Sanders on Mar 24, 2016 10:39 AM
        I have trouble seeing it as a compromise. I came into this discussion because I was missing important communication from my students based on the default settings of the inbox. To me, that's a very high priority concern. I'm struggling to understand why the placement of this filter as the default setting is such a pressing concern for those who support separating these comments out.
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        SHILOH WINSOR @ STEVE CLOSE on Mar 24, 2016 2:38 PM
        I must not have seen the outcry against the old conversations model which incorporated all communication (messages and submission comments) in the same inbox. In the old conversation system, I could comment to a student's question in the inbox or in speedgrader and that message would show up in either place. If I was in conversations and saw a question or comment that the student made on an assignment, I had a link in the conversation to go directly to the assignment. I had one place to look always for any kind of direct communication with a student, and under the old functionality, I could quickly change my sort to look at all communication by a given student--which gave me a full term view of all communication I had with that one student to see if the same questions were coming up or if I had given the same replies before.
        
        One of the difficulties with radical change in Canvas is that some people who may not even understand the beauty of what they have complain about what exists, and that becomes a call for change. The conversation changes are an example of this. It feels like several of the current ideas that are currently floating around are essentially asking for the conversation tool to work the way it used to work. There is really no way in which my workflow has been improved by the new conversation tool, and the only benefit I can see is cosmetic--and, of course, I realize that since the conversation system has now been in place for awhile there will now be disappointment with any new changes.
        
        Just an example of some of the functionality that was lost and which is currently floating around as feature requests:
        Instructors could message multiple classes at once
        All interactions with an individual student were present within the same inbox
        
        Even the sorting feature before was focused on student and teacher interaction because the drop down boxes (which were much much quicker) had class and individual student.
        
        I may be missing something that is a benefit in the new conversations, and perhaps they work better for mega-sized classes. For awhile we had the option of new conversations and old conversations--I'd just be happy to have old conversations again.
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- Kelley L. Meeusen @ allison@instructure.com on Mar 23, 2016 10:38 AM
  Allison:
  
  I am not sure what you mean.
  
  Yes, I would like to see submission comments included in the unread message indication, but I would not want to loose the ability to filter by submission comments
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  - Richard Olexa @ Kelley L. Meeusen on Mar 24, 2016 11:36 AM
    Here's my suggestion. All messages go to the inbox. The unread link shows all unread messages (including submission comments). The submission comment link acts like the unread link, but instead of filtering unread, it filters submission comments that are in the inbox.
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    - Rob Ditto @ Richard Olexa on Mar 24, 2016 12:09 PM
      Beautifully simple, Richard! This could clarify an Inbox indicator count incorporating both unread messages and unread submission comments.
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    - Kona Jones @ Richard Olexa on Mar 24, 2016 12:21 PM
      This would work for me!
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    - Stefanie Sanders @ Richard Olexa on Mar 24, 2016 12:24 PM
      Richard, I like this direction, but I was thinking more along the lines of having all messages go to the inbox by default and having the filter remove submission comments instead. The overwhelming majority of the submission comments I receive from students are of this variety: "Here it is!" "Thanks!" or "Chapter 1 Reflection." I get an ASAP notification of each and every blessed one of these--and that's fine, because for every 20 of these I get, I also get one submission comment that I need to address quickly. But I really don't want the "clutter" in my Canvas Inbox. I'd prefer to be able to remove them with the filter toggle.
      
      I'm seeing two separate use cases here--how teachers view submission comments, and how students view them--and unfortunately, both of them rest on the same platform. As I mentioned, we teachers receive a goodly number of inconsequential comments from students. However, I think we're all operating under the basic assumption that if we, as teachers, make a comment on a student's submission, it's because we have important information to convey. With that in mind, I like the idea of adding the header differentiation Janell Amely depicted in her comment above for submission comments (although I would like to see the course information included in the header, just in case the user is in the All Courses view). These submission comments would really stand out in the default Inbox view we've envisioned. Those students who toggle the submission comments "off" would be doing so mindfully, and they would still have the unread indicator badge on their Inbox to show that they might still have missed something.
      
      Do you all think such a filter setting should be "sticky," or should it be a filter that has to be reset every time the user navigates to the Inbox? (I'm inclined toward the latter.)
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      - Richard Olexa @ Stefanie Sanders on Mar 24, 2016 2:09 PM
        Almost all submissions in my course are quizzes, so I haven't run into that issue; however, I can totally see how that would get annoying. That being said, I think having a filter that would remove from the inbox might lead to a lot of confusion.
        
        Maybe changing the label on the student submission screen might help cut-down on superfluous comments. For example, maybe "add a comment" could be changed to something like "message your instructor about this submission."
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Richard Olexa Mar 24, 2016 10:57 AM
I respect the effort of separating submission comments and the inbox, but I find that it's created a serious communication issue for students and instructors. In my humble opinion, ensuring users see submission comments far outweighs being able to filter them from other inbox messages. Just this semester, a student's reply to my submission comment (a week after I sent it) started, "Wow! I just saw this." This is a student who usually replies to anything I write to her within 24 hours. Back during my first semester on Canvas (Spring 2015), I was embarrassed to find unanswered submission comments that I didn't even know were there. I have this fixed now, but I can imagine the unanswered unacknowledged submission comment universe is vast and distinguished. I'm reminded of the new "Clutter" box added to Office 365. (If you haven't checked your clutter box, you may want to, and you may want to turn it off!)
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- SHILOH WINSOR @ Richard Olexa on Mar 24, 2016 2:41 PM
  Really good points--it is really important to remember that it is not just submission comments from students to teachers that are getting lost or ignored--it is all the comments teachers are giving to students which are also getting ignored.
  
  We know that frequent and timely communication with students is perhaps the most important best practice in an online setting, and the separation of messages and submission comments ultimately hinders or obscures that communication.
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  - STEVE CLOSE @ SHILOH WINSOR on Mar 24, 2016 2:52 PM
    Can you explain what you mean about teacher comments being ignored? I comment on essays in the "Assignment Comments" box, since Crocodoc was too much trouble for my students to access. I have always assumed that they get notification in a very obvious way when I leave comments. Are you saying they don't get notification?
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    - SHILOH WINSOR @ STEVE CLOSE on Mar 24, 2016 8:58 PM
      I am not quite saying that. The only way a student sees a comment you leave on an assignment is if one of the following occur:
      The student specific clicks on the assignment that he or she has submitted after you have placed the comment on it.
      The student has specifically set up notifications to an outside e-mail address for comment notifications (though if my own notifications are any indication, this is hit or miss in terms of noticing since depending on the way those notifications have been set up, they may come with other notifications about other things that have been changed in class--i.e. new quizzes posted for all classes, new modules opened, etc.)
      or if the student specifically goes into his or her inbox and then changes the view to "submission comments."
      
      What I am saying is that it is very easy for the comments we make to get lost in the noise of notifications or to not come through in notifications at all (students have control over which notifications they receive and when they receive those notifications). It is also unlikely for some of the students who most need to read our comments to even realize there are comments to read within Canvas itself--within Canvas, the most likely way a student will look at our comments is if he or she clicks on the assignment after it has been scored--for some of my eager students who are concerned about their grades, I'm sure this is happening, but I know that some of my struggling students do not.
      
      In the old conversation system, students were presented with every comment from every class and every message from every teacher in their inbox within Canvas--in the default view and with an indicator that they had items that were unread.. Messages would look like e-mails and feedback would have a link to the assignment and would show the grade. This made the inbox a one-stop shop for all direct communication between instructor and student, trained students to look at the comments from instructors, and contained all the communication within the Canvas inbox (for many of my students, they are not e-mail users, so even if they are getting the notifications by e-mail, that is not something they look at frequently; in the course of the term, though, they have to access Canvas frequently).
      
      Let me know if I've been unclear--it is the end of finals week and my gray matter is getting mushy.
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- Jill Nissen @ Richard Olexa on Mar 25, 2016 8:01 AM
  This is a frequent problem for me as well. Students miss my comments, and I miss their replies. To help make sure I don't miss anything, for about a week after I grade assignments, I open speed grader every day and click through every submission to check for replies. This is much too cumbersome and time-consuming. There should be a spot on the course dashboard to indicate that an assignment has new comments, the same way it indicates when there are assignments that need to be graded.
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  - Michael McCurdy @ Jill Nissen on Mar 25, 2016 8:23 AM
    Canvas does have alert students to new comments in the Recent Feedback area. My desire for this feature request is to have an alert for instructors as well, either in the Inbox OR in the Recent Feedback area.
    
    Excelsior!
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  - Richard Olexa @ Jill Nissen on Mar 25, 2016 9:20 AM
    Hi Jill Nissen. I hear ya! It's definitely confusing, which I think is why this thread has gained steam. You really don't need to go through all submissions in SpeedGrader though. From the Canvas inbox, click on the inbox drop-down menu, and you'll see submission comments at the bottom. If you click on that, you'll see them all. You can think of this section of the inbox like an email junk or spam folder. They're there, but you don't get notified about them by default.
    
    You may also want to check out Kona Jones' post in this thread from Jan 7, 2016, 2:40PM. Setting an ASAP notification for submission comments (maybe this should be default?) and conversation messages will email you immediately, and you can reply from your email. This is actually what I do for ALL my messages, thereby combining regular college email and student messages from Canvas.
    
    (Ping Dale Drees Haven't seen the latest training course, but maybe folks at the college are also confused about this - even scouring SpeedGrader. Just thought I should ping ya in-case you want to send out an email or something.)
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    - Jill Nissen @ Richard Olexa on Mar 25, 2016 9:46 AM
      Awesome tip, thank you SO much! I just discovered 3 comments from older assignments that I had missed.
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    - STEVE CLOSE @ Richard Olexa on Mar 25, 2016 10:47 AM
      One problem I have with much of Canvas is that there are so many ways to do any particular task. We often assume that other users interface with messages in the same way we do, but that's often not the case. For instance, I didn't use my Canvas inbox at all until yesterday. I relied on the forwarding of all messages to my school inbox. 98% of the messages I found lurking in my inbox were things that had been sent to my school account or announced on the course home page. I now know better, but there are a lot of users who interact with Canvas in the same way I did. They aren't going to know that there is a problem because they don't read "feature ideas" and they aren't aware that they are missing messages.
      
      A person who doesn't use the Canvas inbox won't be able to scroll down to "Submission Comments."
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Thatcher Bohrman Mar 28, 2016 9:49 AM
Thumbs up for this, WAY up.
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johnpj Mar 31, 2016 9:31 AM
Those interested in commenting functionality may also be interested in: Import Grade Comments
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allison@instructure.com Apr 14, 2016 3:58 PM
Really great conversation going on here! This is one of those threads I know we will return to because you've all pointed out a variety of pain points and possible solutions. This isn't something I foresee fixing this summer, but it is something I'd like to take up again in the fall, if possible. We will archive for now, with the intent to solution later. It is vital that we make it easy for instructors to stay on top of inbound communication from their students. Thanks again, everyone!
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- fernerj@erau.edu @ allison@instructure.com on May 26, 2016 2:01 PM
  Well stated!
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Ephraim Ross Jun 8, 2016 1:31 PM
Whatever the ultimate change is, what's clear is that right now we need a way for instructors to clearly see whether they have any unread submission comments. Is there a reason we couldn't do something like this:
Which can clearly indicate both incoming messages in the inbox AND submission comments, separately?
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Ephraim Ross Jun 8, 2016 1:32 PM
In addition, we'd also love something like this for instructors:
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Renee Carney Oct 28, 2016 9:00 AM
Idea is currently in Product Radar Learn more about this stage...
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Gregory Swan Jan 25, 2017 10:33 PM
This is one of a few Canvas issues I've had to resort to telling students what to do as a workaround. Here is my workaround. This is easier for my students and I than trying to remember to manually change the inbox filter to Submission Comments and look to see if there are any there several times a day. (And yes, I do know how to set up email notifications for Submission Comments.)
I know you have a lot thrown at you at the beginning of the semester. However, Canvas has had a problem for about two years that is so confounding I send out this special announcement every semester.
When you view many assignments, the page will include a Submission Comment box with this message: "Teacher and submitter will be notified of all comments." That statement is misleading.
If you place a comment in this box on an assignment page, I'll see your comment only on the odd chance I someday view that specific assignment page. Even if I see your comment and reply to it, YOU won't see my reply until the next time YOU look at that particular assignment page.
So what is the Submission Comment Box for? Purpose 1: It's a way for you to include a personal note along with an essay when you submit it. When I grade essays, I'll see and read your personal note. Purpose 2 for the comment box: When I grade your essay, I may want to explain the grade or provide other feedback. I type this feedback in the comment box and you will be able to read my comments when you look at your essay after I've graded it. NEVER type anything into the submission comment box on a quiz or exam, because there is never a reason for me to look at your quiz unless you message me through the Canvas Inbox to look at it.
If you ever wish to ask me a question about the class and want a quick answer, NEVER USE THE SUBMISSION COMMENT BOX.
Instead, use the Canvas Inbox messaging. You'll find specific step-by-step instructions for messaging me on the Home page, together with pictures.
The short summary:
Fast response: Use Canvas Inbox Messaging. I'll be alerted immediately.
A response within two days or so: Use email. I look at it every day or two during the work week.
No response: Submission Comment Box.
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Janey Skinner Feb 26, 2017 9:34 PM
I found out about this thread and voting in Canvas community because I contacted the Canvas-heads at my college. I am also concerned about missing student questions and comments and requests for help that appear in the submission comment box. I would love there to be a way to easily see (in a crosslisted course) whether any student has made a comment back to me on a comment I gave on an assignment or discussion. I'm finding those linked in the daily Canvas update emails but sometimes I miss one -- I get a lot of email. It's not like "inbox" where an alert will show when I log in.
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STEVE CLOSE Jun 12, 2017 3:25 PM
Why hasn't this gotten anywhere? I just checked, and somehow my carefully checked box requesting that student comments on assignments be emailed to me unchecked itself and once again I'm missing student communication. I'll ask again for what I asked for earlier in this thread--make email notifications of student comments "opt-out" instead of "opt-in." I'm sorry about folks who feel their inboxes are cluttered, but that clutter is made up of students attempting to communicate. Student grades are on the line here.
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Lee Knowlton Sep 10, 2017 5:56 PM
Scott Dennis Do you know if there have been any updates on this?

Allison had planned to follow up last fall and we're over a year since the last update.

At my institution, we're having quite a bit of trouble with students not seeing instructor comments on their assignments. And since our entire Canvas curriculum is based on qualitative feedback with complete/incomplete assignments, students knowing when they get feedback is absolutely essential.

In terms of design, I'm a fan of Ephraim Ross's mock-up of the inbox counters.
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- Renee Carney @ Lee Knowlton on Sep 11, 2017 8:28 AM
  Lee Knowlton
  
  Thank you for checking in. At this time, there is not an update for this thread. If you follow this idea (at the top) you will get a notification if/when there is an update. After reading your use case here, I'm not so sure that this is the only thread you should follow though.
  
  I would encourage you to vote and add your input on Making feedback more visible to students. This is also a feature that was recently prioritized by a group of your community peers. You can find that list at Khaki 2017: Priorities & Related Ideas.
  
  One more note... If you ever want to know that large priorities we're working on, you can find them in the Canvas Studio. We're getting ready to add a few more there, so you may want to follow that space as well!
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  - Lee Knowlton @ Renee Carney on Sep 11, 2017 6:21 PM
    Thank you Renee. The links you provided are indeed valuable.
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