Private journal discussions

[cliffkc]

I would like to create a private graded individual journal discussion for each student; where I will be able to comment and grade each journal entry separately.   Would like to have 4 submitted journal entries all in one place for each student.  Is this possible? If so, how?

Thank you.

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi  @cliffkc ...

Although I've not tested this, I think this should be possible via groups.  Here are the steps I'm thinking of:

1. In your course, click on People and then the + Group Set button.
2. Name the new group set something like Graded Journal (or whatever you want to call it).
3. Within the new Group Set that you created, you'll need to create a group for each of your students.  So, if you have 20 students, you'll need to create 20 groups.  The names of these groups can be whatever you want.  (Ex: Group 1, Group 2, Blue, Green, Cats, Dogs, whatever...)
4. Assign each student to just one of the groups in the Group Set.
5. Now, create a brand new graded Discussion topic.  (You could also calls this Graded Journal if you wanted.)
6. Make sure to check the option for "This is a Group Discussion".  A drop-down list will appear.
7. Select the Group Set name from the drop-down list that you created in step #1.
8. Save your changes to your Discussion topic.

This should set up a discussion for you where you will be able to have one-on-one conversations with students in a discussion topic.  It would look something like some of the screen shots near the bottom of this Guide: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-13039-415264224

Hope this helps, Kathi!

[cliffkc]

Thank you very much for the detailed steps. This is extremely helpful. I will move forward and attempt to create this learning opportunity for me and my students to experience.

Kathi Cliff, Professor

Child Development

Regional Coordinator, CECMP/CDTC

Los Angeles Southwest College

[Nancy_Webb_CCSF]

This is so brilliant thank you @Chris_Hofer !  I just want to add that you can create the groups automatically with the student names already as the group names.  This is done by by importing the groups in a csv file.  How-do-I-import-groups-in-a-group-set.

1)  Create a group set, choosing that you will manually create the groups.
2)  Click the +Import groups button on the group set tab and a dialog box will open.
3)  Download the course roster by clicking the Download Course Roster CSV link in the dialog box.
4)  Open the csv file in Excel.  Copy all the student names from the Name column A to the Group_names column F and save, making sure that for each row, the name is the same in both columns.
5)  Back in the +Import groups dialog box in Canvas, upload the edited csv file and the each group will be created with a student name.. 

[Stef_retired]

 @cliffkc , Chris has given you excellent step-by-step guidance for this (  @Chris_Hofer  Thank You ‌!) You might also want to watch this video: Canvas FastTrack Ep. 30 - Let's Start a Journal.

[DonVandeWalle]

This spring (2021), I am teaching two sections of a course for the first time since our university switch from Blackboard to CANVAS

The switched from Blackboard to CANVAS has produced the following major headache---- The lack of a dedicated journal function that students can use every week ----

I  spent many hours online searching with every keyword configuration possible trying to find a student “journal” function in CANVAS similar to that available in Blackboard ---- I thought, “Surely, such a basic and useful function must be buried somewhere.”

WRONG ---- Instead of finding even a basic journal function, all I found were 100s of posts spread over multiple years decrying the lack of a dedicated journal function. I also found suggestions for multiple workarounds to create a pseudo-journal ----  

What boggles my mind about this thread is how much time so many dedicated faculty (including moi) are having to waste to create these byzantine workarounds. All of these workarounds require faculty to waste time creating an inferior alternative, and also often require spending time training students on how to use the workaround, such as the assignment resubmission nightmare-ordeal ----

It seems bizarre that after so many years, with so many online posts about the lack of a CANVAS journal function, that this lack of such a fundamental function continues

How can we get a proper journal function added to CANVAS for Fall 2021 (Instead of having faculty spending so much precious time creating the pseudo-journal alternatives?

[DonVandeWalle]

FROM: Don Vandewalle at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, USA

SUBJECT: SUCCESS ON ADDING A JOURNAL FUNCTION via CURIO

We have found a fully functional journal product to use with CANVAS ----

For some background, in May of 2021, I posted detailed comments about my surprise and disappointment that CANVAS did not offer a journal function and also described the nightmare of attempting various bootleg operations.

On May 25, 2021, Matthew Hall of CURIO published a post indicating that his team in Melbourne, Australia had developed a full capacity LTI solution called the Learning Journal. In July, I contacted Matt about their LTI. His team worked with my team to add the LTI to a graduate EMBA organizational behavior course that I teach at Southern Methodist University.

As of August 28, 2021, we have CURIO’s Learning Journal working as a fully functional journal that students use every week for writing how they are integrating course content at work. Students can update the same journal writing stream during the entire semester, and I can provide feedback comments at any time.

If you’re interested in adding a fully functional journal to the CANVAS platform, I strongly recommend that you contact Matt and his team at:

Dr. Matthew Hall
www.thelearningjournal.co
matthew.hall@curio.co