A way to save a draft for Text Entries

[emersoncall]

Text Entries are how most of my teachers do their assignments. If I want to start an assignment when I have a little time, and then continue working on it later, the only real way to do so is by writing it in an external application that I can copy and paste into the text box when it's finished. It would be incredibly convenient if I could start writing an assignment in Canvas, and save a draft of it if I have to go before I finish. This would save the trouble of needing to log into Google Docs or a similar application in order to save my draft, and then later needing to find what I've written again and the assignment it was for on Canvas. A way to save drafts could remove the hassle of using an outside application, allow me to work in as short of time periods as needed, and conveniently keep what I've written connected to the assignment that it is for.

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

For more information, please read through Canvas Release Notes (2020-03-21) 

[josysd222]

When is the next voting cycle? This is exactly the idea that I was going to submit, so no point in duplicating it. The Save Draft feature would be a huge time saver for everyone, and would certainly be more efficient use of my time - for example, use snippets of time to read a few posts, reply and jot down a few key points while they are fresh in my mind, then Save Draft and return to it later to develop it more. Thanks!

Josy

[josysd222]

It's me again. Just saw the voting cycle date, hooray, I didn't miss it. Thanks.

Josy

[jomontuori]

That's a good point, Brandi. Submitted assignments can be replaced by additional submissions. But I think "submitting the assignment" has a significantly different meaning in a student's mind than a Canvas-designated "save a draft" feature would provide. And right now, submitted assignments can't be clearly designated as drafts.

For example, if a student wished to save a draft and continue his/her work later, currently the student must submit the assignment. Teachers have no way to know if this is a "draft" or a "submission" without additional communication from the student. That can be problematic. A clearly-designated draft-saving function would eliminate this uncertainty.

[Renee_Carney]

 @josysd222 ​

This idea is still open for voting!  You can add your vote by clicking the up arrow at the top of the idea.

[jsparks]

I understand where you all are coming from and can see the need for this feature. We would likely implement this feature across the platform and the variety of interaction points in Canvas; this would require some strategic thinking across the product management team and looking at when we would be able to work this into our roadmap.  I can comfortably say we are planned well into 2016; assignments do need some love.  We will likely pursue this sometime in the future. For now, I would like to archive this idea. I am tracking this request for when we are able to implement.

Kind regards,

Jason

[bogardde]

I'm very sorry to hear that this feature idea is not going into the next stage at this point. 200 votes says to me that this is high on the "pain point" list for users...especially, perhaps, the K-12 community.

[Renee_Carney]

bogardde​

This idea did go into the next stage.  It was moved to the "gathering information" stage, which allows the product teams to scope the project and evaluate it against available resources.  I think that Jason did a very nice job of explaining what he discovered.

If you want to know more about our stages, please take a look at How does the voting process work for feature ideas?​  It explains how an archived idea can pop up for development at any time!

[bogardde]

Thanks for the input. I did read the explanation and believe I do understand the process, at least in a general way. Nevertheless, it does not assuage my disappointment that this feature idea has been archived into the gray expanse of "sometime in the future." In the here-and-now, it is a quite significant pain point for the teachers and students I support. Thus, the sad face

[andrew_ellingse]

Has there been any progress on this idea since January?  We are new users of Canvas, and we already have students and teachers who are frustrated at the lack of a "Save Draft" or "Auto-Save" feature.  Can anyone share an update?

[Renee_Carney]

  Idea is currently in Product Radar Learn more about this stage...