Add a "like" button, star ratings, or "mark as helpful" options to discussion posts

[CommunityTeam]

  This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

  Idea will be open for vote May 5th - August 5th, 2015 Learn more about voting...

As a user, I'd like to be able to give feedback on discussion posts other than posting a threaded reply. For instance, I'd like to "like" a post or rate it (using stars or a similar rating scale) or mark it as helpful. Any or all of these options would allow me to interact with other users' discussion posts quickly and efficiently and add another dimension of interactivity to discussion-type assignments and activities.

transferred from the old Community

Originally posted by: Matt McGhie

Special thanks for contributions from: Lynne S. McNeill, Mark Ellis, Sylvia Newman

Comment by Instructure

You can enable liking on a discussion by editing your discussion and using the checkbox to 'allow liking'.  There are additional tools below the checkbox, but they do not need to be enabled for liking to occur!

The thumbs up button will then appear next to the reply option:

[Chris_Hofer]

I see what you are saying,  @scottdennis ​.  This is just my opinion, but I think the star ratings (as they are used here on Jive) *may* be better for documents, guides, or other "information" content in a course.  I'm not sure that I would really want to give a star rating to someone's discussion post...rating them on a scale of 1 to 5.  That might lead to some hurt feelings even if the person who posted didn't know who rated the comment.  I would agree that a "Mark as Helpful" option would be nice, though...in addition to the "Like" feature we're getting soon.

[kona]

My thought is:

• like is a way to literally indicate that I like this, it was funny, but doesn't necessarily need to be helpful or add to the discussion
• helpful is a way to indicate that this was information that I find useful, something I didn't know, or somehow adds value/quality to the discussion or my understanding of topic OR this was not helpful and didn't add to the discussion (for unhelpful)
• star ratings is a way to indicate how useful something was, so a step up from helpful in that you can actually rate how useful the information was to the discussion. This is the feature I think would be to have the choice to incorporate into the student's actual grade. Kind of like a way for students to provide "peer feedback" on other student's posts.

[scottdennis]

I wonder if it would be more useful if we had a discussion tool in the LMS that had both 'likes' and star ratings and, maybe just the teacher, or maybe everyone, could see an aggregate rating based on the stars.  Maybe if there were up to five stars and anyone could use them to rate a given post and you could see an aggregate 'score' for the post based on all the ratings given?

I'm just brainstorming here.

[kona]

I really like that idea because it might add a little competition and fun to the discussions - who got the most stars? How many people liked my post?

I know that type of external motivation doesn't work on everyone, but if it's used right I think it will work for a lot of students! Since we should have the like feature in Canvas by summer I'm totally incorporating it into the gamification aspects of the online course I'm teaching. I haven't figured out all the details, but I'm thinking about a weekly award (badge) to the person whose post gets the most likes.

[scottdennis]

OK, we are dangerously close to needing to move this over to Instructional Designers​ but this is getting interesting.  In what contexts would subtle or not so subtle, non-grade based competition help engage learners?  In what contexts would this be inappropriate?

Like I said, probably about time to move this thread or start if over elsewhere, but fascinating, to me anyway.

 @G_Petruzella ​

[kona]

Agreed! And done - Likes, Helpfuls, and Stars in Canvas? - just started this discussion in the Instructional Designers group! 🙂

[jordan]

If only Jive would let us mark Canvas Feature Ideas​ comments as helpful! Anyway... still lovejive​

[scottdennis]

awilliams​ contributed a very complete breakout of how one might differentiate the use of similar features in another post that I will link to for anyone reading the comments in this post: ​

[clong]

There was some concern in other discussion about the use of the Star because it is already in use elsewhere in Canvas. Just so this doesn't get lost I wanted to advocate that this is the best use of a Star because it is some prevalent in the Web & Mobile Apps.

So if this feature idea makes it, change the Stars in other places in Canvas Such as the Course menu to checks. Maybe something like this:

[htdaniel]

I was really excited about the addition of the like button but right now, students can't see WHO likes their post (including the instructor/TAs) nor can the instructor see WHO liked a post (which prevents it's use as part of the class participation grade). This feature should be added, especially to the speedgrader function and it would be great if we could click a like button from speedgrader as we're grading. I also agree that a rating system could have it's own distinct use beyond the like button but the same need for tracking who rated it what exists.