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:

[clong]

Heather, I think this would be something that would be nice to have in a feature update. I do wonder though if likes should be mandatory. What if I'm a student who has contributed to the discussion and don't like any of the points to the point where I feel it's necessary to hit the like button.  That could easily lead to me hitting the like button on any old post just to get my points. Would compulsory likes on a discussion because it counts for part of a grade kill the heuristic nature of the learning in a discussion?

[htdaniel]

I think I understand your point Chris and I agree with it in many instances. My reasoning was not to force liking to become mandatory but so it could be included as PART of the participation grade (this could be factored in over the semester to see how often they "liked" a post as well as their frequency of comments, factors beyond the discussion board, etc). However, I could see using it as a mandatory requirement too (ex: an assignment where they are supposed to pick their favorite and like it). Not to get too specific with all the criteria but, a class I'm working on now asks for them to pick their favorite representative song from a list of choices. We're using the quiz survey feature to do this now but it doesn't offer the instantaneous feedback and opinions of others like the discussion board does (we have to provide them with the aggregate data at the end of the week). If knowing who liked which one existed, we could provide that participation aspect of the grade. The ranking feature may even be a better solution for this type of assignment but the same concern for knowing who ranked (aka participated) is an issue. Thus, it is a feature that would enhance the usability of the tool but certainly isn't necessary for all the varied uses of a discussion forum.

[corey_jeffers]

 @clong , I agree with you on the mandatory liking comment. However, I agree with  @htdaniel ​ as well on the ability to see who liked what. I don't intend to use it for assessment in any way; it just helps me get a bit more of a formative pulse on what's happening in the class.

[corey_jeffers]

PLEASE ADD LIKING TO THE MOBILE APPLICATION DISCUSSIONS. I use my phone often to stay involved in discussions happening in the courses I facilitate. If I don't have time to respond, but I want a student to know that I've seen and I affirm his or her response, I would love to have the ability to quickly like the response. This might be picky, but it makes me feel as if I have contributed at least marginally, and it helps me feel as if I have a bit more time to craft a meaningful reply.

[clong]

I like where you are going with this! Thanks for adding some use cases here Heather, I think it makes the reason behind the request more evident and hopefully will give this more traction.

[Beth_Young]

It's good to have likes either way, but I also would like to see who liked what.

[hvaughn]

I like the suggestion to have a way to mark a discussion comment as helpful or tag it as important.  Doing so would make it easier for a user to quickly reference the comment again. In our previous LMS, users had the ability to "flag" a comment.  This flag was a personal bookmark for the user and was not seen by others in the course.

[10618071]

Would also love to see the number of likes a post gets affect the grade of the poster and participation points for the "liker" similar to how stack overflow works.

[Renee_Carney]

10618071​

This is a great idea, but it is a separate idea that will be submitted on its' own.

[Renee_Carney]

We must have missed the Production Notes on this feature.  This has been implemented.

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:

This Feature Idea is complete!