Anonymous Discussion Forums

[scottdennis]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

---

Idea:

Instructors can create discussions that allow for posts to be made anonymously

Use Cases:

As an instructor, I want to create discussions in which participation is anonymous. This would free my students to share their thoughts without worrying about judgement / criticism by their peers or me. They'd take risks they might not otherwise.

transferred from the old Community

Originally posted by: Lynn McCarty
Thank you especially for contributions by: Rob Ditto, Allison Pyle, Renee Carney, Robert Jones

[laura1_wilt]

Great idea so that students can use their voice to express themselves about a topic even though they may be nervous about being correct or not. It would have to have a feature though where the teacher could see who is posting in case of misuse. 

[aime_fournier]

Since we've been waiting so many years for this feature, I suggest to keep it simple and not let the teacher see who's posting even if there were misuse. If the misuse were serious e.g., harassment, the institution's IT department could trace the post's IP addresses; if it were not serious, it wouldn't matter.

When I had another LMS years ago that enabled anonymous posts, it was good that students could vent like "wow I hated today's lecture" with impunity ---not that they often posted that

[cbutler]

I am quite surprised that this feature is not in the platform yet. 

[danielle_wilson]

I am trying to get my faculty to the discussion boards in online and blended courses more often. This task would be easier if they had the option to make some discussion posts anonymous. Any chance this idea is finally going to be considered?

[mgarcia-ojeda]

I believe it is imperative to have anonymous submission in the discussion groups.  Please incorporate this simple feature ASAP.  

[gemma_sinclair]

Currently the main reason for using Piazza is due to the anonymous posting option (students do not want to ask 'dumb' questions).

When can this be included as part of Canvas Discussions so it works natively within Canvas?

If there could be an option to allow anonymous posts enabled at Course Level it would give Teachers the option to use this for their class.

[josephine_gwynn]

Students are reluctant to post questions with name attached - fear of being judged i think?

[cameron_otopali]

So long as the contributor's identity is only available to the instructor for assessment purposes, I am all-in on this idea. I teach political science and in this highly charged discipline where students are concerned about the potential for ridicule, it would allow for a freer exchange of ideas and opinions.

[aime_fournier]

I think it would be more beneficial to encouraging participation if even the instructor could not see the poster's identity in the forum being discussed. There are already enough ways to assess students.

[apinto1]

Because of FERPA laws this is a necessity