[Courses] Comprehensive Course Search Tool (Searching Course Content for a Topic)

[tweiler]

I always find it useful to search for content using an index or an actual search tool rather than just scrolling through all of the pages one by one to find what I need.  I can see many uses for this:

1. As a student, I know that a particular topic was covered but I'm not sure where.  I can search the course for the keyword and the page hits will come up.
2. As an instructor, I want to know where else these students have seen a particular concept.  I can search a bunch of courses for a keyword and the courses and page hits will come up.
3. As a student, as I am trying to integrate information from multiple lectures within a course or within multiple courses, it would be useful to see where a particular concept has been covered.

Tracey

[laurakgibbs]

Okay, super: that is really good to know,  @Renee_Carney ‌! I know different people have different use-cases (and I heard lots more at Khaki), so maybe we can help move discussion forward by segmenting the idea in ways that make sense to us... which may or may not match up with how Engineering splits things up behind the scenes. And maybe it can help.

I will research the areas of Canvas that I use, and if everybody does the same, maybe we can un-lump this global search in a way that will be useful. 

Thanks again! And........ Happy Friday! 🙂

[hwahbyeraky]

 I create and build ESL Master courses using Canvas. Frequently, I go back to the modules to look for something that I have already written in order to add to it or to replace it, and it takes me time to navigate through each module to find what I am looking for. Features like Find or Find and Replace - like the ones we have in the regular word document- would be of a great help. Also, I think for students, while they are studying, it will help them locating a certain information they might be looking for. 

[garrett_william]

I want this search function to exist inside an individual course. Is that also on the table? From what I read, the global search would apply to all courses. If I search “Presentations” globally, for instance, I’m going to get a bunch of similar named pages.

It would be great if search functionality could be added to the Pages section of Canvas. When we develop a course we work off of a template that utilizes a naming convention for each page type (overview, menu, presentation, completion, etc). With generic naming conventions, we do not have to relink images and pages every time we build a  course. It would be great if I could use search to identify these commonly named pages for easier selection and editing from within a course too.

What I am asking for is a search box be added to an individual course’s Pages page similar to the one that already exists on the assignments page.

I tried to put in a separate feature request but was directed here instead to share my idea.

[orwinr]

Hi  @garrett_william ,

We have been using the LTI from Atomic Jolt for the last few months and find it really solid. At the top of every page in Canvas is a search box that by default searches all course content, except content in discussions. Once your results come back you can filter by type, so pages, pdf files, assignments etc. Once the results come back you also have the option of ticking a box that will then search all courses that you are enrolled in. The tool also only returns results based on the current role that you have in the course. If Instructure decides to build in search across the platform, the Atomic Jolt product would be a good model to follow.

[laurakgibbs]

And since I thought Instructure had indeed decided to do that, the Atomic Jolt service sounds great, orwinr‌! Thanks for the details; in the budget crunch at my school, I doubt it is ever going to be on our shopping list.

Discussion search would also be valuable, but as the Atomic Jolt model shows, it's probably necessary to scope the "global search" project based on all kinds of issues and potential problems. I am still very disappointed that when the Instructure engineering team ran into problems with their work on search, they did not just re-scope the project but instead shelved it. Maybe there will be an update eventually.

[orwinr]

laurakgibbs, we did some user research regarding search finding 91% of faculty and 96% of students wanted site-wide search in Canvas. I also asked faculty if they thought their students would want search, and eerily, 95% of faculty said students would want search.

Based on these numbers, we made getting search a priority for the current academic year. We ran some reports at the beginning of the quarter and we will run another report at the end of the quarter to see how much the tool is being used. During the summer quarter, which has very few course, we ended up with about 2000 search requests. If it looks like it isn't being used, we will remind users that is available and if at the end of the year it isn't getting the type of use we anticipated, we will not fund it for another year. It will be interesting to see if the the actual use of the tool supports the survey results we can previously.

[laurakgibbs]

Oh, that is SO interesting to hear, orwinr‌! Please do share results, positive or negative. 

I use search constantly for everything (since I do all my content development in blogs and/or Google Docs, there's good search available, really powerful)... the lack of search in Canvas is truly bizarre to me: one of the strongest aspects of digital stuff is being able to search-and-find, no matter how disorganized we might be. 🙂

[garrett_william]

Thanks for the info. I will check that LTI out. Unfortunately this is one of those things that should have existed all along. If I can search in the assignments section of Canvas, I should be able to search in the pages section as well. I am somewhat tired of having to create custom coding or make supplemental purchases for features that should already exist. This along with having to hide copy/export/delete from teachers is ridiculous. I appreciate the places Canvas is going but these little inconsistencies still exist and should be fixed.

[orwinr]

I am totally with you,  @garrett_william . Search functionality should have been baked in from the beginning. With that said, we felt that it was important enough to pay the extra for it. The concern now is does Instructure add search and in the process hammer an existing partner.

[stiber]

Come on, Instructure. This has been sitting here for three years. Our students find everything, everywhere by searching -- even their own files. There's no way they will find anything in a substantial Canvas site without search.