[Discussions] Export Discussions

[CindiKerns]

Please consider a feature that will allow students to export discussions and related threads. This can be a helpful resource at the end of the course. Professors will want the ability to release discussions for export so a release date option would be needed.

[hoovenl]

I ask students to include citations in discussions, which I would like to later use to update my class materials. Being able to download the contents of discussion would facilitate this greatly.

[tufte]

As a professor, being able to output an entire thread in some low level format (RTF or HTML) would be useful for keeping track of answers to open ended questions. I repeat these from semester to semester, and most new students hit on the same sort of answers as previous students. But every semester, there's at least one student who hits on a new angle that's a keeper. Except there's no way to "keep them" in a way that can be accessed readily in future semesters.

I can see the usefulness of this sort of feature for students, but I haven't had any of them ask for it.

[mspieth]

Hello,

I agree that this option would be of great value to both faculty and students.

[hoovenl]

I could use this feature to create a Wordle (word art) from discussion. I could also use it to contemplate how well my discussion questions are getting students to think critically and engage with the materials. I could compare the tenor of discussion as I tweak my questions from term to term.

[rami_shaath]

Please make this happen!

But more importantly its exportable to several types of format.  ie XML, PDF..etc.

May I'm asking too much.

[rami_shaath]

As a student, I certainly would want to be able to Download Entire Discussion Thread

[mrobertson]

We've had creative writing instructors request this since Day 1 of our move to Canvas... would be great to see this feature implemented.

[peytoncraighill]

To help me workshop this, what are some specific use cases that we would address with the added ability to export a discussion?

Students would use the export to study offline? Instructors would use the export as a well-formatted printout? Instructors would use the export to compile responses over time? What's the benefit of a student downloading only their own responses? How does the export solve accreditation issues?

Thanks for your input, everybody!

[canvas_admin]

Peyton,

This would help us when it comes to archiving discussions. We're on rolling enrollment for our distance education courses, so our courses never "end" until we replace/refresh them.  As you can imagine, the discussion forums can get up in the thousands which is untenable. This would allow us to archive discussions and "refresh" a discussion within an rolling course.

[hoovenl]

1. Being able to look over discussion later, when I am rolling over the class, is a way for me to evaluate the quality of my discussion question/topic. Did it inspire students to really think critically about the subject? Does the discussion question lead students to engage with the class materials, rather than just give a knee jerk response? Can I better align the discussion question with learning outcomes?

2. I ask students to provide a citation backing up their discussion points, hopefully from sources outside class. My intention was to mine these discussions and citations to update the class. Not being able to export the discussion is a barrier to this.  I could see where students may want to use these discussion points and citations in their individual research projects.

3. My other idea using exported discussion is to dump it into a tool like Wordle (Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds), which would make word art out of the discussion. The most frequently used terms are displayed in larger fonts, so this would give the class feedback on what they as a group focused most on in discussion. This would be a nice way to conclude each module and segue into the next in an announcement.