[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.

[kmeeusen]

Hey, I am in no hurry David, just curious and hoping I can be helpful. Posting in here is just fine.

KLM

[dhulsey]

Hi, David. Have you considered housing course level materials in something like Google Docs? If you house the materials there, you only have to update once and every class you have gets the update. Try reading this blog post here in the Canvas community: Using Google Docs for dynamic Canvas content.

I do the same thing, but I use SoftChalk CLOUD because I can add interactive quiz questions in the materials and lessons that report to the canvas grade book. 

[tufte]

What I wrote above was a specific example that's bugging me this week, but it's representative of more persistent issues about getting content out of Canvas for use in other venues.*

I like the link to the Google Docs method. That's more sophisticated than what I'm now doing, but not beyond my capabilities. I will check into that. Even so, the mere existence of the workaround points to my concerns that Canvas views each class as an island rather than a particular instantiation of a course (not sure if instantiation is the right word to use, but I had a friend use that for describing a feature of object oriented programming, and it seems like the right word here).

I am less sure about SoftChalk CLOUD. At first glance that looks like something I would need to work with our IT people on.

* I am not sure if this is the best workaround, but for now, if I want to get a Discussions thread out of Canvas, I have to save the page as HTML, then load that into something like Notepad++ and run some regular expression find and replaces on it to isolate the content that I want for export into something like Word. I can do this, but you can see why I'd be thinking of just directing the student to some alternative to Canvas for this component of the class.

[dhulsey]

Hi, David! I am not sure that Canvas sees it as a work around though. Canvas favors openness and is aware that many instructors house content in services like Google and use external services (Like SoftChalk, Perusall, or Turnitin) for content delivery and assignments. The great thing about canvas is that it works so well with so many things, and instructors have many options. Even now, Canvas is working with Microsoft and Google on developing integrations.

Come to think of it, depending on the details of what you are wanting to accomplish, you might look at Perusall, which is a social annotation tool, and it does allow you to export the annotations into a .csv. With Perusall, you post a .pdf document, and you and the students highlight and annotate the document. All of the annotations can be exported into a .csv.

Another option might be to develop the FAQ in a Canvas Page instead of a discussion by allowing students to edit the page: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-3116 

There are many ways to do things in Canvas or to use an external tool inside of canvas to do them. I'm not sure what will work best for you, but I will do my best to help you find a good solution. 

For all of that, a way to export discussion posts quickly and cleanly would be nice. I want to run my discussions through Turnitin. 

[thayerm]

I like the idea of being able to run discussions through TurnItin or another plagiarism checker.

[dhulsey]

thayerm‌, for the time being, I copy and paste the entire discussion board into Turnitin's Quick Submit feature on their website. It is a bit messy, but it works.

[lawre393]

This feature is an absolute necessity! What is the status of adding it?  

[kona]

 @lawre393 , this feature idea is in the "Product radar" stage which means that Canvas "knows about it, understands the need, wants to build i..." Your best bet is to provide specific information on how and why this feature would be helpful to you and allow you to do things that aren't currently possible. This type of user case helps product managers understand the real importance of a feature idea and how it would be used.

[lawre393]

It's necessary because some of our courses enroll 100+ students, with graded assignments that entail posting to the discussion forum. So, there are a number of reasons why this is important, like being able to quickly download content. It's important that grabbing this content maintain the data associated with it (when comments have a threaded discussion, upvotes, etc). Screenshots are limiting, as is exporting the view as a PDF does not include the names of the students and scrambles the content.  Another thing that would be nice is if the regular assignment downloads included all media types. I will add that I've been part of a pilot for using Canvas (2+ years now) and exploring whether or not the University should switch to this LMS (versus keeping our current LMS). These features, as well as others, play into the feedback that we pass along in our surveys, especially for the ease if use relative to those large classes with an active online component.

[kona]

 @lawre393 , thank you for providing these specific examples on how this feature could really make a difference for you! I agree that for documentation purposes (which we sometimes need or is asked for by accreditors) being able to export discussion posts would be quite useful! Hopefully this feature will move forward and get implemented!