[Discussions] Grading Discussion in the Discussion Stream

[lmielke]

I often use the Discussion feature as a Do Now activity for students in my classes. I try and reward students with points for participating in the discussions daily. Sometime going through the Speedgrader to grade these can be a longer process than what is necessary. I think if we could somehow include a grading box right along in the student stream where they post, it would be much easier to read replies, ensure student understanding, as well as saving time to grade students 1 by 1.

[danag]

My related request to add to the possibilities:

In Speed Grader, I'd like a simple way to connect a discussion post with its thread. For example, right now it says "from [name of the discussion forum]". Would it be possible to add a "Jane Doe's thread" to that tag with a link to just the thread?

[huic]

I like this idea of being able to 1) grade individual posts, and 2) grade posts right there within the full discussion thread.

I've also just submitted an idea to improve discussion SpeedGrader by adding the ability to expand on the discussion thread. https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/13377-speedgrader-show-discussion-thread?sr=search&searchId=9c...‌ What do you all think?

[jeremy_bowling]

I am adding to the thread to state that I would like to...

• individually grade each post based on a rubric
• grade the posts in/as a thread
• have a different value for the starting posts and replies
  • I give students more points for the original post and less points for replies to other students' posts.

In order to grade my discussion forums, I have to read the thread and grade in excel.  Then I have to go into speedgrader to put the grades in the rubric.  It is very time consuming to find each student out of a list of 60+ in excel to grade their replies when I should be able to grade each post in the original forum as I read them.

[erin_cox]

I think this is a more reasonable feature idea to start with. Most grading happens in speedgrader already anyways. And it seems a LOT easier to just expand the speedgrader view than it does to build an entire grading system/implement speedgrader functionality in a new area of Canvas. 

[jeannesamuel]

I like this suggestion as well. I prefer to use the SpeedGrader to review discussions. I can write personal or public content comments. I wish I could then click a checkbox to say make public that would enter my comment as a REPLY to the discussion. But, this suggestion would be a good solution. 

[mwolfenstein]

I actually came here to suggest this idea and found  @laurenbrown2014 ‌'s idea instead. I could see either, or ideally both, of these working. From my perspective, if I have a graded discussion I'd specifically like that to be my first pass responding to my students and to be able to offer them a public response in addition to a potential private comment. Honestly though, the discussions generally need so much work that even though I came here to recommend this, it's far from the highest priority.

[garichard]

Not being able to grade within the discussion thread is very frustrating. In speed grader, you can't see the post that students are replying to. I want to support group discussions, but the grading process makes it miserable. 

[garichard]

There's a separate voting on the idea of having two grading options for discussion posts and replies. I've been using excel also. It's really not efficient. 

[slh73]

I am continually amazed that this basic feature is still missing. Grading for participation in discussions is overly complicated and time-consuming for instructors - 4 years later, and we still can't do it!

[john-lavalle]

It would save so much time If we could grade and comment on the public DB at the same time like they do in Blackboard.