[Discussions] Multiple Due Dates (checkpoints) for Discussions

[chriswhite]

This idea has been developed and is On Canvas Beta •  How do I access the Canvas beta environment?

For more information, please read through the Canvas Release Notes (2025-01-18) 

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With the way that many schools set up forum discussions and require "check-ins" to the forum throughout the week, it would be great if we could include multiple due dates in the discussion activities. For instance, I have classes that require everyone respond to the prompt by Thursday night and respond to at least 2 peers by the following Sunday. Being able to remind students that they have responses due, especially if we could scatter responses over multiple days, would likely increase participation.

[jordan]

Hello  @chriswhite ​ I also did a search and did not see a similar request so your idea will go to vote in the next voting cohort on June 3rd. Thank you for posting this and sharing a practical example to validate your need for this functionality!

[G_Petruzella]

 @chriswhite ​ - YES! Thank you for making this feature request - for "process" items like Discussions, it absolutely makes sense to have multiple checkpoints as part of the structure. Can't wait to upvote this on June 3rd.

[SHEBENE]

Commenting so I see it change status so I can upvote it too. This was brought up in the old community but wasn't posted yet here. Good work!

[vkl86]

Deactivated user​

No, this has been requested for YEARS now.  It is just that when y'all moved to the new "Ask the Community" recently, many of these threads disappeared.  There were several people who asked for multiple due dates for discussions, and more than one thread with dozens of replies and requests. 

I am glad that it is finally going up for a vote, but why has it taken so long?  Looking forward to voting for it.  Canvas can not serve as a true LMS without this functionality.

[kmeeusen]

Thank you for putting this out there Chris!

I had requested this feature ages ago in the old system and it never gained traction.

This is a pedagogical best-practice for discussions, and yet no LMS offers this functionality. This is a real opportunity for Canvas to be a trend-setter yet again, and I personally would greatly appreciate it.

Kelley

[SHEBENE]

I believe Deactivated user was expressing that it wasn't currently a feature topic here in the new community.

I am looking forward to this happening, it was on the short list for features when several people met with Canvas to try and decide how they could best spend their development dollars. It was very popular but ultimately a few big items beat it out for first development. I am certain, since Canvas listed it in their top 23 trending feature requests, that this will get made, it's just a matter of when.

[jordan]

As SHEBENE​  mentioned I was responding to the comment from the OP  @chriswhite ​ that I did not see anyone add this feature idea into this new community.

Thank you for chiming in on this thread vkl86 and reiterating how important this is to you and the others who contributed in our old community. You are absolutely correct that there was a lot of great discussion about this feature idea in the old forums. It will likely garner similar attention and popularity in these new forums. Everyone has been encouraged to migrate any/all of their old ideas into the new community and I encourage you, and others to copy/paste any of the great ideas shared in that old thread, into this thread - Multiple Due Dates for Discussion Posts : Help Center

We are confident that we have a much better process to manage the great feature ideas that you and others provide to us, which is one of the reasons we have moved to this new community. Please be sure to come back on June 3rd to vote up this feature request. Thanks for your patience as we've been going through this transition.

[KAilsa_Rowan]

We frequently ask students to post to the same discussion at multiple times during the week, so this would really help, especially if there were a way to auto-grade based on whether a student posted by the first due date/second due date.

[kona]

Yes, yes, yes!! I've heard from faculty again and again how much they would like this feature and now I'm teaching this semester and would love to have this ability. For right now I'm using a non-graded assignment with a due date as the reminder for students to do their initial discussion post. This was time consuming - to make a reminder assignment for every discussion I have - and makes the Assignment page look cluttered.

[cms_hickss]

And maybe adding new settings (checkboxes) for a Discussion which should include something like

• Students are required to create a post
  • Post is Graded
  • Due Date
• Students are required to reply to another student's post
  • Post is Graded
  • Due Date