[Discussions] Thread Discussions

[nesterd]

Problem statement:

In discussions, instructors often require a student to 1. Post a reply or a draft; 2. Students then respond or comment; 3. Other students respond or reply to their peers. Canvas does not allow this to happen in the case of any non-text comment. When an enduser clicks "Quote" (really it should say "Reply" with an option to quote) on a video or audio post, the response is then dumped to the bottom of the discussion with no indication at all that the comment was in fact a quote/reply to another post. The only workaround is to manually @ the OP or reply author. If Reddit and Facebook and every other discussion board post 1999 can do it, then so should Canvas.

Proposed solution:

Canvas Discussions should allow nested replies for all post types, with a clear breadcrumb "in reply to" indication, at least 3 deep, for all types of comments, and not just text.

User role(s):

instructor,designer

[nesterd]

One Canvas response: 

The nested replies within the reply thread could cause potential problems in how it is displayed if additional nesting is shown within the window. But it should still indicate what post you are quoting or replying to. After reaching out to my team, they indicate that it is currently behaving as intended. The quote feature seems to only support quoting text.

There seems to be a fundamental confusion between "Quote" and "Reply" here. I don't necessarily want my students to include the video or audio they are replying to in a discussion, but they should at least be able to respond and have that exchange be clear to other discussion members.

[KristinL]

Hi @nesterd -

Are you using Discussions or the Discussions Redesigns? There are some great improvements available in Discussion Resdesign that may address the threaded conversations you described in your idea.

Canvas Release: Discussions/Announcements Redesign 

How do I use Discussions Redesign as a student? 

How do I reply to a discussion in Discussions Redesign as a student? 

After looking at the Discussions Redesign information, let the Community know if that would work for you. If not, what added functionality would need to be added to meet your needs?

[KristinL]

Hi! I hope you are doing well.

Have you been able toe explore Discussions Redsigns? If you are unable to provide an update regarding this idea by June 14, we will need to archive it to help the Community Team focus on current Ideas. If you need more time, that's okay too! Providing an update before that time would be helpful and appreciated.