Discussions for Sections

[tnaylwar]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

I think that when a teacher creates a discussion for a course they should have the option for students to only view the replies for their particular section.

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-14759 .

Note, this is for ungraded Discussions.  Section assignment of graded discussions is handled through differentiating the assignment.

[chriscas]

If you make a graded discussion, the option to assign it to a particular section will appear.  You would have to make separate discussions for each section, but I *think* this is what you're looking for, right?

[tnaylwar]

Yes.  I don't want to have to create the discussion for every section that it is assigned to.  I want to be able to create it "once" for that course.

[chriscas]

While this seems like a simple idea to begin with, I think it may open up a can of worms (especially for teachers more than students).  Figuring out which student(s) are able to see which posts and received what info in this kind of setup could really become a nightmare.  Even in completely separate course shells, instructors get confused about which course/section said one thing in a discussion.  This could get even more sticky if your discussions ask the students to post new/unique content (since the teacher would likely see duppliacte content from different sections rolled up to one discussion).  I'd imagine at a minimum this would require some kind of filtering in the discussion (similar to gradebook) so a teacher could try to select a section to view.

At this point, I think this would cause more confusion even though it could simplify creating the discussions.  I won't vote against it, but I don't think I can be for it either.

[jenny_berelson]

I do have different sections (I monitor 12 rotations of students a year), however, you have to delete each reply separately so that the new section doesn't see previous comments.

[Renee_Carney]

Idea is currently in development

As part of the Khaki priority, Large Course: Sections/Groups, we’re excited to announce progress on this feature. Section-Specific Discussions is in development. We will post to this thread when we have more updates!

[redtom]

In the mean time, you can create a group set with students in each section in a separate group, and then make the discussion assignment a "group" discussion.

[clong]

You can do this now,

See Canvas Discussions by Sections 

[Renee_Carney]

Great workarounds, Chris!  Thank you for sharing this video!

[dawn1_james]

I hear your argument Christopher.  I too teach three sections of the same course and I want to be able to differentiated which block is in the discussion or hide other classes from the discussion without creating three copies of the same master canvas course.  I would however love this feature as I don't want to have to jump between three courses.  The group function may be my solution.  Blackboard has a great feature to sort by author as well as "tree" view the responses so you can see the discussion thread and time sequence they were delivered.  Looking forward to this feature being added and seeing if it does the justice.

[Renee_Carney]

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 Beta Release Notes (2018-06-11) .

Note, this is for ungraded Discussions.  Section assignment of graded discussions is handled through differentiating the assignment.