[Inbox] Add rich-content editor to Conversations

[seth]

As a user, I would like to be able to use the rich-content editor to compose messages in the Conversations inbox. This would enable me to create Conversations that are on par, formatting- and content-wise, with Announcements. (Students seem to read Conversations messages more diligently than Announcements.)

transferred from the old Community

Originally posted by: Mia Nolan

Special thanks for contributions by: Stefanie Sanders

[lshulman]

Yes, please add a rich text content editor to the "inbox" emails.

I like to bold, italic, bullet point and/or highlight important information to assure that students see essential points in "reminder" emails. Things like "warning: falling behind" or "avoid being withdrawn" by such and such date, a list of multiple overdue assignments, etc.

[ericksbr]

It looks like this conversation has been ongoing for many years, so it is unlikely that my addition will make any difference. Nevertheless, I've voted up this feature and would love to see some level of rich text editing and the ability to do what every other text-editing field in Canvas lets me do (attach, embed, link to other Canvas pages, etc.) and what this comment box largely lets me do. I posted the following today, and was re-directed to post here:

I must say that the Inbox feature within Canvas is extremely frustrating. I try to encourage students to communicate directly with me via this feature, as I've been instructed to do by my University, but the lack of options is a major limitation. The lack of any rich text editing features, from bolding to bulleting, makes it a lot less useful. Additionally, there have been several times where I recorded a set of instructions or feedback to a student in Kaltura, uploaded this video to My Media, and then been unable to embed this into the Inbox message because this is not available in the Inbox. The available video recording feature does not allow me to share my screen, which is essential for teaching students to navigate Canvas. Additionally, I am trying to model the use of Kaltura, a built-in app, for submitting media recording in my course. It would be much easier for me to use Screencast-o-Matic, and ultimately that is what I'll do because Canvas is not meeting my needs. 

After reading the additional history (above conservation) behind the messaging feature, it sounds like the Inbox is a Frankenstein's monster of sorts. It was not meant to be full-text communication, but because you gave us a taste we wanted more features, and you've added some piecemeal. Schools tell teachers to use the communication features in Canvas for security and transparency, but Canvas tells us to not use their communication features and instead use our email outside of Canvas.

My final comment is that if you don't intend to address a suggestion for improvement, why do you let us continue to comment on it? Are you really considering listening to this request five years in? Haven't the comments above already largely said, "no, we will not do this"? It is a bit insulting to spend half an hour with support trying to solve my issue, then go through the process of filing a suggestion only to realize that I was eventually redirected to a conversation that is largely dead.

[christopher_ca1]

Yes adding in "Rich Text Editor" - in conversations, in Speedgrader Comments - throughout Canvas - seems so obviously important for any communications with Students - I've upvoted this for several years: Canvas, we are calling out to you to help make this better for everyone.

[rebecca_asker]

Upvoting this! Plenty of the teachers at our school want this feature and it's disheartening to see that it has been requested since 2015. 

[cmuir]

Yes to having the editor available in all tools for communication with students.  I teach math - having the equation editor available to me and the students everywhere is important for making Canvas a functional space.

[jknox1]

Today, I tried to send out an email to my class with a few things to think about. I wanted to number the items so it was clear. Unfortunately, my list was sloppy as numbered bullet points were not available. It seems pretty easy to add this as an option (as it is in this discussion). 

• Rich-content would be easy to code as it could  pretty much be copied from this page.
• Emailing the class could have move impact with improved readability. 
• Bullet points like this could be added to emails. 

[adbouguen]

for conversation but for emails to (inbox). We need to be able to send detailled emails to our students.

[pmacknamara]

This is desperately needed - I can embed an image in this comment but I can't when I respond to a student's question. Come on! This has got to be a high priority.

[nander55]

Yes!  RCE needs to be part of Conversations and any message sent to or from the Inbox needs to accept RCE text.

I have been attempting to answer student questions from sent through my Canvas Inbox to my email (so I can file student conversations and have a signature...) only to find out that the superscripts and symbols I have been sending to help solve problems weren't arriving in the students' Inboxes. 

If this is designed to have conversations (to be different from email as I have been told by designers), make this able to handle an academic conversation with RCE.

[lfischer]

This is a major pain-point for me. The ability to bold and hyperlink are what I care about most (don't need multimedia tools).