[Mobile - Canvas Student] Allow faculty to have a 'Mobile View' like 'Student View'

[vsenior]

Hello everyone!

I have been working with faculty to create mobile friendly content pages.  While most often pages will look okay on mobile devices, I often have to explain why some content such as tables are not properly formatted, etc is problematic when viewing on small screens.  Yes, yes.  They can log into a mobile devices separately, but It's simply not a quick easy thing for them to log in to a separate mobile device to check their work.  People might be more inclined to design mobile friendly pages if it were a toggle they could quickly click back and forth.  I know there are many browser plug-ins that people might use to check webpages proper, but it isn't the same, as easy or as accurate. 

I think it would be marvelous if there was a 'Mobile View' option just below or within 'Student View' . . . what do you all think?

[Stef_retired]

 @vsenior , instructors and course designers can already use their browser to view their courses as they would appear on a variety of mobile devices. Please have a look at  Verifying Mobile Friendly Web Content  with specific attention to the section called "Using Browser Developer Mode." Since I learned about this, I literally use it every single day, and not only for Canvas courses. 

We've put this idea into Moderating mode as we await your feedback on this solution.

[vsenior]

Hi Stephanie!

Thank you for posting the actual links to the tools that I mentioned (browser plug-ins and developer modes).  As a designer who lives in webpages and uses tools like these regularly, these things are definitely rather easy to do; however, I'm proposing a toggle within Canvas that would eliminate the need for instructors to learn yet another way to do something.  They simply would be more aware and more likely to check for mobile compatibility if it was a quick button built in rather than something they needed to go get.  :O)

[Stef_retired]

Thanks for your quick reply,  @vsenior  . The idea is open for voting.

We hope that as this idea goes forward for Community consideration, your instructors will take advantage in the meantime of the handy resource Verifying Mobile Friendly Web Content to preview their courses in mobile view. The words "developer mode" and "developer tools" can be daunting to some, yet they might be pleased to learn how easy this is to do, and that those device toggles are literally only two or three clicks away (in Chrome, at least). 

[ProfessorBeyrer]

Excellent idea and got my vote. You nailed it when you said "quick and easy." For many of us, our competence exceeds our comfort when it comes to using browser plug-ins. Being able to easily check the desktop and mobile student view within Canvas will enable us to spend our tinker time on teaching. Let's make closing this part of the loop as easy as possible.

[ronmarx]

An excellent idea because it reduces numerous technical issues that flow out of a single function to a single click to perform that function.  @ProfessorBeyrer ‌ has kept his finger on the pulse of the primary directive of what teachers do with the time in their day.

[a_craik]

LOVE THIS!

I'd like to take it one step further though - get Canvas to add in some clever UI functionality in the page edit screen for building with mobile in mind, so introducing divs and flexbox classes for making responsive designs easy (not just the domain of the HTML editor)!

My thinking is that non-coding teachers will still be frustrated (even if they can toggle between mobile and desktop views) because they'll be trying to make one page design that works for both mobile and desktop. As it stands, divs and flexbox classes can be very daunting for non-coding teachers, or just plain time consuming to learn about/play with for those that have more digital confidence.

[peter_hopkins]

Very good idea, I was going to request the same feature

[lepeskaj]

Yes please!  This feature would be really helpful when designing our courses!

[Steven_S]

It would be incredibly useful to know how the course looks to students on mobile devices!  I continually have students who are new to canvas, some of whom simply cannot figure out how to whatever the next due date requires.  Inevitably they are insisting on using a mobile device and as soon as their view does not exactly match my instructions they are lost.

[rachruss12]

Or preview across different device types- mobile, tablet, etc