[Modules] Provide students with option to pin or bookmark a page in a module

[jlg65]

Students need a way to pin (or perhaps bookmark) where they are leaving off in a module so they can quickly return to that location on subsequent login.

This previously posted idea Bookmark is interesting and would seem to me to be beneficial if it could be incorporated into a solution as well. I see value in the added benefit of being able to bookmark pages you wish to return to for any reason.

There is a bookmark option in the Android Mobile App How do I bookmark content in the Canvas app on my Android device? I see benefit in applying this concept to all versions of Canvas.

Please note that I am identifying a problem but am not suggesting a specific solution. I trust the Product Management team will determine the best manner to implement a solution to the problem. I think it would be interesting for others to comment with recommendations of how this might look in the product.

[laurakgibbs]

Meanwhile, I am glad to say that unlike other LMSes (my school just moved from D2L), things in Canvas have real URLs that are bookmarkable with any bookmarking tool. Any page of content or other course item can be easily bookmarked just like any other webpage.

In fact, you might really be doing your students a big favor to just teach them how to bookmark webpages in general. I was astonished to learn that many of my students (most of them college seniors) did not know how to use browser bookmarks: they reported just searching for things every time, or having a giant Word document (OMG!) where they would paste in the links they wanted to save. One student recounted how she would leave all browser tabs open until she was done because she was afraid she could never get back to them, so she was very glad to learn how to use bookmarks. 

So..... after learning about that, I now make it a point to be explicit with students about the value of bookmarking. I also encourage them to give Diigo a try, but usually they are happy just with learning how to use bookmarks in their browser and organize those bookmarks into folders. Here are the tips I share with my students:

Online Course Wiki / Bookmarks 

Teaching students to do things with real web-based tools has a value far beyond the LMS. Digital literacy is made up of these small things... and they add up.

[ericwerth]

I agree about the real URLs in Canvas.  I hadn't thought about bookmarking but will add this to our student Canvas orientation when we cover tabbed browsing.  I wouldn't be surprised to find out that students know how to bookmark items on their cell phone much more than a regular desktop/laptop computer, but it may be worth mentioning mobile devices in training as well.

[kelsey_engelbra]

Our students are asking for this and it would be a super feature to have and/or simply to have progress in a course denoted when you log back in. Thank you!

[canvas-admins]

I feel like I'm missing something. I'm not sure why regular ol' browser bookmarks don't answer this need.

[sharmen_ibrahim]

I can see that there is more than 100 votes for this. Is this going to the production stage? I think it is very important to have this feature available to students. 

[ruel]

As a student who does know how to use and manage browser bookmarks, it might be helpful to have a bookmark feature within canvas itself because not all browsers sync bookmarks well across devices. If you are worried about students who don't know how to even make a bookmark, I don't know if expecting them to know how to sync and manage bookmarks at that level of complexity is realistic. If the bookmark were done within canvas itself, then I could easily pick up on my phone, my computer, my work desktop, etc. no matter which operating system/browser I'm using. 

Also, who wants 400 new browser bookmarks to manage when you forget to delete your "last page" bookmark and later can't remember why you bookmarked it in the first place? 

[stacy_rockhold]

I think this feature should be added. Every other online course I have taken has this key feature to allow for you to be able to easily navigate to your previous "page", if you will, once logging off and logging back on. It would greatly simplify the process of figuring out where in the module you left off once logging out. Yes, you can "bookmark" the page on your PC browser, but if I log in onto my phone or Ipad it will not be bookmarked. Please consider adding this feature. I noticed this idea was initially submitted in 2016. That's 3 years..... can we please see some progress or have an update as to when this might be implemented?

#bookmarking‌

[djs1077]

   I think this bookmark idea would be AWESOME to have in the "courses" section of Canvas.  It's annoying having to scroll down the list of modules trying to find the item you need to click.  It would be great to have bookmarks to click that navigate you to the spot.

   I think the best way for this feature to work would be that a person can do two things:  1) they can make as many bookmarks they want, and label them accordingly.  2) they can set one of the bookmarks as the default one that canvas will automatically scroll to.  I think their should also be a "back to beginning" button, so the student can get back to the beginning easily.

   How should the user select where the bookmark is placed?  I think they should be able to click an "add" button, and then scroll through the page and click on one of the items in the module list.  There should be some sort of tag next to that item with the name of the bookmark, so the user knows that they've bookmarked that item.

   Another feature that would be great is if there were a list of bookmarks you have for that page, and then you could click the bookmark you want, and canvas automatically scrolls you down to that bookmark.

   Please let me know what you think of this idea!

[gauthier_alan]

This idea about bookmarks and bookmarking is a good one.

Our school encourages instructors to use Canvas to present content and assignments in an linear fashion via the page modules. Much of this content does involve reading, as well as embedded videos. Canvas is also designed to be used, and is used, in a non-linear way: Students might attend to a discussion, re-read an announcement, check a grade, use the in-box feature, and THEN attempt to return the last Module page read.

(1) So how does a student quickly return to the module page he/she left off at when in the midst of reading a module - perhaps a day or two prior?

(2) Also, how does a student quickly return to the module page just read moments ago - after he or she has attended to one of the other Canvas features like discussions, announcements, etc...?

Now the work-around I use is what many instructors probably do: I open up a second instance of Canvas in another tab. This, however, addresses only issue #2 above, and not issue #1, and it is a work-around (requiring additional computer skills and management/conscientiousness); it is not a simple Canvas feature - which it should be (think "Kindle" bookmark).

How difficult could it possibly be to create a Bookmarking feature? Call it Pinning, Starring, Favorit-ing, Flagging if you want - the technology has been in wide use for years.

There could be one "hard" bookmark. The student can mark any module page. Once the student reads ahead and marks another page, the previous marked page is unmarked.

Don't we want students to quickly be able to return where they have left off?

[ericwerth]

Hi  @gauthier_alan   I appreciate your points above and have voted up the idea as well.  I'm not sure that this would be an easy fix considering the amount of code involved and all the other projects probably on the list for developers, but I do believe this is a good feature.  It may need to function differently for mobile devices considering how the app works, and it is interesting to think how a feature like this would function considering the large number of ways instructors set up course navigation, but when I consider the feature I would like to see is, when a student clicks on the Modules tab, they are directed to the tab where they set up a bookmark and what they bookmarked is noted somewhere.  Have you considered using module requirements so students can see what has been checked off and what has not (see How do I add requirements to a module?).  This doesn't change the need for a bookmark feature but may help until one is developed.

All the best!