[Modules] Stop Canvas Modules from Auto-Publishing All Content Inside a Module When a Module is Published

[khearn1]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

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My university is finding the fact that publishing a module auto-publishes all the content in it quite annoying.

I would like to be able to just publish a module and then choose what features of it that I wish to publish.

I know that I can set a limiter on when a student can actually see and interact with materials-but if a professor is uncertain about publishing certain content all at once, they have no options.

This has been asked about several times in the community-I snagged two of the best examples below.

Thank you all for your time and your vote!

[kmeeusen]

Actually,  @slynch3  , I greatly appreciate a company  that uses user feedback to improve a product to better meet the needs of those users; instead of just deciding everybody really does want pumpkin spice lattes, donuts, and body spray.

Feature ideas are just a small part of the decision-making process for Canvas changes. .You can learn more about the development process at What is the feature development process for Canvas?  

And, I am always happy to meet someone familiar with the  "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", so please don't forget your towel.

Kelley

[slynch3]

Respectfully, Kelley, fixing something that isn't working properly is not called product improvement, it's a repair and shouldn't be put up to a vote.

I'm all in favor of new-improved ideas coming from users. That is NOT the issue here, however.

[kmeeusen]

Ah, but it is working exactly as Canvas users asked it to work! Just because 60 users subsequently changed their mind or chimed in later does not make this a bug or a mistake.

[hasti]

 @slynch3  and  @kmeeusen  ,

It feels to me like Canvas changed in response to a relatively small number of users (the change predates my use of Canvas starting in 2015) at a time when Canvas was being used by smaller (mostly K-12?) schools with smaller classes and smaller Canvas courses. Now that Canvas is being used by large-enrollment classes, lots of colleges and universities, with more complex Canvas course needs, Canvas is reluctant to consider/revisit things that would make those users' Canvas experience better.

In my time of using Canvas I have to admit that I am hard pressed to think of ANY thing Canvas has fixed/added that made a noticeable improvement in my workflow (e.g., being able to add color overlays -- a voted upon idea that was implemented! -- takes 0 time off my Canvas tasks). On the other hand, being able to uniquely identify students in the same class with the same name in the SpeedGrader (a FERPA issue!), being able to only download a subset of the 500 submissions so each grader can get just the submissions they are grading, being able to use any kind of organizational structure within Pages to manage my many, many course pages, being able to deal with visibility and dates on anything other than on an item-by-item basis, being able to see the answer options I created in Canvas quizzes using Canvas authoring tools in my Canvas quiz analysis INSIDE Canvas, being able to get an accurate file preview for a PLAIN-TEXT file, ... all items that would help me (and many, many others) manage large-enrollment more complex Canvas courses (but not too complex for D2L) ... all those have to be "Feature requests" that are put to a vote AND even when they are the most popular item, year after year, nothing is done to address them?

[hasti]

Out of curiosity, was the request really for the following functionality:

• when a Module is published, everything inside the module is automatically published (regardless of its previous status), but
• when a module is unpublished, the published/unpublished status of items inside the module is left unchanged

???

Because that seems like an odd request -- either something IS a toggle or it ISN'T, not it toggles in one direction but only kinda does in the other... I expect my light switch to turn on both the light bulbs in the kitchen light with I flip it up and turn off both of them with I flip it down, not leave one of them on and one off.

[kmeeusen]

This is a really fun conversation,  @hasti  , and I honestly mean that!

Prior to 2015, Canvas was primarily used in Higher Education, and in fact, its first user was Utah State University.  Even though Canvas started targeting the K-12 market in 2013, it did not gain much traction until after 2015. As a person who has attended most InstCons, I did not start seeing large numbers of K-12 users until InstCon '16, and their participation exploded at instCon '17.

Kelley

[hasti]

Thanks for the info,  @kmeeusen  !

[slynch3]

Yes, I'm also interested in knowing the wording of the "feature idea" you speak of, Kelley; the one that had large numbers voting for it. I have similar questions to Beck's and a few others, namely,

—When was this "feature idea" up for a vote? 
—What were the arguments in favor of overriding "unpublish" commands in a module as soon as that module becomes published?
—How many users voted for it? 
—And when were the changes implemented?

[slynch3]

I can't agree that the issue we're discussing in this forum is simply a matter of preference. If, prior to publishing a module, selecting the "unpublish" button has no efficacy, then the program shouldn't allow this as an option.

If publishing a module overrides the functionality of the "unpublish" button in that module, it is a design flaw, plain and simple.

[fmarchetti]

On Fri, 13 Sep 2019 04:23:47 +0000