[Notifications] Discussion Notification: Activity that involves you

[cfair005]

Similar to how Facebook notifies you when someone replies to your specific post, I would like this feature in Canvas.

In nearly all of my classes, we are required to make postings and answer student replies. However, there is not a notification feature that indicates when a student has commented on your specific post. We only receive general notifications that a student in your class has commented or posted something. On Facebook, this is called: "Activity that involves you" : You'll always get notifications about activity that involves you, like when someone tags you in a photo or comments on your post.

Essentially, I want to know when someone has replied to my specific post so I can address them back.

Currently, the notification options for Discussions are far to general (attached below)

[jmk649]

This would seem like an essential feature and I am surprised that it is not.  Similarly, having a the ability to collapse students posts into their own threads, so it is not one long reply that a student has to scroll through to find their posts seems intuitive, but absent as well.  

Makes me really wonder if any of the developers at Canvas have ever taken online courses? 

[matthew_lebel]

This is something that is surprisingly lacking form Canvas. My school recently switched from another platform and the old one automatically notified you when someone posted something that stemmed directly from one of your posts on the discussion board. We used to have much more engaging and meaningful discussions but after switching to Canvas, they have fizzled out noticeably. 

The only way to see if someone replied to me is to scroll down the discussion and find my name which takes a long time. Then if I take the time to reply to them, they don't see my reply unless they do the same. The only other option for notifications is every single post; I did that for a week and ended up with an inbox full of individual emails, so that didn't work either. I'd really like to see this happen, it would really improve the student experience in discussions.

[kate_daversa]

I agree with everything that's been said so far.  For anyone who wants their students to engage with each other and have a real conversation about course materials, "replies to your post" notifications are ESSENTIAL.  There is no way around this.  Several instructors and students that I interact with through the professional development courses that I run on Canvas have expressed their annoyance/concern/surprise over this not being a core feature.  Please, if we can make this happen, students' learning experiences would be enriched tenfold.  

[denisjd]

This is a really important suggestion, and one I was also very surprised to find out Canvas didn't already have. As noted, discussions fizzle out and lead to nothing more than obligatory assignments, even when discussions are full of potential.

It is very disappointing to be assigned an interesting discussion topic, or have a chance to make new connections (especially helpful in enclosed online environments), only to remember that no one is going to bother searching for their specific topic response every day to see if someone replied to them. I definitely won't.

Until this feature is implemented, EVERY SINGLE discussion assignment boils down to meeting the minimum requirements to get full points, with disingenuous replies just to fulfill said requirements. It's an absolute squander of potential engagement.

[markchen]

For a few years, this is basically why my classes have been using Slack and not Canvas for online discussions.

[d00386959]

There is a collapse button in discussions that will allow you to collapse threads.  It is next to the search bar at the bottom of the instructions and looks like an up arrow with a box around it.

[d00386959]

I agree completely.  The best workaround I've found is to require students to start their replies with the name of the person they are addressing.  Then, you send a daily summary of discussion posts so you only get one email.  Then, you look for your name in that email to see if anyone replied to you.

[d00386959]

This feature would be a tremendous improvement!  The faculty I work with are always wanting their discussions to be more meaningful, but that can't happen unless students are seeing what's happening.  And the only way they can do that is to open the discussion itself and scroll through looking at every post.  Please, add this basic feature of discussion notifications to the dashboard!

*Interesting irony: I believe that if someone replies to this comment, that I will be notified by Canvas

[timothy_maw]

This would've been extremely nice as my time as a student! It really would've helped me find responses much quicker than I did. I know this would really help current students as well. 

[frichter1]

I totally agree with all here. I have several classes that each have a new discussion topic each week. Trying to figure out if someone has responded to one of my posts by going to each topic and scrolling through more than 300 posts is crazy... The platform is not adequate for the goal of collaboration and discussion. Please fix it!