Order Discussion Posts from Newest to Oldest

[canvas_admin]

Currently, the discussion posts are ordered from oldest to newest.  A student/professor has to scroll or go to the last page and then scroll to get to the latest post.

Canvas REALLY needs to re-order this so that newest discussion posts appear at the top of the first page so that it is easy to find current conversations.

This topic had 100+ likes in the old community and I was really surprised not to see it on here already (I searched for this using several different search terms).   I sure hope we don't have to go through and re-idea every single feature request that had at least 30 likes and was years old with no action or response from Instructure.

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

For more information, please read through the  Canvas Release Notes (2021-06-19).

[Stef_retired]

 @esommer ​, Peyton Craighill of the product team addressed the reasoning behind archiving this feature idea in his Response from Instructure, and I comment that post to your attention. Because this idea has received a comment from the product team indicating that it is already on the roadmap, it is not necessary to resubmit it.

[esommer]

?Thanks for letting me know! I look forward to discussion posts in a more flexible ordering interface.

-Ellie

Eleanor K. Sommer, M.Sc., Adjunct Lecturer

Center for Arts in Medicine

College of the Arts

Gainesville FL 32641

352.376.3114

[nicoledale15]

Flexibility with ordering the discussion posts is a no brainer - I certainly hope Canvas build this quickly.

[rrichards]

I'd like to see this feature.

[wolfe]

Just wanted to keep the feature idea alive even though other items have higher priority. Thanks!

[ronmarx]

I'm going to refresh this idea by posting a new one. Over the past year+plus, there have been numerous suggestions/comment/ideas for a sorting feature for posts within a discussion. Traditional GUI guidelines say that if a variable can be sorted one way, it should also be sorted inversely.

This would definitely apply to chronological/reverse-chrono, alpha/reverse-alpha. If Instructure wants to add bells and whistles, then additional variables could be added: favorites/likes, and special tagging.

I can't imagine why the basic sorting idea died on the vine, notwithstanding the above Comment from Peyton at Canvas on May 18. It's disconcerting why some kind of sorting function has not been integrated into Discussion posts, after such a long list of ideas, but to name a few:

Discussion post sorting by name

Sort by unread posts in discussion board

Discussions: view/sort all of a student's posts for all topics in one place

More Sorting Options in Discussions .

Allow sorting of discussion threads by multiple means

Order Discussion Posts from Newest to Oldest  

Allow all users to "view" groups discussion

Sorting Alphabetical Order and by time stamp in Discussions

Count/Sort by number of words in discussions

Discussion Posts Listed by Students Look for a new idea for Discussion Posts very soon!

Keeping the CanvasFire alive,

iRon_Mrx

[rachel-gatewood]

It would be really helpful to just have a check box for instructors to choose which order they want their stuff to show up. What if students have the same button that changes for their view but then reverts to the instructors settings / is only in their view of the course?

[david_tate]

This really would be a great option for those of us who need it. I have rolling enrollment and asynchronous learners and it is starting to get to the point where old comments are given far greater importance to newer comments. Some comments are quite old and it is incredibly unwieldy to have to scroll past all of them. Even when grading and interaction with our students I have to take several extra steps to get to the last page and then scroll down to the bottom to see the latest comments. It's getting to the point where I am trying to figure out a better solution that may be outside of Canvas. And I don't want to have to do this.

In addition, since there is no way to remove old comments when a student completes the course, they are there for eternity.

I have already had several students themselves request this feature, and I would like to see it get some better traction.

[Renee_Carney]

  Idea is currently in Product Radar Learn more about this stage...

[canvas_admin]

I did a related CanvasLIVE meet-up which was recorded.  Here's the link to the event for those who are interested:  The Challenges of Using Canvas Within Rolling Enrollment, Pt. 1 - Discussions

The link to the recorded video is in the 3rd comment on the event.