Permission for Observers - Uncouple Discussions and Announcements

[f5098c8e76d7c2c]

  This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

  Idea open for vote Wed. January 6, 2016 - Wed. April 6, 2016  Learn more about voting...

As a K-12 institution, when we were setting the parameters of the observer role for our parents, we were obliged to disable the ability to see discussions to protect our students' privacy.  Unfortunately, disabling discussions also prevents our parents from being able to see the announcements our teachers and counselors post.  Many of these announcements are meant to be seen by both students and parents.

An improvement would be uncoupling discussions and announcements within the permissions settings so that an institution can choose to disable/enable each feature individually as needed.

  Comment from Instructure

For more information, please read through the Canvas Production Release Notes (2016-03-12) .

[MattHanes]

Do you have any thoughts on the suggestion to allow observers to see discussions, but they would only be able to see the responses of the person they are observing?

[MattHanes]

Deactivated user​, I tried it out. As an observer, I was able to see the Announcements page and was unable to access the discussions. Fantastic!

However if another unobserved student comments on that announcement, the observer can see that comment which (to me) still has the same underlying privacy issue. I know that comments on announcements can be disabled, but I do not see that as the ideal solution.
Thanks for your work on this idea!

[KristinL]

Deactivated user​ I tried this too! It's really helpful to see View Announcements and View Discussions as two separate items in permissions. (HOORAY!)  @MattHanes ​, you bring up two really good points. While the update is wonderful, it would be interesting if observers could have the ability to their student's responses to discussions or if the comments on announcements could be disabled (across the board) at the account level.

[S9300807]

Thanks Allison.  This was a much needed feature in the K-12 world.  Keep improving this great product.

[LisaCasto]

We will look at it, Allison!  Love this!

[LisaCasto]

We will look at it! Love this!

[mgsmith]

Fantastic! Very happy with this.

[allison]

 @KristinL ​ and  @MattHanes ​: Thanks for testing out the new feature and sharing your feedback. We are aware the Announcements do not behave the same way as Discussions. In talking with several K12 school districts, we discovered that visibility into discussion comments was the most critical privacy concern and that with the checkbox you mentioned, teachers could disable comments on Announcements as a matter of policy. We will leave that decision up to teachers and district administrators for now.

That said, you are both welcome to create a new feature idea that specifically addresses visibility into assignment comments. We appreciate all of your feedback!

[Renee_Carney]

  This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

For more information, please read through the Canvas Production Release Notes (2016-03-12) .

[MattHanes]

To further this idea, I have created a new idea that will open for voting in April: