[Speedgrader] Rich Text Editor in Speedgrader Comments

[CommunityTeam]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas LMS

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Add the Rich Text Editor to the Comments section of Speedgrader.

"I want to recommend books, etc., or to properly format foreign words, and so on, and want to set the example, of course, of doing so properly.  Thank you"

"Instructors have told me they'd like formatting (bold, italic, colors) in the comment boxes in order to emphasize a statement without typing all caps (which seems like they're yelling at the students)."

"As an instructor in a virtual classroom I need to be able to make my communication with students richer to better get my points across.  Add rich text capabilities and allow me to make the Comment boxes larger while you are at it."

Transferred from the old Community

Originally Posted By: Joshua Shannon
Special thanks for contributions by: Teri Portman, Albert Turner

[mkeck]

I would love to provide feedback and have conversations with students in more engaging ways in the SpeedGrader comments tool. Right now, it looks like this: 

But imagine if I could embed a gif, Bitmoji, or some other media-rich response to students. That would be an amazing feedback tool! Even the simple act of providing a screenshot of something I am talking about with the student would be far more helpful embedded than attached via a link. 

[rjhaacke]

I came here to search for the answer to this question. Apparently its been up for debate since 2015, yet canvas has not added the capability to put your bitmoji in the comments. Please add this. We need to catch our kids attention and let them know they are doing a great job

[nathan_franck]

Yes, I would love to be able to use bitmojis for feedback on assignments.

[smo2]

This feature is long overdue for being present in Canvas feedback. For those that know how to build web applications, allowing a rich content editor control in a text entry interface is really simple. 

It is simply impossible to show students things like APA references in the proper format without using workarounds like screenshots or document attachments. 

Canvas, please catch up to the other LMS vendors and make this feature live. 

[poppet]

Yes we need a RTE in SpeedGrader.

Even though you appear to have an impressive voting system that I used to join with, I am afraid to say that some of the important requirements don't seem to implemented.

[alimmer]

The lack of a RTE in speedgrader is really disappointing. I work with five high enrollment online courses that focus on student wellness. We value creating providing courses that meet WCAG 2.2 standards. In addition, a large part of our assignment feedback is sharing wellness-related resources, which include many urls. Not being able to include hyperlinked urls not only is problematic from an accessibility standpoint, it decreases the likelihood that students will quickly access much needed resources that address suggested wellness needs.

With the roll out of the RTE in many other features in Canvas, this seems like a major oversight.

[ewest]

I definitely agree that this would be a fantastic addition to Canvas. Our instructors have asked for this functionality on several occasions. The ability to add formatted feedback with embedded images, videos, files, and LTI tools would be powerful, and help instructors deliver more robust, interactive feedback to students, especially as institutions respond to COVID-19.

[mjennings]

Just to throw another hat into the ring. Having some basic ability to format text in the markup comments would be extremely helpful for my instructors. Often they are grading papers that have specific  formatting requirements (APA style) and it would super helpful for them to be able to *show* how the student should format a reference properly.

 Please consider adding at least some basic formatting. 

Here are a couple of mock-ups.

[kyh802]

Part of what we grade on is whether students are formatting according to the correct style guidelines (e.g. MLA, APA, etc.). Because the feedback comments and annotations in speedgrader don't allow italicization, students get confused when we don't follow those guidelines in our feedback to them. It would be great to be able to italicize, or if putting the html for it would make the terms italicize when we hit "submit" or enter.