Users need to be able to customize notifications at the course level

As a user, I want to be able to keep frequent notifications enabled for courses that have high interaction, that I am more invested in, or I find important.  I want to be able to 'down-tune' or disable notifications for courses that have a lot of activity but not much interaction, courses that I am involved in as a staff member, or by my role in the institution involved in but not participating in so I do not receive notifications that I will end up ignoring and then also miss important notifications.

 

If the premise of Canvas Notifications is to keep me engaged in courses and informed about my courses, I need to be able to control that at a course level for it to be valuable to me and not just a 'firehose' of information.  If I cannot control it more granularity, I may turn all Notifications off and then miss something I actually did want to know about.

Note from the Community Team:https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/3663-notifications-by-course also requests this capability. We consider combined support for both ideas as part of our regular prioritization process.

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

For details, please read through the https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-18579-canvas-release-notes-2020-04-18 .

68 Comments
saekow
Community Novice

This is a urgently needed function. UC Berkeley has a canvas site that tracks equipment usage for a makerspace. When we create appointment groups for trainings, students are flooded with 100+ email notifications. Students don't need right away notifications for our course since we add appointment groups weekly. But they do need right away notifications for their other courses which only occasionally send out notices.

Please implement this as soon as possible.

lars_vemund_sol
Community Contributor

A couple of years into using Canvas, this is what i get asked most from users..

Lars

kgden
Community Novice

As an Instructor, I want to be able to make changes in my course without students being notified of every change.  I want to be nimble in a blended format course but my tweaks are unduly burdening my students' inboxes.  I know I can tell students to turn off certain notifications, but it would be better to do that myself.

rlawyer
Community Explorer

I find it interesting that Instructure employees are allowed to vote down user feature requests. This seems counterproductive to me.

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

 @rlawyer ‌, generally speaking, Instructure employees do not vote on feature ideas at all. Some time ago this platform experienced a glitch whereby phantom downvotes were being registered, and it’s possible you’re seeing the vestiges of that issue which has subsequently been resolved.

rafe_sholer
Community Explorer

Notification customisation happened on most platforms 10 years ago. Update Canvas. 

julia_wild
Community Novice

After a couple of years in Canvas, this is still far and away my most commonly received complaint/request from staff and students!

No one wants admin locking in choices for them, though - just give users the ability to decide which course notifications matter most to them.

Jeff_F
Community Coach
Community Coach

This has me thinking of creating a way for students to set a reminder notification to post their discussion response and the required # of replies.   Or perhaps there could be a check mark for students to opt in to receive a reminder notification of a pending due date for an assignment.  Or for that matter, a nudge for instructors who forgot to grade items after x days (a week?).  I suppose this is me thinking out loud but perhaps it is more.  

maccurdy
Community Novice

WOW Canvas, 5 years since your users requested this BADLY NEEDED feature and no action. FIX THIS PLEASE!

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
Comments from Instructure

This is now available on Canvas Beta. For more information, please read through the Canvas Release Notes (2020-04-18)