Delayed Announcements Showing Created Date

[KM1543]

I just talked to Canvas about the issue of students seeing two timestamps in a delayed course announcement. The first being the stamp when the announcement was created, and the second "Edited" timestamp showing when the announcement was released.

Canvas Support says that with this new version there is no way to hide the first date, aka. the "created" date from the students. This change does away with the entire point of delaying the announcement in the first place, since students can see when the announcement was created. I am not sure why the coders decided to code an announcement release as an edited action, rather than part of the original action of creating an announcement, and Canvas Support agreed that it was an odd choice on their part.

Canvas Support suggested that we encourage as many teachers as possible to use this platform to request this to change in future updates.

[TamasBalogh · Accepted solution]

Hi @KM1543 and all,

There is another thread on this issue where I commented that we fixed the issue and it will be included in the next beta deploy and the production deploy after that. You can see more information in my reply on the other thread or in the deploy notes which will be published on October 11th. 

[Chris_Hofer]

@KM1543 ...

Thank you for posting this.  Since this sounds more like a request to change functionality of Canvas, you'd want to submit this in the Ideas and Themes space here in the Community.  Here are some Guides for you to look though on how to submit a new Idea:

Instructure Community Guide - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

(See the Ideas and Themes section in the above link.)

Hope this helps!!!

[reenie_arnold]

Is/are there any means of removing the multiple dates string for Announcements?

For online courses, many instructors rely HEAVILY on the Announcements feature for informing/updating/assisting students with reminders/updates for courses-- especially if there changes (for example, providing an extension to all enrolled.

They are seeing the created, posted, and edits like this:

Created Mar 5 1:15pm| Posted Mar 5 1:15pm| Last edited Mar 6 9:23am

for example, when I update/apply an addendum. IF I do this on a Friday evening for an assignment due the following week, this string of dates is/are confusing students, especially if they choose to be notified via email/Canvas Inbox when it comes to the Announcements feature.

If not, what is the best method for creating a pre-scheduled announcement that might need an edit? Should I delete it and re-post? Schedule the Announcement on the date it is due?
I wish the Created/Last edited feature could just be removed, and just keep the original date-- no matter how many times it needs to be edited, as it's become panic-inducing for students, and waste of time trying to answer individual Canvas Inbox messages explaining to just use the Calendar, To-Do List, Modules, and Grades to track deadlines. I would not like to lose the Announcement feature, but this becoming confusing for both instructors and students. 

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you so much!

[lshulman]

When I edit an announcement and go to click save, I get an option to "save and send" (via email) or "save without sending". If the announcement was already displayed and emailed, I "save without sending" any later edits. 

[KM1543]

Hi Chris,

Yes, I have submitted it in the Ideas and Themes space, but wanted to also post about the issue here in case other teachers are running into this situation and are looking for answers. Thank you for your response!

[arbobk]

Hi @KM1543 , I noticed you did post in the thread earlier https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Question-Forum/Announcements-showing-wrong-date-and-time-w...

Just wanted to note it down as this has been an issue since Canvas most recent updates. Hoping for a fix soon...

[MatthewKing]

I agree, this defeats the purpose of creating the announcements far in advance since now students will see that I was either planning way ahead making the posts months in advance or generally being nit-picky with having them publish at a specific time. Especially since students only see the most recent "edit" (i.e., the delayed posting), they may see the announcement was created months ago, I may have rephrased things many times, but they only see the original creation date and the release date. Now I feel like I have to be at the computer, ready to publish them at exactly the right time every time, or at least consistently creating them around the same time the night before they go live. It really adds a lot of pressure to my workflow. Not a fan at all. Seems to me like it should be a quick fix for Canvas to revert this particular setting, or at least make it optional. 

[reenie_arnold]

Thank you! I have to literally get up at 5:00 a.m., just to "post" an announcement I created the night before. Many MANY students assume an edit date is the "created" date, and are VERY confused. The edit date should be done away with. 

[SuzieW]

I agree and have heard from several faculty who are not happy about initial posting and edited dates being visible to students. Students to not need to see the date an announcement was "created".

[reenie_arnold]

When so many dates are available to students, they make assumptions, such as I am available on a Sunday, or after 5:00 p.m. I can no longer note: "this assignment is pre-created; your instructor is not available", etc. They know I am not telling the truth. In all seriousness, this is a boundaries/privacy issue-- my students do not need to know I was up at 3:00 a.m. getting any work done!

[smasongarrison]

This issue is major problem! Please fix it, showing edited dates and initial dates defeat the purpose of scheduling announcements in advance.

[TamasBalogh · Accepted solution]

Hi @KM1543 and all,

There is another thread on this issue where I commented that we fixed the issue and it will be included in the next beta deploy and the production deploy after that. You can see more information in my reply on the other thread or in the deploy notes which will be published on October 11th. 

[reenie_arnold]

Hello,

Are they fixing this issue? The created and edited dates are still available to students, and is affecting their To-Do lists, and confusing them. Plus, they do not need to see any instructor activity after 5:00 p.m. Thank you.

[TamasBalogh]

Hi @reenie_arnold, the fix has been deployed and should work now. Can you please reach out to support with some details as your students shouldn't experience the issue? 

[reenie_arnold]

No, the issue is still present; they can see "Created" and "Edited", when before: they only saw the date and time it is scheduled for their viewing. They are assuming I am available on Sunday nights, and they are still confused by seeing the "edited date", thinking that's the date they need to "count from" when the announcement was posted. 😞

The only date/time students should be able to see the date/time it is scheduled to publish, and regardless if we need to edit later (no "edit" date). I cannot upload an image (no permission). 

Thank you,
Reenie

[lshulman]

I agree, a DELAYED announcement should NOT show the "created date" but should show the "posted" date AND any LATER "edited" date.

If an announcement is UPDATED AFTER students have seen it, they do need to know that there has been a change to it so that will look for the updated info.

[Shar · Accepted solution]

Hi @reenie_arnold,

Are you confirming the issue is present by looking at student view? For example, here's my student view for an announcement from last week 🤓:

Student view of announcement

And here is the same announcement from my teacher view. I specifically chose an announcement that I edited BEFORE it was posted. The Teacher view will always show Created, posted, and edited (if needed) dates. 😎

Teacher view of announcement

And I definitely agree with @lshulman, in that the announcement should show edit date if it was EDITED AFTER it was posted, just like discussion posts show they have been edited.

Or are you referring to something else not announcements because you previously mentioned the To Do lists. 🤔

Satisfied with my teacher view of announcements,
Cheers - Shar ⭐

[lshulman]

Thanks for reminding us to check the "student view" of the announcements. I neglected to do that before. But I did it now and you are correct: the STUDENT view does NOT show "created date" - just the "posted" and (if applicable) "last edited" date. 

This is how is SHOULD display.

[TamasBalogh]

Thanks @Shar for the explanation!

@reenie_arnold seems it works for others. Are you sure you were checking the announcement in student view?

[reenie_arnold]

Yes. It shows

1) When created
2) When updated
3) If updated again

My students are extremely confused; if I let them know to "see X date Announcement" they are seeing all these dates and think that the edited date is the "date that the announcement was posted.

And frankly, it's an invasion of instructor privacy. My students do NOT need to know that I am "up" on a Sunday evening at 10:00 p.m. posting announcements scheduled for 6:00 a.m. on Monday.

This is a new feature, and many of us instructors want this new "edited date and time" feature eradicated. 

[reenie_arnold]

Or, an option. I have to keep creating an announcement during regular work hours. Then I see a mistake, edit it, and they see the new date. I am now relegated to deleting the entire announcement and sitting around for that time to arrive, to appear as if I am only available 9-5. 😞

[Shar]

Hi @reenie_arnold 

It sounds like your institution's Canvas may have some conflicting CSS/JS or another feature that is turned on (Discussion checkpoints maybe) if you are seeing an edit date for edits that happen BEFORE the announcement was posted. However, a screenshot would be better for us to see what you are seeing.

Here is an example where I just edited an announcement from my current class. As an instructor, we can see Created, Posted, Last edited. 

Teacher view of edited announcement

The created date information DOES NOT show in Student View - only Posted and Last edited. 

Student view of edited announcement

And yes, both teacher and student will see the last edited date as the posted date on the Announcements page index.

Edited announcement posted date

Meanwhile, I think it's easier to refer to each announcement by the title rather than posted date as the title is more prominent.

Let us know if your institution has Discussion Checkpoints turned on if Student view is showing Created date,
Cheers - Shar ⭐

[reenie_arnold]

I am unsure who to contact, for this issue (I am seeing this issue n Student View):

Is/are there any means of removing the multiple dates string for Announcements?

For online courses, many instructors rely HEAVILY on the Announcements feature for informing/updating/assisting students with reminders/updates for courses-- especially if there changes (for example, providing an extension to all enrolled.

They are seeing the created, posted, and edits in a string like this:

Created Mar 5 1:15pm| Posted Mar 5 1:15pm| Last edited Mar 6 9:23am

for example, when I update/apply an addendum. IF I do this on a Friday evening for an assignment due the following week, this string of dates is/are confusing students, especially if they choose to be notified via email/Canvas Inbox when it comes to the Announcements feature.

If not, what is the best method for creating a pre-scheduled announcement that might need an edit? Should I delete it and re-post? Schedule the Announcement on the date it is due?

I sincerely hope the Created/Last edited feature could just be removed, and just keep the original date-- no matter how many times it needs to be edited, as it's become panic-inducing for students, and waste of time trying to answer individual Canvas Inbox messages explaining to just use the Calendar, To-Do List, Modules, and Grades to track deadlines. I would not like to lose the Announcement feature, but this becoming confusing for both instructors and students. 

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you so much!

[reenie_arnold]

My students can see all of them.

[Shar]

Hi again @reenie_arnold ,

I'm sorry you're still frustrated with the announcements issue. It would really help if you could show a screenshot from student view. I really believe that if your students are seeing all 3 dates, that there must be some code conflict happening at your institution.

Students only see the Posted date and last edited date if there were edits after the initial posting/when it was available for general viewing. 

I agree scheduling an announcement is definitely the way to go, I rarely send any announcements right off the bat. Even when I'm going to announce on the same day, I schedule it for the top of the next hour or 3 hrs later in case I wanna come back and make changes. Any changes made to the announcement BEFORE it is officially posted, DO NOT show up in student view. Students DO NOT SEE the Created date.

I just checked it out again, looking at an announcement I posted on Sept 17. I'm west coast and posting it for east coast students.

Teacher view of edited announcement

Teacher view shows all 3 dates: created, posted, edited.

Student view of an edited announcement

Student view only shows the posted date.

Again, if you can share your screenshots it will help very much to understand what's going on in your Canvas instance.

Hope we can help solve this issue for you,
Cheers - Shar ⭐

[reenie_arnold]

This is what my students are seeing: the created and edited date. If I edited it again, there would be a third date. This entirely defeats the purpose of posting the night before. 

Thanks!

[reenie_arnold]

My announcements show all creating and edit dates. I am still having to reply to Inbox messages and explain. Now, I just do not post announcements after 5:00 p.m. nor on weekends. Really frustrating.

[reenie_arnold]

When will this adjustment happen? Thanks!

[reenie_arnold]

Agreed. It's a really annoying feature. There is ZERO point in  "Created" except showing that your instructor is working early morning or late hours. If I post at 11:00 p.m. for a 6:00 a.m. announcement, this irks the ever-loving out of me. NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS. Let alone, they are confused. My Inbox is often flooded with questions, like. "So does that mean due 6:00 p.m. last night, or today? Is there a glitch in the matrix?

I asked Canvas and IT at my institution. They refuse to fix it.