Discussion Board posts--word count feature

[galey]

Typically, when we assign discussion board posts in a class, there is a word count minimum,such as 250 words. I don't see the students' ability to know what their word count of their post is. Please tell me where they can see this in Canvas. Surely this feature is there, and I am just missing it.

[laura-harste · Accepted solution]

I was looking for a way for professors to see a Word Count (still working on that if you are wondering), when I saw that this is solved for the students at least.  Hope this makes everyone happy!  Just tell your students to check the bottom right before they post!

Yeah!  Solved!  Thanks Canvas!

[kblack]

Hi  @galey  Welcome to the worldwide Canvas Community!  There is not the ability for either faculty to see this or for students to see on their end while composing.  It is on the product radar, however, and you may want to read about some interesting work-arounds here:  https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1341-word-count , which is still open for voting.  For that matter, you may want to look at the rather long discussion that ensued as part of this idea.  In the meantime.....for students, at least, they may want to compose in Word or another word processor that shows a word count and copy/paste it into their replies.  (Not a bad idea, frankly, anyway...since that way it is saved in case something goes wrong on their end and the reply gets lost.)

[galey]

Thank you very much! There really should be no debate about whether to add this feature or not. It exists in LMS's almost as a standard. This HAS to be a built in feature if Canvas wants to promote the use of Discussion Boards in classeswhich is becoming a norm. If other LMS's are offering itand they do--Canvas needs to as well. In the meantime, I will advise my students to compose elsewhere, then paste their response.

All the best,

G. Aley

Ginette Aley, Ph.D.

Carey Fellow, History Dept.

Kansas State University

Online Adjunct, History Dept.

Purdue University

[KristinL]

Hi  @galey ‌ - https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1341-word-count is currently in Beta! (https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-14435-canvas-beta-release-notes-2018-04-09?sr=search&search...‌ Hopefully this benefits you and your students.

[meroberts]

Any news on when this might be in production? Would really appreciate this feature.

Matt Roberts

Patrick Henry College

[tatonetti]

Hi Kristin,

I too am wondering what the status is on this feature, which is common on every other online platform I've used. If it's still being tested, how could one become one of the beta testers?

Best,

Lisa

[KristinL]

Whenever students type a Discussion reply, they should see the word count in the lower-right-corner of their Rich Content Editor. The count is visible for students as they compose their response(s), but the final word count doesn't follow the student for assessment in Speed Grader.

[raf09120]

We've just switched from Moodle to Canvas. Moodle offers word count option for discussions. This is very helpful, given that I ask students to post a certain number of words. When will Canvas add this feature?

[Stef_retired]

 @raf09120 ‌, please follow https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/3454-word-count-for-speedgrader-docviewer-grading for updates on the status of this feature request. You might also be interested in following these related ideas:

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/13879-word-count-visible-for-faculty-in-db 

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/14641-word-requirement-for-discussions 

[jfuste1]

Please please please, can you add a word counter in the discussion posts submissions and discussion post-viewing box? It would be enormously useful. Thx. 

[laura-harste]

@jfuste1  and @KJHatCSHS 

Just found this old post and realized I never posted our solution. There still does not seem to be a word counter for faculty in Canvas discussions, but you can add a Chrome extension Word Counter Plus.  It allows you to select the text, right-click, and Select Word Counter Plus and you see Word Count, Character count, and longest word.  It's an easy solution if you use Chrome!

Laura

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi @laura-harste ...

I'm not sure why you would need to use an extra extension to get a word count.  This has been available in Canvas for a while now.  If you take a look at the screen shots in these two Guides, you can see that the word count displays below the RCE (Rich Content Editor) when replying to a discussion posting.

• How do I reply to a discussion as an instructor?
• How do I reply to a discussion in Discussions Redesign as an instructor?

I hope this will be of some help to you.

[laura-harste]

@Chris_Hofer The Word count shows in Discussion when you are typing your own reply and when the student is posting their comments.  This is true.  However, a word count does not show in Speedgrader, as it does for a submitted paper or assignment.  Since this is where most professors want to know if a student achieved their appropriate word count, we found this solution works.

[Chris_Hofer]

@laura-harste ...

Thank you for the clarification.  The topic of this conversation mainly centers around Discussion topics and not the interface for discussions within the SpeedGrader.  However, I do see that @jfuste1 alluded to it (though not specifically stating "SpeedGrader" by name).

[KJHatCSHS]

This seems pretty simple. If it is showing for students, why wouldn't they have it publish for the teachers? Please get this going. 

[laura-harste · Accepted solution]

I was looking for a way for professors to see a Word Count (still working on that if you are wondering), when I saw that this is solved for the students at least.  Hope this makes everyone happy!  Just tell your students to check the bottom right before they post!

Yeah!  Solved!  Thanks Canvas!