The Instructure Community will enter a read-only state on November 22, 2025 as we prepare to migrate to our new Community platform in early December. Read our blog post for more info about this change.
Found this content helpful? Log in or sign up to leave a like!
Is there a way to prevent a Canvas Designer from being listed as the author when creating or duplicating a discussion board?
Until recently, I was able to duplicate existing discussions without being attributed as the author, regardless of who created the original board. Now, when I duplicate a discussion, Canvas assigns me as the author and automatically subscribes me to updates. Since I'm a Designer and not visible to students in the course, this attribution is confusing.
I’ve found that creating discussions in a development shell and importing them into the course avoids the author attribution, but that adds extra steps to the workflow. Ideally, there would be a faster way to remove or hide Designer attribution on duplicated content like this.
Has anyone found another workaround or setting that helps with this? Or is this something Canvas might consider addressing in a future update?
@JenFidler - I am curious if you are enrolled in the development shell as well as the course?
Our approach is for instructional designer to have a Canvas admin role and not a course role. Also, the SME (Faculty) are enrolled in the development shell which when complete is then copied to course 'templates' which have no enrollments. These then are copied into courses cleanly. But perhaps something has changed...?
Thanks for this suggestion, @Jeff_F! I removed myself as Designer to test this out, but it is still listing me as the author on a duplicated board. Using an imported discussion board appears to be my only option for "hiding" myself as the author right now.
Community helpTo interact with Panda Bot, our automated chatbot, you need to sign up or log in:
Sign inTo interact with Panda Bot, our automated chatbot, you need to sign up or log in:
Sign in