How to ensure that answer keys within modules NEVER get published

[RichardW]

I post answer keys as Pages within Modules (below the Assignments) so that support teachers may have access to assist students.  These Pages remain unpublished, yet are viewable to teachers, as allowed.  ***Is there a way to protect these Pages, so that they are not published unintentionally? 

It is all too easy to click the publish button, so it might be nice to have a secondary check on publishing items such as this. 

Maybe a "secure" option when creating a Page, so that publishing the Page requires a confirmation "Are you sure you want to publish this item?"  

Thanks for any feedback or supportive upvotes 🙂

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi @RichardW ...

If you wanted to submit this as a feature request to enhance Canvas, you would need to do that via a separate part of the Community website where all existing ideas are housed.  However, please note that the entire feature idea process is a bit on hold these days as Instructure is preparing for a new Community platform and a new ideas process.  I'm not entirely sure when the new idea process will be put in place, however.  You can read more about that at: Turning Your Feedback into Better Prioritization and Release Processes: Our Path Forward.  Also, you can read some of the recent Community Blog postings from Instructure staff about the upcoming changes to the Community site.

With all of that being said, there are a handful of Guides that relate to feature ideas:

• What is the feature development process for Instructure products?
• How do Ideas work in the Instructure Community?
• What are the guidelines for submitting a new idea?
• How do I create a new idea in the Instructure Community?

As far as your initial question is concerned about there being a way to protect those pages from being accidentally published...  not that I am aware of.  I suppose one option for you would be to create a separate hidden module that only your fellow instructors would see that contains all the answer keys (those would also be unpublished).  Or, yet another idea would be to create one or more unpublished pages in the course and NOT include them in any of the modules within your course.  Your fellow instructors would have to know to visit the "Pages" index page to find those answer key pages, however.  Yet another idea would be to include the answer keys as files within the "Files" area of your course (again, unpublished).  You could create a folder within the "Files" area of your course, and then drop all the answer key files into that folder.  Students would never see them in the course.

So, as you can see, there are multiple options you could try here.  Hopefully one or more of these might work for your needs.  I hope this was helpful in some way.  Sing out if you have any questions.  Thanks!

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi @RichardW ...

If you wanted to submit this as a feature request to enhance Canvas, you would need to do that via a separate part of the Community website where all existing ideas are housed.  However, please note that the entire feature idea process is a bit on hold these days as Instructure is preparing for a new Community platform and a new ideas process.  I'm not entirely sure when the new idea process will be put in place, however.  You can read more about that at: Turning Your Feedback into Better Prioritization and Release Processes: Our Path Forward.  Also, you can read some of the recent Community Blog postings from Instructure staff about the upcoming changes to the Community site.

With all of that being said, there are a handful of Guides that relate to feature ideas:

• What is the feature development process for Instructure products?
• How do Ideas work in the Instructure Community?
• What are the guidelines for submitting a new idea?
• How do I create a new idea in the Instructure Community?

As far as your initial question is concerned about there being a way to protect those pages from being accidentally published...  not that I am aware of.  I suppose one option for you would be to create a separate hidden module that only your fellow instructors would see that contains all the answer keys (those would also be unpublished).  Or, yet another idea would be to create one or more unpublished pages in the course and NOT include them in any of the modules within your course.  Your fellow instructors would have to know to visit the "Pages" index page to find those answer key pages, however.  Yet another idea would be to include the answer keys as files within the "Files" area of your course (again, unpublished).  You could create a folder within the "Files" area of your course, and then drop all the answer key files into that folder.  Students would never see them in the course.

So, as you can see, there are multiple options you could try here.  Hopefully one or more of these might work for your needs.  I hope this was helpful in some way.  Sing out if you have any questions.  Thanks!

[RichardW]

Thanks!  Will post the idea.  -RW

[Pete5484 · Accepted solution]

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@RichardW wrote:

I post answer keys as Pages within Modules (below the Assignments) so that support teachers may have access to assist students.  These Pages remain unpublished, yet are viewable to teachers, as allowed.  ***Is there a way to protect these Pages, so that they are not published unintentionally? 

You can potentially MacGyver this with differentiation tags. 

e.g.

1. On the People Page, create a differentiation tag via the Manage Tags button and label it 'Teacher Only Content'. Note that there are 0 (and should always be zero students assigned).

Create a differentiation tag

2. Assign the page to that differentiation tag (either on the page itself, or from the kebab menu in modules)

Use 'Assign to' to select the 'Teacher Only Content' differentiation tag

Students will be unable to view the page (it simply does not appear) unless they have that differentiation tag assigned to them, even if the Page is Published. 

[RichardW]

Thanks for sharing a creative solution... I hope it works... Just have to request that the tags feature be enabled by admin... Fingers crossed.