Instructor Being Able to See Identity of Anonymous Discussion Posting

[MaryJaneMurphyB]

I am working with one of our Student support people who runs an online course on study skills in Canvas for students on academic probation. She likes to engage the students in discussions, but some topics are personal, and students are not supposed to know who else is on academic probation. I am aware of the anonymous discussion feature in Canvas. However, it might be concerning that it is impossible to identify who is participating or if a student posts a concerning comment. Is there a way to allow instructors to determine who is posting anonymously quickly? Thank you. 

[PaulFynn · Accepted solution]

The old mantra goes 'don't put anything on the internet that you don't want to read on the front page of your national newspaper - we encourage our colleagues to reflect carefully on what students should or shouldn't be encouraged to put online, anonymous or otherwise.

It used to be the case that 'anonymous' meant that students were anonymous to each other, not anonymous to the instructor,

Even if t were anonymous, you would be able to match the date and time of the post to 'New Analytics - participation' or to the Canvas user access log - so there is no true anonymity in most LMSs -  the students can run, but they can't hide 😉 

[PaulFynn · Accepted solution]

The old mantra goes 'don't put anything on the internet that you don't want to read on the front page of your national newspaper - we encourage our colleagues to reflect carefully on what students should or shouldn't be encouraged to put online, anonymous or otherwise.

It used to be the case that 'anonymous' meant that students were anonymous to each other, not anonymous to the instructor,

Even if t were anonymous, you would be able to match the date and time of the post to 'New Analytics - participation' or to the Canvas user access log - so there is no true anonymity in most LMSs -  the students can run, but they can't hide 😉 

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @MaryJaneMurphyB,

In addition to what @PaulFynn suggested, I believe discussion post user info would be available through Canvas Data 2 if your school/institution uses that.  I would personally only try to identify a user in a very dire circumstance though, because if that's done too often is does seem to defeat the purpose of having an anonymous discussion to begin with, at least in my opinion as a higher-ed admin, and could erode student trust.

-Chris