Issue with @Mentioning - Duplicate Display Names

[MinuHa]

Hello! I'm a tech support officer at a university, assisting academic staff. 🙂

We've received consistent feedback regarding the use of the @mention feature. Since it only display students' Display names, teachers often encounter multiple students with the same Display name, making it difficult to identify who is who. Please refer to the attached screenshot for an example.

Is there any way for teachers to distinguish between students in such cases?

A clear 'No' would actually be appreciated, as we are currently unsure whether any solution exists. 😞

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @MinuHa,

I do think the answer right now is a "no".  There are some other areas fo Canvas, like the Assign-to boxes where this has been remedied by adding some additional information (the sis_id) below each person's name.  For discussion @ mentions though, that probably isn't as workable of a solution because students can @ mention too and they probably shouldn't see other users info or wouldn't have the meaning behind it like a teacher would. It could perhaps help a teacher, but I think Instructure would probably look for a universal solution.  This is definitely a tough one, but I hope this info helps in some way...

-Chris

[MinuHa]

Thank you so much for the clarification, @chriscas!

I was not sure whether I simply could not find the definite solution for this issue, so I am really glad that I can get back to the staff with a clearer answer. (Although the lecturer might not be so happy with it, unfortunately.) 

I've been thinking about some possible workarounds:

1. Encouraging students to put profile pictures to help distinguish them from another:
   
   • @ mentioning does not display their profile pictures, so that's a dead end. 😞
2. Encouraging students to change their display names.
   • Not alone this could raise privacy concerns, but also most institutions, including ours, do not allow students to change their display names.

It seems there is not much we can do at this point.

Again, thank you for your helpful response. It's much appreciated. 🙂

[chriscas]

Hi @MinuHa,

No problem!  I actually didn't notice that the @ mentions don't load any profile pictures, but you seem to be 100% right about that.  I feel like Canvas really should have the pictures display there, but perhaps it's not done to ensure the @ mentions work quickly and don't wait for too much data (like the picture) to load.  Hmmmm....  Maybe the display of pictures should be submitted as an idea, as it seems the most workable way to at least lessen this problem a bit.

-Chris

[MinuHa]

Oh, I didn't know there is a way to submit my thoughts as ideas! I'll definitely check out the feature. Thank you for your recommendation! 🙂