Replying to Discussion Troubleshooting

[115694394375500]

Hello. Last week I had an assignment where I had to reply to a discussion thread. This assignment was due Saturday. My assignment this week is to reply to my peer’s replies from last week’s discussion, however I am having difficulty doing this. There is no option to ‘reply’ under any of my peers’ post, and there is also no reply button when I click on the three gray dots in the top right of their post. I noticed that only one person replied to others’ posts, but these replies were made last Friday before the discussion was due. Is it possible that I am “locked out” from replying to the discussion because it is now past the due date? Is there a setting that my instructor needs to change on his end in order to allow me to apply to posts? Just in case you’re wondering, I tried replying to the discussion on three different devices (iPhone, iPad, and computer) and on different Canvas platforms (in the app and on browser) and both resulted in the same problem. 

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hello there, @115694394375500 ...

Without being able to see your school's Canvas environment or your course(s), it's hard to diagnose exactly what is happening with that particular discussion topic.  However, I assume that you are using the instructions outlined in this Guide to try and reply to your discussion topic: How do I reply to a discussion as a student?.  It could be quite possible that your instructor is not allowing comments past a certain date.  In your course, do you have a "Discussions" course navigation button on the left-hand side of your screen?  If so, click on that button and see if the topic is listed under a heading called "Closed for Comments".  If that topic is listed under that heading, then you and your classmates can no longer post comments for the topic.

There is a second possibility, too.  If your instructor has not put that topic in the "Close for Comments" heading, your instructor may have set "Available From" and "Until" dates on that topic.  This Guide is meant for instructors, and in the section "Add Discussion Options", it describes more about these two date fields: How do I create a discussion as an instructor?.  The part I want to point out here is (highlighting is my own), "Before the Available From date, students will only be able to view the discussion title. After the Until date, students can view the discussion topic and all responses but cannot add or edit any responses."

With all this being said, I would recommend that you reach out to your instructor to have a conversation about this.  Your instructor may have purposely closed off the discussion topic and made replying unavailable to you and your classmates.  You can contact your instructor in Canvas by using this Guide: How do I get help with Canvas as a student?.

I hope this will help a bit.  Sing out if you have any questions...thanks!

[115694394375500]

Hi, Chris! Thank you for your response. This was very helpful and I will be reaching out to my instructor now. To answer your question, no, I do not have a “Discussions” tab in my course’s navigation. What does this mean when this tab is missing?

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi @115694394375500 ...

If you don't have the "Discussions" course navigation menu on the left side of your course, that usually means your instructor has chosen to hide that particular menu from you and your classmates.  That's not necessarily a bad thing.  Your instructor can still make any discussion topics he/she has created on the "Discussions" screen available on the "Modules" page of your course.  (Hopefully, you have a "Modules" course navigation button?)  Here is a screenshot from my own sandbox course with a couple examples of discussion topics in a module:

You might have a similar setup in your own course.  Hope this helps!