Search Canvas Course Content

[johnbowen]

Is there a way to search for certain topics inside the content of a Canvas course?

[mzimmerman · Accepted solution]

Hi John,

There is not really a "search" built into Canvas.  Depending on how your instructor has set up the course, you may be able to go to the "Modules" area an use the "find" function in your browser, but that really just lets you look for a text string in the module titles.  It doesn't really search through all the content.

Mike

[Chris_Hofer]

 @johnbowen ...

I recently heard about a third-party LTI tool that integrates with Canvas called Atomic Search that you might want to check out.  I know that there is a cost to this, so you'd want to check with the people at Atomic Jolt and your school to see if it would be in your budget.

[eric_t_jones]

Atomic Search is apparently quite expensive, such that even a university the size of Oregon State with a huge eCampus program won't shell out the money. Canvas needs to have basic content search built in. Imagine Windows not offering search.

[jhough]

I just received an email from Atomic Search so went to check it out. Watching the video of what it was, my exact thoughts were, this is nice. Why doesn't Canvas just do this? It's clearly possible. We can't afford to purchase more things right now. Come on, just build it in!

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi there, @jhough ...

Yes...I agree that a search tool in Canvas would be super helpful.  I know this doesn't completely answer your question, but there is a document here in the Community that goes into more detail about Instructure's development process, and it might help to explain priorities and how things get developed:

What is the feature development process for Instructure products?

In addition, back in November 2019, @eric_t_jones had shared a link to a related Feature Idea.  However, that link no longer works due to the Canvas Community website migrating to a different platform in the late Summer of 2020.  Not to fear, though...I was able to find the correct link to this Feature Idea so that you can participate in that conversation...including giving it a star rating:

Comprehensive Course Search Tool (Searching Course Content for a Topic)

And finally, this Guide would explain the star rating system and other great information for you:

How do idea conversations work in the Instructure Community?

I hope all of this will be of some help to you.  Please let Community members know if you have any other questions about this...thanks!

[eric_t_jones]

Dear Michael - I also had questions about searching Canvas content. Unfortunately, it seems that there are many posts on this topic scattered across the Canvas Community boards. This results in less notice by Canvas developers.  The largest discussion on the topic that I can find is here. Could you repost your message there? Also, we all need to be asking our Canvas administrators at our schools to request content search. Thank you.

[scombs426]

We're new to Canvas, transitioning from Sakai.  The search capabilities within Sakai are being greatly missed.  Having no built-in search capability seems very odd.  Atomic Search is too expensive.  We've backed up files to OneDrive which can be searched but it's very puzzling there's nothing to search pages and files in Canvas.  It appears to be something that's been requested frequently since 2015 so it doesn't appear to be a priority.  Any other strategies used by other schools to house content where it can be searched easily?