Student Video for New Discussions?

[JamieL23]

Hello - 

The first of three questions I'm posting tonight!

Is there an overview/onboarding video for Students to use New Discussions?

I have found the page of step-by-step instructions for instructors already (New Features section) but I was looking for a quick video not a list of steps.

Thx

J

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @JamieL23,

There isn't a video that I'm aware of currently, but there are some Discussion Redesign guides for students available.  The guides are very targeted on specific tasks rather than being ab overview, but hopefully they will still be helpful resources.

-Chris

[JamieL23]

Thanks Chris!

Yes - the guides can be overwhelming for students looking for a quick primer, so I was hoping for a video. Maybe because it's not formally rolled out yet? 🙂 Thank you for pointing those out!

Jamie

[chriscas]

Hi @JamieL23,

Yeah, I probably wouldn't expect any formal student-facing videos until the feature is out of preview phase.  The discussion redesign was going pretty quick and strong a couple years ago, but it's a pretty polarizing change and I think there was a lot of negative feedback given.  Seems development has stalled while resources have been focused a bit more on getting new quizzes issues solved.  I think it's going to be tough for Instructure to satisfy everyone with this update without giving more display options.  When Instructure does get back to development, you may see some quick and substantial changes happen, so just wanted to put that note out for awareness.

-Chris

[JamieL23]

Thanks for that info. I've heard that there is a lot of pushback on New Discussions, but for my part I am not sure why. Any thoughts? So far, when I take the time to go over it with Instructors they seem okay with it. And students like the mentions and the cleaner thread interface.

[chriscas]

I'm an admin, so I guess I can't speak form direct teaching experience...  From what I've heard from faculty at my institution, the redesign is more "clicky", and what they really want to come back in the redesign is a threaded discussion option where everything is displayed on a single page.  There are numerous reasons for this, some having to do with grading, some with content, and probably other reasons too.  I think the issue is really that different faculty and/or coruses have different needs.  The redesign seemsto be focused on meeting needs for people who did not like the "original" discussions, but perhaps didn't account enough for people who were happy with the "original" discussions and just wanted some additional features added (like @ mentions) without a total UI redesign.  I must say that I am glad I don't have to make these kinds of decisions, as I'm sure there are a lot of tough choices going into projects like this.

-Chris