Why can't my students see some of the discussions? They posted an original post and now the discussion is gone. Where did it go (the whole thing, not just their post)?

[caerwin1]

Discussion - I posted discussions for my students to answer.  They made initial posts, but now the discussion is gone for them.  I see it on my side and it's published, but when I check student view, this particular one and some of the other ones are gone.  We can't seem to figure out anything in the settings.  Does anyone have any ideas of what I should check and how I can make them viewable to the students.  It doesn't matter if I have them pinned or not, they aren't seeing some of them.  Thanks!

[kblack · Accepted solution]

Hi  @caerwin1  Welcome to the Canvas Community and for giving us all a mystery to solve! Needless to say, that should not be happening!  Here are a few possibilities to check over.  (You may have already tried a few of these yourself:

• Did you accidentally convert these into group discussions?  That might explain why some students cannot see them, since the discussion would then be accessible only to students in a specific group.  This is exactly what happened to a faculty member at my own institution.  Since your Test Student is not in a group, this would explain why it disappears in Student View, too.
• If your class has multiple sections (or is cross-listed with another class) check the Assign to: box at the bottom while editing it.  Has it been assigned to the default of Everyone or was this changed?  If it's been changed, then it means only students in the section it was assigned to are seeing it.
• Are you using Modules? If so, have you made any changes to them, perhaps moving the Discussions in question into a Module that itself has not been published yet?  (Though in this case, students should still see the discussion exists on the Discussions page; they just would not be able to get into it.)
• Check the "Until" date to make sure the discussion is not closed.  (Though, again...they should still be seeing it, at least!)

The last two I just tossed in there, since in those cases students should still be seeing the discussion exists but just could not contribute to it.

Another random though: check your Beta instance.  (See How do I access the Canvas beta environment as an instructor? for details.)  This was last refreshed Saturday night or thereabouts.  Access your course and head into Student View there.  Are you seeing the discussions?  If so, this helps isolate when "something" happened.  If you ARE seeing the Discussions in Beta, check the settings (such as those above) really, really carefully.  This may give you some clues.

The other thought is if you are using grading periods; this is beyond my expertise, but I have heard of many wacky things happening when there is a change in grading periods in a course.  (How do I use grading periods in a course? )

Finally, it's probably time to get Canvas Support involved if none of the above helps.  (Help>>Report a Problem; it may get routed to your institution's local support first.)

I hope this helps a bit, Carol. Keep us posted!