Why do students sometimes see discussions that are not part of their group late at night?

[JonathanAgresta]

I set up my courses to use groups for discussions.  All discussions are set as group discussions, but occasionally, around midnight, some students wind up outside of their group discussion and in the main area which should not been seen by them.  When this is reported to me, I check my groups and they are unchanged and set correctly.  I then ask the student to wait 15 minutes and try again, and that fixes it.  This happens once or twice per course.  Why would a student, who is in a group, wind up outside of it when the group is unchanged? 

Attached is an example from a student who wound up in the wrong place last night, but is fine this morning. 

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @JonathanAgresta,

I have never heard of an issue like this before.  If students are not assigned to a group at all, they would need up in the "main" discussion area though.  I wonder if your institution perhaps does some kind of full SIS refresh to Canvas around midnight, which temporarily removes the students from their proper groups.  I'd recommend that you reach out to your school/institution Canvas team (usually in the eLearning / IT / Digital Education areas) or contact Canvas support if you have that option so that this can be investigated further.

Hoe this helps a bit!

-Chris