Homeroom Configuration

[audra_agnelly]

2 Items:

1 - I demoed the current dashboard the other day and it wasn't until I pulled up my test student's view that I realized homeroom wasn't published and my announcement wasn't visible. Total rookie move, but when a course is designated as the homeroom, it no longer has a course card and doesn't appear under the Unpublished Subject list. We need some sort of flag so teachers know that course isn't published yet or we're going to run into situation where teachers put announcements up and don't realize their students aren't seeing them.

2 - I'd like to see Files enabled in homeroom. Teachers will often attach a document or embed an image in an announcement. They can still do that in the RCE, and presumably that lives in the now-hidden Files space, but there's no way to get into files to manage those items. Real use case (that's happened more than once): Teacher accidentally attaches an IEP to an announcement or inbox message. The communication goes out to all parents as an email notification which contains a link to the attached file. We delete or unpublish the attached file so that parents cannot open the link in the email. In the new design there's no way to get to files to resolve that issue. 

[jsailor]

@audra_agnelly, this is fantastic real-life feedback from your testing, which is exactly why we have this space available and the functionality in your hands as we work on it. Thank you!

In response to your concerns:

1. Sadly, we've all done this a time or two! We will look at ways that we can make it very obvious to a teacher that they need to publish their homeroom course. I'm not yet sure what that will look like, but we will ensure that teachers are not left in this same situation just because it is not obvious that they need to publish.

2. Once the manage functionality is in place that allows a teacher to get back to the traditional Canvas view for creation and management of their content, they will be able to access the files structure and do all of the things they are used to doing in files - publish, unpublish, add, delete, etc. 

[cunninghama]

@jsailor How about a big red box that outlines any course that is unpublished?  The red box shows up the entire time you're in the course.

[erinhmcmillan]

To update this thread:

The Dashboard Subjects area for teachers is organized by published courses and unpublished courses: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Releases/Canvas-Release-Canvas-for-Elementary-2021-06-19/t...

Files have been added to the Homeroom course, as noted here: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Releases/Canvas-Release-Canvas-for-Elementary-2021-06-19/t...

Erin