Today’s update focuses on our Canvas User Role Group pages and our product question forums.
Canvas User Role Group Pages
The Canvas User Role Group pages have been updated to emphasize the activity feeds and content within the user role group while balancing links and access to our product guides and resources. Initially, these changes will only apply to the Student, Observer, and Instructional Designer role pages. Admin and Instructor pages will be updated in August after we gather feedback.
The current user role pages are very button- and text-heavy and focus on the user guides available for each Canvas user role. The new pages combine the best of our new feed style in the Community while still providing quick and easy access to our user guides. All existing buttons and links are maintained in the update while also providing access to relevant questions and blog posts for each user role.
The new Canvas User Role Group pages feature the familiar three-tab feeds. The first tab displays questions from the Canvas Question Forum filtered to show questions with the user role label (e.g., the Admin page will show questions labeled with “Admin”). You can sort questions by newest, oldest, most views, most likes, solved, and unsolved questions. The second tab displays blog posts with the user role label with similar sorting options. The third tab shows any additional resources that may be relevant for users with the Canvas role, such as release notes, resource documents, etc.
Relevant guides have been moved to the sidebar, along with the Desktop and Mobile App Compatibility widget.
You can view the changes to the Student, Observer/Parent, and Instructional Designer role pages today!
Product Question Forums
Product Question Forum pages have been updated with a consistent style and new filtering and sorting functionality.
The forum pages feature a new header with better titles and descriptions for the forum. The Ask a Question button has also been moved to the top of the page, making it even easier to ask a new question in the forums.
The feeds now have the three-tab style, featuring Latest Topics, Unanswered Topics, and Answered Topics.
Each tab has new functionality to sort and filter questions to make finding relevant topics easier. You can filter questions based on predefined labels in each forum. To filter by a label, click the label under the Filter by Label header. You can select multiple labels in your filter. Label filtering matches any occurrence of the label, so if you select “Student” and “Instructor”, you will see posts labeled with “Student” or “Instructor” or both labels. To clear label filters, click the Clear Labels button. Note that some forums may not have label filtering enabled. You can also sort questions by selecting one of the sorting tabs: Newest, Oldest, Most Views, Most Likes, or Most Replies.
Global Post Page
When you click the Ask the Community button in the top navigation in the Community, you are now directed to a page where you can select the product you have a question about. Previously, you were prompted to start asking a question. The updated page offers a more streamlined experience and reduces errors when asking questions.
Forum and Blog Post Pages
Forum and blog post editor pages have also been updated with a simplified layout and better tooltips. The title and advisory messages have been updated to match the style of the rest of the Community. This makes it easier to read any provided guidelines and suggestions for writing a new post. We’ve also added tooltips to the Subject and Body fields to provide advice for writing good Community posts.
Additional Updates
We have many forum and blog pages to update as we’re shifting the Community to these updated feed styles. Please pardon our dust as we make sure everything is updated! We will check all our forum and blog pages and will continue to make updates throughout the rest of the year.
If you have feedback specific to the new Canvas User Role Group pages, please submit that feedback in our short survey.
If you come across any pages that look a little funny or don’t have the new feed styles, you can let us know at “community” at instructure.com. As always, we’re open to suggestions and feedback. Please leave any other feedback in the comments below.
