Mentions - how does this work?

[Jeff_F]

How does the new mentions feature work?  What does it do?

How is a student made aware of the mention?  Or an instructor?

How does this effect notifications?

Additional details can be added here:

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Discussions-Announcements/Canvas-Release-Discussions-Announcement... 

[Katrina-Hess · Accepted solution]

Hi @Jeff_F, the @mention feature is available in Discussions redesign. Legacy discussions does not offer this feature. The way it works is:

1. when you type "@ + [character]" in the Discussions reply RCE you will see an address book that allows you to select a person in the course
2. when you select a person's name, you will see the it displayed in the reply
3. when you click the reply button, they receive an email notification that they've been mentioned in a post

There is a new Notification setting for Mentions which is defaulted to notify immediately which you can change.

Instructors will only see a notification if they are the one who was tagged. 

[dickson327]

Hi @Katrina-Hess -- If there is more than one person in a course with the same name, does the address book provide additional details to differentiate those users?

[Jeff_F]

@dickson327   I have four students with the name Brandon this term and they show as options to choose from in a drop down.  I am glad they have different last names.

I have to be careful when I give my cheerleading:  Let's go Brandon! so I pick the correct student.

[sallycharris]

@Katrina-Hess In early December, I tested this mention feature with some colleagues who have been added as students to a test class, and none of us was notified when mentioned with the @ and choosing from the drop down names. I know my notification settings are set to notify immediately when mentioned, and I did not get any notification. In Canvas, I do have a list of who mentioned me, but I had to actively search for it. 

Can you let me know if there's a glitch or if there is another required box to check so the email notifications work?

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Sally,

Will you submit a case to Canvas Support so they can help us triage this behavior?

Thanks!

Erin

[wjbyrd]

Why didn’t Instructure include this in the legacy discussion forum? I’ve seen and heard about quite a few complaints of the beta discussion forum. Why not include one thing that can instantly increase engagement instead of rolling it out with a whole suite of items?

[Katrina-Hess]

Thanks for raising this @dickson327! Currently, you will see the display name on the list and there is no other differentiator. We are looking at solutions! 

[sallycharris]

Yes, I'll do that.