Add Print/CopyPaste Capability for Entire Lesson Modules

(2)
In Angel, there was a "printer friendly" icon beside each lesson topic. When clicked, the entire lesson would appear in a new window where a student could then either print it out or copy and paste it into a Word document and save to their computer. It is helpful to copy and paste it into a Word document because then students can use the Word tools to highlight important info and add their own notes such as textbook page numbers. Having these documents at a student's fingertips is especially helpful when trying to reference lesson info from previous semesters' classes that are no longer accessible on Angel.

 

In Canvas, in order to accomplish this same thing, a student must copy and paste each individual module page into a Word document which can take a very long time if the professor has included many module pages.

 

Please add a "printer friendly" option for an entire module in Canvas so that students can copy and paste an entire lesson into a Word document in just a few clicks.

 

Thank you.

 

🔎 This idea has been archived. While this idea isn't open for comments, it is an important part of Instructure’s idea conversations and development process. Contributions like this are valuable as Instructure prioritizes work on new or existing features.

19 Comments
Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

 @dmg5471 ​

Have your students tried a right click + print, or a select and print selection?  That typically works.

You may want to review which closes for voting today.

dmg5471
Community Novice

If I right click + print on each individual lesson header, the print dialogue box shows a list of all of the modules and their components, but not the text within each component which is what I am looking for.

Also as an FYI, the right click + print function does not work for the components under each lesson heading in the modules.

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

This idea has moved to the next stage and will be open for voting among the Canvas Community, from Wed. March 2, 2016 - Wed. June 1, 2016.

Check out this doc for additional details about how the voting process works!

tus25
Community Novice

The ability to print the modules/lessons isn't just something that is "nice" to have, for students with certain disabilities, it's a MUST.  This needs to be implemented ASAP.

dec109
Community Novice

This is a no-brainer.  I am not sure why this capability isn't already available, as it is a common need for students and faculty alike. 

jlb981
Community Novice

I agree with all the comments made above about the necessity of being able to print the modules. I am often on the road and don't always have Internet access, so hard copies come in very useful for studying. Additionally, the "select" and highlight feature for printing does not always work, as there is invariably some portion of the text missing.

I will also echo the concern about certain disabilities. Printing will allow those with poor eye sight to reduce eye strain often associated with computers. Somebody already said it - this is a no-brainer.

jlb981@psu.edu

jlb981
Community Novice

Spot on!

jcb5021
Community Novice

Does the print & copy function raise concerns for course sharing and/or academic integrity? It's not like they are sharing the assessment answers, only the content, which is what we do anyway with Open Educational Resources. Just posing the question, wondering if the sharing of proprietary content would concern anyone... Thanks.

jlb981
Community Novice

I wouldn't think so considerin this is a feature available in all ANGEL courses.

naboznyk
Community Participant

This might address a problem that I have when I try to display an assignment in Canvas on the projector. There is so much screen real estate taken up by menus on the left, right, top and bottom, that I cannot easily display an assignment on the screen in front of class. Currently, I copy and paste the assignment content into a Word document and use that, but it is really inconvenient.

This "printer friendly" function might take care of that problem for me. It has my vote!

Cheers,

Keith

sherry_stewart
Community Novice

PLEASE add a PRINT PAGE option for Canvas html "Pages!!" I teach three online courses, and I have converted all of my lectures and labs in each course to "Pages." While Pages makes it very easy to make edits, add new images, and features, the ONE BIG PROBLEM is that students want to PRINT!! This is especially important for the lab guides (and especially if they are using a small screen). I had to create PDF files for each Page (there are almost 300 "Pages" in one of my courses), but if I need to make even a minor change or edit, I have to cut and paste the "Page" contents, put it in a Word file, re-add images, and correct the way the page copies. THEN I have to save it as a PDF, THEN I have to reload it into a Canvas file, THEN I need to re-link the file. Talk about cumbersome and time-consuming!!! This can take up to 30 minutes for each page, even if its a single spelling error correction. PLEASE provide a print page function, so I can dump the PDF nightmare!!! Thanks!

tsawicki
Community Novice

As others have stated we are often REQUIRED to print material for some students.  Quick and easy printing of everything in canvas is a must have!

cward
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

Hi there,

 

Thank you for such a great discussion on this topic. We appreciate the insight shared here. At this time we will not develop this idea or make changes to Canvas in order to facilitate this idea. We will, however, take your insights under consideration for possible future projects.

-Chris

drwbragg
Community Novice

Having a "printer-friendly" feature is extremely common these days. Not sure why this wouldn't be an integral part of at least some of the parts of a course - for example: 

Discussions

...I was trying to help a person with very special eyesight needs... he needs to print out the discussions, but: in using the normal method of printing a webpage, when you hit "Print" the html of each user is lying all over their name - obstructing who said what. And it is way longer than it would be if the page's content was somehow changed to "plaintext" version....

That is, even older web-conferencing and/or learning systems had a "Print" icon which took OUT the html, and made the page much more easy to print.

It would seem to be a no-brainer as was said to have at least some of the pages (like content and discussions, etc) to be able to do this. (And note: especially for people with eyesight issues who NEED to print pages; and especially for discussions, because - for one thing - in the vein of constructivist learning, there is a lot of value in the dialogue among learners. AND, not everyone can or even wants to always read everything online via computer / pad / phone screens!... printing things and having sitting down to READ on paper, and even take notes, is still popular and necessary option!) Thank you.

r_s_bassi
Community Novice

Hi all,

I previously submitted my own request as below in a new thread before being directed to this:

I saw a similar thread in 2015, I'd also like to suggest that there should be a feature that allows Students and or Staff to print a complete course in one go.

 

Old thread:

PDF export for Wiki Pages 

 

We have a number of students who request paper versions of the course content (usually for accessibility reasons)) so content is produced twice. Once in paper format and once in Canvas. It'd be really good if we could halve the workload by working in Canvas and then print everything in a nice tidy PDF.

 

We have tried the epub route but is gives all sort of strange results as to what does and doesn't display

 

We currently have a (poor) workaround which involves:

 

•   Exporting the course as an IMSCC file

•   Changing the extension to .zip and extracting

•   Then combining all wiki pages from htm into one PDF

 

The result is the text displays but a lot is lost.

 

Has anyone else found a better solution or is this something Instructure can provide

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

The Radar idea stage has been removed from the Feature Idea Process.  You can read more about why in the blog post Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.

 

This change will only impact the stage sort of this idea and will not change how it is voted on or how it is considered during prioritization activities.  This change will streamline the list of ideas 'open for voting', making it easier for you to see the true top voted ideas in one sort, here.

vancej
Community Participant

I am curious if there is anymore consideration for this idea.

rachel_goldsmit
Community Novice

This seems so basic, why has this not been implemented already?

KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
Status changed to: Archived

Our Product Team reviewed some of our oldest feature proposals recently, and this thread was identified as one that they would not be able to include in their current or future plans. While we appreciate your proposal, we also want to be transparent about the likelihood of something like this making it to production.

Thank you for collaborating, and we hope that you submit another idea in the future!