Add more distinction between discussion forum posts to distinguish them from each other.

(7)
It would be very helpful if discussion forum posts could be darker around the edges to show a distinction of the post as well as the reply to a post being more indented.  It would also be helpful if there was more space between the replies, because it can be difficult for users to separate the discussions in their mind to know which post they are in fact responding to.  A student mentioned having a hard time separating out which post is separated, and I can see how it could be hard for someone with eye problems as well.  If students could "name" their reply to the original post that would be great, as a way to mimic the thread style forums.

 

Thanks for your consideration!

🔎 This idea has been archived.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.

86 Comments
tromblcm
Community Novice

What is the timeline for this since it was voted on? I know someone said six months or so. Those of us (many colleges) who came over from Etudes regret that Canvas is not able to do this function. Our students are suffering as the current canvas discussion layouts and functions are no where near the caliber of Etudes. It was my understanding that once something was voted on it would move forward and not simply be archived for another time.

Thank you.

hrutherford
Community Explorer

Cherine,

Someone made this suggestion as a work around.  This seems to make more of a distinction, not sure if it will work for you, but it might be worth a try.  Here's the link.

Improve Threaded Discussions with CSS

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

Hi Cherine.  I'm sorry that this is causing frustration for you and your students. 

The update provided by Allison is still current.  There are no new updates at this time!

Also, just to clarify, when an idea reaches the 100 point threshold we guarantee an official response, not the development of a feature.  There are a couple great resources that talk about the feature idea process here:

     How does the voting process work for feature ideas?

     Ideas: State of the Union

japhill
Community Novice

Hi Renee,

Allison's timeline stated that it would be worked on in 6 months and that was 8 months ago. Could we please have an update? We are also not happy with the current look.

~Julia

tromblcm
Community Novice

Not interested in writing code! Need forum and topic levels and/or quote/reply function that works well and is not confusing. Thank you.

hrutherford
Community Explorer

Understand! That was our preference too, still hoping they'll develop the discussions to function much easier and similar to Moodle which is our previous provider.  The area of discussions seems to be our main concern with Canvas.

tromblcm
Community Novice

Is there a way to submit multiple ideas - like a list versus voting on each and every little tweak? Examples: Groups show zero posts until you click to another level where you can see the number of posts per group. And, after you are done in that area it takes you back to the class syllabus, not back to the discussion area.  I have noticed many such things and have a list I'm working on but I don't know how to submit these types of feedback.

Secondly, I hope that whomever makes the Canvas development discussions is aware that voting is just a very small fraction of the groups who want these ideas to move forward.  Most faculty simple give up to learned helplessness and the students suffer by being more confused and lost in the class.  I love workarounds, but some of these problems both major and minor do not seem to have a satisfactory work around.

Thank you.

Jeff_F
Community Champion

Yes, my take is that distinctly separate ideas require unique initial posts.

Oh yes, some are quite aware of such aspects of the voting. Some schools are quite adept at 'rallying the troops' to increase the count.

Jeff_F
Community Champion

 @ephraimross1 ​ - just a follow up thank you for this.  On our iteration the grey vertical lines touch.

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

Hi  @japhill ​

Thank you for your question.

In Allison's update, she stated that"I don't expect to make any significant enhancements to discussions during the next six months."

The 6 month benchmark that she used was a minimum, and a benchmark that we use when determining whether an idea will be archived or not.  If it looks like a feature will not be worked on for at least 6 (or more) we place it in archive, which is like a holding tank.  The idea can come out of archive at any point, however it does not receive regular updates.

How does the voting process work for feature ideas?​ goes into further detail on this process.

japhill
Community Novice

Thank you for the clarification  @Renee_Carney .  The program I work for is 90% online and we depend heavily on the discussion tool. For the time being we are in another LMS, but we will be fully transitioned to Canvas by next fall. I'm disappointed that this is not being worked on.

~Julia

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team
  Idea is currently in Product Radar Learn more about this stage...
japhill
Community Novice

Great comment Cherine!

traciebosket
Community Champion

Please, please, please, please! I can add more "pleases" if that will help Smiley Wink

Deactivated user​

If you design a different discussion board, can you create a beta or a testing environment so we can give feedback before it would go live?

So many of our instructors heavily depend on the discussion boards; especially the photography and graphic art classes. Because the current discussion board is very difficult to use, they are holding onto our last LMS as long as they can during through the transition to Canvas. Other than that, most people (including me) are loving Canvas, so kudos.

Thank you so much

please, pleas, please, please.................... Smiley Happy

tsamoff
Community Novice

I voted this idea UP, but I don't think that slapping bandaids on a broken system is worthwhile for the long-run. Discussion Forums have been around for decades (erm, Internet forum - Wikipedia) and they have almost always worked the same (even back in the old BBS days)… For example:

  • individual threads per user
  • new threads on top
  • comments contained to threads
  • etc.

I'm really not certain why Canvas decided to "break" this common functionality.

So, while I would like to see this helpful change made, it just isn't going to fix the core problem: Canvas Discussion aren't a discussion forum, rather they're a convoluted commenting system.

My suggestion is to integrate another open source solution (such as Vanilla Forums, Discourse, or even phpBB). These are all tried and tested forums that stand up to the highest level of traffic and throughput (for instance, I was once part of a very active open source community of around 40,000 users and phpBB never let us down).

traciebosket
Community Champion

Great points!

Jeff_F
Community Champion

Perhaps post this suggestion as a new idea? And do link to it from here.  

schw0814
Community Participant

I noticed that this idea has been in the "product radar" stage for quite some time, with the last reply from Canvas in March 2016.  Our fully online classes utilize the discussion forums as the foundation for instructor-to-student and student-to-student interaction, and so I cannot emphasize enough how it important it is that students and instructors alike are able to engage in discourse with ease.  

I do find it interesting that in the forums Canvas utilizes to discuss feature ideas with its users is the exact change in discussion formatting we're looking for.  If it's here, why can't it be included in discussions for our courses?

lewisale
Community Champion

Hi Sarah,

The Administrators of Canvas at my University have implemented some "work arounds" for this issue, and this has really enhanced the ability to dialogue in discussions.  I am not sure what specific coding they used, but the overall image looks similar to  some coding shared by Ephraim Ross on May 25, 2016 on this page.  Your University Administrators for Canvas may be open and willing to implementing these enhancements.

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.