Allow folders in Pages

[hasti]

The Files section of Canvas allows folders for organizing files. Pages does not. Why the awful inconsistency in the user interface? I currently have 30+ pages that I've created in - all in flat directory structure. I'd like to be able to organize them, you know, like Files and stuff I have on my computer.

Comments from Instructure

Please refer to the update from the product team here. 

[gjarrett]

I have imported my required textbook (US History by OpenStax) directly into Canvas as pages, one page per subchapter. With the other content I've created for the course, I have a little less than 200 pages for each section. It would be invaluable to group the pages by chapter, if only because it takes a long time to load that many pages in the Pages view (when you scroll to the bottom of the screen, it loads another screenful). Dealing with all of the pages in this interface is a big pain.

[SHEBENE]

Just curious, does digitizing the text and then sharing out to your students violate copyright?

[james_sanzin]

I would think so. I use an open source textbook. 

[gjarrett]

It is an Open Educational Resource, released under Creative Commons attribution 4.0 license, which means it can be freely copied and modified, so long as credit is given to the creator:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

[justint_seagle]

Having a folder option or any sort of organizational structure would make Canvasa much more user friendly. Once you begin to acquire a certain amount of pages, it can become a struggle to find what you are looking for. I am definitely in support of this idea.

[Renee_Carney]

Idea is currently in Product Radar Learn more about this stage...

Greetings.

Thank you to everyone that has commented and voted on this idea.  Simplicity and Organization of pages is clearly a priority for many.  Our product team is dedicated to continually looking for better ways for people to do things in Canvas - especially ways that reduce clicks.  This idea fits in that category.  While this idea is not currently planned, it is one that will remain on our radar as we move forward with prioritization activities.

[wendy_fletcher]

Yes couldn't agree more I'm working with young learners also, my  tasks aren't in a linear sequence so modules not all that useful, uploading files not good either as opens in preview not ok for early readers , meaning building in pages but very messy with no filing system .

[johnmartin]

For What It's Worth — 

[tbryan]

Similar story with folder embeds from BOX. 

[tbryan]

Can you share your iframe embed code for a Google Drive folder? Copying the url into an existing iframe code is yielding a blank page for me

[johnmartin]

Sure thing  @tbryan ,

From a Spring 2017 Active Teaching Lab — Activity Sheet - 03.03.2017 - Canvas Emerging Best Practices (Martin) - Google Docs 

MEDIUM: Organize files with embedded Google Drive Folders

Like Tanya Buckingham, you can use Google Drive for your course files. Just as you are able to change the end of the URL for documents, you can change Google Drive folder embeds.

• Get URL: Get the public URL of the folder. This might light like this: https://drive.google.com/#folders/unX9VBU8x9m66rJdZv (not an actual link). That last bit is the folder ID (aka YOURID😞 unX9VBU8x9m66rJdZv.
• Add folder ID to iframe code:
  • List view: Use #list to show a list of files and folders within the folder you selected. <iframe src="https://drive.google.com/embeddedfolderview?id=YOURID#list" width="100%" height="500px" frameborder="0"></iframe>
  • Grid view: To preview thumbnails of the files and folders, alter the URL and change #list with #grid: <iframe src="https://drive.google.com/embeddedfolderview?id=YOURID#grid" width="100%" height="500px" frameborder="0"></iframe
• Embed in Canvas

NOTE: Make sure the folder is accessible to view, so check your folder sharing permission within Google Drive.

[laurakgibbs]

Yes!!!!! I love Google folders. Instead of embedding a folder, I use this trick with students where I embed the "newest" file and link to the folder:

https://community.canvaslms.com/people/laurakgibbs/blog/2017/07/22/a-google-drive-strategy-to-surfac... 

As I've said elsewhere, I cannot imagine doing real content management in Canvas. Real tools, like Google Drive, offer the power needed to not just create but maintain content, reuse it, and all the other stuff that content management entails.

[tbryan]

A-hah! I see the little tweek to the URL from "#folders" to "embeddedfolderview?id="

Those Active Teaching Labs are a treasure trove of Canvas greatness!

Not trying to play favorites, but the BOX embed widget gives me the right code right away. Still haven't decided which route to go for file management. 

[laurakgibbs]

I use Google for everything really, but one thing very much in favor of Google Drive: being able to use Forms. So by using Google Drive, you also have access to that seriously powerful tool, all integrated with your Drive documents. 🙂

[pblackman]

If there are this many people trying to find a workaround, then it's clear that we need to be able to drag and drop anything in side a module into a folder. Indenting just makes it look cluttered, and if I have several weeks' work inside a larger module, it's really hard to indicate what I want students to work on first without publishing and hiding things constantly.

[hasti]

EXACTLY!!!! Why should I have to hack Canvas or go into Google Drive / Box to do something that EVERY OTHER GUI SINCE THE ORIGINAL MAC has be doing since the beginning: allowing me to create folders to organize my documents. A FLAT FILE SYSTEM FOR PAGES MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE.

Is the ultimate goal of Canvas to get us not to use Pages at all?!?

[SHEBENE]

I recommend to all of my teachers to not show the Pages tool. It may be helpful from a teacher/designer perspective to organize the pages view but Modules is so much more powerful for pointing the students in the right direction.

Now the separate idea that came up about being able to folder things in modules... that is intriguing. I think that could be cool as long as the student can't accidentally "not see" content/assignments that they need to go through.

[hasti]

I never make Pages visible to my students. This issue (for me) has nothing to do with presenting content to my students and everything to do with making my role as the person who has to manage the behind-the-scenes details of my site (with the approximately 100 pages) somewhat sane to manage (much less be able to navigate).

[SHEBENE]

I can see where that would be helpful to the teacher/designer end but only if the foldering of pages follows to the linking sidebar. My problem is that when you create folders for images and then go to add an image it doesn't matter if you've organized them or not, they're all alpha numeric. If that same limitation were to follow the foldering of pages its organizational usefulness is blunted in my opinion.

[scottdennis]

Hey Laura,

I was just reading through the comments on this thread while attempting to categorize the problems people are trying to solve and what suggestions they have for making it easier to navigate pages.   Not related to that conversation I wanted to address your comment that modules presuppose a linear content presentation model.  While that is usually the case and I believe the original design intent, I have seen courses where designers have used modules in a non-linear way.  You might put writing resources in one module, extra credit in another, lab notes in a third, etc.  I once saw a 5th-grade homeroom teacher who had a large TV in the front of her room and had an individual module for every class day that had her lesson plan and any associated resources, to be used in class that day but also so parents could see what their kids were doing each day.  Just food for thought...

World Cat just for Laura: