Allow private replies in Discussions

[adam_deutsch]

I'm teaching a creative writing workshop, where students will upload their writing into a Discussion post, and other students are expected to read that writing and provide feedback. We have conversations about the work in a synchronous meeting, so student speak to each other in that space. In addition, I would like them to exchange written feedback in replies in that discussion, but only want the reply visible to the instructor and to the person who started the thread.

Without this, it feels like students have to rely on emails to each other to exchange private messages, and that's tedious. It would be great if there was a way for student to set a reply in a discussion as "private" so the rest of the students in the class don't see it.

[burkay_ozturk]

In my opinion, this feature might have unintended negative consequences. People are bound to forget/get confused about what is private in a discussion and what is not. Sooner or later, you will have one or the other, probably both: replying to a private post publicly or attempting to make a public post but failing because the setting is private.

Ideal students and teachers will navigate the system without a hitch but real people will make mistakes which can render parts of a discussion incomprehensible or worse.

That's why I think it might be better to have clear boundaries between private and public communications. So, as clunky as the "Inbox" messaging system is, I would prefer that to giving users the ability to mix public and private communications.

Of course, I understand the desire to make the process more streamlined but speed limits exist to prevent accidents.

[Steven_S]

Have you considered turning on "require a peer review" for your discussions?  The comments of the peer reviewer are moved to the grades section where only the instructor and the initial poster can see the feedback.

[adam_deutsch]

There are problems with relying on the Inbox--for one thing, it decentralizes the Discussion, so the comments we're looking to keep track of get muddled in other emails from all the students classes.

Another problem is that it takes the interaction outside of the main Canvas classroom, which means that reviewers, evaluators, and accreditors can't see it, so it hides engagement that is happening in the class.

Steven1: I'll need to look into that more carefully...

[dcrice]

Hey There!

So glad to see someone posting on this idea. In moving from Blackboard to Canvas, I really miss BB's Quote tool. It allowed both Student  and Instructor to reply within a Thread or Reply. Having this option benefited the entire class. I would inform the class ahead of time that I would use the first two posts to give further direction to the class at large. Doing so allowed me to set the tone or redirect efforts in a specific way.  And, it also allows a student to go within a classmate's reply and strengthen a specific part of the discussion.

I do not like the "peer-review" tool as it doesn't allow me to facilitate across the classroom.

Canvas Team: please consider a tool that allows both student and instructor to place comments within replies. It's helpful to keep the tool bar features available so that a different style/color of font can distinguish these timely inserts.

Thoughts?

[ProductPanda]

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