[Announcements] Discrepancies in display of announcement dates (created vs. published)

[ruh]

Problem statement:

We observe a strange discrepancy between the date and time that announcements in Canvas are scheduled for (= published on), and the actual dates that are registered for announcements sent in course rooms in Absalon. We have teachers who use the postpone/schedule function for announcements a lot, meaning they create announcements well in advance and schedule them for later dates. These announcements are indeed published according to the scheduled date (which is confirmed by the email notifications people receive), but under Announcements, the announcement is displayed with a different date ("posted on") - the date of creation, which is not relevant for users at all, instead of the date of publication. The wording "posted on" is absolutely misleading, since it suggests the announcement has been visible for a long time. When checking Latest Activities, however, the envisaged date of publication is displayed correctly. Example: A teacher prepares an announcement and schedules it for 6 October. On 6 October, the teacher receives the notification email and, hence, knows the announcements has been sent according to plan. However, when checking the list of announcements, the announcement is listed as “posted on 25 Sept”, which is definitely not the case Both teachers and the students find these deviations confusing. They cause a lot of noise, since students are in doubt whether they receive the announcements in due time or with delay, and whether they are late with the tasks described in the announcements.

Proposed solution:

1. (compromise) Change the wording, so it does not say "posted on ...", which is confusing and wrong - the announcement was *created* - not published - that particular day. At least rephrase it and write "Created on ... ". But this is not an ideal solution, since displaying the day of creation runs contrary to the idea of scheduling for later publication: Creation dates are not relevant; it is the publishing date that is relevant. That is why teachers postpone/schedule announcements in the first place. 2. (ideal solution) Display the publishing date consistently all over Canvas - i.e., no deviation between the date displayed under Latest Activities and the date displayed under Announcements.

User role(s):

instructor,student,ta