Anonymous Discussions with Identity Settings

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Is there a way for me, as the instructor, to see the student names, while keeping the discussion anonymous for the class?

I want to see who engaged but also provide anonymity for those who may be shy about participating.

11 Comments
KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
Status changed to: Open
 
DeniseMarieCope
Community Explorer

Would love this feature -- currently I do not use discussions because of this and instead use other external websites such as parlay ideas but would much rather keep it in one place

oinge
Community Member

Thirded! I would love to see this integrated into Canvas so I don't have to keep sending my students to Verso when I want to both allow them freedom of expression AND make it for points/grade (or just to add insurance other students aren't cyberbullied)

Ania22
Community Member

I agree that this would be a very useful feature.

pfau
Community Explorer

It seems blatantly obvious to me that one would allow the option for students to post anonymously to other students, yet be visible to the instructor. Why in the world would this *not* be an option? 

LeslieDonovan
Community Member

I would love this feature, too! Please make it happen sooner rather than later.

LeslieDonovan
Community Member

@oinge Thanks for alerting me to Verso. That may solve my problem with Canvas, though I really don't want to send my students to yet another site/app. Sigh...

ayer_j
Community Member

I echo previous sentiments and am shocked that they redesigned this feature without this option.  As an instructor, there's not much value to initiating an anonymous discussion if I can't also hold each student accountable for at least participation let alone the quality of their contribution, etc.  PLEASE make this happen ASAP.

hsiaob
Community Member

I can't agree more with these opinions. It creates unnecessary extra steps for the students to account for their contributions to discussions in which they participate anonymously, and another level of anxiety for them to have to do so. This defeats the purpose of an anonymous option in discussions, which is to reduce student anxiety. Please do make this update soon!

LeslieDonovan
Community Member

One workaround I've been using to use this feature is to assign my students pseudonyms. I still use the anonymous discussion settings, but my students now sign their posts with pseudonyms that I randomly assign them.

I used pseudonyms for online discussion boards earlier in my career. Generally, my students loved the protection the pseudonymity gave them, and it was more fun. I would randomly assign them pseudonyms related to our course topic. I teach college honors courses. So, for example, in my Monsters and Marvels through the Ages course, pseudonyms were mythological creatures or heroes from global world cultures-- mostly non-western cultures. Or when I teach Tolkien's works, pseudonyms would be lesser-known characters from JRRT's ancient history/mythology (not generally coveted well-known characters). Since our university just moved to Canvas this semester and I learned the problem with the anonymous posts, I've resurrected my pseudonym practice.

Hope it is useful to someone else!

ProductPanda
Instructure
Instructure
Status changed to: Archived
Comments from Instructure

As part of the new Ideas & Themes process, all ideas in Idea Conversations were reviewed by the Product Team. Any Idea that was associated with an identified theme was moved to the new Idea & Themes space. Any Idea that was not part of the move is being marked as Archived. This will preserve the history of the conversations while also letting Community members know that Instructure will not explore the request at this time.