[Studio] Better Sorting/Filtering for Canvas Studio

Recently, Instructure released Collections (similar to folders) in Canvas Studio.  (How do I create a collection in Canvas Studio?)  The default view is sorted by "Date Added" and "View All".  It would be helpful if the default view was first sorted by "Name" (alphabetically) instead of "Date Added".  But, this won't completely resolve what could be better sorting/filter of Canvas Studio videos.  After sorting by name, the Collections folders are alphabetized within videos that are not currently placed in Collections folders.  For example, you might have something like this:

 

Studio Collection Folders

 

In this example, I have Collection names beginning with a course number (top row).  Three videos (middle row) not in a Collection are displayed next (beginning with the letter "A"), and then two Collections (beginning with the letter "C") appear next...with three more videos following.  It would be helpful when sorting by "Name" for all Collections to be displayed first alphabetically...and then any videos that are not currently in a Collection to be placed at the end...similar to a Windows File Explorer.

5 Comments
James
Community Champion

 @Chris_Hofer ,

I like the most recent first -- or perhaps I've gotten accustomed to it. I do not want them sorted by name as the default, but that's because my workflow (which is very cumbersome already with Studio) is to create a video, upload it, and then embed it right away, so having the most recent files at the top save me a lot of work. I don't do a lot of embedding of things I created a while ago.

As or mixing folders and files: For Windows, a non-grouped sort puts the folders first with the files second, but sorting by name mixes the files and folders together as you're seeing with Collections. MacOS displays them in alphabetical order like you're seeing with Collections (unless you change the preferences), but I don't use my Mac enough for that to sway my thinking.

I am also a text person.  Because I don't take the time to create and upload thumbnails for all of my videos, it is very difficult for me to tell which video I'm looking at from the thumbnail. In the thumbnail view, the titles are too short to be useful. The only time I use thumbnails in Windows Explorer is if I need to quickly look at a lot of photos that are all named IMG_xxxx.JPG where the name provides no useful information. What I much prefer is the Details view.

I think it would be better if Canvas a tabular view of the data with title, uploaded date, length of video, and perhaps whether captions were included (so I know which ones still need captioned).

As to your issue, you can hide all of the videos by choosing collections or hide all of the collections by choosing videos. Doesn't that filtering reduce the need to have collections come first while still providing people the ability to see it the way they want to see it?

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Is there a benefit to having collections and videos on the same page? Can you drag and drop from videos into a collection to help with the organization? As far as I can tell, you can only move one at a time and not after a search (if I wanted to move all my files tagged into a collection, I cannot easily do that).

Chris_Hofer
Community Coach
Community Coach

Thanks for the reply,  @James .  I can see where being on a Mac vs. PC might change someone's preference for the default view.

As to your issue, you can hide all of the videos by choosing collections or hide all of the collections by choosing videos. Doesn't that filtering reduce the need to have collections come first while still providing people the ability to see it the way they want to see it?

Yes, I think using that second drop-down filter would be fine...only viewing Collections or Videos not in a Collection.

Is there a benefit to having collections and videos on the same page? Can you drag and drop from videos into a collection to help with the organization? As far as I can tell, you can only move one at a time and not after a search (if I wanted to move all my files tagged into a collection, I cannot easily do that).

The only benefit I could see is being able to view which of your videos aren't currently in Collections that you wanted to put into a Collection.  Since I now have over 50 new Collections (one for each course I've built over the past few years), I was thinking it would be nice to see the videos displayed together at the end and not intermingled with Collections on the default screen.  I could use the sorting that you suggested, though.

Yeah...drag and drop isn't currently possible.  😞  You also hit on another Feature Idea that I submitted earlier this week: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/17225-canvas-studio-collections-searching-and-moving-videos-to....

Thanks for the feedback.  Always appreciate getting your perspective!  Be well...stay safe.

ndeatherage
Community Explorer

I think it would be useful if you could set your default preference for whether videos are displayed by name or by date added. An alternative would be if Studio would revert to whatever setting were more recentl yses.

KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
Status changed to: New
 
KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
Status changed to: Added to Theme