[Notifications] Discussion Notification: Activity that involves you

Similar to how Facebook notifies you when someone replies to your specific post, I would like this feature in Canvas.

In nearly all of my classes, we are required to make postings and answer student replies. However, there is not a notification feature that indicates when a student has commented on your specific post. We only receive general notifications that a student in your class has commented or posted something. On Facebook, this is called: "Activity that involves you" : You'll always get notifications about activity that involves you, like when someone tags you in a photo or comments on your post.

Essentially, I want to know when someone has replied to my specific post so I can address them back.

Currently, the notification options for Discussions are far to general (attached below)

Added to Theme

57 Comments
jason_beam
Community Member

Has this been implemented in Canvas yet?  In addition to Blackboard, I also know that Moodle will only notify you if someone responds to just your post, not everyone else's posts. 

I can't wait until this is implemented.  It would make my life so much more efficient.

Brittany5
Community Novice

I completely agree with all of these comments. I (and my students) currently have the choice of being overwhelmed with every comment from every discussion, or we don't get discussions notifications at all. It's really important to know if someone has responded specifically to my question or comment in order to maintain an authentic asynchronous conversation. I hope this notification feature is added soon. It is possible on so many other social media platforms, it doesn't seem like it would be a difficult thing to add.  

cestolf50
Community Novice

When receiving notifications in email of canvas content, would be nice if it when you click on the view button it takes you directly to the person posting instead of to the beginning of the postings necessitating a LONG scroll till you find that person you need to reply to.

sbland7096
Community Member

As a student, in "Notifications Preferences", there are only two options to turn on notifications for. The "Discussion Posts" option turns on notifications for all new posts in a discussion. But, I want to be notified only if someone replies to my post, a post that pertains to me. 

May you consider enabling this feature, please?

amcknight
Community Explorer

YES, PLEASE! Once my students have made their obligatory "post plus two responses" they ALMOST NEVER go back to see if anyone has responded back to them. It is maddening.

I've switched to doing a lot of my discussions in Perusall, where there is a pretty slick "notification of activity that pertains to ME" system.

Given the skyrocketing need for effective online learning experiences, Canvas would do well to update and improve the discussion feature sooner rather than later ...

sallycharris
Community Explorer

I assumed that students were notified when someone replied directly to their post and only found out by talking to students that they are not unless they are subscribed, which would mean over 200 emails for posts to one discussion (which I get but don't want to subject my students to). PLEASE make this "notification when someone replies directly to your post" a feature! I want students to see when I reply to their posts, too. 

TrevorRL
Community Novice

@canvas on top of this idea, which is fantastic, I would like for the notifications to take me directly to the post I am being notified about. As it stands right now, when I swipe on a notification that someone has posted to a discussion board, it just takes me to the top of that discussion board. I would like that notification to take me directly to the post itself.

krisglad
Community Member

I'm a student, and I need to have more control over discussion board notifications. Sometimes I want to subscribe to updates for an entire discussion, but far more often, I only want notifications when someone replies to my comments/my reply to someone else's comment. Currently you can only toggle notifications on/off for an entire discussion board - i.e. you get notifications for all comments on that discussion. In larger classes where participation in a discussion board is mandatory, this does me no good; I want to be notified if someone is engaging with my particular comment or my reply to their comment.

The only way I've found to do this right now is to manually check the discussion board and ctrl+f to search for my name, which shows above all of my comments.  This is clunky and time consuming, and not getting notified right away means that I often miss people's responses and don't get a chance to dialogue with them, since they also will miss my reply since they're in the same 'no notification' boat as I am. I've started DMing people when I find out the replied to my comment, but it's still incredibly ineffective.

This issue could be easily solved by simply adding an option to get notifications to ONLY your comments on a discussion board.

kenzleighirene
Community Member

that is good!

 

jasonofthestorm
Community Novice

+1 for requesting this feature. This is maddening- how are students expected to engage in a discussion if they have to manually *search* for replies to their posts and comments? I find it ironic that there is a checkbox to "Email me when someone replies" right here in this forum, and that I can tag other members as well. Why not on our course discussion boards?