DocViewer: Admin and Instructor can edit/delete comments

[herriott10ad]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

In the current implementation of Canvas DocViewer, Admin and Instructor roles have no authority to remove annotations. 

Please consider adding Admin and Instructor authority to remove comments and annotations from a document. 

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the following release notes:

Canvas Student Release Notes (iOS 6.3) 

Canvas Production Release Notes (2018-06-02) .

https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-15152 

[steve_sharp]

My situation is the same as Ms. Wilusz.  I need to be able to revise my TA's annotations.

[jj_riekenberg]

I agree with the comments above: instructors should have the ability to edit or delete the TA's annotations.

[nkrieger]

I agree: it is a SERIOUS PROBLEM that an instructor can no longer edit or delete a TA's comments -- noting that this WAS possible for the last several years, but apparently the feature was dropped in a major software/vendor change in June 2017. I discovered this problem on Sept 10, when reviewing the first assignment handed in for my Fall 1 course. I immediately reported this problem both to Canvas and to the IT departments at my school and my University. As a teacher, it is imperative that I be able to review and edit a TA's comments, as part of teaching a TA how to provide appropriate comments and ensuring that students get accurate feedback. It is also imperative that I be able to DELETE a TA's comments. Right now the workaround for edits (or deleting) is that: (1) I must "reply" to my TA; (2) the TA must then create a new comment that integrates my comments into the TA's original comments; (3) the TA must then delete the original comment. This is incredibly inefficient. It is error-prone. And it is a waste of time. None of us have time to waste. It is essential that we be able to function appropriately and efficiently as teachers. Canvas must fix this problem ASAP -- since, again, it used to be feasible in Canvas for teachers to edit and delete TA's comments, so this is not asking for some new unheard of feature -- it is restoring critical functionality that previously existed.

[nkrieger]

PS: In my comment just submitted above, I also meant to state, explicitly, that it is important that I be able to edit the TA's comments WITHOUT the student's seeing these edits. My teaching of the TAs how to teach is a separate matter from my teaching the students the course material. When I first spoke with Canvas support staff by phone, they were unclear why I couldn't just let the students see my comments on the TA's comments -- but after I spoke with them at length, it became clear to them that: (1) instructors need to be able to correct the TA's comments without having the students see these corrections; and (2) if instructors cannot delete TA comments, it means instructors cannot vouch for or be accountable for the quality of the TA comments in our classes. Thus, it is imperative that instructors be able to edit or delete TA comments directly, with the "mute" on, so as to keep these corrections invisible to the students.

[jj_riekenberg]

To whom did you speak?  I would like to talk with the Canvas support staff, too.  This issue needs to be fixed quickly.

[nkrieger]

To: JJ Rikeneberg

I spoke with whomever was on the 24/7 help desk on Sunday, Sept 10, between 7:30 and 8:30 am EST. The persons I spoke with, on my 2 different calls (& with whom I exchanged several emails) were:

-- Bruno C. | L1 Support

-- James Nelson | L1 Canvas Support

& a week later I had an email exchange with:

-- Steve H. | L1 Canvas Support Agent

In the meantime, staff at in my school’s IT department and in the University’s IT department have been in touch with Canvas about this as well.

best wishes –

Nancy Krieger

**********************************************************************************

Nancy Krieger, PhD

Professor of Social Epidemiology

American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor

Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

677 Huntington Avenue, Kresge 717

Boston, MA 02115

office: 617-432-1571

fax: 617-432-3123

email: nkrieger@hsph.harvard.edu<mailto:nkrieger@hsph.harvard.edu>

web page: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/faculty/nancy-krieger/

[jj_riekenberg]

Thank you for the update, Nancy. I also notified my university’s Canvas team. Hopefully, Canvas will respond quickly to fix this issue.

Best,

JJ

JJ Riekenberg, Ph.D.

Lecturer, Department of Management

Coordinator, BA 324

McCombs School of Business

The University of Texas at Austin

jj.riekenberg@mccombs.utexas.edu<mailto:jj.riekenberg@mccombs.utexas.edu>

Office: GSB 4.126J

Phone: 512-471-8051

[mippolit]

Nancy,

You've summarized the issue very well. It baffles me why this capability existed previously, then disappeared with some "upgrade" over the summer.

[cms_hickss]

From an admin side this needs to be trackable/traceable.

Teacher or TA posts/writes - student reads - teacher deletes - student takes it to a Dean/Chair/Principal as a complaint.

Anything that is deleted should be tracked--even if only an admin can see the comment post/deletion history.

[timstuart]

Agree with above. Susan Hicks raises a valid concern that should be implemented when Instructure commits to this.

As a UI/UX designer and Canvas consultant I would suggest the following:

- Make deletion of posts a course level option for TA's/Teachers (so it can be controlled).

- Add a view option for deleted notes in the document toolbar.

This should be a relatively easy to add functionality that has no drawbacks for existing users from what I can see.