Order Discussion Posts from Newest to Oldest

Currently, the discussion posts are ordered from oldest to newest.  A student/professor has to scroll or go to the last page and then scroll to get to the latest post.

 

Canvas REALLY needs to re-order this so that newest discussion posts appear at the top of the first page so that it is easy to find current conversations.

 

This topic had 100+ likes in the old community and I was really surprised not to see it on here already (I searched for this using several different search terms).   I sure hope we don't have to go through and re-idea every single feature request that had at least 30 likes and was years old with no action or response from Instructure.

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

For more information, please read through the  Canvas Release Notes (2021-06-19).

140 Comments
deanf
Community Novice

We are using discussion for the art students to post weekly work in progress over a subject that lasts several weeks.
We are having a lot of scrolling at the moment as new work is lost right at the bottom.  If new work always appeared at the top (or having the option for teachers to sort this way) will mean we always see new work coming in.

ksmothers
Community Novice

We are using Discussions as part of our online student community/virtual student union.  We created different "rooms" for them to chat and share ideas.  No one is going to use our Discussions if they have to scroll and scroll to find what's new.  We could do this in Blackboard and now that we've moved to Canvas, I am so disappointed.  Help!

Chris_Hofer
Community Coach
Community Coach

Hi  @ksmothers ‌...

This Feature Idea is currently in the "Product Radar" stage ... which means that Instructure is aware of the need, but it's not currently on their list of projects in development at the moment.  You can read more about this stage by going to New Ideation Stage:  Product Radar.

ksmothers
Community Novice

This is terribly disappointing.  We have over 17,000 students enrolled in our virtual student union and they've been posting in our Discussions all week (we moved to Canvas last week) but it won't last if they have to scroll and scroll and scroll to view new conversations in our General Chat "forum" or our Textbook Exchange "forum."  We did this successfully with Blackboard. 

Chris_Hofer
Community Coach
Community Coach

I completely understand moving from one LMS to another.  We did that about three years ago when we moved from Pearson eCollege's LearningStudio to Canvas.  It's typically the case that there will be some things you could do in one LMS but not another.  Yet there are also things we couldn't do in LearningStudio that we could in Canvas.

Canvas only has a finite number of resources they can spend on certain projects...and so not everything that we would like to see can immediately be implemented...as much as we'd like them to be.  Yet sometimes Instructure will surprise us with something that didn't appear to very high on the priority list.  (I can tell you first-hand this has happened to at least one of the Feature Ideas I've submitted here in the Community.)  So, you never know.

I'd recommend following the https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers/releases because Canvas is updated every three weeks.  And, InstCon 2017 is coming up at the end of the month, and I'm sure there will be some nifty stuff they'll be announcing then, too.

ksmothers
Community Novice

Thanks!

kontrse
Community Member

I agree with you completely; I've come here to find out if this is a feature.  I have an open forum for questions/answers in a very large online class, and it is very frustrating not to be able to view the newest issue at the top of the forum.  

kontrse
Community Member

This is not as much of an issue in on ground classes, as I generally don't use the discussions section except for very limited threads.  However, this is a big issue in my online classes, especially large classes.  I separate the class into groups to allow for easier navigation on graded discussions but I cannot do that with open threads like ongoing questions or issues with the class, so a question from 3 weeks ago is at the top, while one from yesterday is 50 posts down.

thatcher_bohrma
Community Participant

How long does the radar last? 2.5yrs....?

The DB in Canvas is one of the weakest links for many reasons. I used to hate the Bb DB for it's incessant clutter, but I see by comparison (we switched in FA15) that it is superior functionally. Sorting new to old optionally would be a good start to improving it.

Thanks

scottdennis
Instructure
Instructure

Hey Thatcher,

I can definitely understand your frustration with this.  You're right.  The feature idea/request has been around for a long time.  To answer your question specifically though, there isn't a set amount of time something remains in Product Radar.  The stage indicates that we are aware of the request and how much interest there is in it as measured by the number of people voting and commenting.  This is one of the factors we consider when deciding what to prioritize for development but there isn't a clear commitment that when something has been in Product Radar for a certain period it will get built.  I know that doesn't help you with the hurdles you have with using discussion forums today but I hope the background information does help you.

Thanks,

Scott