Order Discussion Posts from Newest to Oldest

[canvas_admin]

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).

[scottdennis]

Thats a righteous beard, David, and the image reminds me of a Lemon Jelly video (a good thing  ).

[peeksas]

I use CourseSites which is a free, yet fully functional, version of Blackboard. It will make your life so much easier if you use the discussion board with large classes.

[freda_goodman]

This option is crucial and should happen immediately. I have never before worked on a platform that ordered discussions this way. My students are replying to old posts and the later ones get no replies from classmates. 

[KimHolly]

In this remote learning phase, technological sufficiency is imperative. We (teachers) are using discussion boards now more than ever, possibly. With that in mind, functionality is a key component to platform success. In order to use discussion boards seamlessly, it would be ideal to at the very least to have the ability to have newer posts appear at the top rather than the bottom. As it stands, it is a very annoying part of the course to use discussion boards, as we are constantly having to scroll to the bottom of a discussion board while having an active discussion. In courses where you have 40+ students and you are asking them to all participate and respond, scrolling to the bottom to read comments becomes tedious and defeats the advantage of the technology in the first place. Please get this fixed sooner rather than later. Thank you.

[pshassett]

Agreed.  This has been a feature request for 5+ years...

What will it take Instructure?

[nataliet]

This would be such a help to large discussions.   If this ever gets added, perhaps with it, add the ability to MINIMIZE threads in the discussion (ala Reddit).  I am both an instructor and a student and it would make life infinitely to have both these options in both regards. 

For example, I am a student in class with 30 others.  We often have to basically write essays in the discussion and respond with essays.  Trying scroll down through all of that, or just find anything, is almost impossible.

[kwhopson]

Even these replies are sorted oldest to newest. Canvas really needs to catch up to now and listen to its users.

[cameron_redsell]

How is this still an issue? The discussion boards are a huge improvement over our previous system, but I still struggle to recommend their use to students. Between sorting from old to new, and the virtual inability to use them on mobile, the Canvas discussion boards are better, but still unusable for actual student conversation. How is this still a problem after 5 years of posts in this forum?

[Cecilia_N]

Totally agree with this idea! Sorting of posts would be really helpful. The ability to minimize threads is also a strong request. 

[RobbyL]

This would be a great help.