Permission to Set Default Settings for Discussions at an Institutional Level or in Blueprint

[s_j_beale]

Hi there,

Something I've just found out the hard way as a student (while also working on the Canvas Team at my institution):

Default settings for Discussions do not allow students to edit/delete comments - this is not good and can lead to serious wellbeing implications for anyone who types words in incorrectly. 

Added to this, comments are immediately emailed to an entire cohort with default notifications settings, making for an alarming combination.

For instance, I wrote something a bit awkwardly and tried to edit it but couldn't, and it was immediately emailed out to the entire cohort through notifications.

My typo was minor but if it is a major point or something more serious, this could be extremely alarming and distressful for students.

Canvas Support have just confirmed that there is currently no way of setting this to allow students to edit/delete by default either at institutional level or through blueprint.

Telling staff to 'just turn this off' is also not sufficient as it is too hidden and relies on detailed knowledge.

Instead, harness the power of defaults and turn it on by default, or at least let institutions or blueprint designers choose this.

[Stef_retired]

@s_j_beale 

Thanks for sharing this idea. As it moves forward for broader conversation, you might want to check out these related ideas that focus on setting the permissions in roles rather than account settings:

In Permissions, Separate "Moderate discussions (delete/edit other's posts, lock topics)" into 3 perm...

Separate "Edit" and "Delete" discussion permissions

As an aside, although my memory might not be perfect on this, I believe that at one time students' ability to edit and delete discussion posts was the default—instructors who wanted to change it had to disable that setting in each of their courses— and a preponderance of instructors asked that it be changed.

Thanks again!

[s_j_beale]

"I believe that at one time students' ability to edit and delete discussion posts was the default—instructors who wanted to change it had to disable that setting in each of their courses— and a preponderance of instructors asked that it be changed."

I can understand both sides but I think giving the option to control the default setting through either a blueprint or at an institutional level would offer greatest flexibility and be best for Canvas users all round. We shall see what others think.

Thanks

[s_j_beale]

@Stef_retired I have since been told by colleagues that this functionality does already exist (despite Canvas Support agents saying it is not currently possible and it being approved here). Can you confirm whether users do have the option to control the points in the suggestion above?

Thanks,

Steve

[Stef_retired]

@s_j_beale 

I am not aware that this functionality exists, but perhaps your colleagues would be willing to elaborate.

[Steven_S]

Students are not allowed to edit or delete posts in discussions in which we also prevent them from seeing other posts before adding their own initial post, because these are methods to reducing cheating in the initial response to the prompt.  We are looking for the students' own response, not a barely paraphrased version of what the first two students wrote repeated 30 times.

After that initial response I would not mind allowing edits of reply posts, as long as prior versions were preserved for the instructor.  However, it is not currently possible to allow edits on only replies (not initial posts) and prior versions are not available to instructors when editing or deleting is allowed.  Instead, I encourage my students to reply to their own posts with updates as needed. 

A discussion is like a conversation, once you say something it cannot be unsaid, and so I have seen no reason to push for more editing options for student posts.  If a "wellbeing implication" (or more likely inappropriate and disruptive content) came up in a class, it is a simple matter for instructors to coordinate with the student by changing the setting just long enough for that important correction to be made as agreed.

With that said, the settings of a master course, copy with that master course into each new instance.  I'm not sure why blueprint might not copy some settings.  I think it was a failure to copy lockdown browser settings that kept us in master courses instead of blueprint.  A master course is just a canvas course without a section of students assigned.  The lead faculty prepares the course and all settings, and then the admin copies it out to every individual section where the students are enrolled.

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