Please allow faculty to disable/block/enable features

[am24993]

It would be of great benefit to be able to add, delete, and rename categories in the top-level menu at the lefthand side of all course Module screens.  

It would also be helpful to be able to block features--the Canvas messaging system does not work properly with our campus e-mail system.  I tell students not to use it, but it would be better to be able to block it entirely from a course and avoid wasting their time.

There should also be a way to disable options for assignment submissions--I want to make Canvas present my students with no other option than uploading a file in one of the listed formats.  I go through year after year and "restrict file upload types," but it does not actually restrict anything.

Conversely, faculty should be able to force-e-mail announcements as we could in Blackboard; it should not be a decision left up to student-controlled settings.

🔎 This idea has been archived. While this idea isn't open for comments, it is an important part of Instructure’s idea conversations and development process. Contributions like this are valuable as Instructure prioritizes work on new or existing features.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi @am24993 ...

You've got several different ideas going on here, and they will need to be separated out one by one so that you are following the Guidelines outlined in this document:

How do I create a new idea conversation in the Ins... - Instructure Community

(See the section about mid-way down called "Submission Guidelines: Have one idea per conversation.)

I'm not sure I can address every part of your posting, but I'll try my best...

It would be of great benefit to be able to add, delete, and rename categories in the top-level menu at the lefthand side of all course Module screens.  

Are you asking about the icons displayed on the left-hand global navigation menu such as Account, Dashboard, Courses, Calendar, Inbox, etc.?  How do I use the Global Navigation Menu as an inst... - Instructure Community  If so, most of those icons come "out of the box" when a school signs a contract with Canvas.  Most of those icons are helpful to people in some way, so I'm not sure that deleting one would be of great benefit.  (There's nothing that I know of at a Canvas admin level where you can turn those off for people.  Maybe it can be done programmatically?  But, that may turn off a button for everyone...not just you.)  Conversely, I have seen posting here in the Community from time to time where people have added a custom icon or two to the Global Navigation menu.  Of course, that fills up the menu with more icons...which may not always be wanted by people.  As far as editing the names of those icons is concerned...the potential problem I see with that is then the Guides here in the Canvas Community no longer match the terminology that your school would choose to use.  For example, if you re-named the "Inbox" to something else, then the Guides here in the Community for the Inbox wouldn't match the terminology that your school used.

It would also be helpful to be able to block features--the Canvas messaging system does not work properly with our campus e-mail system.  I tell students not to use it, but it would be better to be able to block it entirely from a course and avoid wasting their time.

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Not really sure how to help with this one.  By "messaging system", are you referring to the Canvas Inbox?  Keep in mind that the Inbox is not the same as e-mail.  For example, you cannot send a message via the Canvas Inbox to your friends or family because they are most likely not enrolled in the same course(s) you are.  On the flip side, those friends and family cannot send you messages that would be viewable in the Canvas Inbox.  The Inbox is for communication between instructors and students enrolled in courses.  Have you worked with your school's Online Learning/eLearning team to troubleshoot why your campus e-mail system isn't working as it should with the Canvas Inbox / messaging system?

There should also be a way to disable options for assignment submissions--I want to make Canvas present my students with no other option than uploading a file in one of the listed formats.  I go through year after year and "restrict file upload types," but it does not actually restrict anything.

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In my own previous testing, I've found that restricting file types does work fairly well.  To be sure, when you are specifying acceptable file types for your assignment(s), are you following the example as outlined in How do I create an online assignment? - Instructure Community?  It's been my experience when helping our own faculty that sometimes instructors will not specify the file types correctly, and this causes issues for students not being able to submit their documents to the instructor.  So, for example, in the "Restrict Upload File Types" box, are you specifying file extensions like this?

Notice here I am not using periods before the file types, and there are no spaces between commas.  I realize the Guide I linked to does say you can include spaces and periods, but I've had better luck just following the above example which I've circled in yellow.

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Conversely, faculty should be able to force-e-mail announcements as we could in Blackboard; it should not be a decision left up to student-controlled settings.

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Notifications coming from Canvas are controlled by the user.  So, students can choose when and how to get notified of course activity in Canvas.  This can be done at both the user account level and then also at the course level.

• How do I manage my Canvas notification settings as a student? - Instructure Community
• How do I manage notifications for a single course as a student? - Instructure Community

I hope this information will be of some help to you.  Sing out if you have questions...thanks!

[KristinL]

Hi @am24993 - Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with the Community! @Chris_Hofer - Thank you for sharing your insights and linking to the resources!

As Chris shared, please make sure that each request for new functionality or features has its own thread. That way, the Community Team can better address each topic. It also makes it possible for Community Members to offer their user stories too.