Podcast Discussions need to be more user-friendly

[claire_obrien]

The idea is great in principle but the issues I have are:

(1) students cannot see the "Topic Podcast Feed" button in the App in order to copy the link. The whole point of podcasts is mainly to listen to them quickly on the go i.e. on your smartphone.The devices you listen to podcasts on are the same devices you will most likely be accessing Canvas via the app rather than through a browser. However, if you want to get the URL you have to copy the link in the Discussion via the browser, not the app, in your phone (which can be confusing for students), or alternatively open Canvas in your computer, copy the link, email it to yourself, open the email app in your phone, copy it, then go to whatever podcast software you have and find a way to paste the URL to manually subscribe yourself. Very convoluted process that I think would put a lot of unnecessary pressure on staff to essentially provide tech support for students along the way (there could be over 100 of them in a module). This process does not support the whole 'quick on-the-go' concept.

(Also, once I did all of this on a student account, I then discovered once I had subscribed that I did not have the "record/upload media" button in my RCE in the App. So I would also have to now record myself separately using a recorder in my phone and then upload it as a file to the conversation. Another deterrent I feel for students to engage and contribute to the activity. However, this is a separate issue that is already open for voting -Record audio/video in discussion post.)

[awilliams]

Hi,  @claire_obrien . I think these are two separate feature ideas and we need each idea submission to be singular. The second part seems quite similar to https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/10203-record-audiovideo-in-discussion-post" modifiedtitle="tru.... Once you have reviewed that other idea, could you modify this one to describe a single idea and you can submit other parts in separate submissions. I'll place this idea in moderation for now. Let me know if you have any questions.

[claire_obrien]

The idea is great in principle but the issues I have are:

(1) students cannot see the "Topic Podcast Feed" button in the App in order to copy the link. The whole point of podcasts is mainly to listen to them quickly on the go i.e. on your smartphone.The devices you listen to podcasts on are the same devices you will most likely be accessing Canvas via the app rather than through a browser. However, if you want to get the URL you have to copy the link in the Discussion via the browser, not the app, in your phone (which can be confusing for students), or alternatively open Canvas in your computer, copy the link, email it to yourself, open the email app in your phone, copy it, then go to whatever podcast software you have and find a way to paste the URL to manually subscribe yourself. Very convoluted process that I think would put a lot of unnecessary pressure on staff to essentially provide tech support for students along the way (there could be over 100 of them in a module). This process does not support the whole 'quick on-the-go' concept.

(Also, once I did all of this on a student account, I then discovered once I had subscribed that I did not have the "record/upload media" button in my RCE in the App. So I would also have to now record myself separately using a recorder in my phone and then upload it as a file to the conversation. Another deterrent I feel for students to engage and contribute to the activity. However, this is a separate issue that is already open for voting -Record audio/video in discussion post.)

[KristinL]

Thank you for sharing this idea with the Instructure Community!

The Product Team reviewed all feature proposals recently, and unfortunately, this thread was identified as one that they would not be able to include in their current or future plans. While we appreciate your proposal, we also want to be transparent about the likelihood of something like this making it to production.

Thank you for collaborating, and we hope that you submit another idea in the future!