(Re) Enable Canvas Studio media tabs for Assignment submissions
Greetings Canvas Studio community,
My institution, the University of St. Francis, in Joliet, has been using-- indeed we championed-- Canvas Studio ever since it first came out of the cradle as "Arc Video." Of enormous import to our instructors, especially those in the college of nursing, was the ability for students to upload videos to assignments with comments enabled so that instructors could, privately to the student, reinforce or remediate performance with specific "bubble" comments at critical points on the timeline. Over the years, scores if not hundreds of nursing students have uploaded physical assessment videos and received feedback in a convenient way that made grading available and easy for instructors.
As of the Canvas Studio Release reported on June 28, 2021, that capability has been turned off by Canvas. There is no reasonable explanation for this. The ability to "allow comments" has now been converted the jargon of "display media tabs."
When I reported this as a problem to Canvas it got escalated to Level 2 and their personnel notified me that the ability to "display media tabs" was still retained in IOS device submissions (iPhones) and that "this has been escalated to our mobile engineers so that they can take a look at this." I presume, then, that the ability for nursing and other students to submit videos from their iPhones to Canvas assignments has now, also, been put at risk. Imagine, from students cell phones-- one of the most convenient and practical solutions students have had for handling video in the context of assignment submissions may be terminated.
Why?
I myself teach video production: editing and documentary-making. The ability to create a Canvas assignment that prompts the student to submit a rough cut to an assignment for grading and evaluation has been extremely valuable for both myself and students. No hoops to jump through, as there would be with sharing the video in the Studio environment.
I argue that the decision to eliminate comments, "media tabs," in student assignment submissions is ill-conceived and should be reversed immediately. It is wrong-headed, or at least wrongly informed. Or worse, it was cavalier and not informed by any evidence whatsoever.
Canvas Studio remains a useful tool at USF for so many reasons as I'm sure it is for other institutions that have embraced and adopted it, for quizzing, annotations, and assessment (even with assignments turned off). But this is a step backward that now invites competitive scrutiny of other applications.
Bring back comments to video assignment submissions in Canvas Studio. Reinstate!
Glen Gummess, Ed.D.
Educational Technologist
University of St. Francis
Joliet, IL. 60435
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