[Discussions] Subject Lines for Discussions

[snugent]

I created a similar suggestion about six months ago. I figured I would try again since there is renewed interest in making discussions more user friendly.

Add more distinction between discussion forum posts to distinguish them from each other.

So here is what I think subject lines would do for discussions.

• Instructors and students could at glance see what threads interest them for further viewing.
• Adds distinction between threads
• Makes the discussion topic more organized

[peeksas]

I posted this in another discussion thread but it bears repeating:

To me, I cannot understand why Universities and Colleges are choosing to use Canvas when features that are in every other Learning Platform are missing from Canvas? What bothers me more is that teachers have been frustrated for over three years about this inability for students to include a subject line in their posts which would make the discussion board much more organized and productive and yet Canvas will not add this feature to their platform. I continue to use CourseSites which is free until Canvas updates their platform to have the basic features that are needed to create a better experience for students. And the system in place at Canvas that says, "Suggest an idea, get enough up-votes, we'll see if it is worthy of consideration, then we will go into possible planning phases, and maybe five years later, the feature you want will be scheduled to be implemented in two years" is not a customer-centered approach regardless of the illusion of being customer-centered.

[rnavel]

Discussions need to have a Subject text box line to be able to distinguish posts. Sometimes an instructor requires a student to post more than one time. Typing a different Subject helps both the student and the instructor keep the posts separate, plus a Subject gives the other classmates an idea of what is addressed int he post. This is especially important in large online classes. Also, when a student replies to a student, there needs to be some indication in SpeedGrader that the post is a reply. For example: RE: ....

[Nancy_Webb_CCSF]

I know the Canvas programmers are busy with the new RCE, new quizzes, and other roadmap items, but we do need improvements in discussions. Threads need some loving attention.

Remember everybody needs to give ideas they support 5 stars, our previous votes were lost in the move to the new Canvas Community.

You might want to vote/comment on this idea too:  Teacher-created Discussion threads or sub-topics

And this: Collapse Replies in Discussions by default

Thanks all!

[lshulman]

I see that this discussion started SIX YEARS AGO and we still do not have subject lines. 

This was one thing I missed when my institution moved from Blackboard to Canvas. I ask students to use the first line of their post as a "subject line". That way it will display the topic of their comments even when the post is "collapsed". Many students neglect to do this or use a misleading statement as a subject line. I just edit the post myself, as needed, to assure that these subject lines are more clear , accurate and explicit.

@Jeff_F observed that replies to any given thread would all have the same subject line and this is redundant and not very helpful. I can see where only the top level post for any thread might need the subject line. But if users were able to edit the subject line in replies, that would be more helpful if the topic of discussion changes as replies go deeper. OTOH, having the same subject line for all replies in any given thread can be helpful when using Speed Grader to view one student's posts to any one discussion. In Speed grader, the posts are taken out of context, but if replies use the same subject line as initial posts, you can quickly see how many different threads that student replied to when viewing their posts within Speed Grader.