[Discussions] Export Discussions

Please consider a feature that will allow students to export discussions and related threads. This can be a helpful resource at the end of the course. Professors will want the ability to release discussions for export so a release date option would be needed.

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81 Comments
scottdennis
Instructure
Instructure

Hello Cynthia,

Thank you for taking the time to submit to the feature ideas forum.

I just now updated your idea submission to the queue that will open for vote on May 5th.

Cheers,

Scott

rochowd
Community Novice

This is a really good idea. It is also very useful for dealing with accreditation issues..

CindiKerns
Community Participant
Author

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for your suggestions in additional ways to use the exported material. Your ideas provide strong rationale for this feature request. I am glad you thought of the accreditation angle, that just expanded the usefulness of this feature to more offices on campus. I also appreciate the idea of using previous discussion material for starters in new courses. May I have your permission to share that with new online faculty? Have a great day!

Peace,

Cindi Tomes

hyeyoung
Community Novice

Yes. I requested the same feature to our IT team, and they informed me you already requested this feature. I would like to download the contents on discussion board to value students' opinions on each topic.

745992
Community Novice

There are some faculty that care very deeply about this feature. In the meantime one workaround I have found is  Evernote webclipper's article grabber. It is useful for scraping all of the discussion content, and ignores the navbar elements. Once all the discussions are clipped I print them all to PDF and combine them in Acrobat. The index is useful for students, and the PDF is  searchable. This takes a lot of work, and it would be ideal if something were built into Canvas.

rochowd
Community Novice

Cynthia,

Yes feel free to share.

rochowd
Community Novice

Andy,

Thanks. I will try that.

CindiKerns
Community Participant
Author

Thanks!

thayerm
Community Novice

Hi, There was a similar request in the old voting system so this is definitely something people want. I would like to see it have these capabilities -

For students - That there they have 2 export options: The first option to Download My Responses Only which would only download their posts specifically. The second option would be Download Entire Discussion Thread. I thought about another that would allow the students to only download their original posts and the posts of others they replied to, but I wasn't sure what to call it or if that would be something others would see value in?

For instructors - I think an option to Download Entire Discussion Thread would be valuable. I also think they may want an option to download specific parts of the discussion - like any posts by individual students. Though if an assignment the instructor can read through the posts in Speedgrader, this gives them a way to single out a student as an good example for future semesters by being able to download as a PDF. I am not sure if that would be needed but it was another idea.

leilaninautu
Community Novice

Aloha, 

Please consider this option for both students and instructor - I serve in both roles.  This would be helpful

to share with administrators on the campus about the successes and things we need to work on.