@ mentions in Discussion forums

[hollands]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

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You have a class of 30 and there are three Tom's, how can we differentiate who we are talking to?

[snugent]

Yes this is a much needed feature. I am currently taking a Canvas net course and this would be super helpful with a discussion with over 2000 posts!

[Chris_Hofer]

This would be a great feature inside of Canvas courses, "Dr. Zoidberg"!  🙂

[730843]

+1 for @mentions and notifications. Yes, you can subscribe to discussion threads, but getting notified when you're mentioned would be a great way to pull folks back into the conversation.

[hollands]

730843​ exactly! The subscribe feature is great but you can end up swamped with emails that may or may not pertain to you as a student. Having an @mention with the same functionality as here would be 100% awesome.

[dhulsey]

Well put, Shaun. I concur.

[sharris]

Great idea ! This would be a really nice addition.

[cgaudreau]

This would be a great way to call attention to the standard "I agree/disagree" replies, almost goading the poster to defend their stance.

[hollands]

I'm glad to see the beta environment has "Likes" in the discussion forum. I think it's a great addition and hopefully we can get some traction during this voting period to get @mentions.

Just the other day I had 2 separate instructors come to me to ask if there was an easier way to organize discussions that have multiple threads and replies. Even as a student it can be confusing, and it in  a way forces me to troll the forums daily just to be sure I don't miss something.

[corey_jeffers]

We just signed a contract this month with Canvas for a district of 10,000 students. All of the teachers who tried the product asked the question, "Where's the +mention or @mention feature?" They are used to Twitter and/or Google+, and they have developed some strategies for organically created sub-conversations within discussions in which this feature supports. I'm glad likes will be coming soon before the rest of the staff are trained. However, I'm a little nervous to go back to them and say, "I'm sorry, but you can't do this in Canvas." Hopefully I can get more of them on this community and get them voting!

[corey_jeffers]

Totally agree 730843​! This personalizes the conversation a little more and increases participation. There is a reason it is effective in social media applications, and none of them can be taken seriously until this feature exists.