How do I use Discussions Redesign as an instructor?

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If enabled by your institution, you can use Discussions Redesign to provide an enhanced experience for course discussions. When enabled in your course, Discussions Redesign displays for all discussions and all users in your course.

Discussions Redesign is currently a beta feature. Some discussion settings and features in the classic Discussions interface may not function or be available in Discussions Redesign. The following features are currently in development for Discussions Redesign: rubrics, peer reviews, group discussions, availability dates, closing discussions for comments, restricting students from editing and deleting their own posts, podcast feeds, and requiring students to post before seeing replies.

Note: If Discussions Redesign is not available in your course, it has not been enabled by your institution.

Enable Feature Preview

In order to use Discussions Redesign in your course, you first need to enable the feature preview from Course Settings. If the feature preview is not available, it has not been enabled by your institution.

Open Feature Options

In Course Navigation, click the Settings link [1]. Then click the Feature Previews tab [2].

Enable Discussions Redesign

Locate the Discussions Redesign feature preview [1] and click the State icon so it displays as enabled [2].

Learn more about managing feature previews in your course.

Note: If the feature preview is not available, it has not been enabled by your institution. Contact your Canvas administrator for assistance.

Open Discussion

To view a discussion in the Discussions Redesign interface, click the Discussions link in Course Navigation [1]. Then click the name of the discussion [2].

To create a new discussion, click the Add Discussion button [3].

View Discussion

A discussion displayed in the Discussions Redesign interface includes three sections: the discussion toolbar [1], discussion topic [2], and discussion replies [3]. 

View Discussion Toolbar

The discussion toolbar remains at the top of the screen when you are viewing discussion replies.

To search for replies or specific authors, enter your terms in the search field [1].

To filter replies, click the Filter drop-down menu [2].

You can filter by all replies or unread replies. To sort replies by newest or oldest, click the Sort button [3].

To return to the top of a discussion, click the Top button [4].

View Discussion Topic

The discussion topic section includes important information about the discussion, including the discussion title [1] and description [2].

You can also view the name of the author [3], the date and time the discussion was published [4], an indicator for a graded discussion [5], the number of points possible [6], due date [7], and number of replies [8].

View Discussion Options

The discussion topic section also includes several tools that allow you to manage your discussion.

To publish or unpublish the discussion, click the Publish icon [1]. To subscribe to or unsubscribe from the discussion, click the Subscribe icon [2].

To open the discussion's Options menu, click the Options icon [3]. To edit discussion details, click the Edit link [4]. To delete the discussion, click the Delete link [5].

To close the discussion for comments, click the Close for Comments link [6]. To send the discussion to another instructor, click the Sent To... link [7]. To copy the discussion to another course, click the Copy To... link [8].

To open the discussion in SpeedGrader, click the Open in SpeedGrader link [9]. To manage the discussion rubric, click the Show Rubric link [9].

View Discussion Replies

Discussion replies display below the discussion topic. Learn how to reply to a discussion and view and sort discussion replies.

View Rich Content Editor

When creating or editing discussion topics or replies, you enter and edit your content using the Rich Content Editor. The Rich Content Editor allows you to format text, link text to course or external content, insert media, and attach files. Learn more about using the Rich Content Editor.