Reduce, Re-Use, and Re-Commons: Content Sharing with Commons

[kmcgee]

Ever wanted to shorten the time it takes to re-design your courses? Ever wished you could leverage course material in a way that was simple? Ever dreamed of collaborating in ways that makes versioning and notification of changes automatic? Let's do our part in the educational environment to reduce, re-use and re-Commons. Come learn about Canvas Commons, the learning object repository that actually gets used.

Presenter: Kate McGee​ - Instructure

  Location Map & Room: SILVERADO 1

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[Chris_Hofer]

Hi Deactivated user​...

I wasn't able to attend instcon this year, but I have a question about Commons.  Our CSM just enabled Commons in our "test" environment for us to play around with.  In my sandbox course (we'll call this course "A"), I created a wiki page containing a few paragraphs of text and an image.  Next, I shared it to Commons, but I shared it only with me (private).  Next, I navigated to another course of mine (we'll call this course "B"), and I imported the page I shared to Commons to this course.  Then, I went back to course "A" and made an edit to that wiki page.  After I saved the page, I went to course "B" in hopes that the same page I imported from Commons would have updated itself, too.  It didn't, so I thought I also needed to go back and update the data for the page I shared directly in Commons.  So I wrote some notes in Commons on what I updated, and I was able to see the time/date stamp of my comments.  Even after updating the Commons page, the wiki page in course "B" hadn't updated with the changes I made from course "A".

Is Commons supposed to have an "update once, distribute to many" model?  How do people know that content they've imported into their own course from Commons has been updated by the owner?

EDIT: I was able to find the answer to my own question.  But for the benefit of others who might be reading, I had to go into the Commons environment again, access my shared page, and there was a button at the top asking me if I wanted to update the course (in this case, course "B") that the content was also in.  Slick!!! 

[kmcgee]

Hi Chris,

Glad you were able to figure this one out!

The update functionality does need a minute or so to be reflected in the UI, so a user might have to wait and refresh a few times for the update to show as available for an update in Commons.

Here's also a link to the guide on updating resources: How do I update a resource I previously shared to Commons?​

Thanks for your question!

Best,

Kate McGee

Commons Product Manager

[cfierro]

Chris, I tested this out last Monday.  Here is a screenshot taken by shight​ after I updated an object.  Shannon had the ability to click on "view update notes" so see what the changes were.  That update can be very helpful for an instructor needing to decide to keep the item "as is" or download the update. 

Then, what is even more helpful - clicking on "Updates (1)" showed Shannon which course she had added that object to.

Here is a screenshot showing the note for the update.  Notice Shannon is given the choice to "update" or "dismiss":

[Chris_Hofer]

Thank you for this.  I submitted a Feature Idea for Commons called because I'd like to see some indicators right in the course of when an object from Commons is used.  Hopefully it will get some more votes.

[cfierro]

 @Chris_Hofer 

I voted.  It would be great to have analytics documenting the sharing.

We also need to be able to add co-authors.

[Chris_Hofer]

Thanks...I voted for the idea you linked.

[CommunityTeam]

The session video is now available at: