More options for organizing discussions?

[guntiss]

My class has four modules, each containing a set of about 10-15 items to discuss one-by-one. 

We finish each module with a big round-up discussion of the 15 items.

Then we go on to another module & set of items & discussions.  But students are encouraged to revisit and continue discussions from previous modules.

This gets very messy with only three options in canvas - pinned, unpinned, closed for discussion. If a student misses a day or two, it's impossible to understand all of the ongoing discussions, some current, some less important, and some peripheral. 

Is there any way of separating out modules / groups of smaller, related discussions?

What I need is some kind of organized "discussion rooms" for sets of related discussions, for example: 

Module 1

-discussion 1 (pinned), 9 other discussions (unpinned)

Module 2

-discussion 1 (pinned), 9 other discussions (unpinned)

etc.

Please help.

[chofer · Accepted solution]

Hello guntiss@uw.edu Welcome to the Canvas Community.  Thanks for posting your question.  I have a couple questions for you:

1. Do you allow your students to see both the "Modules" and the "Discussions" course navigation buttons inside your Canvas course?  If so, have you considered hiding the "Discussions" menu from your students and organizing your discussion topics the way you want only via your "Modules" page?  (See How do I manage Course Navigation links? for more information.)  Or, maybe you're already doing this?
2. Related to #1, have you considered organizing your content by using headers (How do I add a text header as a module item?) and also indenting (How do I edit module items?) your items how you want them?  Based on your example, you could maybe do something like this:

MODULE 1

Pinned Discussions (Header item)

   Topic #1

Unpinned Discussion (Header item)

   Topic #2

   Topic #3

   etc.

In a way, you're replicating the "Discussions" index page...but with more organization.  Would that work for your needs?

[guntiss]

Thank you!  These are perfect solutions.  I just didn't understand how modules work, now I do!  Thanks

[chofer]

guntiss@uw.edu...

You're welcome!  Yes, "Modules" are really used to organize all of the content in your course.  So, you can put in content pages, quizzes, discussion topics, assignments, etc. into your "Modules" page and organize all of that however you want.  Then, you can hide all those navigation buttons (Pages, Quizzes, Discussions, Assignments, etc.) so that your students only access your content via "Modules".  Glad that I was able to help you out, Guntis.