Students assigned to sections cannot see discussions as part of normal flow of content

[LSov]

Hey there,

I've had an issue with a subject where we had students in two sections: A and B. When they clicked next from one page to the next, it would always skip over the discussions. For example,

4.1 Marketing basics

4.2 Marketing basics discussion

4.3 Marketing advanced

In the above case, when they clicked next on the 4.1 page, Canvas would ignore the 4.2 discussion and move onto 4.3, meaning a lot of students did not know the discussion existed unless they actively looked for it in the discussions tab. We removed one student from their section and reassigned her and it seemed to help, but we're only now realizing it was a problem for most students. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and what your fix was.

Thanks very much!

L

[Hildi_Pardo · Accepted solution]

Hello, Here are some thoughts:

• was the discussion Published?
• If so, was it a graded discussion, and therefore did you you Assign it to the sections (or to everyone?).  If it is not "assigned" to the section, they will not be able to see/access it.

Canvas Guide:  How do I assign a graded discussion to a course section?

[LSov]

They were all published, sections had been created, the discussions were associated with the sections and students were assigned to their sections so that's why I'm especially confused

[Hildi_Pardo]

Hmmm.... It's hard to know without being able to see. 

Only other thing I can think of is since it sounds like the Sections were manually created (and students manually added to the Sections), if perhaps there was some issue there.   Especially since you "removed one student from their section and reassigned her and it seemed to help, but we're only now realizing it was a problem for most students."   Wondering if it was something with the Sections and adding of students.

[gnoack]

One question, if it is assigned to all sections, why not assign it to Everyone instead of sections.   If you are using different due dates, I believe that may be the issue.  You can't assign discussions to sections if they have different due dates.  Instead, you'd have to duplicate the discussion and then assign each to the different sections.  At least, that is my understanding and what I have done in the past. 

"You can include more than one section in the To field as long as the section is to be assigned the same due and availability dates."   From: How do I assign a graded discussion to a course section?

Also, if removing and adding a student helped, you might try removing the assigned sections.  Save the discussion, then edit again and assign the sections again.