Discussion Checkpoints: Update Based on Your Feedback!

SamGarza1

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A huge thank you to everyone who participated in our recent survey about Discussion Checkpoints! Your feedback is invaluable, and we're excited to share how it's shaping this feature. Based on your input, we're making some key improvements that will be released to the beta environment on February 26th and to the production environment on March 12th behind the Checkpoints feature flag.

More Control Over Your Gradebook Experience:

Toggle and Setting for Default View: We heard you! You'll soon be able to choose your preferred default view for the gradebook (either the condensed or the in context view). The set default is the condensed view. And don't worry, you can still easily switch between the two views whenever you like.

Speedgrader option modal showing new Default Discussions View settings

Improved Navigation in Discussions:

Smarter "Previous" and "Next" Reply Buttons: Navigating long discussion threads just got easier. The updated buttons will clearly show you how many total replies an individual has and which reply you're currently viewing.
"Go to First Post" and "Go to Last Post" Buttons: Jump to the first or last post of an individual with a single click.
No More Endless Clicking: We've fixed the issue where you can continuously click the "next" button even after reaching the last reply.

In context view of Discussions in Speedgrader

Accessibility is a Priority:

Thorough Accessibility Audit: These changes to Speedgrader for Discussions have undergone a full accessibility audit by our internal team to ensure everyone can use this feature effectively. The audit focused on key accessibility areas, including how keyboard and screen reader users navigate the interface. Specifically, we addressed navigation between views and how the previous and next reply buttons facilitate moving between posts.

These improvements will be released to the beta environment on February 26th and to the production environment on March 12th behind the Checkpoints feature flag. Users who kept the Checkpoints feature on can expect to see these updates on March 12th. For users who would like to have the Checkpoints feature flag turned on in their account please reach out to your CSM. We're committed to making Discussion Checkpoints the best they can be and will have additional improvements in future deploys. This feature is currently available at the root account level. We encourage you to consider this as your institution discusses enabling the feature.

Stay tuned for these updates, and keep that feedback coming!

ProfessorBeyrer

Thank you @SamGarza1 for including the accessibility audit on your announcement. I look forward to exploring this improvement in beta later this week and hope that the keyboard shortcut "c" to jump directly to the Comments filed (like "r" works for rubric and "g" for grade) will be re-enabled.

cmoeggenberg

Who do I contact to gain access to this in our Feature Options? I am a Canvas Admin and I do not see it as a Feature for our district.

SamGarza1

@ProfessorBeyrer That fix is unfortunately not in this upcoming deploy but is on our team's upcoming to do.

@cmoeggenberg This feature flag is currently hidden, and you'll need to contact your CSM to have it enabled.

KeriSalyards

That's great, my faculty will be really happy (if it works, of course). Question, will the SpeedGrader view toggle work for all discussions in SpeedGrader, or only those with Checkpoints turned on?

Tasha_Weaver

Looking forward to checking out these improvements - they sound great! Is there anything on the horizon about the rubric functionality? We have two things on our wishlist:

--Being able to use the rubric to grade (rubric auto-populates the grade)

--Being able to use a rubric with criteria that apply to both the student's initial post and subsequent replies. For example, we typically have an APA/grammar criterion that instructors use to evaluate all posts/replies. Right now, in Checkpoints, you have to divide the points between the initial post and the replies.

rmartini

@SamGarza1 - Are these updates delayed in Beta? I just checked but I'm not seeing the updated SpeedGrader interface in our beta instance. I can add checkpoints but I'm not able to see the condensed/with context views in SpeedGrader and I don't see the new buttons.