Meet Tamas: Our New Discussions Product Manager

[TamasBalogh]

Hello Community Members, I’m Tamas Balogh, the new Product Manager for Discussions. Some of you might remember me from when I was the Technical Product Manager for New Quizzes. I left Instructure in March, but I'm excited to announce that I’m back!

This time, I'll be overseeing Discussions, Announcements, Inbox, and Collaborations. I'm eager to work with all of you to improve these features. In the coming weeks, you’ll see me collaborating with Sam Garza to communicate the changes for the Discussions Redesign.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback on Discussions. If you’re open to sharing your experiences, please reach out to your Customer Success Managers to schedule a meeting.

Also, my team and I will start exploring how to further refine Discussions and doing discovery on additional innovations to add, so please keep an eye out for blog posts from me if you are interested in shaping the future of how educators and learners communicate and collaborate with one another.

I'm back

[James_Kocher_UF]

Welcome back!

[chriscas]

Welcome back, Tamas!

You're out of the "new quizzes fire" now, but got thrown right into the "discussions frying pan" (I know the saying is backwards, but it's appropriate).  You're a brave person!

-Chris

[JeffreyGamble]

Hi! As an end-user, I enjoy working with Canvas to create course content and manage my classes. What's the preferred method to suggest changes or report bugs in the latest discussion module update? 

Thanks and good luck!

Jeff Gamble - End User

[TamasBalogh]

Thank you @James_Kocher_UF and @chriscas! 

Hi @JeffreyGamble, I'm happy to hear that! You should report bugs by contacting the Support team and raise a support ticket. For suggesting new ideas or changes, please check if the idea is already submitted by others, and if not, suggest a new idea.

[davidjkobb]

The sorting and filter settings a user applies while within Discussions should be saved and not need to re-applied after the user leaves and returns to Discussions.

[snugent]

Welcome back, Tamas!

I agree with @davidjkobb that desired settings should stick when applied. I know the biggest issue we will have going into the fall is the hidden edit button for instructors. I really wish that the Edit and Publish buttons in discussions were consistent with other areas of Canvas. For students, the assignment settings do not display as prominently like they did with the old discussion interface. Our faculty are eagerly awaiting the checkpoints feature so any updates on this will be greatly appreciated. 

[SimoneMcKinney]

I am excited to be a part of the discussion board. I am excited to learn and also help others if possible.

[patrickdorls]

Great news! Welcome back, Tamas!

[dbrace]

Welcome back!

[mwolfenstein]

Welcome back @TamasBalogh.  I'm hoping we can get a firm date soon on checkpoints. Last update said Q3 which we're in the middle of now. Can we still expect this feature this quarter or is it likely to be pushed further back?

[stimme]

@TamasBalogh Welcome back to Instructure! 

Here is an idea shared in the Redesign feature preview user group that I hope you will consider:

Mobile app text size and color 

[TamasBalogh]

Thank you all!
@mwolfenstein, @SamGarza1 and her team is working on checkpoint, you should look out for an update from her in the upcoming weeks. 

@davidjkobb , @snugent thank you for your feedback. Would you mind create ideas for these in the Community? It would be appreciated, thanks!

@stimme we have been making some UI tweaks to Discussion Redesign, especially for mobile views which hopefully will solve some of the issues mentioned in your link, but will take more actions if it's needed. 

[mwolfenstein]

Awesome! I didn't know if Sam was still on the project or if you were stepping into that role. I look forward to continue working with both of you!

[RachelSalmon]

Hi all! 

Has anyone else noticed that when grading a Discussion in Speedgrader, when you view replies by a student, you can no longer see who they were replying to. That used to be the case prior to the Discussion Redesign but now it just say which discussion board and when the post was but not who they are replying to. Am I missing something?

[AnaDeLaM]

Hello @TamasBalogh, 

Welcome back! 

We’ve been receiving considerable feedback from faculty regarding challenges with applying Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) in their courses. One issue is that students have difficulty identifying which posts have already received feedback, leading to some posts receiving 5-8 replies while others go unnoticed. While I understand that faculty may need to train students to search for posts without replies, is there anything in development to help streamline this process for faculty?

Additionally, we have a team of instructional designers assisting faculty in building discussion post templates. Currently, when a designer creates a post, it shows them as the author. Are there any plans to allow designers to set the instructor of record as the author of discussion posts?

Thank you! -