Progress and Partnership: Your Feedback, Our Actions

[shirenv]

We’ve been working hard since my last post, and we’ve made some progress. Over the past few months, my teams and I have had the chance to meet many of you in several global cities. Your time, candid feedback, and constructive ideas are deeply appreciated.

Here's where we stand on addressing your concerns:

• Small Pain Points - The first update was provided in May. You may now enjoy our second update, published earlier this month.
• Larger Needs - The first update was provided in May. We’re excited to share a follow-up from the second discovery session hosted in Salt Lake - watch for more throughout July & August. 
• Major Overhaul Items - We’re re-architecting some of the core infrastructure to address foundational issues. Our CTO, Michael Lysaght, will share more at InstructureCon with additional details to follow in a late July blog post. 
• Roadmap Items - Here's a summary of our latest updates to roadmap items in the Product Blog:
• Progress Update on Checkpoints
• Progress Update on Selective Release
• Studio Automatically Captions any Uploaded Media from Today
• Progress Update on Rubrics
• Studio Navigation Update & Picture-in-Picture Support
• Mastering Offline Functionality
• Exciting News: New Lucid Integration Available in Canvas LMS Beta!
• Update on Recent Enhancements in Commons
• Check in on Checkpoints
• Update on Discussion Redesign: Reported Replies as a Feature Option
• The latest on releasing modules to students and sections
• Ideas & Themes - We’ve continued to read every idea you’ve submitted. We’ve also been consuming the insights you and Product team members have provided on what is needed for a constructive product feedback process. We haven't met our original timeline for creating a clear and collaborative feedback process, but we're not giving up. We might need to take a step back to move forward. We’re committed to working with you to find the best solutions.

Moving Forward, Here’s What to Expect:

• Continued Focus on Small Pain Points and Larger Needs - On average 3 to 4 updates are posted to the Product blog weekly, and you can continue to expect that frequency. We also will continue facilitating discovery sessions, sharing the experiences and results of discovery sessions, and asking participants to share their perspective as an attendee, on a more regular basis. 
• Monthly Communications from me, the CPO - I believe it’s crucial you continue to hear from my teams regularly via the Product blog. I know it's important to you that you hear from me, too. I’m committed to monthly updates, sharing our successes, strategies, and a bit of inspiration.  Starting this August, I’m excited to bring this consistency to my updates.
• Continued Updates for Roadmap Items - We’ve developed a solution that lets you subscribe to updates for specific products. This way, you only get the notifications you want.
• A Clear and Collaborative Path for Product Feedback - We’re working on simplifying the feedback process and improving our communication about priorities. We want to collaborate with you more effectively on what’s being prioritized.

Thank you for your continued partnership and for holding us accountable. I look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas as we explore the Ed-cosystem together.

[dkpst5]

You have no idea how people at my institution are loving this new focus on the small and medium updates. The UX polish, the small pain points... These things have had as much joyous reaction from faculty and IDs here as the big changes. We're glad to hear it's going to be a continuing focus!

[Jeff_F]

@shirenv  - Dear Sir - 

This comprehensive overview is excellent, and I am proud to be associated with Instructure. As a Canvas administrator, a faculty member with 26 years of experience, a community member for nine years, and a staunch advocate for my peers, I write today in an advocacy role.

I have been eagerly anticipating senior leadership's input on the status of the Canvas discussion redesign. I strongly urge Instructure to reconsider the recent discussion redesign. A recent survey of our faculty revealed that 74% are dissatisfied with the redesign. The primary concerns are the ever-changing sort order and the default collapsed state of the discussion board. Restoring a consistent sort order, either from oldest to newest or vice versa, is a critical issue.

I have included a few representative comments below from our second term of using the redesign and would be happy to provide the full set of feedback if desired.

I share this feedback to ensure transparency regarding our faculty's perspectives. My goal is to raise awareness of these issues to help us provide the best possible learning experience for our students.

Sincerely, Jeff

==== 

The continuous resorting based upon all posts and replies is rather maddening. I do not want to have to rescan the entire board to ensure I've read and replied to all the new posts.

My posts are now hidden from view and students must dig into the board to find them.

The expand all button must be clicked every time I visit the board or go to the next page.

It is hard to distinguish the level of the replies. And why is the font for replies smaller than an initial post?

Were we previously able to hide/ collapse the instructions at the top? Something seems different here.

When trying to scroll down the experience is not smooth. I think this has something to do with the read/ unread indicators. As I scroll the screen 'jumps' slightly to another position. This happens even after I've viewed every post on the page. And then I've noted that while scrolling up and sometimes down that the page does not keep pace with the mouse. Bottom line, I didn't notice any issues with scrolling prior to the redesign. My personal ISP connection is 10 Gbps symmetrical.

The pagination is not obvious and I expect students are missing posts that are on page 2, 3 etc. When I go to page 2 I again have to expand threads and wait for it to load. Why are we now having performance issues? I didn't see this behavior previously.

I do not see benefits of the split screen view and would never use it.

------------------------

Dear Design Team;

I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to share some feedback from both an instructor's and a student's perspective regarding the recent redesign of our discussion page.

We've observed that the new layout does not permit viewing all posts and comments collectively. Previously, one could open the discussion page and instantly engage with the entire conversation. However, the current design necessitates clicking on each comment or response number to reveal the contents, which was not the case before.

This change significantly hinders the dynamic nature of discussions. For instructors, it becomes cumbersome to track the questions posed and the ensuing dialogue. Similarly, students face an obstacle; upon accessing the discussion page, they encounter only isolated posts without the accompanying discussion, which is now hidden behind additional clicks.

The essence of a productive discussion lies in the ability to read all comments in unison and compare them before contributing one's thoughts. The new format, unfortunately, disrupts the flow, mood, and quality of our discussions, making them less engaging and more time-consuming.

Both instructors and students must see the professor's questions and the full spectrum of the discussion without the need for excessive navigation.
I believe that reverting to a format that displays the entire discussion on one page would greatly enhance the learning experience and the quality of our academic discourse.

Furthermore, I would like to formally request a return to the previous format of the discussion page.
The prior layout facilitated a more seamless and integrated experience, which was highly conducive to the educational environment we strive to maintain.
Reinstating the old design would not only restore the ease of access to discussions but also preserve the continuity and richness of our academic exchanges.

Thank you for considering my feedback.
I am looking forward to any improvements that can be made to facilitate better communication and learning.
I wish you success!

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This is the worst design ever. It is very difficult for students to track post and for instructors to keep track of post. Unfortunately, the order keeps changing based on who has posted the most recent comment and so it is very difficult to see which post of an answered in which have not. Even using the tool of answered and unanswered does not accurately reveal which I have read and replied to. It’s a complete mess! This is Delta the educational quality of the courses that we offer and I strongly recommend we revert back to the old model. Students are confused and faculty are also suffering in terms of trying to teach the course well.

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And we have 110 additional respondents.

[dbrace]

Thank you, @shirenv. These types of posts are helpful and I look forward to them being more consistent.

What would be more helpful is if there was more engagement from blog post authors and other Instructure representatives because it seems that comments are being ignored, especially when it comes to Discussions/Announcements Redesign and New Quizzes/Item Banks.

[JamesSekcienski]

@shirenv 

We are enjoying the the new features that are being released as part of the small pain points and have been surprised by some of the features that have been included in this.  Are you able to share any insight on how these small pain points are being identified and prioritized for development? 

It would be nice to know which Ideas are being considered as small pain points when the Ideas are being reviewed.  It would also be convenient if there was a clear and consistent process for us to show our support for individual Ideas we would like to see prioritized.  I would also like to have the ability to comment on individual Ideas again to share additional details of support, alternative suggestions, and/or potential concerns.  Since these are no longer going through the Themes process there is no formal opportunity for feedback on these Ideas until they are announced as an upcoming feature.

As for the Ideas and Themes process it is nice to know that all the Ideas are being read.  However, it would be helpful if they were updated after being reviewed.  According to the Community Guides, the New stage is only for Ideas that haven't been reviewed yet.  Thus, it would help communicate that they have been read and reviewed if they were changed to a different status and/or received feedback.

Since the new process is still in the works, do you have an updated date on when we will be informed about the new process and/or opportunities for additional community feedback on improving the process?