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Another idea we've tried with this is creating a Redirect app so that the link to message the instructor can be visible in the course menu at all times.  The only downside is that when you copy a course over, for whatever reason it doesn't update the Redirect app, so you would have to update that each time you import into a new course. ... View more

When you copy the URL from the Send Message button, you will need to edit it slightly.  See below: When I get the link to send a message it starts like this: https://dixie.instructure.com/conversations?context_id=course_626303&user_id=1999400&user_name=Ethan%20Deceuster  The URL has a context_id, user_id, and user_name value in it.  Here's how you would change it to message all the teachers in a course instead of just a single user (see bold): https://dixie.instructure.com/conversations?context_id=course_626303&user_id=course_626303_teachers&user_name=All%20Teachers Hope this helps! ... View more

We've tried embedding Google Forms with survey questions into courses.  The most success has come from placing the form inside of a quiz question as part of a graded survey reflection assignment worth minimal points.  It's not a perfect system but it's been a way for us to get large data sets on courses we are monitoring. Quick note about discussions.  I used to believe I hated spinach because my mother had only ever prepared it creamed (yuk!)  But once I realized that spinach is actually a leafy green (who knew?), I realized it's not so bad and I actually like spinach on my salads now.  My hunch is that many students declare a hatred for discussions because they've only been served the worst, most disgusting discussions one could cook up.  I would feel the same way.  But when courses have well designed discussions, it's a different story. There is a whole buffet of ways to use the discussion tool (including as an actual "discussion") but many don't know how to use it besides "post and reply to two others by Sunday".  I would not write off the tool simply because professors using the tool have not used it effectively and then students have responded negatively. ... View more

ALERT!  The embed feature for H5P.org has been disabled as of 12/4/2019!  They did not send any notification, we just noticed it in our courses.  If you have been using this, you'll need to go through and fix the broken iframes.  We've been changing the h5p.org/h5p/embed/###### source in the iframe and changing it to an href in <a> tags like this h5p.org/node/###### as a temporary solution.  I think ultimately, though, we may be through with H5P. ... View more

I've also used the toggles in Canvas sometimes.  https://canvas.instructure.com/styleguide#element_togglerThey work to save space, but aren't very pretty.  We recently purchased CIDI Labs Design Plus and are extremely happy with it. Recommend it to everyone I know! ... View more

A paid option is the Atomic Jolt product called Atomic Search.  It looks like it works pretty well, I've never used it but would love to try it out.  I think when I priced it last year it would have been around $5,000 per year for our institution of about 10,000 students.  Could be different by now. ... View more

It would be helpful if the SpeedGrader somehow distinguished between original posts that students made vs. those that were replies to other posts. ... View more

Our institution uses master template courses that get copied into the section courses each semester.  Faculty have to recreate the groups every time according to our instructor notes and it's a big hassle.  This feature would solve this problem and save lots of time.  Please make the import bring everything into the course! ... View more

I hope this request gets some attention.  In the meantime, here is a cool trick you can do to make the discussion rubric visible to students with a single click of a button: Instructions (text) 1. After adding a rubric, go to the three dot menu of the discussion and hover over the "show rubric" option. 2. Right click and use the inspector. 3. Find the highlighted element (it is an <a> tag) and right click it. 4. Select Copy >> Copy Element. 5. Now, go into the edit mode of the discussion. 6. Enter the HTML editor and locate where you'd like to place this link. 7. Paste the link. 8. OPTIONAL: Edit the link text (it will say "show rubric" and have the little rubric icon by default - the text can be changed to say whatever you want - the rubric icon can be removed if you want by deleting the <i> element within the link) 9. OPTIONAL: You can also style the link into a button if you go back into the HTML editor and add "btn" to the class list of the element. 10. Save the discussion and check it out! Screen share (video) ... View more

I recommend looking into the grid that is built into Canvas.  You use .grid-row and col-xs-## classes to build a grid with columns.  It can even be responsive.  Check it out here. ... View more

So smart!  I've wondered this before too but it wasn't until a professor requested it that I went searching.  Thank you for this awesome, simple solution. ... View more

This feature would be a tremendous improvement!  The faculty I work with are always wanting their discussions to be more meaningful, but that can't happen unless students are seeing what's happening.  And the only way they can do that is to open the discussion itself and scroll through looking at every post.  Please, add this basic feature of discussion notifications to the dashboard! *Interesting irony: I believe that if someone replies to this comment, that I will be notified by Canvas ... View more

I agree completely.  The best workaround I've found is to require students to start their replies with the name of the person they are addressing.  Then, you send a daily summary of discussion posts so you only get one email.  Then, you look for your name in that email to see if anyone replied to you. ... View more

There is a collapse button in discussions that will allow you to collapse threads.  It is next to the search bar at the bottom of the instructions and looks like an up arrow with a box around it. ... View more

I use the grid layout a lot.  No seriously, the grid columns were a game changer for me. I also use buttons, icons, tabs, tables, and popovers,  ... View more