[Courses] Comprehensive Course Search Tool (Searching Course Content for a Topic)

[tweiler]

I always find it useful to search for content using an index or an actual search tool rather than just scrolling through all of the pages one by one to find what I need.  I can see many uses for this:

1. As a student, I know that a particular topic was covered but I'm not sure where.  I can search the course for the keyword and the page hits will come up.
2. As an instructor, I want to know where else these students have seen a particular concept.  I can search a bunch of courses for a keyword and the courses and page hits will come up.
3. As a student, as I am trying to integrate information from multiple lectures within a course or within multiple courses, it would be useful to see where a particular concept has been covered.

Tracey

[jlmasters]

Please add a search feature that searches all discussion posts in a course. This is highly needed functionality. Students and teachers often remember that a topic was discussed, but can't remember where. A basic search that works for all discussions/replies/threaded replies across a course is critical.

[celtspur]

I think this is a must-have. It's actually pretty surprising that it isn't already there. I can't imagine it would be that difficult to add. This is definitely a major hole in the Canvas set-up. 

[khirschmann1]

From an administrator perspective, it would be helpful to be able to search across courses for a particular PDF that might be used in other courses.

[rbagent]

This is a very much needed tool. I hope it gets voted in as important.

[bennej28]

Many times I need to locate a file, I know its name, but do not remember its location. So I like this idea.

I'd also like to see files show an integrity to their location. It's always best when users apply good naming conventions to files, but when they do not, the search is on. I've seen/used a tool, different LMS, that will branch out to the location of files within files. So I can immediately see the page or pages the files is on. 

[megan_horikawa]

Not having a search function is a big minus of usability in my view. One of the perks of taking an online class and having digital content etc. is the ease of which you can search through it, so I cannot believe that this has not been implemented yet.  This is one of the biggest complaints I receive from my students is that they can't find where a specific topic was covered to review before the midterm or final. 

[eengland]

I teach composition and research and think a search feature is absolutely necessary for online content. If one of our goals is to have students "click" less, a search feature would allow me to refer students to specific content areas in my comments easier (as in grading comments you can't always add a link to in-course content). This could help students actually review content much more easily and help us design courses to eliminate additional clicks and "uncollapsing" of modules - especially when students need to review material from earlier in the semester.

[18shumwaysam]

This would make a huge difference in course navigation. The amount of time spent flicking through pages trying to find something is huge. 

[lshulman]

Excellent idea.

I just had a student complain about the difficultly of locating specific course content for review purposes. Navigating through countless module content to do this is unnecessarily time consuming. So many websites (including this Canvas community) have "search" features built in. How hard could it be to add such to the Canvas course sites?

[l_sudbury]

One thing that is standard across almost any website is a search feature. I imagine this is complicated when there are many different types of content, but access by search is a standard of modern web interfaces that will not go away because it is so useful. Please implement a Canvas solution for this!