Order Discussion Posts from Newest to Oldest

[canvas_admin]

Currently, the discussion posts are ordered from oldest to newest.  A student/professor has to scroll or go to the last page and then scroll to get to the latest post.

Canvas REALLY needs to re-order this so that newest discussion posts appear at the top of the first page so that it is easy to find current conversations.

This topic had 100+ likes in the old community and I was really surprised not to see it on here already (I searched for this using several different search terms).   I sure hope we don't have to go through and re-idea every single feature request that had at least 30 likes and was years old with no action or response from Instructure.

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

For more information, please read through the  Canvas Release Notes (2021-06-19).

[jeffrey_weimer]

I have long since given up on this request. The approach on discussion forums such as Discourse is to disallow sorting (previous versions allowed sorting). I imagine therefore that this is an uphill battle for a lost cause.

At least we have a button to view posts that are UNREAD.

[esommer]

Thanks for note. I am going to try to remain optimistic!

[sarah_harrelson]

My district is just beginning to adopt Canvas so we're still kind of in a trial stage. This alone is a reason why I would vote against sticking with Canvas. Discussions that last for an entire year long course become useless because oldest posts show up first.

[jeffrey_weimer]

One approach I have to avoid long threads is to create multiple discussion threads. Some examples of my threads are below.

- Course Administration (I have this for ALL of my courses)

- Topic: Pre-requisites

- Topic: ...

- Homework 1

- Homework ...

- Frustrations

- Quiz/Exam Review Comments

Students are invited to create their own threads as needed. I have found this approach keeps discussion threads reasonably short. I can then also close threads that should be considered to be "expired".

Perhaps you can do the same approach based on time periods.

[Bobby2]

I never thought of using threads for that reason. Nice idea  @jeffrey_weimer 

[newma004]

Up and down (let instructor select) would be ideal. While at it, it would be nice to allow subject line on replies. 

[wannerj]

Having a sorting option available in the discussion forums is a must! It becomes very cumbersome to keep scrolling to the bottom of the page to read a recent post. 

[blchitty]

Can we go back to the basic question posted in 2015 and just get an option to sort newest to oldest????? It has now been 4 years and nothing on this. 

[esommer]

OK, I agree . . . again. This seems to be such a simple option.

And if the issue that students might reorder post to read only the most current ones, but the ordering option in the hands of the instructors with an option to let students reorder!

[cwoodwar1]

I used Desire2Learn for many years, and their Discussion feature was FAR superior.  Not only could you sort by date, but you could also sort by user, # of stars (likes in this case), as well as toggle threaded or unthreaded views on and off.  It was also possible to pin a particular reply to the top... for example, sometimes I see a discussion start to veer off into the weeds, or a misconception appear frequently, or a particularly good post I'd like everyone to see.  It would be very nice if I could make a post (reply) and pin it at the TOP so that everyone sees it.  PLEASE Canvas, work on your Discussion board!