Upload an image directly to a discussion as a student

[seth]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

As a student, I want to be able to upload an image directly to a discussion. I can only do this today using a cludgy, two-step workaround: (1) upload the image to my personal files, then (2) use the content-picker in the discussion-response window to select the image from my files. Instructors can upload images directly to discussions. Students can upload images directly to other parts of Canvas. Seems odd that this use case requires a workaround.

transferred from the old Community
Originally posted by: Sunny Washington
Thank you especially for contributions by: T Beasley, Stefanie Sanders

Comments from Instructure

This is now completed for mobile and web.

For more information, please read through the following release notes:

Canvas Student Release Notes (iOS 6.3) 

Canvas Student Release Notes (Android 6.3) 

https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-15857-canvas-release-notes-2018-11-17 

[snugent]

This is a must. Currently it requires too many steps for a student.

[745992]

I was hoping that this would be added with the update to TinyMCE 4, and there was a post on the old community indicating that this feature would be arriving soon:

Upload Image Feature for Discussions and Wikis : Help Center

This feature has been requested for a long time, and I hope that we can get some votes!

[anthonem]

Hi 745992​ -- thanks for posting the old discussion on this topic, where we heard from Instructure that this feature is slated for implementation. Really need this functionality.

[cbennell]

This is the feature I've been waiting for the longest. I'd love to see some movement here, as we approach the four-year anniversary of the original feature request. Fingers crossed.

[hollands]

VOTED! As a student using Canvas I can add some insight as to why this is really frustrating.

I'm typing up a discussion post and it is significant. Now barring the pedagogical debate about why an instructor requires a discussion post to have charts, citations and over 8 paragraphs, I get done typing up my post, then I go to add an image that's on my computer.

At this point I'm stuck I can't just upload it directly to my files from the Discussion area. I would have to go to settings and lost all my work (also since discussions do not have a draft feature). Opening up my files in a separate tab will not help since I'll have to refresh the page to get the newly uploaded file to appear. It is incredibly frustrating as a student to have to go through several extra steps just to get an embedded image into a forum post.

[buellj]

Yes!!! It is such a pain as a student to upload images.

[kmatson]

You can attach files directly to a discussion board rather than the clunky two step work around if your faculty member goes to Settings and More Options and clicks the box to allow attachments to discussion board posts.

Karen

[745992]

I think the request may need to be renamed. Students can attach images using the process Karen described above, but what I think everyone here is looking for is the ability for students to easily embed images in order to preserve context in discussions.

[tbrooks]

Originally posted on MAY 20, 2011, with 193 UP votes. And still not implemented.

[isaac_piercy]

Our instructional team loves the idea of having students post images to discussions in order to review projects they've created and have students engage with each other. Unfortunately, when we first started this, no one could figure out how to get their images embedded! I had to create a screencast detailing the process, which we now include in every discussion that requires image embedding. Our high school students are starting to get the hang of things finally - but we're not even bothering in K-8. The process is just too complex for them to handle.

This could work in a similar way to the Insert Image/File menu, which allows you to embed an image while at the same time uploading the image to course files - except replace the course files with the student's own files directory. Having the thumbnail previews within this menu would be a nice feature for students as well.