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 

[laurakgibbs]

I have no patience to wait on Canvas solutions. Luckily, there are LOTS of alternatives to a discussion board as a space where students interact and share . I've used blogs for that for over 10 years. Since 2011, the blog options have gotten better and better. I'm not prepared to wait on Canvas if my students want/need something better than the available Canvas tool. I hope your photography instructor has found a good solution to use; that would be an awfully long time to wait...

[tbrooks]

Ha--yes, she has. She has used several different tools and she and her

students are fine.

[laurakgibbs]

Excellent! That's been my approach too: when in doubt, DIY! 🙂

[rlbrown21]

@Laura Gibbs  The problem is Canvas needs to fix their tools, and upgrade their solutions or we need to stop saying how great they are and move away from using Canvas in general.  If I had my choice, which I don't, I would have never switched to Canvas.  Not being able to make a easy to use functional discussion tool is just one of their major failings.  To be clear, I use Canvas successfully all the time.  However since switching to Canvas I find myself doing less in the LMS.  If I am constantly using outside tools for my solutions (in this case Harmonize), why am I using Canvas at all?

Canvas as a company should start working on their LMS, and stop relying on 3rd party LTI's.  If Canvas becomes a hub of external tools, they will be easily replaced.  Maybe I will just take another good look at Google Classroom.....

[laurakgibbs]

I hear you  @rlbrown2 ‌, although my take on that strategy is positive, not negative: I actually like how Canvas is very open to LTIs and iframe-based web integration since I don't think there is any one-size-fits-all approach to the range of tools that people might want to use in their teaching. You know what you want, I know what I want... but all the teachers of all the different types of classes at all the different types of schools are going to have a mind-boggling array of wants and needs. I prefer for the LMS to be focused on the student information system functions that cannot be replaced by external tools: I want my student roster, I need a secure place for students to record their grades. Beyond that, I don't use the LMS very much and, honestly, I don't want to. I prefer real tools.

Here's how I explain that to my students:

Course Wiki / tools 

Tools for the future. Some students in the past have asked why I don't put everything in Canvas, and one reason is that you will (probably) never use Canvas again after you graduate. If you use this class to learn about other kinds of tools for writing, reading, researching, and connecting , then you are developing skills and expertise that you can use in the future. The job I have right now, teaching , did not even exist when I was a college student in the 1980s... but I was able to use the computer skills I gained in college to be ready to take advantage of this job opportunity. Likewise, I hope you can practice some new computer skills in this class and be ready for whatever the future holds. No matter what kind of job you get, it is almost certain that you will be using the Internet for your work!

I understand that other people feel differently, but for me, the Canvas strategy of becoming a kind of transparent shell for LTIs integrated into the Gradebook makes a lot of sense to me. If people really want students to use images in discussion posts, the situation is certainly frustrating, but I would just teach my students to use imgur: that's a useful tool to know about and learn how to use, and it makes adding images to discussion board posts more manageable. That's how I cope with it anyway when I have to use the discussion board (like in the reading group I am in right now)... and in my classes, I just ditch the discussion board and use blogs instead. Like I said, that's not a one-size-fits-all solution, but it's a perfect solution for me.

[rlbrown21]

" just ditch the discussion board and use blogs instead. "

I teach Social Media Marketing, so I use and teach a TON of outside tools.  But to me, a graded discussion is where a student can share what they are doing with they blog, and get feedback on how they are designing and using the blog.  The basic graded tools of an LMS (quizzes, discussions and assignments), should be amazing to use.  Only 1/3 of those are amazing in Canvas.   If Canvas becomes just an  gradebook, again it can be easily replace.  For you and I, no big deal at all.  Canvas is who should be really concerned. I would love to see them try harder (or at least care).  Waiting 3+ years to make it easy to drag an image into a tool is just sad.

[laurakgibbs]

Like I said, I hear you,  @rlbrown2 ‌, I really do!

But just speaking from my perspective, after 10 years at my school with the totally closed and bloated D2L, Canvas is a breath of fresh air. I can OPEN my courses and share with others, I can embed my students' blog stream in the course, etc. 

And listen, since you are a social media person, do you use Inoreader? I absolutely love how I can get live streams via HTML/iframe to embed my students' blog posts in my Canvas classes! Here's one of my classes for example: blogs! alive! in the LMS! Students use this for a "leap in the stream" assignment where they browse the latest posts. IMAGES: yes! Admittedly, the magazine preview does not always crop the images in the best way possible, but the images are there. 

Blog Stream: Myth-Folklore section 995 - Fall 2018 

(I embed Inoreader streams everywhere: in my class wiki for example; it works anywhere iframe works.)

I understand that others wants/need more/different features from Canvas, so I am glad Canvas has this space where people can share ideas; the D2L Community, at least as I knew it back when we were using D2L, was not at all like this Community.

Where you and I have met up and exchanged some thoughts! And Instructure does listen, more than D2L ever did anyway. 🙂

[jdavis6]

If you hear us, quit giving substandard solutions and make a fix. Like the man said...its been three years.

Jud Davis via iPhone

Assistant Professor of Art

College of Arts and Sciences

Freed-Hardeman University

jdavis@fhu.edu

731-608-2579

[laurakgibbs]

 @jdavis6 ‌ I don't work for Instructure; I'm just a teacher who uses the Community to share ideas and look for solutions -- you can give me orders if you want, but it won't actually accomplish anything. 🙂

I voted up on this feature request, and I chimed in with my thoughts about it. But I'm actually more concerned about problems for which there is no practical solution for users at all unless/until Instructure does something, e.g. the lack of search, the lack of folders for pages, etc. that you will also find here in the feature-request area.

So, yes, I agree, this would be a good improvement. But if I had the magic power to fix things about Canvas, there are other things I would probably choose to fix first. That's what makes software so complicated: every user has their own wants, needs, priorities.

[ProfessorBeyrer]

Huzzah! It's finally enabled for our students to upload images directly.

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

#happypandadance‌