Group Select option not visible to teachers in closed courses

[Nancy_Webb_CCSF]

We just discovered that when a teacher wishes to view group discussion posts in a previous semester (closed) course, that the Group Select option is not available on the discussion page.  

The workaround is to go to People, click on the Groups tab and then open the group and click "visit".  That takes one to the group workspace.  Click discussions, then on the discussion. This is a lot of extra work, especially for teachers who create different groups for each discussion to keep things lively.

Has anyone else had this experience? 

I will report a bug to Canvas Support, but it seems there is often a problem with the Group Select visibility.  If a user has the permissions to view all groups, and discussions, they should see that option.  This is the second case we found where it doesn't appear when it used to. (The other was for TAs, who could always see it in classic discussions, but now cannot.  Apparently now we'd have to give a new seemingly unrelated permission for them to see the Group Select option, one we don't want to give.)

[Nancy_Webb_CCSF · Accepted solution]

After contacting support, they said engineers say this is intended, to make the group selection icon disappear in closed courses.  They are aware of it. This makes it harder for teachers to view group discussions, so I am not sure of their thinking on this issue.  I need to add an Idea about changing this, add to the many many ideas already out there.  And a separate idea about allowing TAs who can view and post to discussions, and also view all student groups, to see the group selection icon on the discussion page.  

This is not parity with original discussions as was promised.  I am disappointed.

[chriscas]

Hi @Nancy_Webb_CCSF,

Just chiming in here that we have reported this multiple times over the years and received a similar "working as designed" response.  I really don't understand why the design is what it is, but I think the more people who report issues with this the better.  It shouldn't take so many steps just to get to group discussions that are easy (or easier) to get to when the course is open.

-Chris

[Nancy_Webb_CCSF]

Hi @chriscas, thanks letting me know that others are unhappy with this choice Instructure made.  And I was unaware that this problem existed before Discussions Redesign, the teacher implied it used to be available.  Not that many people look at old discussions I guess, I doubt this would get many votes if there were an Idea.

I am more concerned that our TAs can't see the group choice when they have permission to view groups. Definitely they used to see the choice with discussions.