New Discussion count issues?

[hanley]

This is my first time posting here. For the past few years I have used the Discussion Count spreadsheet developed by James as a (very big) help for assessing student participation.

But now, one frustrating week later, I can't seem to get it to work. If I try to download a new blank of the file, it's read-only, and if I use an old version of it, I can't get it to connect to my instructor account.

Does anyone know what's going on? Am I to go back to counting by hand?

And to echo what others have said on these boards, I find it incredible that Canvas does not itself have such an obviously vital feature.

Any help or advice appreciated.

Richard

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello @hanley ...

Welcome to the Canvas Community website!  I am assuming that you are referring to one of the Canvancements created by @James called How to Count Student Discussion Posts - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com).  I would suggest you post this question over on that topic.  James is pretty good about responding to people's questions, so he might have some insights for you as to why things aren't working properly.  And, since I've tagged him in this reply, he'll most likely see this conversation as well.  Good luck!  You're in good hands!  😊

[James]

@hanley,,

There could be several things going on.

First, make sure that you are logged into your Google account when you open my spreadsheet. Then go to File > Make a Copy. Close my version as it is read-only (we wouldn't want your information to escape to other people or allow others to edit the script and change things).

After you're sure that you're working on your copy, go to the Canvas menu and tell it to Configure the API. You will need to tell Google Sheets to accept the security risks, I don't have a developer's account. After you accept that, I had to re-run the Configure the API menu option.

Something I recently discovered on some of my old scripts (and this is one of them). In my newer Google Sheet Canvancements, I allow you to say "institution" instead of having to spell out "institution.instructure.com". If you're trying the short form and it doesn't work, try the full name.

The main thing at this point is that you absolutely must get confirmation of the instance and username being used by your token. If you don't, then running the script isn't going to work -- at all. Nothing is going to happen.

Finally, I haven't tested this with New Discussions to know if that makes a difference. I imagine that New Discussions is a wrapper around the old structure, but it is possible that they changed something in the underlying structure that makes it incompatible with the script.

Beyond the script itself, it's possible that if you are using a school computer or login that they have restricted access to unauthorized scripts for security purposes. If you have your own personal computer that doesn't log into the school's network and a non-school GMail account, it may work there.

Chris ( @Chris_Hofer ) is right about most of the help and things people have tried being on the other thread. I like to keep things in one place to make it easier to find.

[rangle]

Hello James,

I'm using Discussion Count which is absolutely magical. How do I get the instructor's name and number of posts to show up on the spreadsheet? Thanks so much!

[DrAJP]

Why isn't there just a built-in way to get this count on Canvas like there is on Blackboard. We're switching from BB to Canvas right now, and there are so many things Canvas doesn't do that are easy in Blackboard.