View Discussions while they are hidden from menu

[FotiosGkouvas]

Hello team

On Canvas guide, specifically on the Discussions page we see the following statement:

" The Discussion Index page allows you to view all the discussions within a course as well as participate in course and group discussions.

Note: Your instructor may choose to hide the Discussions link in Course Navigation. If the Discussions link is not available, you can still access Discussions through other areas of Canvas. "

Does anyone know the alternative paths mentioned above? I am creating courses and it is important to know how the above works.

Thank you!

[chriscas]

Hi @FotiosGkouvas,

That that paragraph is saying is that when the course menu item is disabled, teachers can still provide a link to individual discussions from anywhere where there is a text box (assignments, announcements, pages, etc) or by adding the individual discussion to a module.  A link to an individual discussion could even be emailed to students and that would work fine.

I hope this info helps!

-Chris

[NoahBoswell]

Hi @FotiosGkouvas !

In addition to the wonderful information provided by @chriscas , students are also able to access all the discussion topics within a course while the page is disabled from the course's navigation by adding /discussion_topics to the end of the URL. For example, it would be yourschool.instructure.com/courses/567/discussion_topics. This would allow students to see all discussion topics, and this can't be disabled. With how Canvas works, it appears that students have to have access to discussions, just like grades and those things.

Hope that helps, too! But Chris covered it perfectly.

[dbrace]

@NoahBoswell,

It's interesting that you mentioned manually adding "discussion_topics" to the end of the URL. I just tried it using "View as Student" and was able to.

Have you ever reported this to your CSM or Canvas Support?

-Doug

[NoahBoswell]

Hi @dbrace ,

No, I haven't. It says that discussion topics are only able to be hidden from course navigation, however not completely disabled. This is how things have been set-up with Canvas for a long time now.

If I had to guess, it's likely set-up that way in order for discussions to work the way Canvas wants them to, however I honestly don't know the official reason.

Maybe it's worth mentioning?

- Noah

[dbrace]

Thanks, @NoahBoswell. I should have some time this afternoon so I'll reach out to Canvas Support and report back.

-Doug