Actually using the new redesign?

[JosephGradecki]

So our school just launched the redesigned discussion board and what used to take minutes now takes hours.   How is anybody actually using this redesign with anything more than a couple students?

I have classes with 30+ students and hundreds of posts.   If I want to see replies to a student's initial post, I have to click on the reply link for their post.  I get the slide out window from the right, scroll to the bottom, if I continue to scroll, the background discussion board scrolls losing my place.

If I now want to reply to this student, I have to click reply AGAIN and scroll some more, type my reply click reply Again, and if my window isn't big enough, I have to scroll to the top of the slide out window to click X to close it.

Trying doing this for 4+ classes a session with 30+ students and hundreds of posts to read and reply.    

As a software engineer myself, seems like you should off the old way and the new way like Brightspace does.   

I've spoken with numerous professors and adjuncts who find this new interface terrible and a huge time waster with so many clicks.   

So, how are professors actually using this interface productively??

[JosephGradecki]

I'll reply to myself - the redesign probably works for students....I don't know any student who reads all of the discussion boards posts - they post their initial response to the question and their required two responses....done.

We have to read all of them.

When I reply to a student's post, it is a reply....

What's this 'quote' when I need to reply to another students' reply to another student's post?   The quote copies the second student's reply and in some cases that's a long post....not saving bandwidth...

One solution - give me the option to do an EXPAND ALL...along with reply buttons - save me time....not just student response times.

[mark_taormino]

I am horrified at this new discussion interface. In order to see the replies, one has to click on each reply one by one? Absurd. Please give us the old version back immediately! This is a time-waster and just a ridiculous design construct. 

[lshulman]

<In order to see the replies, one has to click on each reply one by one? >

Huh? I can see ALL replies at once, but only for ONE top level reply at a time. 

One of the issues I do have, however, is that any new replies are put at the bottom of the line of replies rather than "threaded". If I want to reply to someone else's reply that was not the last in line, it is hard to tell who is replying to whom within the thread. But perhaps that is only if the "teacher" did not check to make the discussion "threaded"???

[mark_taormino · Accepted solution]

Found a solution. There is a setting in Canvas. Go to Settings>Feature Options>Discussions/Announcements Redesign. Disable and you will be returned to the previous functionality where one doesn't have to click on each reply. Crisis averted! 

[JosephGradecki]

Do you have to do this as the administrator or per course?   I'm assuming admin as I don't have feature options at the course level in settings...

[mark_taormino]

I have the standard instructor permissions. I went to settings then Feature Options to deselect the new discussion functionality.  

[rkilgore1]

That solution is no longer available according to our institution Canvas support.  Is that true?  Can they install another version that still retains the option to use both?

[mark_taormino]

What are you referencing when you say "that solution"? 

[lshulman]

He was referring to the ability to disable a feature option.

[lshulman]

<That solution is no longer available according to our institution Canvas support.  Is that true?  >

It is still an option at my institution (thank goodness). It may be an institution level option to allow teachers to disable the Redesign. Perhaps you can contact your institution's Canvas administrator and ask them to make the option available to you. 

[lshulman]

I also do not like the new interface and have disabled it in my own course sites.

<I have to scroll to the top of the slide out window to click X to close it.>

I have discovered you can simply leave the reply pane by clicking outside of it, back on the main discussion (where you only see top level replies).

But there are many other issues I have with this new Redesign. Like if I close the reply pane before finishing and submitting my reply, I lose everything I wrote!

[rkilgore1]

I agree with every complaint here.  The objective of Canvas Discussions is to create an online surrogate for classroom discussions.  The new interface does not accomplish this and is similar to taking each student into the hallway (called "sidebar") to reply to them. . . rather than replying in a way that all can easily see . . . like every other discussion interface I have ever encountered??  Students will not see other student replies unless they click multiple times.  They will not see my replies to other students unless they click multiple times.  

How can this be an improvement?

[mark_taormino]

Hopefully, they will rethink this design. The old version has collapse/expand options. They need to incorporate that. No way they could have validated this new functionality with instructors before rolling out. Very odd for a leading vendor to miss the mark so badly.