Discussion Reply email notifications for anonymous discussions display names

[milesl]

I just tested out the anonymous discussion feature:

• As an instructor, I created an anonymous discussion
• Using a separate student account, I posted a reply, and it appeared anonymously as expected
• As the instructor, I received an email notification informing me that I had received a reply to my discussion thread containing the text of the reply, and the full name of the student

Let me know if I'm misunderstanding the purpose of the anonymous discussion feature, but I don't think the student name should be revealed to the teacher in this way.

Opened support case #08431396

Anonymous reply displayed as expected in Canvas:

Non-anonymous email notification received by the teacher account revealing the identity of the replier:

 

[mwolfenstein]

I could see the rationale for both truly anonymous discussions and discussions that are anonymous only on the discussion board. The latter would allow students anonymity in interacting with in the course which could de-risk interaction, but could still allow a faculty member to use those interactions for grading or attendance. Ideally it would be great if there was support for both types of anonymity, but at the very least I agree that we need clarity on how the feature is supposed to work.

[ShaunLindsay]

Interesting find.  I like the ability to be anonymous in the discussion, however if it is TOTAL anonymity it could foster aggressive behavior without consequence.  This would be very difficult to manage as an instructor.  If the student is wanting total anonymity from students and the instructor, they should be directed to other avenues available, such as grievance forms. 

Clarification should be made to let students know the instructor will be informed of the name.

[lamourje]

Agree with the comments above that description of the level of anonymity should be very clear. I adopted Ed Discussion a couple of years ago to employ anonymous discussions, and initially thought they were completely anonymous, but then found a way I could manually discover the author. This surprised me at first, though as @mwolfenstein points out, this allows the instructor to identify the source of any inappropriate behavior on the discussion. I have had almost zero need to de-identify a student over two years, using Ed Discussion for 11 courses with over a thousand posts. Part of me wishes to be able to opt-out of the de-identification feature so that I can ensure total anonymity to students, but I also understand that should anyone severely cross a line, this feature may be useful. Ideally, I could imagine an anonymous discussion which functions by default as the Ed Discussion and current Canvas beta do, but giving the instructor a choice to opt for truly anonymous.

[milesl]

Our CSM confirmed that this is fixed, and I tested to confirm that notification emails no longer reveal anonymous student identities:

[d_j_corbin]

But when you reply directly from your email client (for example Outlook), the entire notification email - including your full name and email address - is included in the discussion reply 🙂 See the attached image for an example: