Ideas & Themes Open for Voting October 16 - November 15

KenzHughes · ‎10-03-2023

We are excited to share that we are opening Ideas & Themes for voting from October 16, 2023 to November 15, 2023.

Background on Ideas & Themes

Instructure’s Ideas & Themes voting process launched in March of this year. Community members are able to submit ideas year-round, while theme voting occurs twice per year. For those of you who are new to Ideas & Themes - you can see how it all works in this video or via our how-to guides.

Updates from March Ideas & Themes Voting

In March, we held our first round of voting with twelve themes identified for your input. Following the vote, four of these themes were selected for discovery and development. Our product teams have been hard at work to understand high priority problems to solve within each of these themes and validate the learnings, vet the designs for each approach, and get development underway.

This body of work will allow instructors to:

Differentiate content for students through selective release of modules
More efficiently and effectively use rubrics for meaningful assessment of student learning
Provide opportunity for more meaningful discussions with checkpoints (or multiple due dates) for the initial post and subsequent replies.
Deliver faster Item Analysis, which allows instructors to make meaningful and timely decisions about teaching and learning. We’ve already delivered value on this theme and will continue to improve this report in Q4.

In addition to the work tied to these 4 In Development themes, our product teams have also released updates and improvements that address 73 individual ideas submitted!

October Ideas & Themes Voting

Since our last voting window in March, our team has reviewed over 700 idea submissions from Community members for our Canvas and Impact products. Our team has aligned these ideas to 100 themes and is currently finalizing a short list of themes for you all to vote on between October 16th - November 15th.

Once voting closes in November, our team will review and assess which themes should be moved to the Prioritized theme status. To provide time for our teams to review and connect with Community members during what we know can be a very busy time of year, we will announce which themes we plan to prioritize for discovery and development within the first half of 2024 during the first two weeks of January.

JamesSekcienski · ‎10-03-2023

@KenzHughes,

I'm looking forward to seeing what themes are available to vote on in this next round. There were many themes that weren't included in the first round that I hope to see at least some of included this time and some themes from the last round that weren't prioritized that i hope to see again.

Are there going to be any improvements to the process based on the user feedback from the last round of voting?

Is there a reason that voting periods are not open for a full 30-days as stated in the community guide?

When will we be receiving more updates about the themes that were prioritized during the first round and were recently changed to "In Development"? According to the community guide, Product Managers are supposed to engage the community in discussion prompts throughout the development cycle, including providing updates and engaging the community for feedback on the potential solutions.

Thank you @AllisonHowell and @TamasBalogh for being actively engaged in the discussion for your themes about enabling differentiated learning at scale and improving quiz analysis through robust reporting.
Thank you @jsailor for sharing some information in the theme discussion about updates that are coming to discussion boards. Our school is looking forward to hearing more from @SamGarza1 about the checkpoints that are in development for discussion boards and other features that are in development.
I haven't seen any information about what is happening with rubrics other than the item on the Product Roadmap. There has been a decent amount of feedback shared from community members on what is most important to them with that theme, but we haven't seen any updates from an Instructure member about the theme. Considering this was the top voted theme, I would have expected to see more updates about this.

KenzHughes · ‎10-04-2023

@JamesSekcienski you are right about the dates - thank you so much for pointing this out, we've gone ahead and adjusted those to ensure that you all have 30 days to get your votes in!

I appreciate the other feedback you've brought up here and am working with my co-leaders to respond.

Thank you,

Mackenzie

JamesSekcienski · ‎10-04-2023

Thank you @KenzHughes for adjusting the dates!

SMNelson_ · ‎10-11-2023

Looking forward to this. Are we still able to suggest themes?

KristinL · ‎10-11-2023

Hi @SMNelson_ - The themes that will open for voting on Monday have been identified, and the Product Team is busy preparing the information that will accompany each one. Ideas will continue accepting new suggestions throughout the process. How do Ideas and Themes work in the Instructure Community?

Charles_Barbour · ‎10-13-2023

I'm still a little confused how the development work happens.

Themes are voted on, themes are selected, ideas are prioritizes, developers start working on ideas...

That all makes sense.

But do developers reach out to people who have provided feedback before and/or during the development process to be sure they understand the issue correctly and that the solution they are crafting meets the requirements?

At any point are the proposed solutions shown to or tested with a broader group of users to make sure the solution also meets their needs?

Perhaps other small changes could be made in the development process to prevent creating new issues, solve other related problems, make other improvements, etc.

I just have no idea whether customers continue to be involved or if a solution is thrown over the wall at some point in the future.

Can anyone shed any light on that?

Thanks!

KenzHughes · ‎10-20-2023

@Charles_Barbour thank you for your question!

Our Product Team works closely with our customers to understand the key problems that need to be tackled within each prioritized theme, and as we work on solutions, we involve customers as much as possible to ensure we are hitting the mark. This communication happens within the Themes on the Community, and if deeper clarification is needed, members of our Product Team will setup a call for further discussion.

If you have any specific Themes that you would like to share your feedback on please feel free to post to the Theme or respond to my message here so I can connect you with the right people on my team :).

JamesSekcienski · ‎10-23-2023

@KenzHughes

When will we receive an update on what is in development with the "Improved rubric creation and usability" theme? This was the top voted theme and yet we have received the least amount of detail about this theme. A redesign is in the works addressing major concerns, but no details have been shared about what those majors concerns are nor how the design will change. It also feels a bit concerning that there aren't any specific details being shared in the theme about version 1 yet, but there are already plans for a Phase 2 and Phase 3 release.

KenzHughes · ‎10-24-2023

Hi there @JamesSekcienski - thank you for your question.

@RaviKoll has posted an update to the theme here recently: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Themes/Improved-rubric-creation-and-usability/idi-p/554655...

If you are looking to provide feedback on this functionality and get more details on the solutions that the team is developing - I'd recommend commenting on the Theme here if you haven't just yet.

RaviKoll · ‎10-24-2023

Cross-posting from the the Rubrics thread - We're thrilled to let you know that our Rubric Redesign is currently in progress, and come November, we'll be sharing an informative blog providing insights into all that the redesign encompasses. We truly appreciate your patience, and will our best to ensure a smooth transition to the updated rubric. The excitement and anticipation surrounding this redesign have been truly inspiring, and we're dedicated to not only meeting but exceeding your expectations. Just a few more weeks, and you can look forward to a comprehensive outline of what's in store.

JamesSekcienski · ‎10-24-2023

@KenzHughes and @RaviKoll

Thank you for the information. I have been actively reviewing and participating in the theme discussions for those that are in development since they were originally prioritized. I have made several posts asking for more details about what is being developed, and even after this most recent post we (the Community) are all still waiting to learn more about how rubrics are going to change and what features/ideas are being addressed during this development.

james_whalley · ‎10-25-2023

As I read through and try to summarize the 168 feature ideas included in the nine themes open for voting, I wonder if it might be good to find a way to cull ideas. There are some great ideas in here, but there are also some awful ones that are likely desired by less than 1% of the audience. I find it tedious to read through these ideas that would have only gotten 1 or 2 votes on their own before the theme system.

Maybe voting on feature ideas could go back to the old system, but that voting is to nominate to include an idea in a theme. Or maybe at the very least the idea needs to be seconded by a peer at another institution. As it is though, I'm stuck wading through dozens and dozens of ideas to summarize the strengths and weaknesses in each theme for my team.

JamesSekcienski · ‎10-25-2023

@james_whalley

I agree that I liked the ability to vote and have discussions on individual ideas. That way even if the Idea wasn't moving forward with getting developed it allowed people to share their support and concerns about the idea. It also provided an opportunity for users to share workarounds with each other while waiting for the Idea to be potentially developed. Considering the number of themes that aren't getting prioritized (or even open for voting), it would be nice to be able to communicate with other community members on Ideas that are in limbo. It would also help keep the conversation connected to the Idea rather than creating a separate community discussion post to talk about it.

As for trying to summarize themes for your team, I wouldn't focus too heavily on the Ideas. Even though Ideas are associated with Themes, there is no guarantee that they will be addressed as part of the Theme development. We recently held a team meeting to review and discuss the themes open for voting. We read over the Theme description and the items Instructure listed as possible value ideas and focused our discussion more on that and what we would hope to see with that theme being developed. While we looked at some Ideas that stood out to attendees, we tried to focus on if the overarching Theme was something we saw as most important to support and hopefully get things developed that would have the most impact for us. We encouraged people when they voted to also share what they hoped to be accomplished if the theme was developed. Nonetheless, it is challenging to know if you want to show support for a theme when it is unclear what will actually be developed. While you may vote for a Theme in hopes of certain Ideas being developed, the final solution may not address any of the Ideas you are most interested in.