Update on the Release of Discussion Checkpoints in Canvas

[SamGarza1]

What is Changing?

The release date for the Discussion Checkpoints feature has been adjusted. Originally planned for November 16, the new release date for production is January 18, 2025. In the meantime, Discussion Checkpoints will still be accessible in the beta environment, allowing institutions to continue exploring and testing it before the full rollout.

Discussion Checkpoints introduce the ability to assign two distinct due dates and point values within a single discussion. This enhancement aims to simplify grading while providing greater clarity to students about their progress and expectations.

Why the Delay?

As part of our final testing, we discovered a few edge case bugs that could potentially disrupt certain workflows. While we don’t anticipate these issues to be widespread, they don't meet our standards for a production release. We decided to prioritize quality over speed to ensure that when Discussion Checkpoints become available, it is as reliable and refined as possible.

Our goal is to provide features that not only improve your Canvas experience but are also stable and well-tested. This short delay will allow us to address these issues and deliver a polished product.

What’s Next?

Available Now
Discussion Checkpoints remain in the beta environment, allowing institutions to continue testing and gathering feedback.

January 18, 2025
Discussion Checkpoints will be a feature option that is available for admins to turn on at the root account level. The flag will be disabled by default.

Resources

Discussion Checkpoints FAQ can be found here. A feature video can be found in our release notes.

We appreciate your patience and understanding. Thank you for helping us make Canvas better for everyone!

[james_whalley]

@SamGarza1 Will the supporting changes that were going to affect all discussions in the SpeedGrader (whether users have Checkpoints on or not) still going through tomorrow? The ones that change the viewer so that instructors see all of a discussion by default (not just the posts of the individual) and add the Previous and Next buttons for navigating through a student's posts in SpeedGrader.

[SamGarza1]

Hi @james_whalley , 

The Speedgrader changes are part of the Checkpoints release and will be released at the same time. 

[mmoore1]

While disappointing, I do appreciate the concern of making this as seamless as possible. 

[RavenRodriguez1]

Wow! Very informational!

[svaldez2]

Thanks for letting us know.  Quick question.   Right now on the assignment link, you can quickly edit and add due dates for assignments, etc.  I am wondering if Canvas will ever consider doing that on the pages link?  If I go to modules and then edit a page, I can add it to students to-do list, but under pages you can only sort the to-do list by dates, you can't edit right there and quickly add those dates.  Instead, I have to edit the page itself and scroll all the way to the bottom, add the to-do list, save, go back to the module, and do it again for the next page within that module.   It would be so cool if this was possible directly on the main page link where you view all the pages.  

[TrinaAltman]

Thanks for the update @SamGarza1. Will the Feature Option have a lock/unlock option, and if so, will it be locked or unlocked by default? Having a lock/unlock option allows schools to have a softer rollout of new functionality. In our beta environment, it does not have this option currently. As @chriscas  mentioned on another post, having it disabled but unlocked initially enables faculty to turn it on if they wish to try it out and we don't have to make it available to everyone at once out of the gate.

[SamGarza1]

Hi @TrinaAltman , we are working to have this flag more generally available on an account level and not just the root account. The reason it's not yet there is we're working to ensure that turning the flag off after a Checkpointed Discussion has been created doesn't cause issues. We've tested all the major workflows and are now looking at edge cases. Because the flag is currently just on the root account that's why it doesn't have a lock/unlock option.

[RachelSalmon]

Hi @SamGarza1  Since this is now delayed, will there be any work done on the rubrics that you mentioned exploring before this January release or is that work now delayed until after the January release? Thanks!

[rpsloan]

@SamGarza1 Is there an update on the flag availability for subaccounts, or course-level for checkpoints?

[marsenea]

Hi @SamGarza1 My team was checking out the updates with discussions and the checkpoints feature in SpeedGrader. In the release notes and overview video it appears that in SpeedGrader we should have 'Previous Reply' and 'Next Reply' buttons. In our testing these are not appearing. This is consistent across discussions where checkpoints are enabled and without.  Is this aspect live in Beta right now or is that coming at a later time?