Discussions Redesign on July 20, 2024

On Saturday, July 20, 2024, Instructure (the folks who make Canvas) pushed out a new redesign for Discussion topics and Announcements within your courses.

A screenshot of the Canvas Discussion Redesign interface showing a split-view layout. The left, larger pane contains the main discussion content, starting with search and view controls at the top, followed by the topic title, "DISCUSS: Health Care Facilities Discussion," a decorative banner for "Module 1: Nursing Functions," and instructions for students to answer one of the prompts. It indicates "12 Replies, 10 Unread." The right, narrower pane is a "Thread" sidebar displaying a selected post from the main discussion. This post is from "Natalie Baker (She/Her)" and is dated "Jun 3, 2022 8:58am," with her initial thoughts on the topic visible. The bottom of the thread pane includes controls for "Reply | 5 Replies, 5 Unread."

This enhancement aimed to improve teachers’ and students’ experiences by offering new customizations and interactive components, including:

  • Role labels to help students identify users with instructor-based roles in courses
A screenshot of a Canvas discussion post titled "Introduce Yourself." At the top, next to the blurred name of the person who posted, two distinct labels read "AUTHOR" and "TEACHER," indicating the user's roles within the course. Below the timestamp, the post instructions ask students to share their year and major, why they are taking the class, and a fun thing they did over the summer. A standard "Reply" button is located at the bottom of the post.
  • Flexible viewing options to view discussion topics in an inline or split view screen
  • @ Mentions to tag other users in discussion replies
This is a screenshot of the Canvas LMS rich text editor with the header "Write a reply." Below the menu items and text editing toolbar, a large arrow points to an "@" symbol which has been typed in the text area. A dropdown list of users is displayed, with the first option for "Alfred Student" with the initials "AS" highlighted. The other three user options in the list are blurred.
  • Quotes allows users to quote other user replies as part of their own discussion reply
A screenshot of a Canvas discussion reply interface showing a green toggle switch labeled "Include quoted reply in message" in the active position. Below the toggle, a vertical gray line marks the quoted content, which displays a blurred user name, the timestamp "Aug 25 6:25am," and the text "Hello! My name is [blurred]. I'm brand new to CCS and happy to be here! I'm taking this class to learn about Canvas".
  • Reply reporting allows users to report replies as inappropriate or offensive
  • Anonymous discussions allow instructors to create discussion posts where students have the option to reply anonymously
  • Enhanced searching and sorting capabilities

Additional Resources