Canvas Discussions

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Overview
• Features
• Images Showing Visual Change in User Interface
• Support

Overview

The Canvas Discussions user interface will be changing automatically across Penn on July 5th, 2024. This change updates how Canvas Discussions look and feel, but no user features will be lost. 

There is nothing the individual instructor needs to do to implement this update in their Canvas course site. This will happen automatically.

Features

In addition to all the essential Canvas Discussions features, users will now also see:

• Roles listed next to the user's name, such as TA or Instructor.
• Increased ability to filter and search the discussion board.
• A mention user feature that allows you to @ users to draw their attention to a post. 
  • Please note: Users will need to enable New Mentions in the Canvas user notification menu under the Discussions subheader. If you type @ and then don't see the user's name, they haven't enabled this feature on their end.
• The ability to quote someone else's post for additional clarity.
• An anonymous ungraded discussion ability.
  • Please note: All students are anonymous to instructors and to one another with this feature enabled.
• The ability to view the edit history of a student reply to see all iterations of the post.
• Customize the discussion layout to suit user preferences, this includes a new split line view option.

Additional feature slated for release before the end of 2024:

• Multiple due dates for a discussion. This will allow instructors to assign one date for the initial post and a second date for follow-up conversations.
  

Images Showing Visual Change in User Interface

Canvas Discussions (Before May 2024)

Canvas Discussions (After July 2024) 

Support

If you have any questions about the change or would like this update to happen before May 20th, please reach out to Online-learning-help@sas.upenn.edu