Discussion Tutorial Videos for Canvas

 

Overview of the discussion tool

PDF

Discussions in Canvas can be used for instructors and students to discuss and collaborate. Discussions can be Pinned as well as Closed for Comments. Individual discussion topics can be moved via drag-and-drop, and only Pinned discussions can be ordered in custom fashion instead of by Recent Activity. Individual discussion topics can be published/unpublished, bookmarked, and edited.

 

Creating a discussion forum PDF

Discussions can be used in Canvas to share ideas and collaborate. Discussion forums can contain text descriptions with formatting, be posted to sub-groups of students within a course, and include files and other attachments. Other options can be specified such as thread replies, liking, grading, and availability windows.

 

Creating duplicate discussion topics

Many instructors who use discussions utilize repeated versions of the same basic template (i.e. Week 1 Discussion, Week 2 Discussion, etc.) Canvas allows instructors to create duplicate versions of a discussion thread that can streamline the process of using many similar discussion topics. Duplicates can then be customized and edited instead of created from scratch every time.

 

Posting a reply on the discussion board

 The process for posting a reply on discussion boards is fairly simple and straightforward, and mostly the same for both instructors as well as students. Text can be styled using the formatting toolbar and individuals can upload attachments as well.

 

Discussion Board Navigation Options

Using the Discussion Boards on Canvas can be somewhat daunting, but there are several tools and options available to make the task easier. These include expanding/collapsing all threads as well as marking individual posts as read and unread.

 

Assessing a Discussion Board Prompt

The SpeedGrader interface in Canvas allows instructors to see all the contributions a student has made to a particular discussion board topic and leave feedback as well as assign a score. However, this works only if one discussion board topic is tied to a single grade item and does not allow multiple discussion topics to be linked to a single grade item.

 

Assessing Multiple Discussion Board Prompts

Instead of using the SpeedGrader interface to assess multiple discussion board topics for a single grade item, instructors can locate data on student participation and use that as the basis for their grades instead.

 

Using Videos in Discussion Board Posts

Students and instructors can respond to discussion board posts using videos in addition to text, which involves using the Studio tool as the recording platform. Videos can be recorded directly from a discussion board reply which makes these types of responses easy and convenient.