The Canvas Discussions and Announcements Redesign was enabled on June 19, 2024. Instructors and students will now experience a new look and feel when viewing discussions threads and individual announcements. The redesign will also add new functionality to Discussions.
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Discussions User Interface (UI) Changes
Change to the Order of Replies
Discussions User Interface (UI) Changes
- The toolbar is moved to the top of the page.
- More prominent Reply button.
- The Edit button is moved under the three dots (more options).
Classic Discussions Post UI
Discussions Redesign Post UI
New features
- @mentions: Tag members of the course. Tagged individuals will receive an email notification with a direct link to the @mention comment.
- Anonymous discussions: Instructors can allow anonymous student replies.
- Split screen view: Users can choose to view discussion threads inline or in a side-by-side window (split screen). Users can go between the two views.
- Edit history: Instructors can view all versions with a timestamp of a student’s edited reply.
- Quote Replies: Users can quote another reply and have their comments display directly under the quoted text.
- Role labels: Teacher and TA labels will appear next to those with the Teacher or TA roles in the Canvas course.
- Sort: Order the high-level replies from Newest to Oldest or Oldest to Newest.
- Mark All as Unread: In addition to Mark as Read and Unread at the reply level, Discussions Redesign allows users to mark the entire discussion thread as read or unread from the main Discussions page.
- Count of replies: Comments with nested replies will have the total number count of nested replies visible at the first level.
- Search text highlighted: Results of matching search query will be highlighted, making it easier for users to easily find content.
Loss of Features
The features below are available in Classic Discussions but will no longer be available with Discussions Redesign.
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Edit button: The link to edit a discussion post is now only available under the three dots (more options).
- Infinite levels of replies removed: In Classic discussions, instructors can choose the option for 'threaded replies'. If selected, there is an infinite level of replies allowed. In Discussions Redesign, there are only 2 levels of nesting.
- ‘Hide deleted posts button’ removed
- Total number of replies for Group Discussions are not immediately available: Instructors must click into each group to gauge engagement levels.
Known Issues
- Please refer to our Bugs and Known-Issues spreadsheet for a comprehensive bugs list.
Announcements Redesign
Part of Discussions Redesign is Announcements Redesign. The Announcements tool has been updated to match the UI of the new Discussions interface. Most new functionality is part of Discussions Redesign. One loss of functionality within Announcements is that the Closed for Comments option is no longer available at the individual announcement level. Instructors must go to the main Announcements page to close an announcement for comments.