Discussions
In discussions, students learn from one another, respond to questions from their peers and the teacher, practise explaining their ideas, use the language of the discipline, connect their work to concepts and theories, and relate the material to their own experience and knowledge.
The purpose of a discussion needs to be clear. What should students gain from taking part? It is also important to allow time for a wrap-up at the end, either by the teacher or by having students share their conclusions.
Different teaching methods can be used in discussions. The Setberg website includes examples of teaching methods that work well in discussions, such as think-pair-share and others.
The Discussions Page
All discussions created in a course appear on the course discussions page in Canvas (discussions in the course menu). A discussion that is set up as part of assessment also appears under assignments in the course menu, like other graded activities.
The video walks through the interface of the discussions page.
00:07: How do I use the discussion index page? 00:12: In course, navigation, click the discussions link. 00:16: The discussions index page is designed with global settings at the top of the page, 00:20: followed by the discussion groups. Individual discussions 00:24: are nested within each Discussion Group. 00:27: Global settings include a drop-down menu to filter all or unread discussions 00:31: and a search field for searching discussions by title or discussion author. 00:35: You can also add a new discussion and edit discussion settings. 00:40: Discussion groups can be expanded and collapsed by clicking the arrow next to the 00:44: name. Discussions are organized into three main areas. 00:52: Pinned discussions. These are discussions that you want your students to see at 00:56: the top of their page. Pinned discussions can be arranged in any order. 01:00: Students will only see this section heading. 01:02: If there are discussions within this section, 01:06: Discussions. These are current discussions within the course. 01:09: Discussions can remain open indefinitely Or you can specify a 01:13: date range as designated by the available from until date. 01:17: Discussions with replies are ordered by most recent activity, discussions 01:22: with no replies are ordered by creation date. 01:24: Students will only see this section heading if there are discussions within this section, 01:30: Closed for comments. These discussions have been manually closed for comments 01:34: or the discussion is past the available from until date. 01:38: These are discussions that are only available in a read-only state. 01:42: Closed for comments. Discussions are also ordered by most, recent activity. 01:46: Students will always see this section heading, even if there are no discussions 01:50: within this section, 01:53: Each discussion displays whether or not it is a graded discussion. 01:56: The name of the discussion the date on which the last discussion reply 02:00: was posted. 02:02: Additionally, you can view the number of unread total posts in the discussion, 02:06: the discussion State published or unpublished. 02:08: And whether or not you are subscribed to the discussion. 02:13: You can also view availability dates for graded and ungraded discussions. 02:18: The unread icon next to a discussion indicates an unread discussion. 02:23: The number of unread total posts is not included for group discussions and discussions 02:27: that have no discussion replies. 02:31: The peer-review icon. Also displays, if a graded discussion has been assigned 02:35: peer reviews, 02:37: Discussions can also include availability dates availability. 02:40: Dates can make a discussion available for only a specific period of time. 02:46: To manage an individual discussion, click the options icon. 02:50: From the options drop-down menu, you can edit the discussion close the discussion 02:55: for comments, assigned to discussion pin, or unpin the discussion. 02:59: Open Speed grader duplicate, that discussion, send 03:03: a discussion to another instructor copy, the discussion to another course, 03:07: add the discussion to a Mastery path or delete the discussion. 03:13: To view discussion, details and replies, click the name of the discussion. 03:18: If you use Mastery pads in your course, you can tell which items are set up in 03:22: modules as Mastery paths or conditional content items. 03:27: To view the discussions index page as a student. 03:29: Click the view as student button. 03:33: This guide covered how to use the discussions index page.
About discussions in Canvas
- How do I use the Discussions Index Page?
- How do I create a discussion as an instructor?
- How do I create a graded discussion?
- How do I create a group discussion in a course?
- How do I duplicate a discussion in a course?
- How do I edit or delete student discussion replies in a course?
