Discussions and Announcements Redesign
Canvas has made some significant changes and improvements to the Announcements and Discussions tools. We will be rolling out these changes the week of May 13, 2024. Most of these changes impact the Discussions tool, though some also are visible in Announcements. Some highlights of the redesign include:
Role Labels
Discussion and announcement threads display a label for users with TA roles and Teacher (Instructor) roles. This feature helps students more quickly identify users with instructor-based roles in the course.
Flexible Viewing Options
When a reply includes additional replies, the number of replies is displayed, as well as the number of unread replies (specific to the user viewing the reply). Users can choose to view these replies inline or in a split view.
Discussion History View
When a user edits a submitted discussion reply, instructors can view the edit history of the posts. Additionally, students can view their own edit history.
Anonymous Discussions
Discussions allow teachers to create anonymous discussions. This option displays when creating a new discussion for a course. (When anonymity is turned on for a discussion, grading and groups are not supported.)
Users with a teacher, TA, or designer role in the course will never be anonymous. However, student names and profile pictures are hidden from other course members, including teachers.
Additional features
The redesigned Discussion and Announcement tools also include a reply reporting feature, @mentions to easily refer to other course members, and usability improvements on the Canvas mobile apps. For more information, see the Canvas Guides: