Discussions in Canvas

Summary

This article describes the Canvas discussions page and how to use it.

Instructions

The discussions page consists of a search bar and settings on the top, and three sections below: pinned discussions, discussions, and closed for comments. Each of these sections can be individually closed and opened by clicking the arrow next to the section header.

Sections

Pinned Discussions

These discussions are ones that you want your students to see quickly and easily. The header will only be visible to students if you have pinned at least one discussion.

Discussions

These are the currently available discussions. Discussions with recent replies are ordered closer to the top than discussions with no replies or old replies.

Closed for Comments

These discussions are ones that you have manually closed or that are past the due date specified.

Discussion Information

The discussion page with numbered labels of the items described below

On the discussion page, each individual discussion has the following information:

The number of unread/total posts in the discussion. (1)
The discussion name and date of last post, as well as a list of sections assigned to the discussion. (boxed in red)
Whether or not the discussion is published. (2)
An icon indicating that the discussion is unread. (3)
An icon indicating that the discussion is graded. (4)

Managing Discussions

Click the three dots to the right of the discussion. This will bring up a menu with the following options:

Close for comments: Manually stop students from posting replies.
Pin/Unpin: Add or remove the discussion from the Pinned Discussions section.
Move To: Move the discussion in the order of the discussion list. This can also be done by clicking and dragging the eight dots to the left of the discussion title.
Duplicate: Duplicate the discussion.
Delete: Delete the discussion.

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