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Of all Blackboard tools, the Blackboard\u00a0<\/span>Discussion Board\u00a0<\/span>may be the most utilized by instructors and students. Many <\/span>faculty<\/span>\u00a0rely on the discussion board as a central aspect of their teaching and learning strategy,\u00a0<\/span>for icebreakers, the deep dive, and debates.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As we move towards Canvas, and away from Blackboard, what kinds of differences can we expect? Does Canvas\u2019 discussions function the same? What implications do these differences have for our design and facilitation?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This post explores what faculty can and should prepare for, as it relates to this one central aspect of digital teaching.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Let\u2019s start with the functionality we can all expect to see.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n With Canvas, instructors <\/span> can<\/span>\u00a0require peer review of discussion posts.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Instructors looking to assign students to small groups for student-to-student learning opportunities will appreciate this feature.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Instructors <\/span> can<\/span>\u00a0easily view\/filter posts within a discussion through a word search.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n This may be useful if you need to\u00a0<\/span><\/i>zero in\u00a0<\/span><\/i>on students\u2019 use of a word, concept, discussed in the prompt, after all students have posted. Could be useful in large class\/sections<\/span><\/i>, too.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There are\u00a0easier controls<\/span>\u00a0for managing notifications, seeing new updates, etc.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Students can subscribe to a discussion with ease, be notified on their phone or email of any new updates, and student-created discussions automatically set up these notifications.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Instructors <\/span> can<\/span>\u00a0organize discussions into their proper Assignment Groups easily during the discussion creation process.<\/strong><\/p>\n Do you ever find that you need an ad hoc discussion in the middle of a semester? Creating a spontaneous discussion and including their posts as part of their overall grade is possible with this feature.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Instructors <\/span> will maintain<\/span>\u00a0the ability to link to external content (e.g.\u00a0videos, attachments, etc.)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Canvas Discussions, like Blackboard Discussions, don\u2019t live in a vacuum \u2013 they are connected to other content you find out on the web, as well as your own instructional content or instructions (such as Panopto videos and Office365 files.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Instructors <\/span> can still<\/span>\u00a0require that students post before seeing other students\u2019 posts.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Instructors <\/span> can still<\/span>\u00a0ask students to edit, delete, or start their post over again.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A student’s ability to edit and delete their own discussion posts can\u00a0only<\/span>\u00a0be set on a course-wide basis rather than being set per discussion.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n This may have significant implications for instructors and their courses. While instructors can ask students to edit, delete, and then start a new post, enabling this will allow this behavior to <\/span><\/i>all<\/span><\/i>\u00a0course discussions.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You\u00a0cannot<\/span>\u00a0set a minimum number of required posts before activity shows as needing\u00a0grading.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n This may have been important if you used that \u201cflagging feature\u201d in the Blackboard Grade Center as a prompt to grade student work.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A student’s ability to attach items to discussion posts can\u00a0only\u00a0be set on a course-wide basis rather than being set per discussion.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n There is no equivalent to Blackboard\u2019s \u201cforce moderation of posts.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This means that student posts are posted without any moderation from faculty (Blackboard had the ability to prevent publishing of posts until faculty had reviewed the content\u2026Canvas has no such equivalent feature).<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Instructors <\/span> cannot<\/span>\u00a0allow anonymous posting in ungraded discussions.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n For instructors ready to dig deeper, there are two helpful resources to get faculty thinking, planning, and integrating discussions into their summer and fall 2021 courses. Canvas <\/span>publishes<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>an instructor guide<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on discussions and\u00a0<\/span>a student guide<\/span><\/a>. Instructors looking for new ideas for engagement <\/span>can also\u00a0<\/span>peruse the\u00a0<\/span>Priming with Canvas<\/span>\u00a0course<\/span><\/a>, developed by the Coulter Faculty Commons.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFunctionality Gained in Canvas\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Functionality Maintained in Canvas\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Functionality Lost in Canvas\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Summary\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n