Canvas Discussion Help and Tips
Discussions Help Video
https://community.canvaslms.com/videos/1128
How do I mark discussion replies as Read or Unread as an instructor?
By default, as you read new discussion posts, Canvas will mark them as read (changing the indicators from blue to white) as you read and scroll down the page. However, you can manually mark each post back to a read or unread state.
If it is blue, that means you have not read it.
If it is white, that means you have read it.
You can tell Canvas not to mark all your posts automatically as read in your Discussion settings.
NOTE: Once a post's state is manually changed, the post will not change states (become read or unread) until you manually change it again.
How do I view and sort discussions as an instructor?
https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-13038-415264223
How do I remove the default and tell Canvas NOT to automatically mark discussion replies as read so that I can manually control it?
You can tell Canvas not to automatically mark your discussion replies as read so that you can manually control which replies you haven't viewed. Your selection for this option will apply to the Discussions settings for all of your courses. By default, manually marking posts as read is turned off.
You can tell Canvas not to automatically mark all your posts as read in your Discussion settings.
https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12821-4152719704
How can I speed up the process of grading discussions?
Speedgrader allows you to look at one student’s postings per discussion. Posts are dated and timestamped and tell which forum they are from.
There are also collapse buttons. Don’t miss these. Click on the up arrow to collapse the full field.
Mouse over a particular post and you get a little “expand” down arrow to view only that individual’s post and replies. Notice the hand cursor in the illustration below. You won't see the expand arrow unless your cursor is in this approximate position.
Click on the up arrow to collapse all the replies so that you see only the respondent and the first line of the post. To expand all of the replies, click on the down arrow.
My students can see when I haven't read their posts. Is there a way to solve that?
On a discussion page, scroll to the top, to the right of the edit button, click on the three vertical dots, and select "Mark all as Read."
You'll still be able to read all the posts, but students won't worry about all those "unread" discussions -- or bug you about them.
I want to find entries from a specific student. Is there a way to do that?
There's a tool for that!
Enter the student's name in the Search window and hit Enter. You will then see all of that student's entries for that discussion. In the bottom left corner of each post you will also find View in discussion. Click on this link to see where the post is relative to the other posts in the discussion.