In Summer 2024, Canvas Discussions will be undergoing a visual refresh and additional features as part of Instructure’s “Discussions Redesign”.  While Discussions will still function primarily in the same manner and offers all of the features currently available, additional new features will include:

• Anonymous posting
• @Mentions
• Instructor tag
• New thread viewing options

If you are interested in a brief video overview, please watch this short video from Instructure.

To prevent this change from happening while summer courses are active, UW-Whitewater will be turning on the Discussions Redesign after grades are due on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. On this date, all discussions will automatically upgrade to the redesign with no action needed from instructors.

While we recognize the best way to get use to a tool is to spend time working with it, we recommend the Instructor Guide – Discussions Redesign and Student Guide – Discussions Redesign guides for supplemental support.

Of the changes being made, the one we here on the UWW campus are most excited for is still on the horizon. This new tool will be adding “Checkpoints”, which would allow instructors to set a separate date for when an initial post needs to be made, and when the discussion is due. Sadly, this feature is not yet implemented, but stay tuned for details to come!

If you have any questions or concerns about this update, or even just curious about how it can help you, please contact UW-W Canvas Support.