How do I view Discussions as an observer?
The Discussion Index page allows you to view all the discussions within a course.
Note: Your student's teacher may choose to hide the Discussions link in Course Navigation. If the Discussions link is not available, you can still access Discussions through other areas of Canvas.
Open Discussions
In Course Navigation, click the Discussions link.
View Discussions
Discussions are organized into three main areas.
Discussions [1]: These are current discussions within your student's course. Discussions are ordered by most recent activity. You will only see this section heading if there are discussions within this section.
Pinned Discussions [2]: These are discussions that your student's teacher wants you to pay specific attention to and will appear at the top of the Discussions page. You will only see this section heading if there are discussions within this section as designated by your student's teacher.
Closed for Comments [3]: These discussions have been manually closed for comments, or the discussion is past the available from/until date. These are discussions that are only available in a read-only state and are ordered by most recent activity. You will always see this section heading, even if there are no discussions within this section.
View Individual Discussion
Each discussion displays whether or not it is a graded discussion [1], the name of the discussion [2], the date on which the last discussion reply was posted [3], the due date (if any) [4], the number of unread/total posts in the discussion [5], and whether or not you are subscribed to the discussion [6].
You can also view availability dates for individual discussions [7].
An unread icon next to a discussion indicates an unread discussion [8]. The number of unread/total posts will not appear for group discussions and discussions that have no discussion replies [9].
There will also be a peer review icon if a graded discussion has been assigned peer reviews [10].
View Availability Dates
The first dates you may see are the availability dates. Your instructor may use availability dates to restrict discussion replies to a specified date range. The availability dates are the range of time that the discussion is accessible to you. Availability dates also appear on the Assignments page for all discussions with assigned availability dates.
- If the discussion does not have a date listed, the discussion is open; you can reply to the discussion at any time during your course [1].
- If the discussion says Not Available Until [date], the discussion is locked until the specified date [2].
- If the discussion says Available until [date], you can reply to the discussion until the specified date [3].
- If the discussion is in the Closed for Comments section, the discussion cannot accept submissions [4]. Discussions in this section may show a "Was locked at [date]" to indicate when the discussion was closed for comments [5].
Note: If the listed date is set to 12 am the last day for the assignment to be submitted is the full day before the listed date. For instance, if an assignment is Available until December 15, you can access the assignment until December 14 at 11:59 pm.
View Due Dates
The second set of dates are the due dates for each respective discussion [1]. However, due dates only apply to graded discussions. Any replies to discussions after the due date are marked as late; your student's teacher may deduct points for late replies. You can still reply to late discussion before the Available until date.
Please be aware that the Due date may be before or on the Available date.
Due dates also include a time [2]. If your student's instructor does not set a due time, the listed date displays the course's default due time.
Filter Discussions
There are a few ways to filter Discussions:
- View All or only unread discussions by selecting an option from the drop-down menu [1].
- Search for a discussion by typing a discussion title, a user name, or a keyword in the Search field [2].
- Change the discussions settings to manually mark posts as read by clicking the Settings icon [3].
Open Discussion
To view the details of a discussion, click the name of the discussion.
View Discussion
A discussion includes three sections: the discussion toolbar [1], discussion topic [2], and discussion replies [3].
View Discussion Toolbar
The discussion toolbar allows you to search the discussion and filter and sort replies.
To search for replies or specific authors, enter your terms in the search field [1].
To filter replies, click the All drop-down menu [2]. You can filter by all replies or unread replies.
By default, discussion replies are sorted by date from newest to oldest. To reverse the sort order, click the Sort button [3]. The selected sort order automatically becomes the new default for the discussion.
To view threaded replies in a split screen sidebar, click the View Split Screen button [4].
To view threaded replies all at once, click the Expand Threads button [5]. You can collapse the threaded replies by clicking the Collapse Threads button [6]. When you expand or collapse discussion threads, they will automatically be expanded or collapsed the next time you view the discussion.
To view threaded replies inline, click the Inline button [7].
View Discussion Topic
The discussion topic section includes important information about the discussion, including the discussion title [1] and description [2].
You can also view the name of the author [3], user role labels for TAs and Teacher (Instructor) roles [4], the date and time the discussion was published [5], due date [6], an indicator for a graded discussion [7], the number of points possible [8], and number of replies [9].
To subscribe to the discussion, click the Subscribe icon [10].
Note: If the discussion is an anonymous discussion, student names and profile pictures do not display. Posts created by the instructor display the instructor's name and profile picture.
View Discussion Options
To view the Options menu for a discussion, click the Options icon [1].
To mark all replies as read, click the Mark All as Read link [2].
To mark all replies as unread, click the Mark All as Unread link [3].
If the instructor added a rubric for the discussion, you can view it by clicking the Show Rubric link [4].
View Discussion Replies
Discussion replies display below the discussion topic.
View Threaded Discussion
If the discussion allows threaded replies, you can view them inline or in a split screen sidebar.
View Inline Discussion Thread Replies
When viewing discussion thread replies, you can view them in a split screen sidebar or inline on the same page. When viewing inline, collapse and expand all discussion threads by clicking the Expand Threads and Collapse Threads buttons [1].
When a discussion thread reply is collapsed, you can view the reply indicators showing the number of unread and total replies. To expand the discussion thread for an individual reply, click the # Replies link [2].
View Threaded Reply Options
To view threaded reply options, click the Options icon [1]. You can mark replies as read/unread, mark threaded replies as read/unread, return to the topic, or report the reply [2].
View Split Screen Discussion Thread Replies
To view split screen discussion thread replies, click the View Split Screen button [1].
When viewing split screen discussion thread replies, discusion reply threads are collapsed. You can view the reply indicators showing the number of unread and total replies.
To expand the discussion thread replies sidebar, click the # Replies link [1].
View the read and unread replies [1].
To view reply options, click the Options icon [2].
To collapse the discussion thread replies sidebar, click the Close icon [3].
To view discussion threads inline on one page, click the View Inline button [4].
