Question of the Week

This Week's Faculty Question

Q: My students can’t see upcoming discussions that are set to open on future dates, even though I've made the Discussions area available to them in the course navigation. In past courses, students have always been able to see these, but this year, they can’t. I know the students can’t open the discussions until their scheduled availability date, but they should still appear in the Discussions list. The only thing I did differently this year was include the discussion links inside modules in addition to making the Discussions area visible in the course navigation. I did this so students could access the discussions from different areas of the course. So, why aren’t the discussions showing up on the Discussions list anymore?  

A: Having the discussion links inside unpublished or locked modules is likely why the discussion posts aren’t appearing for students on the Discussions index page. This can be a bit confusing, but it’s related to how discussion visibility works in Quercus when modules are unpublished or locked until a future date. Even though the discussions themselves are published and have specific open dates, Quercus hides them from the "Discussions" page if they live inside unpublished (or locked) modules.This is expected behaviour and was confirmed by Canvas Support in a recent support ticket. It applies specifically to discussions, both graded and ungraded. While Canvas didn’t share the exact reasoning for this specific treatment of discussions, it appears to be a decision made to address issues with early access to content in locked modules.

• This behavior is unique to discussions. Published assignments and quizzes, even if they’re placed inside an unpublished or locked module, will still appear in the Assignments or Quizzes areas (as long as those areas are visible in the course navigation). Students won’t be able to open them until the module is published, but they will see that the items exist.
• If the discussion is graded, students may still see it listed in other areas of Quercus, such as the Calendar, Grades, or their To Do list. However, if they try to open it before the module is published (even if the discussion’s availability date has passed), they’ll encounter a locked message like the one below (just like with any other item inside an unpublished module).

How to resolve the issue with discussion visibility

To resolve this issue with future discussions not appearing on the Discussions index page, you have a couple of options:

1. Option 1: Publish the modules containing the discussion posts. This will make the discussions visible in the Discussions area, but students will still not be able to access them until the scheduled availability date.
2. Option 2: Remove the discussion links from the unpublished modules. Once they’re outside the unpublished modules, students will be able to see them on the Discussions page. Again, access will still be restricted until the availability date.

For questions or assistance with managing discussions, modules, and module content, please contact the EdTech Office or book a consultation.