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Discussion Board New Post Feature

Dr. Sebastian Mahfood

November 17, 2016 02:21

Completed

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Good evening, Isaac. I've read through the feature requests concerning finding new discussion board posts that have been made over the past five years (since 2011). 

I've noted that an easy method to identify new posts embedded as replies within earlier posts has never in five years been adequately addressed. 

I would like to propose that all new posts be assigned a special character that is easily searchable using a ctrl-f search OR, and this will be easier, placing a blue or green floating button next to each new reply so that they immediately stand out when a faculty member or fellow student is scrolling down the message board. Canvas does this to good effect. 

How soon could you have something like that in place for me and the Populi user community?

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7 comments

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  Adam Sentz December 15, 2016 22:23 Official comment

  Last night we released an LMS update that includes improving unread discussion comment functionality. Read all about it on the blog!

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  Adam Sentz November 17, 2016 04:41

  @Sebastian - This feature request was in fact made in 2011. It was subsequently marked Completed in 2012 when we added a NEW badge to comments and replies that have been made since the last time you visited a discussion. 

  We have some improvements in mind for when we can make time to work on discussions, one of which is allowing you to sort comments by recency. 

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  Dr. Sebastian Mahfood November 17, 2016 09:42

  Thanks, Adam.

   

  The method of ctrl + f "new" doesn't work all that well in long posting threads where the word "new" may appear often within the context of normal student work. 

   

  There's another reason, which is more important: the moment I reply to a new comment anywhere on the discussion board that may have several of them, all the blue new symbols disappear. Not just the one on the comment to which I replied, but all others further down in the thread. I then have no way of knowing or tracking what else is new below the post to which I just responded.

   

  This is a big deal to faculty who engage their students over the course of the week. 

   

  What we need is a better method. A "jump to new" feature would be useful, but not if it has the same failing as the current feature, namely that a response to any new comment will automatically cause all other "new" indicators to disappear.

   

  Furthermore, any navigation away from that point, even without responding, will cause all unseen new posts to automatically be recast as viewed posts.

   

  You don't have to follow my idea from Canvas of placing static blue dots to the left of each post that remain in place until they are viewed. But you do want to do something to assist your end user faculty and students. Otherwise, you cannot say that you are delivering a superior product.

   

  So, how can I further help you address this issue?
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  Adam Sentz November 17, 2016 17:48

  @Sebastian - We're aware that the current method may not be ideal for everyone. Like I wrote, we have some improvements in mind. It's just a matter of finding time in our development schedule to implement them.

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  Dr. Sebastian Mahfood November 17, 2016 18:14

  Thanks, Adam, for your continued positive outlook. It's not that the current method "may not be ideal for everyone" but that the current method doesn't do what Populi claims it does. Namely, the new discussion post feature is good under the claim only for identifying the first new post. The faculty member cannot respond to the first new post the ctrl + f feature gives him or her without losing ALL other new post indicators. This is the clearest demonstration that the solution failed to produce what it promises to produce. 

  So, what I need at this point is a date in time when I can phone you early on that day and say, "Today is the date you specified. Will you meet your target?"

  If you wait till you find time in your development schedule to implement a long overdue patch, you'll never implement it. The evidence has been present to us for five years of lost development time. 

  If you simply won't do it, then that's a different issue. It's preferable for me to know that you won't do it then for me to be strung along for an indeterminate amount of time waiting for you to do it. Not just better for me, but also for you since I'll keep bugging you daily till it's scheduled. 

  Here's a solution for you, though - don't do it yourself. Outsource it to Zachary Georgeoff, my IT guy. All he'll need is access to your source code, and he'll be able to apply a fix in only a few hours. I'll even pay him the hourly. 

  How's that?

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  Adam Sentz November 17, 2016 19:42

  @Sebastian - We hear you loud and clear that your needs aren't being met by the way new discussion posts are currently labeled. We have to find development and quality assurance time for every change we make, and we ship code multiple times per day. 

  We don't have a public timelines because things come up everyday and we have to shuffle things around. I'm sure we're not perfect, but we really do try to put our attention where it's going do the most good in a given time.

  We're absolutely committed to improving discussions in Populi. They are an essential part of a good LMS and we know that there are areas where the current version isn't meeting all of our customers' needs. 

  And thanks for the offer, but we do not allow our source code to be accessed by people who don't work for us.

  Like I wrote before, this is one of the areas we're planning on improving discussions. We've been planning to do a larger update with several improvements going out simultaneously (which can save us some QA time), but we're discussing if we can limit the scope to deal with the most pressing shortcomings only so we can try to ship that sooner. Stay tuned.

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  Dr. Sebastian Mahfood November 17, 2016 19:51

  Thank you, Adam. I'm certain you're trying as hard as you can to schedule the work. Feel free to hire Zach temporarily until the work is done. That way, his presence in your source code won't break your rules. ;)

  In any case, I know you can do this. It's just a matter of doing. So, no need for a public timeline - message me at 314-706-1009 with a private one. 

  Thanks!