Last updated on April 30, 2026
Canvas Discussions allow students to “respond in thread” by default, meaning students can respond to the prompt or to someone else’s response to the prompt. This is an option that can be disabled in the Discussion setting by checking the box next to “Disallow threaded replies”. If students are not able to respond to each other, it is possible this setting was turned on, and you will need to turn it off to allow for threaded replies.
Another setting that can block students from replying to each other in discussions, is making the discussion a Peer Review. Peer Reviews in Discussions assign students a peer for students to review and complete structured feedback that only the instructor and original poster can see. For discussions where you want students to freely reply to each other for everyone to see, you will need to ensure this setting is turned off.
Allow Threaded Replies
- Log in to your Canvas Account.
- Select the Course you’d like to work in.
- Click Discussions in the left-hand course navigation menu.
- Click the three dots to the right of the Discussion that students can’t reply in.
- Select Edit.
- Uncheck Disallow threaded replies if it is checked.
- If this setting was already unchecked, see the steps below for how to turn off Peer Review.
- Click Save at the bottom right.
Turn Peer Review Off
- Log in to your Canvas Account.
- Select the Course you’d like to work in.
- Click Discussions in the left-hand course navigation menu.
- Click the three dots to the right of the Discussion that students can’t reply in.
- Select Edit.
- Scroll down to Peer Reviews.
- Select Off.
- Click Save at the bottom right.
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