Last updated on February 22, 2024
One way to increase the value of Discussions in your course is to require that students participate in the discussion more than once. For example, you can have students respond to a prompt in their first post and then reply to a classmate several days later. While Canvas doesn’t have a built-in feature to assign multiple due dates to the same Discussion, you can use Pages and the student’s To-Do list to create something similar. In a Page, you can remind students that a contribution to the Discussion is due, link directly to the Discussion, and add it to the students’ To-Do Lists.
Directions
Create a Discussion
- Log in to Canvas.
- Select the Course you would like to work in.
- Click Discussions in the left-hand course navigation menu.
- Click + Discussion in the top right-hand corner.
- Enter a Title for your Discussion.
- Enter Instructions for your Discussion.
- It’s a good idea to list the multiple due dates and instructions for each phase of the assignment here for clarity.
- Modify any Options in the Discussion you like.
- Enter the Final Due Date in the Assign box at the bottom.
- Click Save in the bottom right-hand corner.
Create To-Do Items
- Click on Pages in the left-hand course navigation menu.
- Click + Page in the top right-hand corner.
- Enter a Title for the Page.
- Enter a reminder that part of the discussion is due in the Text Field.
- Click Insert in the toolbar above the text field.
- Hover over Link.
- Click Course Link.
- Click on the arrow next to Discussions in the panel on the right-hand side.
- Click on the title of the Discussion you created previously.
- Alternatively, you can use the search bar in this panel and enter the title of the Discussion to find it.
- Check the box next to Add to Student To-Do in the Options beneath the text box.
- Select the First Due Date from the Calendar box beneath Add to Student To-Do.
- Click Save in the bottom right-hand corner.
- Repeat this process for any Additional Due Dates associated with this discussion.