u/PrioritySelect629

It seems to be standard practice for instructors teachings online courses in Canvas to assign a discussion post and then require comments on one or two other student’s posts. I imagine these required replies were meant to recreate in-person class discussions and debate in an online environment, but the actual result is the opposite. Instead the easiest path to completion is empty praise and pandering agreement.

No true in-depth discussion is actually started, and no one bothers to return to read the replies their post received or respond to them. It is yet another failed attempt to mimic real life online with underwhelming results.

And yet, nearly all instructors employ this assignment structure. I have total respect for the ONE instructor who does follow this pattern. Few to none of the instructors engages or responds to any post or reply themselves, leading me to wonder if they’re readings them at all. And theirs is the opinion I‘m interested in most.

UPDATE - pass has been claimed!

FREE SacRT Summer 2026 student transit pass (plastic card, not a digital pass).

Valid now until August 15, 2026.

Happy to mail it to you.

First DM will get it —

Canvas is down. It’s been down for nearly 12 hours now. Who knows when it's going to return to normal. We all know you're not to blame for this outage and neither is the college.

That said, can you please be proactive and email your students this week's assignments, instructions, and how you will mitigate missed due dates due to the outage? Do you want homework emailed to you? Are you going to extend deadlines if the students cannot submit work on time? How will you deal with quizzes and exams?

On our end, there has been little to no communication from the college. Maybe you’re in the same boat. It’s disappointing, but unsurprising. So, it would be pretty cool if you could do one better right now.

Because, you don’t really want individual students emailing you asking about how to proceed, right?

Thanks. We appreciate you!