Bring back the Grid View in discussion

After listening to feedback from its clients (including Los Rios), D2L has reintroduced Grid View for discussions. This was removed in the update that was applied in Los Rios in summer 2014. Faculty who grade discussion participation were most likely to express concern about the removed feature. Now that it has returned, we are again able to choose personally how we view discussion and can manage assessment in the ways we did prior to summer 2014.

Each user can set a default choice between Grid View and Reading View, and it can also be made each time a discussion topic is entered. The initial default view for all users is Reading View.

Personal preference

The Discussions Settings page (linked from the Discussions page includes a switch for the default discussions view. That same page has options for Grid View.

This default is set by the user and applies each time that user visits a discussion topic anywhere in the system, and it can be accessed from any discussions page by clicking on the Settings link. Users can use the topic-by-topic method at any time to override their personal preference.

Topic by topic

When a user clicks on the name of a discussion topic the user will enter the topic whichever default view that user has chosen. Clicking on the action menu for a discussion topic gives the user the option to choose the other view for that topic.

Special note about linking from the content area

When a link to a discussion topic is added as a content item, it displays inline as Reading view and ignores the user's personal preference. To see Grid View, the user must use the Discussions link on the navbar to access the discussions tool and then click on the name of the topic. Another option is for the instructor to add the link to the discussion topic as a quicklink and then edit it so that it opens in a new window.

Assessment

In Grid View, individual messages can now be assessed within a conversational context by clicking on the More Actions button for the message and clicking on the Assess link.

The content of the message does not appear within the Assess Topic window but the message count does as well as other feedback already provided for that student for that topic. To see all of the posts for a student within a single topic, click on the actions menu for a topic on the main discussions page and click on the Assess Topic link. If the discussion topic is associated with a grade item, you can also view all messages for a student within that topic by clicking on the submission icon for that student on the item's Grade Item page.

A final note on Grid View

Grid View fills the entire browser window with the exception of the minibar, so users looking at a discussion topic in Grid View will need to click the Done button to return to the main discussions page and see the navbar.