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IDEA/Enhancement Request: Separate the Edit and Delete Discussion Posts Setting

April_Sylvester

It has come to my attention that instructors only have the choice to allow students to edit AND delete posts in the discussion. It would be beneficial to make this 2 settings so that an instructor can allow students to edit their posts without the ability to delete them.

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Accepted answers

Chris_Hofer

Hello there, @April_Sylvester …

Thanks for posting your idea here. Unfortunately, this is not the exact location that you'll want to submit your suggestion to Instructure (the folks that make Canvas). There is a separate space here in the Community to do that. It used to be called Feature Ideas, but now it is under the https://community.instructure.com/en/categories/canvas-collaborative-roadmap . Here are a handful of Guides that will help you as you create your idea to submit directly to Instructure:

I hope these Guides will help to get you started on submitting your idea. You could just copy your original text above when you submit your idea. Good luck to you!

All comments

Chris_Hofer

Hello there, @April_Sylvester …

I hope these Guides will help to get you started on submitting your idea. You could just copy your original text above when you submit your idea. Good luck to you!

April_Sylvester

Thank you, @Chris_Hofer. I was having trouble finding the feature ideas space in the Community. There is not an obvious menu (I didn't know it was under "Collaborative Roadmap") and the search was not surfacing it.

adam_c_voyton

Not a true answer, but a comment: many course and account role permissions are still bundled into broad permission groups rather than being broken down into more granular controls, which can definitely be frustrating.

dbrace

@April_Sylvester, if you enter it into the Collaborative Roadmap, can you please come back here and share its specifc link. I would vote for it.

-Doug

adam_c_voyton

I can see the point being made here—the lack of permission granularity does seem a bit odd. However, I think I also understand why Canvas may have designed it this way.

If students were allowed to edit posts but not delete them, they could effectively "delete" a post by editing it and removing all of the original content. To anyone who doesn't routinely check a discussion's edit history, an empty or nearly empty post would look functionally the same as a deleted one. By tying edit and delete permissions together, Canvas may be acknowledging that distinction is not as meaningful as it first appears.

That said, clicking Delete does remove the ability for most users to review the original content. My understanding is that recovering or reviewing deleted discussion content would likely require administrator-level access, logging, or reporting tools (though I'd want to confirm exactly what is available and under what circumstances).

Where I see a bigger issue is what happens after a post is deleted. Whether the deletion is performed by a student, teacher, or admin, the post effectively disappears from the discussion and its context is lost. From a recordkeeping and student conduct perspective, that can be problematic.

I would prefer to see a Hide Post option similar to what Blackboard provides. With a hide function:

The inappropriate content is immediately removed from student view.
The post remains digitally preserved in its original context.
Instructors and administrators can still review the content later if needed.
There is no need to first copy, export, or screenshot the content for documentation purposes.
Investigations related to academic integrity, student conduct, or complaints are much easier because the original discussion thread remains intact.

In my view, a hide/unhide workflow would provide more value than simply separating the Edit and Delete permissions. It would allow instructors to quickly moderate discussions while preserving the historical record of what was actually posted.

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