Pro Tip Tuesday: Student Journals in Canvas – A Workaround

Canvas is lacking a native Journal tool.  However, there’s a few ways to get around the journal function because of the flexibility of the Canvas interface!

One of the easiest ways I’ve found is to create groups equal to the number of students in the class (so one student per group). Then create a group discussion board. This way students can submit a discussion post that will act as individual journal entries.

The instructor will be able to review each one, and be able to comment on the student’s posts – however, no one else in the class will be able to see the other students’ entries. The instructor can then assign a single grade in Gradebook for each student.

How do I do it?

1) Go to People

2) Click + Group Set

3) Type name for group set

4) Click radio button for “Split students into “x” groups” (where x = number of students in class) – how to create groups: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10133-415255490

5) Create new discussion – how to create a discussion: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10366

6) Type name of discussion

7) Check off “This is a Group Discussion”

8) Assign to group set you created

If you like, you can review this quick (sub 3 min) video on this method – https://community.canvaslms.com/videos/2193

If you have any questions about Journals or anything else Canvas related, please don’t hesitate to reach out to atc-ttl@wpi.edu.