Back to Canvas Discussions👋 Contact Support

Understanding Threaded Canvas Discussions

This article was last reviewed Jan 6, 2025 @ 2:51 pm.

In Canvas Discussions, a “thread” is a conversation that starts with an initial post and includes all the replies to that post. Think of it as a single topic of conversation and all the responses related to it. This structure helps keep Discussions organized, so it’s easier for readers to follow along with specific topics or questions.

By default in Canvas Discussions, only the first reply each student submits to your initial topic is visible when you first open a Discussion. To see all replies and ongoing conversations within each thread, you need to click the “Expand Threads” button. This action will display all the replies associated with each initial response.

  1. Open the Discussion: Navigate to the course discussion page as you normally would.
  2. Locate the Expand Threads Button near the top of the discussion posts.
  3. Select Expand Threads. By selecting this button, all replies and ongoing conversations will become visible beneath each initial post.
  4. You can now scroll through all conversations. To reply to a specific post or comment, select the Reply button beneath that post.

Instructor view vs. student view

When you select either Expand Threads or Collapse Threads, this change affects the content of the page you are currently viewing, but it does not affect what students see. Your students will also need to click “Expand Threads” on their end to see all the replies.