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Blogs/Journals in Canvas

  • Article Updated:

A blog or journal activity allows students and teachers to exchange ideas in the form of text and visual media by posting comments.

Canvas Discussions can be set up to allow students to create visible blogs (where the entire class can see a student's posts) or private journals (where only the individual student and instructors can see a student's post). This page walks you through:

  • How to Create Visible Blogs (by allowing students to create their own discussion posts)
  • How to Create Private Journals (by setting up discussion posts for group discussion and creating single-student groups)

To add Canvas discussions that allow students to add visible blog entires, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Canvas, enter your course site and click Settings from the course navigation menu:

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2. Scroll down to the bottom and click More options: 

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3. Ensure Let students create discussion topics is checked: 

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4. Click Update Course Details.

5. Students will now be able to create their own Discussions as a blog on the Discussions tab by clicking + Discussion. 

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6. It is recommended to ask students to include:

  • Their name in the discussion Topic Title (for example, "Joe Gaucho's Blog")
  • Select the option Allow threaded replies - This allows students to both post new entries under the same "blog" and comment on another student's blog entry in threads: 

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To add Canvas discussions that allow students to add private journal entries, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Canvas, enter your course site and click Discussions from the course navigation menu:

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2. Click +New Discussion :

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3. Add a Topic Title (for example "Personal Journals") and Instructions. Optionally, set other options including grading information and availability. 

4. Select the option for This is a Group Discussion and click New Group Category:

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5. Enter a Group Set Name (for example, "Journal Groups"). Under Group Structure select "Split number of students per group" and set the number to "1". Click Save. 

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6. Click Save and Publish to create the Discussion as a Journal activity. 

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7. To make it easier to distinguish which journal is which, you can rename the groups by clicking on the People tab from the course navigation menu. Then, click on the Group Set Name you set in Step 5. 

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8. Click on the arrow next to the Group name to see which student is in the group. Then, click ⋮ > Edit:

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9. Change the Group Name to include the student's name and click Save. 

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10. Repeat for the remaining groups. 

 

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