Ed Discussion is an enhanced discussion platform that integrates with your Canvas courses. Students can answer one another’s questions, work on and run code together, embed videos, annotate images, and share documents. Instructors can endorse student responses and add their own feedback.
Ed Discussion’s features foster community and peer learning. Students may post questions about the course, which can reduce repetitive emails to instructors and TAs. Ed Discussion is highly customizable, with categories for topics and easy-to-use search and filter tools.
This page is intended for instructors. Students should review Ed Discussion for Students.
Accessing Ed Discussion
When enabled, Ed Discussion can be accessed by you and your students from the course menu in your Canvas site (instructions below).
You can also log in to Ed Discussion with the same Penn email address you use for Canvas if you prefer to use Ed Discussion outside of a Canvas course.
Adding Ed Discussion to Canvas
- Log in to Canvas.
- Click Courses and choose a course.
- Enable Ed Discussion in the course settings.
- Click Ed Discussion in the left side course navigation menu, and follow the prompts to activate your course.
We recommend waiting to activate your Ed Discussion course until your Canvas site is published. When you click Activate in your Ed Discussion course, students receive a notification that the course is live, but they cannot access it until your Canvas course site is published.
Installing the mobile app (optional)
- Navigate to the Ed Discussion mobile page.
- When prompted, log in with the same Penn email you use for Canvas.
- Follow the directions for your device (iOS or Android) to add the mobile app.
- Enable Push Notifications if desired.
Setting up your course
To set up your course, follow the prompts provided when you open your Ed Discussion course for the first time. You may also choose to set up discussion categories and other optional features. We recommend the following resources to help you get started:
Click the Sync with LMS button (located in Settings) frequently, especially during the Add/Drop period. This updates Ed Discussion to sync with your course roster.
Ed Discussion Features
There are several different tools available within Ed Discussion. You may choose to enable one or more tools according to the needs of your course.
Discussions
The Discussions tool is the primary way Ed Discussion is used in Penn courses. It functions similarly to the Canvas Discussions platform, but with several enhanced features:
- Moderation tools can help you to manage discussions.
- Pin certain threads to draw attention to important information.
- Schedule posts to be sent to students at a future time.
- Add LaTeX equations to a discussion prompt or response.
- Options for anonymous, private, and staff-only posts.
Bots++
Inside the Discussions feature is the Bots++ tool. Bots++ enables instructors to create an AI-powered bot, train it on course material with custom instructions, and allow it to respond to student questions in the discussion forum.
Bots++ must be enabled by an Ed Discussion administrator and requires an API connection to a large language model. CETLI provides support for instructors who are interested in this tool. Please contact CETLI-info@upenn.edu to learn more.
Lessons
Ed Discussion Lessons can be used to provide sequenced informational content, assign coding challenges and quizzes, and grade student work, all from within the Ed Discussion interface. Graded Lessons can be synced with the Canvas gradebook.
Code Challenges in Lessons offer an interface for students to write and run code, compare input/output, and run automated and manual tests, all within their browser. Instructors can provide starter code, set up automated tests to run against student submissions, and attach grading rubrics.
The primary purpose of Lessons is to provide embedded coding assignments without relying on additional 3rd-party platforms. We recommend continuing to build non-coding content, assignments, and quizzes directly in your Canvas course.
Workspaces
An Ed Discussion Workspace is a collaborative online IDE that enables students to work together on coding projects in a consistent programming environment, regardless of differences between their local devices’ operating systems. Instructors can provide starter code, unit tests, files, and instructions, and give Workspace access to specific groups of students. Workspaces support multiple high-level coding languages, including Python, R, HTML/CSS/JS, and more.
Workspaces are not graded items. To create and assign graded coding challenges, we recommend using Ed Discussion Lessons.
Chat (beta feature)
Instructors may enable the Chat tool within their Ed Discussion courses. This allows instructors to:
- Initiate and engage in private communications/chats with students.
- Set up public and private chat channels.
- Allow students to send each other direct messages.
This feature is still in beta as of Summer 2026. Technical support may be limited.
Analytics
Instructors can view and download analytics depicting participation statistics, such as views, threads, and answers, for a certain point in time. Access your Course Analytics by clicking the bar graph icon in the top left toolbar.
You can also view details on top contributors in the class. These stats can then be downloaded and viewed in .csv format for further drill-down capabilities, such as user email addresses, roles, and specific activity metrics. The image below shows how these metrics appear from your Analytics tab:
Additional Resources
Getting Help
For more detailed guides, please log in to Ed Discussion, select your region, and then go to Help with Using Ed Discussion. If you are already logged into your Ed Discussion Dashboard, click on the person icon found in the upper right corner of the screen and click Help.
The Canvas Support team can also assist you with Ed Discussion. Contact us at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.