Canvas - Known Issue - Replies for some Group Discussions Not Loading in Speedgrader[UW-Madison]

In Speedgrader, some discussion replies are not loading, and displaying the text “The submissions for this assignment are posts in the assignment's discussion. Below are the discussion posts for [student’s name] or you can view the full discussion.”

This happens when a discussion is set as a group discussion, and the course has students who have not been assigned to a group at the time they post. Even if they're assigned to a group later, the posts they made before being assigned will not load.

Affects

• Instructors using Canvas Speedgrader to grade group discussions
• Instructors in a course where groups have been set up but students have not been assigned

Status

This issue is present as of 19 February 2026. 

Workaround

Please verify that students are assigned to groups before they begin participating in group discussions. Please see How do I manually assign students to groups? - Instructure Community to learn how to add students to groups. 

If students haven't begun participating, you can deactivate the "this is a group discussion" option in your discussion settings.

1. Open Discussions on your Canvas sidebar. Select the discussion that needs attention.
2. On the discussion page, select ⋮ (menu button) and edit.
   
   
3. Under Options, verify that the option this is a group discussion is not checked.
   

If students have already started participating, this cannot be changed.

However, you can still view replies by opening the full discussion, and searching for the student's name using CTRL+F on Windows or Command+F on MacOS.