[Gradebook] Identify Hidden Grades in Grades and SpeedGrader

[Tasha_Biesinger]

We recently discovered that if an assignment has the Automatic Post Policy applied and you hide grades, it is only hiding the grades that exist at the time you click Hide Grades. Grades you enter after hiding grades are still ‘honoring’ the Automatic Post policy applied and are visible to those students. We had been working under the assumption that clicking Hide Grades on an assignment with an Automatic Post Policy would hide all (current and future) grades, until grades are posted.

While we recognize the additional flexibility this provides to faculty, we also recognize that this is not how faculty expect the Hide Grades to function.

We would like to propose that Canvas add indicators to the Grades page and SpeedGrader to clearly indicate which grades are or will be hidden. These indicators should be visible in both places without faculty needing to click anything.

For example, right now, when I click the option to "Post Grades", Canvas indicates the hidden grades with a dot (indicating action needs to be taken). Couldn't those dots be added to the main view of Grades, so I can see them without having to click on "Post Grades" first?

In SpeedGrader, please also add some text to the sidebar that states whether the grade to be entered will be hidden (if the current settings will hide the grade).

This is a companion request to https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/15169-change-functionality-of-eye-icon-in-speedgrader 

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi  @Tasha_Biesinger ...

Here's and additional resource for you: Post Policy Updates Feedback.

[Stef_retired]

Hi,  @Tasha_Biesinger ‌, we're going to keep this idea in Moderating status until the latest changes to the Post Policy feature have made it to the production environment. At that time we'll ask you to re-examine the behavior to see whether this idea is still warranted and/or if it needs editing to reflect the latest changes.

Thanks!

[Tasha_Biesinger]

Hi stefaniesanders, I've updated this feature request and would love for it to be open for voting now.

[Tasha_Biesinger]

Also, for anyone looking for other great ideas related to all of this:

• https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/14900-grade-posting-make-the-eye-icon-clickable
• https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/15169-change-functionality-of-eye-icon-in-speedgrader

[Stef_retired]

Thanks for updating the idea and for adding the related links,  @Tasha_Biesinger ‌. This idea is now open for voting.

[venitk]

Here's another idea related to Grade Posting Policy: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/15561-gradebook-and-speedgrader-dropdown-visible-invisible-and... 

[Steven_S]

I'm all for anything that makes it clear to the grader whether or not students will see the grades that will be entered.  https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/15498-co-locate-controls-to-hidepost-existing-grades-and-manua... is a complementary idea that would help graders understand which policies were in place at any given time.

[suzukisa]

One way to add indicators to the Grades page to make it clear which grades are hidden vs visible could be to use the eye with a slash icon next to each student's grade like in the Total column. Instead of keeping the eye with a slash icon at the top of the column even when there are grades entered in that column that are visible, confusing instructors, when instructors begin to post grades that are visible in that column, the eye with a slash icon should appear next to each grade that is hidden only.

When the eye with a slash icon remains at the top of the column that has an automatic posting policy even when instructor has entered visible grades, there is no visual cue to the instructor that some grades are visible.

Finally, when the instructor changes the grade posting policy to manual for the column, the eye with a slash should go back to the top of the column, giving the visual cue that all grades in that column are invisible to students.

Sara Suzuki

[simsh]

Along with making it very visible which grades are hidden/shown - I would like to be able to select or deselect specific students to post or hide grades or comments.  

Holly Sims

[Isobel_R]

This comment was originally posted as its own feature request but was merged into this one. 

Original Feature Request Title: Hidden grades icon in Total column of Gradebook should only appear when grades are hidden

The hidden grades icon (or hidden eye icon; referred to as Visibility icon in the Canvas guides) in the Total column of the Gradebook for a student should only appear when there are grades hidden for that student. The message that appears when you click on the Visibility icon says "This grade differs from the student's view of the grade because some assignment grades are not yet posted": 

In actuality, the grade in the screenshot above does not differ from the student's view of the grade because all available grades are in fact posted and available for viewing by the student. Additionally, if you scroll through the full Gradebook for this course, there are only a couple assignment columns with the hidden grade icon in the header, yet this particular student has no grades entered yet for any such assignments.

According to Canvas Support, the following scenarios will cause the Visibility icon and the accompanying message to appear in the Total column for a student (these scenarios are what was causing the Visibility icon to appear in the screenshot above):

• Scenario 1: The student has been left submissions comments, but no grade as of yet, for an assignment. The assignment is set to a manual posting policy and the instructor hasn't clicked "Post Grades" yet for the assignment. Again, no grade was actually given, so it appears to me that no grade could be hidden in this scenario; thus, I'm not understanding why this would cause the hidden grades icon to appear in the Total column.
• Scenario 2: A quiz with at least one essay question has not yet been graded. As we know, in order for a quiz to be considered as graded, all individual questions must be graded by the instructor. If an instructor has not yet graded the essay questions of a student's submitted quiz, the Assignment icon appears in the Gradebook for that student, indicating that their "submission that needs to be graded" as per this guide: How do I use the icons and colors in the Gradebook?. If the quiz in question needs to be graded (no grade given yet, as in Scenario 1), and the Visibility icon is not appearing in the header of the corresponding column of the Gradebook, it is not clear at all to faculty that this quiz would cause the Visibility icon to appear in the Total column. 

All in all, the Visibility icon in the Total column and the accompanying message should really only appear if the impacted student has assignment grades that are hidden, and if what the message is saying is actually true. Unfortunately, as it stands now, there's no easy or quick way for faculty (or even Canvas admins) to tell which assignments could be causing a Visibility icon to appear in the Total column, making this issue even more difficult to deal with.