Color Coding Assignment Groups in Gradebook

[hrolling]

When a teacher opens the gradebook, being able to quickly identify what assignment group each assignment belongs to would be GREAT!  Right now, we see the averages as you scroll down to that particular category, however, seeing each assignment and how it is weighted would be particularly helpful for teachers transitioning from PowerSchool gradebook to Canvas.

Thanks!

Heather Rollings

  Comments from Instructure

January 2016 update from Christi Wruck

Hey friends!

We pride ourselves on being an accessible application. We can't communicate things with color alone and retain our accessibility certifications. We are working on other ways to help you more easily identify categories and weights that will also be accessible for all users.

[KristinL]

Hi  @hrolling ​~ When you are thinking about this feature, where would you like the color to appear? At the top of the column with the assignment title, or would you like the whole column so the scores were included? I think the first option would maintain help with readability. It would be nice if a teacher was able to turn this feature on/off depending on their preferences though.​ Another thought...it could be helpful if this was only viewable to the teacher. Students have many classes, and if each of their teachers create their own color coding scheme, it may be overwhelming to keep track of organization from course to course.

[Renee_Carney]

This idea will move forward for voting in October.

Heather,  I would encourage you to further develop your idea here.  Kristin poses some great questions and makes some very important points.  I would also add that colors are not the answers to organization for all.  Colors can lead to accessibility issues...

[Renee_Carney]

This idea is now open for voting Wed. October 7, 2015 - Wed. January 6, 2015.

For more information on the voting process check out How does the voting process work for feature ideas?

[hrolling]

I agree, Kristin, the color coding would only need to be seen by the teacher. And I love the idea of being able to turn this feature on and off.

Personally, I would prefer the shading to run all the way down the column of the grade book so that when I'm looking at a students assigment, no matter where it is in the gradebook spreadsheet, I can easily identify the category and how much weight any given grade will count towards the final average.

It would also be nice if the teacher had the option to sort the gradebook based on these colors/assignment groups. Are we being balanced in our assessment approach? Seeing this through a "colorful perspective" would bring attention to a more balanced curriculum.

[hrolling]

MY response is below, thank you for your feedback Kristin!

[asatkins]

I would LOVE to see this in the student gradebook view too. Right now it's very difficult for a student to tell how their assignment is being weighted, even though it's easy to see the weighting total. It would be awesome if this page -

Could have a color assigned to each group on the right and then have that color correspond with either the text of the assignment link or the background color or some indication that assignment belongs to that group.

[tknapp]

Being able to differentiate one assignment group from another would be great and I really like the idea of being able to sort based on these groupings as well!

[cwruck]

Hey friends!

We pride ourselves on being an accessible application. We can't communicate things with color alone and retain our accessibility certifications. We are working on other ways to help you more easily identify categories and weights that will also be accessible for all users.

[jim_smith]

Why does this need to be an idea open to voting? Just give the option of making items in the top row of the grade book a different color (for example, if I want all my essay assignments to have a light blue background, all my quizzes a light green background, etc.). Surely, this can't be difficult.  And if someone does not want to use the feature, they don't use the feature!

[phippsj1]

I don't see how being able to color your assignment groups is an accessibility issue when the information is already there. This is just an ease of use item. It's frustrating that most other gradebooks color code assignments so you can easily see what is worth more (or if you accidentally weighted a test as a HW). 

Come on Canvas! Yes I know just like many things canvas cannot do there are "workarounds" but please add this standard feature!

[judy_harmon]

This is a feature that is becoming increasingly valuable for faculty to be able to access.  Yet there doesn't seem to be any progress.  Canvas, what's the status of what seems to be a pretty easy fix?  Thanks!

[Jul_Cro]

In the old gradebook you could differentiate between assignment columns and assignment group columns through a dark grey and a light grey, even that is better than absolutely no difference in color pattern throughout the whole gradebook. Every faculty that I help when they first turn on the gradebook and often after are confused about the groups without the color difference, though, really, I have to admit some were confused in the old gradebook too. 

[Steven_S]

I agree, and I think that adding a way to distinguish the columns that show the average for each assignment group (and the course total) from the individual assignments should be easier for canvas to achieve in the new gradebook than color coding every assignment type. Since there are now several categories of color for the individual cells, color coding the assignment columns is a more complicated problem, I think.  Color coding the specific columns for assignment average and course total columns is a separate idea here: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/15432-new-gradebook-total-and-assignment-group-color 

[linda_woods]

Our faculty get confused about the assignment group columns in the gradebook. Is it possible to either shade them, color them, or add a pattern so that faculty can see that those columns are different from regular gradebook columns?

[spastor22]

I see that this conversation regarding color coding assignment groups in Canvas started back in 2015.  The status of this conversation is still open.  So, my question is... where do we sit with this?  Color coding assignment categories provides a quick reference for teachers to be able to see assignments that either carry the same weight or are addressing the same standard or objective.  This is not a student facing request, simply one that will help teachers.  Synergy SIS in Edupoint offers that feature and our teachers really appreciate it.  The request would be color the whole column so, no matter what student you are viewing, the color would carry down to that individual grade and you would know what category/standard that assignment is addressing.  Thanks!

[KristinL]

Thank you for sharing this idea with the Instructure Community!

The Product Team reviewed all feature proposals recently, and unfortunately, this thread was identified as one that they would not be able to include in their current or future plans. While we appreciate your proposal, we also want to be transparent about the likelihood of something like this making it to production.

Thank you for collaborating, and we hope that you submit another idea in the future!