As a teacher, I would like to be able to hide gradebook columns in my gradebook after I have completed grading or if the assignment has not yet been assigned.This would shorten the length of the gradebook that I need to currently scroll across to get to the most recent assignments to grade and limit the potential for accidentally clicking on a cell and changing the grade while navigating.I know that I can resize the columns individually, but I want to be able to hide or collapse the columns and get them back, if necessary.There is currently a suggestion for hiding grade columns from students open for voting, which is a different type of request.My same suggestion was recently made by Letty but archived as being the same as the request to hide grade columns from students, which is not the same thing.Richard has also suggested hiding the grade columns as part of a multiple issue request.
I work with teachers at the elementary and middle school levels, and they would love to be able to hide columns in their grade books. They use the same course throughout the school year, and as the trimesters go by, they have to scroll by more and more assignments that they do not need to immediately access. The abundance of assignments becomes a hindrance in reviewing student performance in their classes.
I'm in the same position as an EdTech coach. We are in the second year of true adoption of Canvas after a pilot year and some of our emerging "power users" would like some kind of gradebook navigation simplification.
I submitted a similar idea back in August ( ) requesting to condense groupings of assignments instead of individual assignments. Unfortunately I didn't get much support, but I'm glad your idea has gained a more traction!
This makes sense—you've got my vote! It would make the list less cluttered. I'd love to be able to hide things that have been omitted for this term, or for things which haven't yet been assigned.
This feature would be especially useful it if not only persisted across all browsers and devices but if it would improve gradebook performance! In classes with high enrollments and/or large ## of assignments, our faculty see noticeable lags in viewing the gradebook.
Our institution just switched to Canvas last year, and I remember that our previous LMS provided the option to hide gradebook columns that were not being used. That LMS also provided the ability to hide columns from student view, and I believe that if you hide it from the instructor's gradebook but did not check hide from student view, student would still be able to see it. I would imagine that if it was possible to do it in this LMS that it has to be possible in Canvas.
One problem with this is people will forget they hid the column(s) so I foresee submitted assignments that go ungraded. And this opens the door for untold volumes of grade appeals. @jbrady2 points out additional scenarios involving the 'hide column from students view'. I would suggest that hiding columns from students is also undesirable.
@chantal_obrien , all - I feel a better solution for instructors would involve a degree of automation that doesn't actually require removing a column from the instructors view. To the contrary, how about hiding all columns not currently relevant? What are your thoughts on a filter that when clicked shows only those assignment columns due within 7 days of '=today()', forward or backward? I see this positioned under the cog and it would not necessarily be persistent, meaning the next time you log in the entire grade sheet is visible. Thanks in advance for your feedback for this idea.
Being new to Canvas, I don't know all of the ins and outs of its workings. But I do know that it is very inconvenient to work with a gradebook that has a lot of columns, and it would be great to hide columns that aren't necessary, until they are needed.
Instructors want to spend as little effort in the grade book as possible(and more on teaching activities that add value). Being able to hide colums would make the grade book much more manageable, especially with large courses and courses with many assignments.
@Jeff_F I mentioned the fact that my institution's former LMS had the ability to hide columns in the gradebook from both the instructor and student view only to provide an example. I did not intend for this to be taken as an additional feature suggestion as Canvas already has features in place that solve the issues the other LMS was solving through hiding columns. I hope that clears up any confusion I may have caused.
Also, I can understand your concern about the possibility of instructors not grading assignments if they accidently hide a column that still needs grading. However, if I understand the feature request correctly, the intended use would be to hide the column after grading so that it would then be out of the way. Granted, accidents can still happen, but as long as hiding gradebook columns does not affect the To Do feed on the right-hand side that shows assignments that need grading both on the dashboard and within the course, then that constant reminder should hopefully be adequate to avoid any issues.
Manual hiding and unhiding is so last year (when I was in a different LMS). Let's instead filter out everything but what is currently relevant with a single mouse click. Well, ok maybe two.
I think that your idea could get at what I need. Ideally, I'd want flexibility (e.g., instead of the dropdown specifying 7 days, a box to type in the number of days).
@Jeff_F Your suggestion of a non-persistent filter would improve this idea. I can see how that would both create less work and cause less confusion, and if it were adjustable as @chantal_obrien has suggested, then the instructor could set it based on personal workload.
It would be helpful it Canvas didn't "load" the hidden column's data, as large courses with many assignments tend to develop a lag time over the course of the year. If I could hide columns and not wait for them to load the data of columns I don't need to interact with.
We'd love this at UT Austin. Our community wants it. We have 4,000 professors on Canvas. Add in the thousands of TAs, and we're fielding this question ALL THE TIME. Please make it happen!
Is there any more detail about how this feature is going? I know that it's been placed "Under Consideration".. has there been any movement from there? @biray
