Grades - Filter or Sort Students by Groups

[josh_harder]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

              

This idea is relatively simple in nature. I would like the ability to sort and/or filter the list of students in the grades tool by their groups.

In the screenshot above, we see the Canvas grade tool as of 08/18/2016. In the field marked with the number 1, we can filter either by student name or secondary ID. In this field or separate fields, it would be helpful if I could filter by student groups.

In the columns area (marked with the number 2), it would be beneficial to have a column showing student groups. This would allow for sorting by group. This may be a bit tricky since a student could potentially be in multiple groups, but I have faith in Instructure's ability to figure out tricky problems.

This idea is similar to but different from Gradebook: Bespoke Smart views and Gradebook Filters & Viewing Options. The scope of Gradebook Filters & Viewing Options is much broader. It would be great to have all those filtering options, but until we get there, it would be nice to tack on some filtering options to the current grades tool (like I'm suggesting in this idea). In Gradebook Filters & Viewing Options, Mr. Welsh is making a great suggestion, but it is focused on filtering the assignments. Although I also think this would be an important addition to the grades tool, I think it is important that we also have the ability to filter and sort our students.

I look forward to your comments and hope this idea gets voted up! Thank you!

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the Canvas Release Notes (2019-06-22)‌

[Stef_retired]

 @josh_harder ​, I'm hoping you can elaborate on your idea so that I can understand the additional functionality you're seeking with regard to section sorting. Canvas already has the ability to sort the Gradebook by sections:

That's the dropdown in the upper right hand corner of the Gradebook. So is this feature idea essentially a request to re-position that toggle to a column, combined with a new column that incorporates a toggle for groups and group sets?

(I edited this comment to reflect a subsequent revision of the original feature idea submission.)

[josh_harder]

Stefanie,

Thank you for your reply. As you figured out, I did not realize the section filtering option was over there on the right. I have edited my idea to request filtering / sorting by groups only. This was my original idea, but at the last moment, I tacked on sections without confirming if this functionality was already available.

Thank you!

[Stef_retired]

 @josh_harder ​, thank you for coming back and confirming that! Now that you have edited the feature idea submission to reflect a filter/sort by groups only, I have slightly edited my previous replies to explain their incongruity.

[Renee_Carney]

This idea has moved to the next stage and will be open for voting among the Canvas Community, from Wed. September 7, 2016 - Wed. December 7, 2016.

Check out this doc for additional details about how the voting process works!

[clifford_bass]

Josh,

For the uninitiated, which includes me, what are these student groups you are wanting to sort/filter by?  Maybe some examples?  I am trying to understand how that would fit into our instructors desires and needs.  We have a very structured setup for our students already so I have no idea if our students would even be in groups beyond classes/sections.

Clifford

[josh_harder]

Clifford,

Thanks for your question on clarification about groups. The groups I am referring to are student groups, which you can read more about here: What are Student Groups?. Additionally, the following video has a good description of why you might want to use groups (near the beginning of the video). They essentially allow for smaller sets of students to more easily do collaborative work.

525 - Groups: Creation & Management from Canvas LMS on Vimeo.

I hope this helps!

[clifford_bass]

Hi Josh,

Thanks.  It helps.

Clifford

[jkm249]

I'm in support of this feature because I made an assignment, but forgot to mark it as a "group assignment". Now, I can't go back to edit the assignment because students have already submitted items (Canvas won't let me change it).

I wanted to give the groups a grade, but couldn't filter the grades by groups. Now, I have to find each person and assign a grade individually. Obviously doable, but tedious and a waste of time.

I hope this feature makes it!

[kjr103]

It would also be wonderful to be able to sort or filter students by group for attendance.  My groups sign in by group daily.  It is tedious to sort through nearly 100 names.

[hasti]

For the class I am currently teaching (which is cross-listed in two departments), for each of my 12 actual discussion sections there are 2 disjoint sections in Canvas (one associated with the students who signed up for it under one department, one associated with the students who signed up for it under the other department). Similarly, my two large lectures result in 4 disjoint sections in Canvas. In Desire2Learn, I could create a group (discussion 310 or lecture 2) to contain all the students actually in the section (regardless of which department they signed up through). I could then filter the gradebook (as well as their equivalent of the SpeedGrader) by my groups. Currently there is no way for me to see ALL the students in exactly one discussion section at one time in any way within Canvas.

I also used the ability to create groups (and be able to filter the grading facility by them) to split up the grading among my TAs (i.e., grading groups 1, 2, and 3 and then rotated the TAs over the groups) when I had classes that were not neatly split by discussion sections.