Mute by Section

Idea created by Shannon Wing Belmont on Sep 9, 2016

Comment • 40

Completed

Score293

+290 more

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

@This has been submitted before Patricia Tentoni Iva Lovell

Situation: Multiple sections of one course with varying due dates each week.

If I mute the assignment and grade each section as assignments come in each day, then unmute at the end of the week, students in the Monday section don't see their grades until Saturday.

I'd like to mute each section as I evaluate and unmute when those grades are complete.

Too much delay for students with sections early in the week before they receive feedback on their assignments.

Thank you for considering!

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the Canvas Release Notes (2019-07-13) .

40 Comments

scottd@instructure.com Sep 9, 2016 1:31 PM
Thank you for your Feature Idea submission. We wanted to call your attention to Resubmit: Mute/Unmute assignments by section in gradebook, In gradebook, change mute & unmute assignment to be section specific AND graders can mute/unmute only their sections , and Mute assignment by section for cross-listed courses which were submitted in a different voting periods, but archived due to lack of votes or inadequate response. You may want to reference this idea for insight.

Since archived ideas can be re-submitted, your idea will be open for vote in the next voting cycle.

In the meantime, help your idea gain traction by posting a link to this idea in the comments of the other, archived idea (which will notify author and anyone who is following the idea) and share your idea to colleagues and peers as well.
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Renee Carney Oct 5, 2016 9:17 AM
This idea has moved to the next stage and will be open for voting among the Canvas Community, from Wed. October 5, 2016 - Wed. January 4, 2017.
Check out this doc for additional details about how the voting process works!
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Kathryn Taylor Oct 13, 2016 12:05 PM
I am in the same situation and I fully support this idea. I need more control over when I give feedback to my students in different sections.
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Beth Crook Dec 13, 2016 7:11 AM
Fully support this idea, as we have courses with co-teachers and it's really hard for one teacher to want to release grades for their sections but not make them available to the other teacher's classes!
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Nathan Campbell Jun 13, 2017 12:03 PM
I was just meeting with a small group of teachers at one of our elementary schools here in Brookline, MA last Friday (6/9/17) and they were eager to get this feature request in! I hope it's added to the overall update that Grades/Gradebook will be undergoing this summer.
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Robin Fowler Oct 3, 2017 8:58 PM
This feature is really critical for courses with multiple sections/ multiple due dates. We need to release some of the grades earlier because they need the feedback for the next assignment...
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Hayley Tagell Oct 15, 2017 11:30 PM
This is such a frustrating thing to not be able to do, especially with a large cohort of students, different marking schedules, classes and due dates.
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Rob Ditto Oct 16, 2017 10:46 AM
I'm hoping to associate this longstanding, popular idea with:
- the forthcoming Post Policies feature of Priority: Gradebook Enhancements. gradebookenhancements_new
- the newly announced Priority: Teaching & Learning at Scale, which mentions "Post Policies Efficiencies."
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Ben Dolan Oct 20, 2017 2:20 PM
Our school could really benefit from this, as our schedule is staggered, and not all courses meet on the same days.

What is the current status of this? Does it need more votes?
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James Trueman Apr 17, 2018 1:57 PM
I really support this idea - or something that otherwise delivers the same functionality. I've come to this feature idea looking for a solution to the limitation that you can only unmute at Assignment level - even though you can set and assign differentiated Due dates for students in an Assignment (and each Due date will have its own 'Available from' and 'Until' dates).

At the moment the only way we can see overcoming this is creating multiple / copying Assignments to set different Due dates etc. - which really is a bit of a nightmare (tbh).

Assigning students to a section to control selective unmute would be one solution, we've also been thinking that providing an option to unmute by date (relative to the Due date) would be another solution (similar to other assessment platforms out there).

While I'm here , it would also be great if we could have an account level option to set muted as default rather than having unmuted as default (as we need to manually mute during marking - and then unmute when evaluation / grading is complete - and it runs the risk of human error and forgetfulness).
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- Rob Ditto @ James Trueman on Apr 17, 2018 5:04 PM
  James, you might be interested in these feature ideas:
  Set "mute" as a default for assignments (still accepting votes)
  Mute assignment as a option at assignment creation (accepting votes; in New Ideation Stage: Product Radar currently)
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  - James Trueman @ Rob Ditto on Apr 18, 2018 4:13 AM
    cheers Rob Ditto
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Daniel Stolzenberg Apr 30, 2018 7:11 PM
Please add this functionality! It's nonsensical to have the option of different due dates by section, but not be able to return graded assignments to students at different times. I teach a course with 24 sections that meet every day of the week and four teaching assistants. Creating multiple assignments is not a viable option. This is essential functionality for classes at large universities regardless of the outcome of the Canvas community voting process.
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- Ron Marx @ Daniel Stolzenberg on Apr 30, 2018 8:33 PM
  This function would also benefit grade 3-12 teachers because assignments that are turned in early can be graded, reducing the task at due date. Besides, it reinforces punctuality for students by providing immediate feedback.
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Joe Greene May 31, 2018 10:05 AM
It's inexcusable for Canvas to not have this option implemented by now. It's obviously needed, it's obviously favored greatly by users, and it's something that even a terrible LMS like Sakai has had the capability to do for years. This is a basic functionality for large university courses and something that probably should have been implemented 2-3 years ago.
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- johnpj @ Joe Greene on Sep 7, 2018 1:53 PM
  This is consistently the #1 reason why instructors tell me they dislike Canvas over our previous LMS.
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Renee Carney Sep 5, 2018 2:21 PM
The Radar idea stage has been removed from the Feature Idea Process. You can read more about why in the blog post Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.

This change will only impact the stage sort of this idea and will not change how it is voted on or how it is considered during prioritization activities. This change will streamline the list of ideas 'open for voting', making it easier for you to see the true top voted ideas in one sort, here.
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Tasha Biesinger Sep 20, 2018 3:41 PM
We have several faculty at our institution that want this functionality as well. Please develop this!
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Daniel Stolzenberg Oct 12, 2018 5:31 PM
Dear Canvas developers,
Is your process so thoughtless that this idea will never be implemented unless it reaches some arbitrary threshold of votes? Or do you have intelligent managers who can understand that this functionality is obviously needed, that not including it was an oversight, and that it must be implemented ASAP? This community voting process may be good for some things, but it's infuriating that this feature, whose absence is a logistical nightmare every time I teach large courses, has been stuck in purgatory for years. For God's sake, don't wait for it to be "resbumitted" and "upvoted." Just assign some engineers to implement the feature now. I implore you.
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- Renee Carney @ Daniel Stolzenberg on Oct 13, 2018 6:56 AM
  Daniel Stolzenberg
  
  I'd like to begin with the Community guidelines, and remind you to be kind. The rhetoric that you are using is very aggressive and abrasive.
  
  That being said, the feature idea process and how it influences product prioritization is a complex system. You can find more information in How does the feature idea process work? and What is the feature development process for Canvas? . We recently updated our process a bit and you can find the information about changes in Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes. You can also see the priorities we are currently working on in the Ideas. I share these with the intention of presenting the big picture, and not to overwhelm with links.
  
  I know this does not help give you an answer on this specific idea, but I hope it helps show why it's not as simple as just 'asking an engineer to build it". This idea is currently being reviewed as part of the top 10%, so we should have an update (prioritized or not) soon.
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  - James Trueman @ Renee Carney on Feb 26, 2019 6:32 AM
    Hi Renee
    
    I've scrolled over this bit a few times and have finally decided to stick my head above the parapet on this one.
    
    I understand your reply in the context of the community guidelines and note your advice on the feature idea process (thanks). Whilst Daniel's words were not what you expected - from wider conversations I've been involved in - I sense they reflect a broader frustration with important parts of the platform, which inevitably will get expressed at some point. Perhaps that underlying raw pain needs to be heard by Instructure - rather than a filtered and anaemic version of it?
    
    This is a perfect example of those frustrations - in that it relates to a mission or workflow critical feature that to most users should have been there in the first place - and has caused hours of misery and extra work for us, and confusion amongst students because it wasn't. Moreover, the years of voting and commenting on features requests like this seem to achieve little traction in getting them developed (thus exacerbating an already deeply frustrating situation).
    
    Instead, we seem to get 'new' features or products released - cynically referred to as the 'shiny, shiny' (read: ooh, isn't that pretty!). Maybe what we need is less 'shiny, shiny' and more robust fixes for the incomplete features that were released (probably as a 'shiny, shiny')?
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    - Renee Carney @ James Trueman on Feb 26, 2019 9:02 AM
      James Trueman
      
      I really do appreciate your thoughtful response here. We honestly have no problem with community members sharing frustrations, disagreement, etc. as long as it is done in a civil way. We want to have conversations about these things and we'd rather do them in the open like we are. A feedback process that sits behind logins and doesn't allow public viewing/commenting is much easier to manage, but we have no interest in the 'easy way'. So, thank you for sharing your very important feedback in such a civil way. We're all humans in here - no automation!
      
      I personally agree with a lot of your statements. Before coming to work for Instructure I was an admin at a college. I know how important it is to have a strong core. And now I also know how complex it can be to make 'simple changes' (simple is a perception)!
      
      I am pretty confident that over this next year we'll see more of the core workflow features advance. We're already starting to see this on the Ideas with some strong work occurring in Assignments and Commons specifically. Things can change, but my opinion right now is that we're headed in the right direction.
      
      So again, I appreciate this conversation and the way you approached it.
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      - scottd@instructure.com @ Renee Carney on Feb 26, 2019 10:46 AM
        Hi James,
        I just wanted to add that 1. I agree with everything Renee said about transparency and the importance we put on the feedback we get here in the community. I can assure you it gets read and considered and not just blown off. 2. Whether to build new features that feedback through Support, Sales, field interview, feature voting, etc tells us that at least some portion of people really want vs spending time on building out a stronger core and making better workflows for processes that are important to almost everyone is a constant balancing act. 3. I share Renee's general opinion and feeling of confidence that over the coming year we will see good progress on the latter.
        
        Thanks for your input and for sticking your head "above the parapet" (cool phrase).
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    - Ron Marx @ James Trueman on Feb 27, 2019 6:48 AM
      Thank you for your thoughtful diplomatic intervention.
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    - Mary Jae Kleckner @ James Trueman on Mar 19, 2019 9:59 PM
      Thank you for your comments, James. As a relatively new Canvas user, I am astonished by some of its limitations as well as what it seems to require to get them addressed. It lacks basic features - like the capability to publish graded work one section or student at a time - already standard in other platforms. Using Canvas sometimes feels like I've traveled back in time and become trapped there.
      
      Worth noting here is that often administrators far-removed from instruction make LMS platform decisions without knowing or even caring about online/hybrid best practices. Many of us are not directly involved in that decision-making process, and those who are may not be able to counter the compelling draw of the lowest bidder. If there's anything worse than software engineers who are completely oblivious to end-users' existence, it's educational administrators who are aware of our existence, just completely indifferent to our suffering.
      
      So I feel compelled to validate Daniel's frustration. If some of us seem mildly abrasive, perhaps it's because we were powerless to influence product/feature selection even though we will be the ones using them. Perhaps it's because we feel powerless to avoid being held accountable for substandard features on our course evaluations, or perhaps it's because we are likely to feel that undue accountability for many semesters to come. Perhaps it's because instead of recognizing certain capabilities have become industry standards (like automotive features), Canvas continues to require end-users to burn their time reading, voting and posting in multiple online forums to request them -- in a tedious process that appears to take several years.
      
      Unadulterated civility is a lot to ask of end-users who were not allowed to play a significant role in the actual purchasing decision, but are being forced to endure the subsequent functional and developmental limitations. In my view, Daniel's post showed restraint.
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      - James Trueman @ Mary Jae Kleckner on Mar 20, 2019 3:15 AM
        Hi Mary Jae,
        
        Thanks for your comments here.
        
        In my own way, I was hoping that I was validating the emotions felt - whilst recognising that the community has guidelines. I've had many moments when I've been crippled inside because Canvas doesn't do what is needed. So whilst Instructure do need to hear this (and perhaps a specific opportunity to 'get it out' may be useful - cathartic even?), directing it here at the community managers seems a bit like ranting at a store worker who is only implementing company policy?
        
        I do want to be clear though, I really do share the root frustrations, as do most in my sector (the UK), and I believe do many in our associated sector (EMEA).
        
        I think it's fair to say that what we believe is needed is an LMS 101 - something that can truly support Learning, Teaching and Assessment. It seems Canvas does pretty well at the Learning and Teaching but really needs expedient growth in Assessment - but not outward with more and more 'shiny shiny' - rather inward with structural, systemic, and automated features (i.e. programmatically configured via the API), that allow for proper data protection, management and control of students and their assessments, at scale, and in line with core LMS standards and practices.
        
        Unfortunately, assessment is currently a blunt and inconsistent instrument. Features seem to sit at macro (e.g. assignment) level - although many assessment processes happen beneath that (e.g. differentiated due date, marking/grading groups, marker, moderator, & external examiners allocation).
        
        The UK sector has been researching and specifying the basic requirements of Electronic Management of Assessment (EMA) in an LMS for some years - one of the most relevant projects was through an organisation called JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee). I was a member of their EMA working group, which included representation from over 30 universities and consultation with UCISA (Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association). We developed a specification which is available online, is this wildly different to your needs?
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        scottd@instructure.com @ James Trueman on Mar 22, 2019 12:56 PM
        Hi James and Mary Jae,
        Your frustrations are valid and it is totally OK to give voice to them here as long as everyone involved remains civil (which you have done admirably). James, assessment in general is pretty far outside my personal wheelhouse and I was not aware of the specification you made reference to. I will, however, make sure that our product managers who are working on assessment projects know about it. Thanks for the heads up.
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Peter Birch Nov 7, 2018 5:19 PM
Great idea to be able to mute assessment by section, ideally, we (University of Canberra), would like to be able to Mute Assessment by Individual students as we once could with our previous LMS.
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- Jacquie Mills @ Peter Birch on Nov 8, 2018 7:38 PM
  I agree! You might have already seen it, but I thought I'd share an idea re muting/unmuting an individual student's assignment that's already been proposed and is open for voting if you are interested: mute assignment for single student while regrading
  Fingers crossed!
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  - Peter Birch @ Jacquie Mills on Nov 8, 2018 10:04 PM
    Thanks Jacquie, another vote for progress done :-)
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Marijo Rommelfaenger Feb 25, 2019 9:25 PM
I wish to add the same comment as others as to the need for mute/unmute for sections. All reasons have been listed previously. As a new user to Canvas, I muted an assignment, graded some of the students' work, then unmuted because I wanted the first groups I finished to have the feedback. My email lit up like a Christmas tree from students that were wondering if there was a problem with Canvas, because they did not have a grade entered. I learned through this experience that every time we mute/unmute, all students get a notification that a grading assignment is unmuted so the students look for their grades. If I was to mute/unmute often as I was grading an extensive assignment, students would constantly be getting the notification, and look for a grade. Please fix this issue! Thanks.
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Josh Stuart May 22, 2019 12:03 PM
The course development process could be made much easier for instructors if there were an option to Mute and Un-Mute All graded assessments within that course. They could develop the course, adding assignments, quizzes, discussions etc. and then click a single button to Mute all of the graded assessments instead of having to do them one by one. On the flip side, if a instructor has a lot of assessments (weekly readings with weekly assignments, discussions and quizzes pertaining to the readings, plus exams) it would make it very easy at the end of the semester / term to click a button to Un-Mute All Assessments and feel confident knowing that they could not have missed one of them on accident.
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Renee Carney Jul 1, 2019 2:58 PM
This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

For more information, please read through the Canvas Release Notes (2019-07-13) .
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Renee Carney Jul 1, 2019 4:27 PM
Shannon Wing Belmont Thank You for submitting this idea, as well as, Kathryn Taylor Thank You , Beth Crook Thank You , Nathan Campbell Thank You , Robin Fowler Thank You , Hayley Tagell Thank You , Rob Ditto Thank You , Ben Dolan Thank You , James Trueman Thank You , Daniel Stolzenberg Thank You , Ron Marx Thank You , Joe Greene Thank You , John Johnston Thank You , Tasha Biesinger Thank You , Mary Jae Kleckner Thank You , Peter Birch Thank You , Jacquie Mills Thank You , Marijo Rommelfaenger Thank You , Josh Stuart Thank You for your contributions. Your investment in this idea helped refine a feature which is now part of Canvas!
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- Tasha Biesinger @ Renee Carney on Jul 1, 2019 4:37 PM
  Cool! I'm looking forward to trying this out, and I know we'll have some faculty very excited about this! Please thank the development team for this functionality, Renee!
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- Joe Greene @ Renee Carney on Jul 2, 2019 7:42 AM
  Hopefully this works. I'm glad to see it, and maybe we can drill down to doing this by student in the near future (not 3 years like this took).
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James Trueman Jul 4, 2019 1:37 AM
I've just read the Canvas Release Notes (2019-07-13) and am extremely saddened and frustrated to read that 'Anonymous assignments must be posted or hidden for all students in the assignment and cannot be managed by section.' i.e. this won't work for anonymous assignments - and will detrimentally affect large swathes of Canvas customers.

I am genuinely trying very hard to be calm and nice. But that's really hard with this development decision. It doesn't reflect the extensive conversations that we have had with Product Management (e.g. Sidharth Oberoi) or make sense?

Unmuting the grades for students in Section A (which has been assigned one Due Date) at a different time to unmuting the grades in Section B (which has a different Due Date) is not connected to, and should not be prevented by, the anonymity status of those Sections?

This goes back to the discussions the UKHE User Group has had with Instructure about working with you on the User Stories you are using to develop from. That development still seems to be happening behind closed doors, and it seems arbitrary decisions are being made that do not actually align with the business users' needs?
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- Linda J. Lee @ James Trueman on Jul 3, 2019 11:01 AM
  Hi James Trueman,
  
  I understand your frustration about this limitation with Anonymous Assignments. However, it seems like including the ability to post grades by section (or by the other more granular options available with the new Post Policies) would compromise the integrity of double-blind grading.
  
  For courses where the ability to release anonymously graded assignments by section is needed, have you considered using Blueprint courses (Canvas Release: Blueprint Courses)? You could keep content in sync via the Blueprint template, and have a different section in each associated course. This would allow you to take advantage of the anonymous grading feature as well as the posting grades by section.
  
  Best,
  Linda
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  - James Trueman @ Linda J. Lee on Jul 4, 2019 2:33 AM
    Hi Linda J. Lee
    
    Thanks for your comment - apologies this got a little long.
    
    TL:DR - Instructure should have developed selective section unmute so that it could support anonymous assignments.
    
    I may be missing something really important or really simple, but I am unclear why posting / unmuting grades by section would compromise the integrity of double-blind grading - or any other grading process? When the assessment process has been completed (whether that's moderated, double marked or double-blind) and the grades are ready to be released - the requirement to ensure the anonymity of the students is over? What else are you thinking of?
    
    The only thought I have is that by posting grades to the Gradebook / unmuting some sections (and thereby displaying the grades in the Gradebook), are there issues caused by the way Instructure has implemented anonymity via AMM (by showing student names in the Gradebook)? Am I missing something else?
    
    If there are issues, it seems it is because of a poorly implemented solution to the requirements that the sector expressed (sorry Instructure). My brief summary is:
    
    we needed students to be anonymous during the assessment cycle (i.e. until moderation or second marking is complete)
    we needed to be able to break students down into marking groups for an assignment. Sections seemed to be the only way to go and were described in various feature ideas as already being used for this purpose (and are defined by Instructure as '...a group of students that have been organized for administrative purposes' - perfect!). They also came with other features / benefits, such as:
    filter by section in Speedgrader / Gradebook,
    the ability to assign students to sections with differentiated due dates to accommodate extensions and re-assessments etc.,
    section override for differentiated due dates that extend beyond the course/term end date to allow students to access the assignment / course materials,
    we all needed to be able to selectively release the marks and feedback for students based on the section / due date associated with that section
    
    This was all clearly specified to Instructure (in the context of extensive discussions about AMM), and the feedback received from Instructure indicated that it was understood and being implemented.
    
    I appreciate your suggestion to use Blueprinting, thank you. But creating a bunch of separate Blueprint courses just so that we can selectively unmute assignment sections (i.e. within the same course) seems an extremely complex (and over-engineered) workaround to solve what is really a simple and fundamental academic workflow. Like many institutions, our academic regulations require all assessment to be anonymous wherever practicable (which constitutes the majority of our assessments). All of our assignments needed sections - e.g. for 1st submission 'marking groups', extensions, re-assessments, appeals etc., and I'm sure there are other uses of sections where selective unmute was needed for anonymous assignments.
    
    Best wishes
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Sidharth Oberoi Jul 4, 2019 9:59 AM
Hi James Trueman,

I appreciate you taking the time to voice your concerns associated with Post Policies here and the limitations with respect to Anonymous and Moderated Marking. I understand your and the larger communities frustration associated with this functionality not currently being present in this release. The ability to selectively release by section for assignments that are anonymous and/or moderated is still fully on Instructure's radar, however, we were unable to include it in the initial release of Post Policies. We aimed to get this functionality out there to the community at large as quickly as possible to help prepare institutions that will be returning to school in the fall and giving them the ability to test the functionality out.

Unfortunately, the desired ability to include the ability to release by section for moderated and anonymous assignments was unable to make the cut for this release. The team is working to find an elegant solution to preserve anonymity among sections for those anonymous and moderated assignments. I assure you and the community at large that as we find a solution that will adequately address this problem, we will appropriately prioritise it for development.

There are no current timelines associated with this, however, when we have greater clarity into the situation, I'll be sure to keep you and the larger community informed.

Best,
Sidharth
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