[ARCHIVED] [ARCHIVED] Current Score Column

[sarah-canatsey]

Ah, it's that time of year when all the gradebook questions start pouring into my office

I've done some researching on this in the Community. I was sad to see a couple good ideas around "Total", "Current Score" and "Final Score" archived as I think this is an important topic of confusion. 

I have faculty now who are confused by this. In the gradebook the column is titled "Total" but in the export you get "Current score" and "Final Score". If you read the HTG you will find that "Current Score" is essentially the "Total" column. Why is there a need to confuse people by using different titles? Just call it "Current Score" in the online gradebook, so it matches on the exported spreadsheet.  

Question

Why does the Gradebook online and the exported version use a different title for essentially the same column of information? 

[rmurchshafer · Accepted solution]

Sarah,

I can't answer why, but share your frustration.  I first argued this with Canvas over 7 years ago and it's even worse now because they added the "published" versions of grades as well.  I just try to never tell people to export the gradebook because that .csv file is a mess with extra columns and as you've noticed, they are not clear.  My school has also recently developed a process to let teachers pull grades from the gradebook to our SIS.  We purposefully pull the Current Grade since that is what matches what the teachers see in the Gradebook.  It's also a column that works any time during the semester in case we ever start pulling mid-term grades as well.  IMO the Total column in the exported .csv files doesn't make sense.  *steps down from soapbox

Rick

[sarah-canatsey]

We just moved fully over to Canvas. As of now, faculty are not able to sync with our grade system. Hopefully that will change in the near future. There are just too many opportunities for human error. 

[kmeeusen]

WORD! TRUTH!

We also adopted Canvas more than 7 years ago, and one of the biggest challenges users face when migrating to a new LMS is jargon. When that jargon is inconsistent across the UI and in exported products it only multiplies that confusion.

Canvas has been working hard to make its jargon more consistent the last couple years, but there is still a lot of work to do.

As for the gradebook, my bottom line is that the export format should exactly match the online format.

Kelley