[ARCHIVED] Issues with Comments in IOS teachers App

[rbaker1]

Hi all,

I wondered if anybody's having the same issue as me. I've graded my student's work over the weekend via the teacher's app on my ipad. When my students reviewed my comments (I made them using the Apple Pencil) I noticed that LOTS of the comments had been cut off (see attached pic). Needless to say I was furious. Not only had I wanted a lot of my weekend but I spent the whole lesson explaining to the kids what I meant by the comments. They were confused to say the least and my confidence in this app has been eroded. I wondered if this was a common problem?

[laynemoseley]

Hi Richard,

I'm very sorry that you've run into issues with grading in the Teacher app. How frustrating! I'd like you to know that we've got engineers looking into this issue right now. I'll keep you updated on what we find and lay out a timeline for getting it fixed.

[KristinL]

Thanks for the reply, Deactivated user. This is great news, and I look forward to learning more about the fix.

[rbaker1]

Thanks Layne. Look forward to hearing from you.

[rseilham]

Hi Deactivated user‌: 

I can confirm that I've run into the issue as well. If you need exact courses/assignment/etc to help you out. Please let me know.  Thanks. 

[laynemoseley]

We've been able to reproduce this issue and we are working on a fix. We are currently finalizing our next release, so it probably won't be fixed in that version, but in a subsequent release.

Again, I'm very sorry. This is so frustrating. We'll get it fixed.

[rbaker1]

Thanks,

Do you have a timeline for this?

On Fri, 8 Sep 2017 at 2:14 am, stefaniesanders <instructure@jiveon.com>

[laynemoseley]

Nothing concrete, but I'm guessing by the end of next week we should have an update out to address the issue. I'll keep you updated.

[rbaker1]

no worries. Ta.

Kind regards,

RICHARD BAKER | E-Learning Leader

[laynemoseley · Accepted solution]

Time for an update! We've identified the issue and it's unfortunately going to take more time than I had originally thought. We want to make sure to fix this in the right way.

We started work on this last week and estimate it will take 1-2 weeks. We'll do a release afterwards.

Thank you for your patience and again I'm sorry for the headache this has caused.

[rbaker1]

Cheers for the update. As a geek I'd love to know what the problem was.

[laynemoseley]

There was an issue on our backend when many annotations were added in rapid succession. Some would get overwritten by others. The whole set of annotation is sent with each update to the server, so if the server ends up processing them out of order or they all come in too fast, issues can occur.

[rbaker1]

Overwritten as in cut off? That would make sense with the half comments

that my students were seeing.

[laynemoseley]

Yeah, the data that describes what the annotations should look like gets overwritten, which manifests in it being cut off or missing.

[rbaker1]

Cheers.

[jthomas12]

Has there been an update/fix for this? I am still having this issue in 2021.

[afortenberry]

Yes! I am still having the issue, even with an updated app, brand new iPad, and up to date iOS. Are any fixes available?

[vincent_n_lolor]

Still doing it, as of Oct 2nd....VERY frustrating.  Marginal comments get cut off halfway through; some comments have to be written three times.  And there’s no feedback:  I write a bunch of comments, wait (because of your server explanation) and close the document.  When I open it again, I know some will be missing, because....I haven’t waited long enough?  But the app is not designed to signal that a wait is needed, just the opposite:  I see the words on the page, there IS no “save” buttton of any kind.

This makes the feature completely unusable.  Any updates on that fix timeline?

[laynemoseley]

We are in the final stages of testing and plan to release a beta version this week. Would you like to be included in the beta? It would be useful to see if your issues are resolved.

[laynemoseley]

We are planning on releasing a beta version of the app this week. If you are able and willing to test out the fix for this issue, that would be greatly appreciated. We are releasing the fix in beta form first because it required quite a few more changes than originally planned.

[vincent_n_lolor]

yes please! and thank you for the speedy response...

Dr. V. Nicholas LoLordo

Lecturer

Edith Kinney Gaylord Expository Writing Program

University of Oklahoma

[laynemoseley]

Great! Go ahead and send me your Apple ID via direct message.

[vincent_n_lolor]

Here's some Beta feedback, Layne.  I bear bad news.  

First, the problem I and others described persists.  Two rounds of comments on a single student paper, and each time notations cut off in exactly the same way as before.

Second, I note several additional problems.

a) I was not able to view student papers full-screen (which I was able to do in the older version):  perhaps I missed something in the interface?

b)  the grade assign wheel is broken:  I can set it to "complete", but no combination of clicking, pressing or anything else makes it actually record the grade:  when I return to the list of assignment submissions, that paper remains "ungraded."

c)  in 15 minutes of use, I had one freeze, which necessitated forcing the app to quit.

I'm using the 9.7 inch iPad pro with IOS 11.

[laynemoseley]

Thanks for taking a look. While your news isn't good, I have better news.  Expect another build out today or tomorrow. It will be much improved.

[vincent_n_lolor]

(I realize that the Teacher app is distinct.  So to clarify:  I have exactly the problem I described on the 3rd when trying to grade in EITHER the Teacher app or the regular Canvas app.....)

[rseilham]

Hi  @vincent_n_lolor ‌,

Did the Canvas Teacher 1.2 release fix your issues? Thanks!

[vincent_n_lolor]

Thank you for the reminder!  I just opened the app, and in my first attempt, lost half a one-sentence comment at the bottom of a response paper after writing it and hitting the “done” button a few seconds later.

Will keep working with it though:  a very occasional lapse would not be a deal-breaker, but....

[rseilham]

Yes, let us know, and keep the conversation going as well. 

[vincent_n_lolor]

I just tried to grade a set of 1-page responses:  exactly the same problem persists.

To complete a two-sentence comment involved hitting “done” four separate times, waiting to see which words get erased, retyping, waiting again.....after writing, sometimes I clicked “done” immediately.  Other times I waiting 30 seconds.  No apparent difference in result.  

.Deactivated user :  I’m sorry.  Unless there’s something atypical about my setup, this feature is utterly broken.

[laynemoseley]

There is no need to be sorry, we are the ones who should be! Can you confirm that you are on version 1.2 of the app? It shows in the bottom of the Profile.

Otherwise, we'll continue to investigate. We haven't seen widespread issues with this, so I might contact you again to see if we can get more information about your setup.

[vincent_n_lolor]

I've been running 1.2 (build 3896)

but now I see Note Flight with another update

which I just downloaded, but it still says the same build.

[laynemoseley]

I have great news! We have released Teacher 1.2 in the App Store today. I know that it's a long time coming and it took a few weeks longer than we had anticipated, but it is worth the wait. It fixes many issues and frustrations. 

If you see any other issues, please don't hesitate to reach out.

[robertsonm1]

Issue still persists in the new build. I have tried to hit “Done” to stop the annotation destruction, to switching students, and other methods hoping to signal to the app to keep the annotations, but unfortunately it doesn’t work. I had some success for a few minutes the other day, but the destruction of annotations are near constant - seconds after writing them. I was really happy to see the shift to a more comprehensive app beyond the Speedgrader, but this is VERY frustrating with the amount of grading that is necessary. 

Screenshot below of the build. 

System: iPad Pro (2017), Apple Pencil, iOS 11.1 (15B101), Teacher App 1.2.2.3989

[rseilham]

 @robertsonm1  It sounds like we are hearing less of these issues throughout the community, but apparently they still exist for some users. I'm curious if Deactivated user‌ has something to add as he has been very active in this discussion previously. 

[laynemoseley]

We have fixed several bugs related to this but it's obvious we haven't got them all. I'm going to prioritize this again to see if we can figure out what's going on.

Very sorry for the frustrating experience.

[rseilham]

It also appears that another user,  @mary_powell ‌, is having similar issues with the latest version of the teacher app:

https://community.canvaslms.com/thread/20166-speedgrader-not-saving-comments-on-student-docs 

[robertsonm1]

The most recent version (1.2.4.4265), just posted last week I believe, still has not addressed the issues of disappearing commentary. While I went a whole week of grading without issues, the last couple days have continued the frustrating experience.

There are also intermittent issues of the app being able to recognize the Apple Pencil (not that it is a ‘real’ issue, since it seems to recognize the use of a stylus generally - therefore operability is not hindered). I don’t know if this is related (Apple pencil specific) or what. 

I continue to check back here hoping to hear that the issue has been resolved, but to no avail. I would be glad to be a part of the solution in some way, but clearly my strategic advantage is only to complain. 

[vincent_n_lolor]

In the same boat...have given up for the semester, but will try again in the spring before abandoning hope

[laynemoseley]

For those of you that are experiencing this issue, I have a favor to ask. iOS 11 makes it very easy to record your screen. If you could make a recording of the issue you're seeing and send it to me, it would be very helpful.

In the recording, if possible, start from the moment you launch the app all the way through the moment you see the issues.

Again, I apologize for this issue. It's been terribly hard to diagnose.

Screen Recording in iOS 11: How to record the screen on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support 

[hottingert]

I see that Canvas Teacher is on 1.3.3.  Has this issue been resolved?  It has been awhile since comments were made.  Thanks.