[ARCHIVED] New Outcomes Interface Trouble!!!

[ProfMartin]

HELP! Today (July 28, 2022) I noticed the Outcomes interface is different. I can click on the outcome to edit or remove it, however, I can no longer click on the outcome to see the aligned items and artifacts. I need this info so I can do my SLO reports for the Summer class that just ended. PLEASE HELP!

[ProfessorBeyrer · Accepted solution]

Thank you @ProfMartin for including those screenshots. They show that Improved Outcomes Management has been enabled for your Canvas instance, and unfortunately our ability to view aligned items and artifacts is not supported with this new Outcomes interface. (Based on how you use the Outcomes interface, it probably does not feel like the new one is "Improved" at all.)

Fortunately, turning Improved Outcomes Management can be done by the local system administrator per the July 16 release notes. They can disable Improved Outcomes Management on the Feature Options tab of your account's Settings page (screenshot attached). This is a change for the entire instance, and hopefully the importance of SLO reports will provide the necessary justification. 

I checked the Product Roadmap and see hope for the near future: In Q3 2022, instructors will be able to view Outcome alignments and align Outcomes to instructional content. In the meantime, please keep an eye on upcoming Canvas Releases to find out when Improved Outcomes Management won't have to be disabled to view alignment.

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Account Settings page with Improved Outcomes Management disabled

[ProfMartin]

Thanks for your reply. It's unfortunate that when new changes are made to certain functions, they remove the ability to use them in efficient and intuitive ways. While the "improved" Outcomes are good at MANAGING outcomes, the "improvement" does not improve the MOST IMPORTANT intuitive function of Outcomes: view alignments and artifacts.

Outcomes are aligned with assignments and artifacts for a reason (collect data for SLOs) and the improvements should have been made to that function as well, not remove the ability to view aligned items. The new Outcomes are now no longer intuitive and efficient.

I am not sure who decides to change things and who they consult when they are thinking of changing things. Do they ask the actual users of the tools what they would like to see changed or improved or do they just hire eager script writers to improve some things without understanding everything that is integrated with the things they want to change? 

Was there any discussion about WHY the ability to view aligned items needed to be removed from the "improved" Outcomes function? If there was, why wasn't it announced in the release notes that this function would not be part of the improvements?

For now our campus has disabled the new outcomes management since we need to be able to track SLO alignments. Hoping Instructure will truly make the changes to actually improve the Outcomes with the new management functions and the alignment view functions together.