[ARCHIVED] Tracking an ongoing competition

[sallynyu]

I am using Canvas Free For Teacher.

I have an ongoing competition where students occasionally win points in class and at the end of the semester, the student with the most points gets a prize. Is there a tool in canvas to track this that all the students can see?

Thanks!

[Steven_S]

I think the easiest way to share this with students will be by inserting a table onto a page on the pages tab.  You can display the page as the front page of the course, in order to put it on the homepage, or insert it into any module on the modules tab.

It would also be possible to set up ungraded assignments for each time you assign points, and keep those assignments together in an assignment group.  Students would then see their point tally summarized in that assignment group on their view of the grades page, but they will only see how they compare to the class average (not a leader board) 

[sallynyu]

Thanks but isn't there something simpler? It seems like a pretty common thing that happens in a classroom.

[Steven_S]

Unfortunately I am not aware of any leader board system built into canvas.  Someone with more experience may be able to suggest an external tool.  I've seen recommendations for using Badgr, but I have not used it myself.  Otherwise, I think a table that you fill in manually will be the most effective solution for right now. 

Long term, you could support the addition of a canvas leaderboard feature through an idea conversation.  I did not find a perfect match to what you want, so you might need to start a new conversation.  There is an open idea conversation about a leaderboard for some of the student analytics: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Idea-Conversations/Make-some-of-the-class-analytics-available-for...

Some other gamification ideas are available here: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Community/MY-GAMEIFIED-CLASS-A-STEP-BY-STEP-GUIDE/ta-p/150853

and also here there are detailed suggestions about using badgr: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Community/Gamifying-Courses-Guide-Year-3-Tips-Do-s-Don-t-Getting-...

[sgance]

I think you could do this with Badgr badges, even the free version of Badgr. The Badgr Leaderboard shows who has earned the most badges. The Leaderboard can be configured to keep other student's anonymous if needed. 

The design problem though is how to award the badges based on points. It's easy enough to award badges based on completion of activities (such as an assignment, a quiz, or some combination within a module). But if you are giving small numbers of points for many activities, that might require too many badges to make that practical. You COULD do it, but having more than a dozen or so badges in a course is likely increasingly hard to manage.