How do I sort by first name in Grades?

[rjtaylor]

In "Grades", how do I split the student name into 2 columns (first name; surname), or sort by first name?

When I export the Grades list, the student name appears in one column. If I sort by this column in Excel, it sorts by the students' first names. But, if I sort this column in Grades, it sorts by surname. 

How do I resolve this? 

[James]

 @rjtaylor ,

You don't change the way that it's sorted in Canvas, but you may be able to do something once it's in Excel. That's not necessarily easy, depending on how many names your students have. A very similar question was asked last week and I explained how to do it there: https://community.canvaslms.com/thread/33851-how-do-i-sort-student-quiz-data-by-last-name 

There is a feature idea open asking to split the last name and first name into two cells in the gradebook export: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/4140-last-name-first-name-as-separate-cells" modifiedtitle="tr.... You can go there and lend your support and use case. There are also some comments about how to handle it there.

[rjtaylor]

Thanks James

I'm bowled over that this is the case. How stupid! Thanks for your response. I've gone to the feature request link you mentioned and have voted and commented. Hopefully this will be resolved soon. 

[James]

It won't be resolved anytime soon. That particular feature idea was made in 2015 and there's a note at the top that says

This idea was considered when developing our product plan for Q2 2019 and is not expected to influence development within Canvas at this time.

[frances]

It seems that the grade export file is always sorted by student last name, first name. I was expecting it to be sorted the same way as the student order specified in the Gradebook view (which gives the user much choice in the sort order). This is important when grades are kept elsewhere and need to be uploaded in bulk to Canvas for student viewing. Any plans to be consistent with the selected sort order?