Issue: I notice that Assignment Enhancements are not applied to any assignments created using Google Assignments LTI 1.3. Proposed Solution: Since we now have the option of grading Google Assignments in SpeedGrader along with attaching rubrics, it would make sense to allow the students to see the enhanced assignments interface which prioritizes the rubric along with comments/feedback rather than the old interface that requires students to click both the rubric and document links, to see marks. ... View more

I'd like to propose that admins, and possibly also instructors, are given the ability to delete a student's assignment submission (not just the file - the submission itself). At minimum, a record should be kept of who deleted the submission and when (for auditing purposes) - perhaps in the form of a log in the 'Gradebook history'. This suggestion has been raised numerous times as Idea Conversations since 2011, and has collectively received hundreds of comments and five-star ratings from the community. Below is a list of scenarios (probably non-exhaustive) in which the current inability to delete student assignment submissions causes problems. Scenario: Student inadvertently submits their assignment prematurely/incomplete (but to the correct portal) If the assignment was set to single submission only, the instructor now needs to: set the assignment to two submissions for ALL students, and to avoid giving other students a second submission, the instructor needs to organise a time to make the assignment available to only this particular student, then needs to change the assignment back to single submission and make it available to all students again. The instructor is forced to live with the clutter and annoyance of having an assignment submission which does not belong there. Scenario: Student inadvertently submits to the wrong assignment portal All points above, plus The instructor can no longer unpublish the assignment portal because it contains submissions. The instructor can no longer convert the assignment a group assignment because it contains submissions. The instructor is now consistently prompted (via the Dashboard to do list) to grade a submission which does not need to be graded. Scenario: Student inadvertently submits to a past assignment portal which has already been graded All points above, plus The Gradebook icon now suggests that the student has not been graded because their most recent submission is not graded. To get around this, the instructor needs to click ‘Use this same grade for the resubmission’ – essentially grading a submission for a completely different assignment using the grading rubric/rules for this assignment. Add on to this the extra workload for instructors (and us admin staff) when they contact us to ask how to delete a submission, only for us to have to tell them that it is impossible in what is supposed to be a modern LMS. Even the archaic Blackboard Learn allowed submissions to be deleted. I do see value in the core philosophy that is “keep a record of anything and everything”, but when it results in headaches and workload for countless instructors, students and admin staff, a line must be drawn. It would not be a monumental task to allow deletion of submissions while keeping a record of who deleted the submission and when (for auditing purposes). If there are concerns about instructors inadvertently/recklessly deleting submissions they shouldn’t be, then this can be made available to admins only, or a toggleable user permission. Alternatively, this can be made “difficult” for the average user (e.g. only make it possible through the API). This has been requested on the Canvas Community since 2011. This idea has had hundreds of comments and five-star ratings across multiple idea threads over the course of more than a DECADE. In 2015, Instructure posted an update stating: It's a great feature idea and we would like to solve this problem. However, our immediate roadmap is overflowing with other great ideas and we will not realistically get to this feature request in the immediate future. I'm going to have to Archive this for now, but don't lose hope. This is a really solid feature request and one that deserves our attention. It won't evaporate from our minds just because it's archived right now. ... View more

Greetings everyone! In studying student interactions with instructor feedback in the LMS, I found a peer reviewed article called “Responding to Student Writing Online: Tracking Student Interactions with Instructor Feedback in a Learning Management System” ​which appeared in the journal Assessing Writing, vol. 31, Jan. 2017, pp. 39–52. This study focuses on student behaviors with reading instructor commentary on essays returned to students in the Learning Management System. This study looks at the Sakai LMS; however, the findings are relevant regardless of platform. Specifically, not making the grade visible makes students 35 percent more likely to review instructor feedback. Also, making the grade visible separately from the assignment commentary increases the likelihood that students will disregard feedback altogether.   The problem is present in Canvas and students need to perform additional clicks to see commentary on Assignments. Students interested in just seeing the grades can see that information, and the Canvas interface is not doing anything to support the longstanding academic tradition of leveraging instructor commentary for instructional purposes. Below are two screenshots, the top one is of the Assignment area after a student gets a grade and feedback, the bottom one is of the Gradebook. Both cases students need to perform additional clicks to get to the instructor feedback. The authors of the study articulate it best: “[s]eparating grading from feedback is a significant change to the response process, one that exacerbates certain concerns and fears that writing instructors have about how students weigh the importance of grades versus feedback” and “[w]here instructors wish students would give more attention to feedback, the LMS interface seems to be nudging them in the opposite direction” This has been a problem in composition pedagogy long before LMSs were on the scene, and the issue is that students care more about the score than the learning. However, I argue that this is a problem that good interface design can address. Perhaps, similarly to the Discussion Board "Post First" feature, there should be an option in Canvas Assignments to "Read Feedback First"? I am no expert on interface design, so I think this is an area that would benefit from some attention from developers and product managers at Instructure.  Even though academics have identified this problem in the literature, there hasn't been any improvements to LMS interface. Overall, it seems there needs to be a better integration between the Gradebook and Assignment feedback, and I'm not seeing this discussion anywhere else in the Canvas Community.   Thanks!   ... View more

We switched to the Assignment Redesign in mid-January. Since we switched, we have seen an increase in student calls/chats to our Help Desk and faculty in the following areas: 1. The Turnitin End User Agreement box is small and easily missed by students. The Submit Assignment button functionality is disabled until this end-user agreement is clicked; however, there is no information telling students this is why the button is disabled. In the previous assignment submission design, students were told that they needed to click this end-user agreement prior to submission. Is there any plan to add this information when the Submit Assignment button is disabled so that students are directed toward the end-user agreement? 2. File uploads render in a different location with a very small font with a small green check mark instead of a larger box on the right. This new location and size of the upload confirmation are easily overlooked and cause an increase in submissions by the student and call volume to our Help Desk. Are there any plans to increase the size and/or location of the verification of the file upload? 3. Assignment status wheel is confusing to students. They see submitting the assignment as the last stage on the assignment page. Since the wheel sees this as step 2 out of 3, students are resubmitting assignments trying to get that wheel to close. Are there any plans to update this or clarify the steps more clearly to the students? 4. After the initial submission of an assignment, the submit button changes to "Try Again". This language is confusing to students who are not sure they submitted the file correctly. They think Canvas is telling them to "Try Again" instead of seeing this button as another submission attempt. Are there any plans to retitle this button to avoid student confusion? 5. Screen resolution determines how much the student sees with the smaller font in this redesign. This exasperates some of the aforementioned issues. Are there any future plans addressing this concern? ... View more