[Dashboard] Allow Organizing Courses by Role in the Card View Dashboard

[DecoyLex]

Problem statement:

Many Canvas users, such as educators and administrators, often have multiple roles within different courses. However, Canvas's current dashboards don't provide an efficient way for users to organize and differentiate between these roles at a glance. This can lead to confusion and make it challenging for users to quickly access the courses relevant to their specific roles, especially when they have numerous courses to manage. Currently, to see their role in a particular course, they need to navigate to Courses > All Courses, and parse the unsortable table to determine their role.

Use Case Example:

Consider an educator who also serves as a designer and a teacher within various courses. Meanwhile, they are enrolled as a student in another course and they are evaluating a colleagues course where they've been enrolled as a Faculty Peer Evaluator (a type of student role). Currently, when this user logs into Canvas, they see a list of all their courses without any clear distinction between the roles they hold in each course. This can lead to a cluttered and confusing dashboard, where it's difficult to identify which courses have which role.

Proposed solution:

Allow users to organize their courses by role in the card view. Here's how this feature could work:

A mockup of a dashboard where courses are organized by role

Mockup of the "Organize by Role" option

Additional details:

• Role Subheadings: When a user with multiple roles logs into Canvas, the dashboard should display subheadings under their courses to clearly differentiate between roles. For example, in the Published Courses section, there could be sections like "Teacher," "Designer," "TA," etc., followed by the courses associated with each role. When the user has only one role in all their courses (e.g., students), Canvas can omit displaying the role.
• Custom Role Display: Canvas should not limit this feature to only the base role categories (Teacher, Designer, TA) but should also consider displaying custom roles created by institutions. This ensures flexibility and accommodation for diverse institutional needs. Why this Solution: Improved User Experience: The primary goal of this feature is to enhance the user experience for Canvas LMS users. By clearly organizing courses by role, users can quickly identify which courses require their attention, reducing confusion and streamlining their workflow.
• Efficient Course Management: Educators, administrators, and some students (e.g., tutors or TAs) often need to perform role-specific tasks within their courses. With this feature, they can easily locate and access the courses that require their specific role, making course management more efficient.
• Reduced Cognitive Load: Clear role organization reduces the cognitive load on users, helping them focus on their current tasks and responsibilities within the LMS. This can lead to increased productivity and satisfaction among Canvas users.

User role(s):

admin,instructor,student,ta,designer,observer