[Gradebook] Sortable Name Field - Additional guidance text

[cpowell2]

Problem statement:

I've received a number of emails from teachers of courses wanting to know why a student's name is out of place alphabetically in their course roster. In most occasions, the student edits their Canvas account's Sortable Name field with FirstName LastName instead of the standard LastName, FirstName. I'm wagering the student is making all three name fields (Full Name, Display Name, Sortable Name) equal and uniform but a student with a name like Leroy Jenkins, if customizing their Sortable Name field to read "Leroy Jenkins" instead of "Jenkins, Leroy" will be alphabetized in the L's versus the J's per their last name.

Proposed solution:

If Instructure was to append guidance text below the Sortable Name field to offer the standard naming convention, a lot of user accounts would be appearing properly alphabetized in the course roster. For example, "This name appears in sorted lists. The standard format for Sortable Name is Lastname, FirstName."

Thank you for your consideration, Chris Powell Canvas Admin, Western Washington University

User role(s):

admin,instructor,student