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Currently instructors cannot create hypothetical scores for students like What-If scores. This would be very helpful as we get close to the end of the quarter to see if a student has the ability to reach a particular grade or not.
I agree that it should not happen on the context card itself because of space limitations.
It will also need to be available some other way unless Canvas makes the student context cards available for everyone. I'm not sure if it needs a separate button there, though. I would like to see it as a button on the student Grades page, which is where the actual What If could take place. Then just going to Grades would get you there. That way, an instructor could show the page to the student and say "and you can go in here and do the same thing". I wouldn't want the What If to happen inside the Gradebook itself. Although a case could be made for changing all of the student grades at once to see what would happen, I'm worried about people forgetting to toggle the mode if it's in the gradebook and changing grades without an easy "roll-back" feature.
Right now I'm sending out "warnings" to students. I don't want them to say, "you have a D, so go use What If to make sure you can pass", but that's what's happening. Instead I would like to say, "you have a D, but you still have a good chance to pass because x". I have quite a few assignments and it would help students if I could comment more specifically.
Yes, a What if feature for faculty that works similar to what a student sees would be my vote as well. As @James Jones mentions. This is the best way to model for students the what if feature that is available for use.
@eabshire Loved your post (great way to start the day). I wholeheartedly agree with helping our students use their skills.
I'd still like this functionality. There are times (e.g. when preliminary grades are due for graduating students) when I need to figure out whether specific students are likely to pass and what their current grade trajectory is without downloading the CSV and entering the calculations.
Oh this would be so useful to me right now! As we approach the end of the semester and students are constantly asking what they can do to bring up their grades, it would be so useful to be able to put in some hypothetical grades to see exactly how much help they might need.
I just found another use case for this. Our school is moving to a new model for credit recovery where "close to completing" students can finish up work from a previously-flunked class instead of completing a credit recovery packet/class "from scratch" in limited cases.
It would be really helpful as an instructor to be able to go in and "what if" each failing student's grade a bit so I can create documentation about what that student would need to do to pass so it's clear which students should be offered this opportunity and which specific assignments they should be told to do (or re-do). Right now, I have to get out Excel and do some spreadsheet-messing to figure this out (I use weighted grades and drop rules in each category, so it's a bit complicated to figure out by hand).
Please, please and PLEASE! We are under pressure to issue "Early Warnings" when students are doing poorly, and simultaneously asking them to come in to talk to their professors about what they can do to pass. But when they do, it's a pain to figure out what would make the difference.
Also, please make sure the "What If" would extend to future AND past assignments! Re the Past Assignments, I sometimes give "late work amnesty," to offer students a max of 70% (i.e. passing) for late work whose deadline penalties would otherwise be zero. Would be great to tell students -- TAKE ME UP ON THIS OFFER AND YOU WILL PASS! 😉
