[Groups] Group Roster Export

[rjf227]

This is an idea to modify group functionality so one can either export student group lists/rosters to a .csv spreadsheet format OR have groups listed in one of the spreadsheet columns when grades are exported (in the same fashion that Username and course section are included). In large enrollment classes, this is an absolutely essential feature. We use teams to set up tools external to the CMS and there currently is no easy way to access group data in the current Canvas configuration.

[tpavlic]

Why has this not yet been implemented? There are Microsoft Excel VBA hacks that have the ability to do this, but they are not compatible with newer versions of Microsoft Excel on macOS. Still, the fact that they exist means that the functionality is already possible without much extra effort. All we need is a user interface -- a simple "Download Group Membership CSV" button in the top of each group page in the "People" panel for each group.

If you have 100+ groups in a class, it is not reasonable to assume that an instructor has the time to manually expand all 100 groups (and why isn't there an "Expand all" button at the top of the group membership page, anyway?). And there are a lot of other reasons why it becomes necessary to have a list outside of canvas of group membership.

Canvas could implement this band-aid quickly without fully implementing batch management of groups (which is also important to eventually add to the LMS). I'm not sure what the hold up is. Not having the ability to do something so simple like this is what makes Canvas LMS seem like it is designed for classrooms of 12 or less, not the 5000 or more that the Canvas LMS satisfaction surveys give us the impression that they care about.

[mali]

This is an important feature (print or export student groups).

[bclay1]

I have a class of 40 students that I break into as many as 20 groups in every single class. Some days each student is in two different groups. Having the ability to export these into Excel is absolutely necessary, as I need to announce the group memberships and track results for each group. I don't expect Canvas to enable me to track results, but I do expect Canvas to let me do it in Excel.   ...Please implement.

[stelpstra]

Hi  @bclay1 ‌, I agree that this should be implemented in Canvas. For the time being this may be helpful to you: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-11862-download-and-create-report-of-course-group-sets-group... 

[pereira1]

This idea has been submitted 3 years ago, how hard it is to implement it??? You have hundreds of people bothering coming here to vote. Could you show that you care and get it done??

[tpavlic]

This is just another example of the total failure of Canvas Studio to adequately communicate features that are necessary for Canvas to someday get out of functional beta and become a production LMS. 

Instructure seems to think that Canvas Studio's voting mechanisms are a good way to prioritize features, but faculty rarely visit Canvas Studio until they have a problem. New problems will be quickly shuttled off to "Cold Storage" to die if they don't get a certain number of votes in 30 days, which is less than a length of a semester. If a faculty member has a problem in the Fall that is seen again by a faculty member in the Spring, those two won't have an opportunity to combine their votes because of the time between semesters. Instructure operates on the belief that people will check Canvas Studio daily and give their feedback, as if checking Canvas Studio was something that was useful for all but a few minutes per semester. We aren't paid to contribute to Canvas Studio -- we're paid to teach. And Canvas just gets in the way of teaching. 

At the top of this feature request, Canvas Studio has the update:

This idea was considered when developing our product plan for Q1 2019 and is not expected to influence development within Canvas at this time.

• This idea will remain open for vote.
• If this idea is in the top 10% by vote next cycle it will be reconsidered.

That doesn't give me much hope that this feature will ever get implemented.

Because Canvas is built by people who have never taught, then they don't internally have any sense for what features actually matter to teaching.

[tpavlic]

That assumes that the organization has enabled API keys. We cannot allow Instructure to use API keys as a crutch that justifies them not doing any more development work. Canvas is not an open-source software platform. If it was, then maybe these features could be implemented properly. In the meanwhile, we shouldn't be tacit apologists for Instructure by implementing essential Canvas features as 3rd-party addons that reduce the pressure on Instructure for implementing the real thing.

[Renee_Carney]

 @tpavlic  

We appreciate all opinions here and understand that you're sharing yours based on frustration, but we also value accuracy.  Please review the Canvas Community guidelines.

Also, you will want to review How does the feature idea process work in the Canvas Community?‌ and What is the feature development process for Canvas?.  Ideas are open for much longer than 30 days.  You can learn more about how ideas are archived and responded to in our most recent Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.

[tpavlic]

30 days may have been a lapse in memory, but there is no qualitative difference between 30 days and the actual six months. Six months is not "much longer" than 30 days. If it were, I assume you would have used the actual time period. Any duration less than a year is far too short on the academic cycle to accumulate votes. Someone who encounters a problem in January will not gain the votes of another instructor who teaches the same course in the following August.

Furthermore, there may be significantly more instructors who teach 20-person courses than 200-person (or 500-person) courses, but and so there is going to be a bias toward features that may only make a marginal improvement in the instructional experience. Features like this one are vitally important for teaching courses with 200 students or more. In fact, without features like these, it is nearly impossible to implement exercises in the classroom that are well-supported by the educational literature as making a positive impact on student learning outcomes. And yet because only a few of us (relative to the larger Canvas audience, which includes high-school teachers) teach 200–1000 students in one class, these features don't get the "votes" (especially if the newly generated feature request is only give six months to accumulate enough votes to keep it out of Cold Storage).

If we really care about improving the *student* experience, we would somehow weight votes by student contact hours per instructor voting on features. That's not feasible to do, and so we're left with the "electoral college" system of one vote per instructor, regardless of class size. And so, again, we get a disproportionate influence of instructors with tiny classes.

Instructure has zero accountability for the stagnation in its development. The significant investment in curriculum re-development after an institution has switched to Canvas and the lack of involvement in teaching by the administrative and IT professionals who are facing the marketing team at Canvas mean that it is unlikely that a university will drop Canvas even if it is significantly deficient. So sometimes I wonder why Instructure even bothers with these forums.

[j_hill]

This idea was considered when developing our product plan for Q3 2019 and is not expected to influence development within Canvas at this time.

Translation: We'd hate to add a feature that might inadvertently make it easier for users to migrate groups off of Canvas.