Last name, first name as separate cells

[lkiesling]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

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I've just used my exported gradebook to determine the grade distribution for a 150-student class. To determine the distribution I sorted the data in order from highest to lowest final score, and then went back to alphabetize the data so I could submit the grades ... only to realize that the student names are (first name last name) in the same cell. This means I have to alphabetize *manually*.

This is terrible database design. Why isn't the last name in as a separate cell to enable automatic alphabetizing? Is there a workaround in the short run? Not that it will help me today as I enter my grades, but ... And the ability in Canvas to search on a student name is a poor substitute for sensible database design.

[pbhanney]

John,

That is a great work around for exporting of the data (which is exactly what this post is mostly about). You are always coming up with great ways to use Excel to solve problems (which is awesome!).

However, I am finding this to be a problem within Canvas itself, without exporting information. I think the overall idea of a better way to separate given names and surnames is something that needs to be looked into on Canvas, both for exporting needs as well as using within Canvas.

Thank you so much for this solution!

[schafj]

Although the voting period for this feature idea has ended, I would like to reiterate the necessity for using a separate cell for last names to allow for automatic alphabetizing. An instructor at my institution complained that the lack of this feature has made grading a large class using a gradebook export quite inconvenient. 

Thank you for your work on this issue. So that our instructors, TAs, and graders can effectively use gradebook exports for grading in large courses, I ask that Instructure please try to find a solution to this issue as soon as possible. Thank you. 

[Stef_retired]

schafj, to clarify, although the initial voting period (as indicated by the date header) for this idea has passed, at this writing the idea is still open for voting and in Product Radar status. Thanks for adding your feedback.

[eric_murray]

Unfortunately, no.  That only helps for students who have one "first name" and all the rest of the field is their "last name".  I have a student whose name is structured First1 First2 Last1 Last2 Last3.  Canvas alphabetizes them under Last3.  If I understand correctly, your scheme will alphabetize them under First2.

[jbuchner]

Good point Eric. In particular a roster that has combinations of people with FL, FLL, FLLL, FFLLL... at some point my solution breaks down without some more manual labor, but...

If your whole roster is a combination of FFL, FFLL, FFLLL, the solution could be breaking out the names into five columns, then recombining the last three would allow you sort by Last1.

Or try George Durler's solution, and you can sort by the endmost last name in the list.

[eric_murray]

Yes, if the names of everyone in the class had the same structure, then a spreadsheet formula would take care of everyone.  Wouldn't that be nice?  It seems like no matter what workaround is used, I'll be alphabetizing a half-dozen or so students manually.  Different workarounds just change which half-dozen they are.

[kline_peggy]

My cheap workaround is to leave the student email address column in the spreadsheet. Since ours are formatted Lastname_firstname I can use that column to alphabetize. But it would be rather handy not to have to do that.

[hasti]

I've done this with Gradebook csv's.

Alas, the csv Canvas provides when downloading student analysis from quizzes does NOT include this column. Moreover, I can't sort the SpeedGrader by the email address (nor can I search the SpeedGrader). So, since Canvas quizzes don't do partial credit (or regular expressions), I have to hand search for 25 separate students in the drop-down menu of the SpeedGrader (or search in the Gradebook and deal with the slow down of multiple clicks to get to the student's quiz) just to give them partial credit for _this_ quiz.

[hasti]

Based on every other program I have to interact with at my institution, my institution has figured out how to split student names into two fields. It then gives those two fields to Canvas who merges them into one field (which sometimes it will provide as "first last" and sometimes as "last, first" in both display and file downloads). In the case of quizzes, I am then left to do an imperfect Excel hack to try to extract the appropriate two fields. Why, if Canvas is being fed two fields, and it clearly is keeping track of two fields (since it does provide "last, first" and can alphabetize on last name), can't it provide an easy way for me to extract those two fields consistently (Speedgrader, Gradebook, Quiz downloads, Gradebook downloads)?!?

It may be more fun to work on color overlays for the Dashboard, but things like this have a much, much greater impact on the usability of Canvas for institutions that have large enrollments (and instructors whose workloads keep increasing). Please Canvas, pay more attention to the "un-sexy" but critical fixes you could make.

[esmith8]

Outrageous that this is not a feature.  Clearly programmers at Canvas have never taught a large class. 

I'm not impressed with Canvas when it is so fundamental to be able to do this.  Who alphabetizes by first names?

You try to get this fixed and they give you convoluted instructions to import class list into Excel.  Really??  That is your fix?