[People] A way to identify/distinguish between students with identical names is necessary

[masantos]

Problem statement:

In large courses, there are often one or more pairs of students with identical first and last names. When sending a message to students and selecting specific students, there is no way to differentiate which student is which. For example, you have two students named John Doe. When selecting a student's name, you will see John Doe twice. There is no way to differentiate who is who. This issue also occurs throughout the Canvas platform. For example, when viewing grade book history and in the SpeedGrader. There is a possibility that this is an issue in other places. Also, recent versions of the Gradebook now seem to do this automatically (as of whatever version we have been using since January), but the issue is that the same change is needed in other Canvas tools where students are searched for by name.

Proposed solution:

Include a display option to add the students' middle names and/or include the students' SIS ID when selecting students in Inbox Messaging, viewing grade book history, SpeedGrader, and anywhere else where students' names would be revealed.

User role(s):

admin,instructor,student,ta,designer,observer

[KristinL]

Hi @masantos -

This idea may also be related to or could complement: [Gradebook] Nickname for students with same name 

[AlexisNast]

This idea has been added to a theme for further consideration

[jorgen_ivarsson]

Problem statement:

Problem:Two students with the same name cannot be distinguished from each other in a course. It is serious that Instructure has not ensured that teachers who need to assess students can differentiate between two students with the same name in a course. It is not uncommon (even in courses with relatively few students) for there to be two students with the same name, and it is essential from a functional/administrative perspective, and not least from a legal perspective, that teachers can distinguish between students. I can find posts on Instructure’s discussion forum from 2018 highlighting this problem, yet even today in 2024, there is no solution to this problem. Scenario:Two students have the same name in the course (e.g., "Lisa Anderson"). Teachers cannot distinguish between these two students on the following pages/features in Canvas: Groups: When dividing into groups, the teacher cannot differentiate these two individuals at all. If the teacher enters each group's area, they can only tell the students apart by email address. At our university, we distinguish them by personal identification number or UmU ID. SpeedGrader: The teacher cannot tell these two users apart when grading and assessing in SpeedGrader. Assignments: When students are to receive a custom assignment (for example, extended writing time), the teacher cannot differentiate between the students in the "Assign" block. Discussions: Here, too, it is not possible to see the difference between the students (except if they have a profile picture). However, this is not a legally sound way to do so. A student can independently set a display name to distinguish themselves, but it is not the teacher who controls this function, and the display name does not appear in groups, SpeedGrader, or assignments.

Proposed solution:

I propose this simple solution (at least until there can be a more robust solution in place): Make a mouseover text, displaying the Secondary information from Gradebook in all these locations. The mouse over text will show whatever Secondary information is set in the Gradebook. By using the secondary information in Gradebook, it will be up to the teacher to decide which information that is most useful to identify between students (e.g login-id, or SIS-id, or e-mail).

User role(s):

instructor,ta