[SpeedGrader] Allow Annotations to Text Entry Submissions in SpeedGrader

[caitlinrolston]

For basic skills and ESL students, uploading files is a barrier in and of itself. They can do text entry; teachers need to be able to annotate writing line by line. Add annotations to text entry boxes, please! Normally students with such low tech skills would not need to submit things online in the first place. Due to the pandemic, we are in desperate need of a much more simplified (yet centralized and easy to grade/give feedback on) submission method.

[wwalsh]

Being able to have students easily send material that arrives in one place would be ideal for teacher and student. I need a technology where I can annotate student work and archive. My students have different operating systems and could be submitting on a phone, a tablet, a laptop or a computer. They may not know word, office 365, google forms or how to upload or download a file. All of this needs to be explained to students with limited English.

[smckinnon1]

I teach lower levels of ESL and so I often need to make grammar or spelling comments.  Currently, if a student submits using text entry, I have to copy it and paste it into word, print it out, make comments by hand, take a photo and email to to myself and then attach it to the comments. Another option is to copy and past parts of it into the comments box and then explain what the problem is.  Another option is to tell them which sentence/section to look at and then enter comments. Imagine if I could highlight or add punctuation in another color text, or underline, or make bold.....  

[pseery]

To date, I have been asking students in my intermediate level ESL class to write their paragraphs in an email and send them to me.  I am not entirely satisfied with this approach as it takes students out of canvas to do the writing assignment.

Having an annotation tool for the text entry box in Canvas would be wonderful. 

[mlevin1]

My low level ESL students are beginners when it comes to Canvas and technology in general. They do not know Word, or other word editing software. I was able to train some of them to submit assignments in Canvas via text entry. This way, although easier for my students than typing in Word, saving and attaching a file (a task too complex right now to do for most of them) makes correcting their work more difficult for the teacher as there are no annotation tools available for text entries. Please please add annotation tools to make this process smooth for all parties involved. And no, correcting students’ work in Word and then attaching that Word file in Canvas is not an effective solutions for the students i work with. Thank you!

[jcady]

My issues are similar to the other commenters. The burden of learning apps and word processing, etc. looms larger for ESL students, especially at intermediate or low levels. Giving us annotation tools for typed-in submissions would be super useful if it can be done.

[fletchs]

Adding annotation tools to Canvas is essential if the written exchanges between teacher and student are to be straightforward and easy to access for both parties.  This would be a huge improvement for my ESL students' online learning experience.

Please consider enhancing the text entry option in Canvas with annotation tools. 

[aloewen]

I heartily agree. I spend countless hours with my Intermediate-level ESL students trying to help them with One Drive, in order to write their assignments in Word and upload for grading with annotated feedback. One problem after another arises, which I've never encountered on my own computer; they're asked to log in but don't have passwords, they're denied access, they don't know how to rename files... if only we could annotate our feedback using text entry, it would save so much time for everyone. Please consider adding this tool!

[TuritWilroy]

I would like it if students can submit a typed assignment in a textbox, and that I as a teacher would have the ability to type differently-colored comments directly into their document for feedback.

[kkoenig]

Although I do not teach ESL, I have experienced many native speakers in my English classes having problems loading up their papers to submit them electronically, often because they are using devices that are older. This then means I will have to go through digital acrobatics to annotate their papers for revision before returning them. It's a time-consuming process, but it shouldn't be.

Please program Canvas text entry to accept instructor annotations so that students can easily revise papers and instructors can easily annotate or offer comments on a final graded edition of a paper.