[Speedgrader] Stop filtering the SpeedGrader based on filtering the Grades tool by section

[cdoherty]

Recently I learned that filtering the display in the Grades tool by section also applies the same section filter in the SpeedGrader. This is not intuitive at all and makes for a bad user experience. There is no indication or explanation that this is happening in the Canvas UI. It is only mentioned briefly in a user guide. As we all know, you can’t put important user experience information solely in a guide because users don’t read guides to learn how to use software. Instead, the user experience needs to be intuitive or at least explained directly in the UI where the work is happening. How do I know it’s not intuitive? I have been using Canvas for many years and never would have guessed this was happening. Not even the Instructure Support agent I contacted knew about this.

Why is this a bad user experience? If there is a multi-section course, this filtering will mean some of the student submissions will not show up in the SpeedGrader. There is no explanation why. It is even worse if the assignment is restricted to a section other than the section selected in the Grades filter, since no student submissions will display and the filtering option doesn’t even show up in the SpeedGrader to give the grader a clue what is wrong and a way to fix it.

It makes absolutely no sense to apply the Grades filtering to SpeedGrader and has no benefit, only confusion.

[rmurchshafer]

@cdoherty 

Like you I am a long time Canvas user (2010).  And I also would not have expected the section filtering from Grades to also carry over to Speedgrader (and they follow the other way too from Speedgrader to Grades).  Having said that, I really like the feature and now I'm wondering how long it has been around. 

Your points are all valid but let's look from another perspective.  In courses with multiple sections and maybe even multiple graders it is nice to have that section filter in both places.  If i'm only assigned to section 001 for grading purposes it's a nice workflow to have the default only show section 001 for grading (speedgrader and grades) after only setting it the first time.  To take is a step further, a lot of people are not even aware of the section filter and I'd hope that if they figure out how to enable it in Grades and actually use it, they likely can understand how it also applies to Speedgrader and in many cases would benefit from it being this way.

While I can understand it may not be optimal for your workflow and it sounds like you use the Sections filter in Grades but don't care to in SpeedGrader, perhaps making a habit of clearing the section filter when you leave the Grades area would be a good practice so everything is back to the default for the next time you come back to grades or to speedgrader.  

I'm not trying to tell you how you need to do things, but just pointing out that I think having the filter apply in both places is a benefit to many and is consistent with other things such as nicknaming your course on the Dashboard having that same name.

Rick

[cdoherty]

@rmurchshafer It's not a benefit if the section filter doesn't even display in the SpeedGrader with a section-restricted assignment. And it doesn't benefit if users don't realize the filter applies in both places and there is no communication to the user about it. It might be fine if it was well communicated in the UI in both Grades and SpeedGrader and a grader was ALWAYS able to undo the filter in SpeedGrader (which they can't currently do in an assignment restricted to one section). The fact that there is a filter applied should be way more obvious in the SpeedGrader than it currently is. The main problem, as always in Canvas, is a confusing user experience with an over-reliance on guides to explain how things work. An instructor was in a panic when she couldn't see any submissions in her section-restricted assignment and it took me way too long to figure out why. One sentence buried in the middle of a guide to explain this counter-intuitive workflow is not acceptable.

[rmurchshafer]

@cdoherty 

Good points but I am still gonna stick with liking the feature as it is. But you do bring up a good point about clarity when it's applied.  I think that rather having a request to remove something which is possibly very useful to lots of people (I know we don't know that for sure, but stay with me), perhaps a better request would be to add an alert whenever you enter Speedgrader or Grades and a filter is already applied.  I'm thinking just a semi-transparent banner across the top of when you enter either tool saying "Section filter applied" or similar.  Maybe even "Section filter applied, clear filter" with the words clear filter giving a simple way to remove the filter with one click.  

In my opinion such an addition would help with your scenario and still allow for the current set up which again I think is useful for many use cases.  

Thoughts?

Rick

[cdoherty]

Hi Rick, That seems agreeable. I would welcome other ideas about the best possible solution to this. I can always update or open a new idea if we can get some other voices to weigh in.

[cdoherty]

Although, I think this should be a permanent part of the UI, rather than just a banner, to surface the section filter. Or both a banner and a better surfacing of section filter. Currently, the section filter is buried in the student name menu of SpeedGrader and not very discoverable.

[Ron_Bowman]

@cdoherty -

I think the quick transparent banner message that @rmurchshafer mentioned would be a better way to handle it.  I for one like the fact that the filtering takes place in both directions.  My thought is that you know your course has sections and you had to get into the filtered view intentionally so, it would not be too hard to quickly figure out - based on what you are seeing - that the filtering carried over from the gradebook to speed grader and vice versa.

In response to your question about being able to get out of filter mode while in speed grader.  it is possible - go to the student name in the upper right area, click on the student name dropdown list.  At the top it shows the current section filter - put your mouse on it and a list of options comes up to select all sections or a different section.  

[cdoherty]

@Ron_BowmanThe section filter DOES NOT appear in SpeedGrader for an assignment that is restricted to one section, so no, it is not possible to get out of the filter in this scenario.

I find it very counter-intuitive that a filter applied in one tool (Grades) would apply to a different tool (SpeedGrader), particularly since this is not communicated anywhere in the UI. Based on the fact that the instructor could not figure this out, and TIER 1 INSTRUCTURE SUPPORT could not figure it out either, I would say it's a false assumption that this is easy to figure out quickly. It took me quite some time to figure this out myself. It is not a common practice in Canvas that display filters apply to other tools than where they are set. If this filter is going to apply in both places, it needs to be easier to find in SpeedGrader, have a consistent design within Grades and SpeedGrader and be communicated well that this filter applies to both places. I don't think a banner message is an adequate solution. Those are all too easy to ignore and it's a cop out. The tool needs to communicate through intuitive design, rather than text messages users will ignore.

It doesn't make sense in the case of a section-restricted assignment that there should be any filters applied. The instructor should just be able to see the student submissions based on the section restrictions defined in the assignment.

[Ron_Bowman]

@cdoherty -

I am not following what you are saying - of course that may because I just finished grading 150 final exams in circuit analysis.

In any case.  Your first paragraph and last paragraph (to me) appear to contradict themseleves.

In any case I tried out an experiment in my playground with 2 dummy students - 1 in sec1 and 1 in sec2.  I made an assignment that I assigned to section 1.  In the gradebook view, I set the filter to sec2.

I then selected speedgrader for my assignment to sec1 only.  Speed grader came up with that section only - there was a warning that came up stating that all sections would display, but it was only the section 1 students.  Furthermore, under the student dropdown, I can then select what filtering I want as far as sections go.  If I select all sections, speedgrader does just show me the one student that has been assigned the assignment for their section.  Likewise I can also just select the one section and there is no option to select the other section.

I am seeing what you are suggesting in the last paragraph, so I am confused as to what you are saying.  I think you have a legitimate problem, but I am not understanding your explanation - probably me and not you.  

Based on what I have above, can you tell me what I am thinking about incorrectly.

Ron

[cdoherty]

@Ron_Bowman  What you describe doesn't happen at all in Stanford Canvas. When I have a section-specific assignment, no section filter menu appears in SG to allow me to change what is being displayed. If the filter in Grades is set to a different section, no students display at all. Maybe there is some configuration that is different, I have no idea, but since I told Instructure exactly what was happening and they claimed it was supposed to work that way, I made this feature idea based on that claim. They don't like to acknowledge bugs ever, so here we are.

My statements were not contradictory. I am saying that section filters applied in Grades should not apply to section-specific assignment in the first place because the section filter is already defined in the assignment. AND if the teacher finds themselves in the situation were a different section filter is applied than the one defined in the assignment, they can't even correct it in SpeedGrader, because no section filter menu appears. It is counter-intuitive to go back to Grades to correct it. I don't think instructors would assume the filter they applied in Grades would apply to SpeedGrader and it is not communicated in the UI.

If you have a screencast of the experiment you did, could you please send it to me at cdoherty@stanford.edu? That might help me troubleshoot it if it is a bug in our instance.