[Student Grades] Re-Format What-If Grades
What-If grades are difficult to track and identify as What-If grades because there is no distinguishing marker. ---- The formatting for What-If Grades used to be slightly different. If you typed in a What-If Grade, a blue arrow would appear directly to the left to let you know this was a grade you were testing. I loved using this with students because it often answered questions like "what assignments could I redo to get the best grade in the course", "how many extra credit points would I need to lift my score where I want it?" and "what would I need to score on future assignments to get my grade where I want it?" without having to schedule tons of meetings. (I teach around 200 students at any given time) In recent updates, this blue arrow has disappeared and been replaced by a single "Reset All Scores" button in the right toolbar. It is now visually impossible to see which scores you are testing What-If Grades with and therefore difficult to use. Especially when you are looking at long lists of assignments, it is very frustrating to use this feature. I teach Elementary through High School students totally online so Canvas is the go-to for all information. Tech-savvy students have used the lack of a distinguishing marker to pull the wool over parents' eyes (those that don't have observer accounts). They type in all of their What-If Scores whenever the parent is going to check their scores and the parent doesn't find out till weeks later that the student is actually failing. Younger students have a problem realizing that they aren't actually changing their real grade since it looks identical in every way to their real grade. I WANT to be able to continue using this as an informative and helpful tool for students but right now it is difficult for them to navigate.
Add a visual distinguishing marker to What-If Grades. ---------- I have seen this previously proposed as a separate column that can be toggled on and off. This could work. I propose, if you leave it in a single column, that you change the colour and perhaps the font of the grade that is a What-If grade. Something bright and eye-catching like red, orange, bright purple, or even the bright blue of the arrow that used to be there in addition to making the text bold. At the very least, I would add the blue back arrow next to every assignment with a What-If Grade (as you used to have). This would give you the added functionality of being able to reset the grade of an individual assignment quickly while you are testing multiple What-If Grades without having to retype in your original grade (if you remember it) and without having to reset ALL of your What-If scores. I'd add this feature EVEN if you changed the colour of What-If Grades. An additional functionality and visual marker!
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