[Student View] Specific "Real" student view

[Steven_S]

This idea is to give the test student view a drop down menu of current students in the banner that identifies the view as the test student.  When a specific student is selected from the drop down menu, the test student should mirror that students progress through module requirements, view of actual feedback on real assignments, and grades.  When the student view is turned off, the test student's grades and progress should remain the most recently mirrored data. 

The result will allow faculty to more directly test any problems students report while in student view, and then back in their normal view they can also enter possible future scores into the test student to use when counseling students who are struggling with their grades.

Two reasons why this matters:

1. Although "Real" student view has been marked complete, instructors are still not able to interact as the test student with external tools such as Lockdown browser.  As a result, we cannot test anything past the first module requirement to take a quiz in lockdown browser.  This is a problem because instructors are the first level of support when students have problems in canvas.  As many reports as canvas receives, and as often as instructors tell students to go directly to canvas chat, many students come to their teacher first for trouble shooting.  Not being able to check what is working limits our ability to respond.  This specific "real" student view would allow us to start with exactly the progress the student with difficulties has made so far - without actually acting as that student since the test student would be a mirrored record.
2. Also, when counseling a student who is struggling with their grades, it is helpful to be able to enter scores for the test student that match the actual student's progress, and then fill in the remainder of the test students scores with "what if" scores.  This provides a calculation of future possible scores to share with students without actually requiring changes to the students real scores.  However, towards the end of the semester, when this is most relevant, there are a lot of early grades to copy into the test student and errors are easily made when scrolling through a long gradebook copying scores from a student down to the test student for every assignment.  Being able to quickly turn on student view, mirror the student, and find the test student auto-filled with the mirrored student's scores upon return to normal view would make this process faster, easier, and more accurate.

[Stef_retired]

@Steven_S As this idea moves forward for broader discussion, consider adding a comment and rating to What if grading for instructors - Canvas Community if you haven't already.

[Steven_S]

@Stef_retired  done!  What if grading for instructors - Canvas Community and also Student View: Bypass Prerequisites are both looking for solutions to problems that this idea might help to solve.

[b_w_reid]

When an assignment uses the 'Assign To' field for specific students, you can't preview the assignment using 'Student Preview' mode as a tutor. This makes sense to some extent, because the 'preview student' hasn't be added to the 'assign to' list. But there isn't an option to add 'student preview' to the 'assign to' list. 'Student Preview' works fine when the assignment is available to 'everyone'.

It strikes me as a gap in functionality when a tutor can't use student preview to preview an assignment when it's scheduled for particular students. 

It would make sense to add the 'student preview' option to the 'Assign to' option with an Assignment.

Also the error message tutors receive when trying to preview an assignment that has 'assign to' enabled for specific students has the following error message. It's not really a course section issue, as the assignment has been assigned to specific students and not sections.

[lazar_konforti]

I second what b_w_reid said. I posted something similar just over a year ago in the Questions section. It would be a very useful features because sometimes we assign things only to specific students (e.g. a make-up test) and, as it is, we can't check to see if everything is in order.

[physicslabmanag]

That would be very helpful for me as well, my TA is reporting a problem that no other TA's have and I would love to check it out to see what is up.