Verification that Gradebook comments are viewed by students

[jdesiderio]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

  Idea will be open for vote Wed. June 3, 2015 - Wed. September 2, 2015  Learn more about voting...

I would like to be able to see somehow when a gradebook comment I make is viewed by one of my students.  If I make corrections or comments on a submitted assignment I'm not always sure if they're even viewing them unless I get a comment back.  I would like to know that they're seeing it.  This helps cover me if they try to fight a grade or claim they don't understand why they got a particular grade.

  Comments from Instructure...

February 2016 Note

Completed per https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-5926#jive_content_id_SpeedGrader

As Christi mentioned, there a lot of complexities in knowing when someone views a comment, however we have a strong dependable trigger for knowing when users view feedback.  This feature should help?

 

[KristinL]

This would be wonderful! Teachers put so much time into providing feedback, and I know I wonder if it is worth the time. If students read comments, yes!! A "viewed" option would be helpful to have.

[Beth_Young]

Yes, I think this is a terrific idea, too. I spend a lot of time commenting on quizzes and it is disheartening to realize that students don't always notice that the comments are there. If I could tell that someone has/hasn't read the comments, I could alert those students who were missing something they really needed to see. And when students wrote to complain about a grade, I could say, "I notice that you haven't viewed the comments yet. Take a look and let me know if you still have questions after that."

A related feature idea to this one:

[biray]

Thanks for your submission,  @jdesiderio ​. For clarity and searchability, I updated the name of your idea from "Be able to see the gradebook comments...." to "Verification that gradebook comments..." 

Your idea will be ready for voting in the next voting cycle.

[jdesiderio]

Thank you! I think this would benefit a lot of people.

[SethBattis]

That would be fantastic. A little blurb that says something like Viewed by Oswald Obsequious at 10:08pm on May 1 or Not yet viewed would be invaluable! (I think happily of the halcyon days of the FirstClass email history window…)

[mcohen]

I love this idea.

[jharry]

I agree with the above. This is a good idea. I might suggest taking it a little further. In a large class, it would not be feasible to go check each student's grade to confirm that they have seen the (potentially important) comment. So it might be nice (no clue how!) to have a sorted list so that those that haven't read grade comment bubble to the top of a list.

[scotnic]

good idea

[emily_beckman]

Even having the comment bubble icon change colors one for Viewed, another for Edited. That way you don't have anything else in the gradebook but it shows you that action was taken in some form. This would help us provide more feedback when it's needed without clicking through each one to see if someone wrote back.

[KristinL]

Here's a different, yet related submission: ​.