Anonymous Discussions with Grading

[AlexanderHeaton]

Anonymous discussions have been recently implemented, and that is great!  However, grading is not allowed for these discussions, even grading based on completion.  Why not allow the instructor to assign grades to each discussion post, without knowing who posted?  This would also be easy to implement.  Also, based on the comment below, an option for "anonymous to peers, but graded and hence not anonymous to instructor" option for Discussions would be great.

Benefit:  Instructors can create *required* anonymous discussions. This motivates students to post, on schedule, with effort, and yet protects them from feeling judged *by peers* for wrong answers.

[rake_9]

Because then it wouldn't actually be anonymous. 

If you can give a grade based on completion, you can somewhat determine who posted what, early on, based on who has a grade.  Toward the end, you can eliminate possible identities, based on who hasn't posted.

Actually there are two levels of anonymous that are conflated.  Anonymous to peers (so, not judged by colleagues) but also anonymous to instructors (who may also judge, and also wield grading power).  If I were a student, thinking about posting something that needed anonymity before I said it, I'd be as concerned about my instructor as my peers.

[AlexanderHeaton]

Very good point.  I have been conflating those two kinds of anonymous!   As a math instructor, I frequently find that students are willing to make mistakes in front of me, but less willing to do it in front of 20 peers.   Therefore, I should really request an "anonymous to peers, and graded" discussion option.   I know for a fact that many students would greatly appreciate this option in my calculus course.

[rake_9]

Interesting angle.  Usually, when I have been asked about anonymous discussions, it is in the social sciences and humanities, where people might be talking about personal experiences as it relates to course content.

[JaniceHudgings]

Sakai has the features mentioned in the original posting, and they have been super helpful in my class.  I'm sorry to lose these as my institution switches to Canvas.  Canvas, please consider implementing this!

[ddessauer]

I also want this feature of a graded discussion where the facilitator has an overview but learners are anonymised from their peers.

My use case is showing and critiquing design work. They are meant to rehearse giving constructive criticism but acquiescence  dominates the discourse as they all just pat each other on the back! In an end of unit survey I asked if making it anonymous would promote more in-depth critique and deeper discussion. The result was students unanimously requesting this be implemented for their future classes.

I really should have checked I can do that before I said anything to them shouldn’t I‽

[jws3712]

I would also find this feature helpful and encourage Canvas to implement it. I think having a feature where it is anonymous to other students, but optional anonymity to the teacher would be good. Having the option where it is anonymous to all, but can be graded would be even better. I understand that a professor could go back and find out who is who from the grades, but if your primary concern is anonymity from classmates then this could create a real clever way to move another step closer to truly unbiased grading (In fact I would encourage this on all quizzes/assignments, etc). Even one step better might be anonymity to the professor before grading, but then anonymity for the professor is turned off after grading.   

I would find it helpful as noted because I would like to be able to grade the discussion and also see what students have written to track progress and development, but still allow the anonymity from other classmates to cut down their fears and also encourage more unbiased responses from other students to their discussion post in writing.  This could be through forced peer review or just through voluntary replies to the discussions. If this was combined with an opportunity to cut down potential bias in grading that would be even better. 

[mmalakooti]

I agree. The anonymousness should be among students, not the instructors. Or at least the option can be given. What if I want to create an anonymous discussion but want to grade those who did it?

[TiffanyStull]

The problem is that Instructure made "totally anonymous" posting possible, but not what most instructors want, which is where the posts are anonymous to other students but not to the instructor. Several of our instructors have reported that when they used the "anonymous to other students but not to the instructor" feature in our previous LMS's Discussions tool, students felt much more comfortable posting their thoughts.

[BryanCrowe]

I realize it is an unusual use case, but I like to ask my students to evaluate me at the end of each semester. I always ask them to be as honest as they can: good, bad, or ugly. I want them to to be truly anonymous, so they feel free to say what they really think.

I know how to set up a discussion that does not reveal identities, either to me or their peers. However, if I just ask, "Please post in this thread," only a small handful actually will (historically). Being able to offer credit for posting would entice a few others to contribute as well. An anonymous assignment with simple "go/no-go" points would be extremely useful.

Thanks for your consideration.

[ddessauer]

You could try Survey instead of Discussion. 

The issue you will still face is that, in Instructure Canvas, a survey cannot be set to both graded and anonymous at the same time.

If you want to encourage participation but maintain anonymity, you could create an anonymous ungraded survey. 

Using the Essay question type the student experience will be the same as the discussion except that they won’t see their peer’s comments.

You will be able to see if students have participated or not, but you will not have visibility of which response was from which student.

You can then provide participation points manually based on the participation list. 

[KerenJackson]

I did not realize that "anonymous" discussions would be anonymous for me and that I wouldn't be able to evaluate them, or I wouldn't have selected this option. Now, I have several discussions that I intended as make-up assignments for absent students, and I cannot grade them and use them.