Delete a test student

[butcher_c1]

How do I delete the test student?

[kmeeusen]

Hi  @butcher_c1 

I am suspecting that you are asking how you can remove the test student from the gradebook, and also delete any submissions by "Student, Test" in your classrooms.

As for Gradebook, you cannot remove Test Student. They are a standard part of your course's gradebook after using them even once.

However, any submissions (except discussion posts) and grades can be removed by reentering Student View, and clicking the "Reset Test Student" link in that lower banner.  You can learn more at How do I view a course using a test student? 

Even though resetting the test student will not remove any discussions postings, you can manually remove them as a teacher.  Learn how to do this at https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12719-415299891 

I hope this is helpful,

Kelley

[orwinr · Accepted solution]

Hi  @butcher_c1 and welcome to the Canvas Community!

To remove the Test Student from your course, including the Gradebook, follow these steps:

1. Log into the course you want to remove the Test Student from.
2. Click on Settings.
3. Click on the Sections tab.
4. Click into the section(s) listed (typically it will be the same name as the course).
5. Click on the red X next to Test Student to remove them from the course. (Note that you must remove the test student from all sections if you have more than one)

 If you use Student View again, it will recreate the Test Student in the course Gradebook.

[kmeeusen]

Oooooo, nice trick orwinr !

Six years as a Canvas admin, so how did I miss that one?

Thank you, Sir!

[orwinr]

Hi  @kmeeusen ,

We had a number of faculty that really wanted to get rid of the test student in the grade book because it was being used in calculating averages and such so we figured out how to remove it temporarily until folks used student view again. We are still on the old gradebook and I really should go back and see if the test student is used in calculations. Do you know if this is still true?

[rpm]

Gradebook AND Speedgrader should include an course-level option to hide and ignore Test Student. Simple as that. It's painful for teachers having to delete this artefact of Student View all the time. Instructure listening?

[kevin_jackson]

+1 should be an option. Having to delete every time you use student view is a workaround, but clunky.

[bowmanr]

@kevin_jackson @rpm @orwinr 

The following may be a no go for most people, but I am very grateful for having it(and I hope it never goes away for me)

A way to avoid the test student issue is to never go into student view.  The way to avoid that is for the Canvas Administrators at your school to setup in a login instance where you can log in with a dummy student account (regular login will not work because the dummy students are not actual students at the school).  You will probably want two or three accounts for testing of access or view of material or groups. 

I am not sure how it was done for me - it was originally done when we were on ANGEL and fortunately that admin moved them over to Canvas before retiring.  I never trusted the student view in ANGEL as being accurate as to what the students actually saw, so I had the admin create the accounts.  I have my same concerns with Canvas, but I do not need to worry about because I have the dummy accounts.  Plus with 2 accounts, I can set up a test assignment and verify everything works for just the one student I assign.