Download Submissions in alphabetical order

[mscuthbert]

Is there a way to download submissions in real alphabetical order (the same order as in SpeedGrader or the class lists)?  The problem is I have students with names like (not real names):

• Ma, Yo-Yo
• Martinez, Pedro

And this order is correct and used in SpeedGrader, etc.  but on bulk download, they appear as:

• martinezpedro
• mayoyo

Twice I've come close to giving the wrong comments/wrong grade to the wrong student because of this (I have two pairs of names like this in a class of 20 alone).  The type of submissions my students give (programming assignments) aren't things that I can view and grade in the Canvas LMS interface.

Thanks!

[ProfessorBeyrer · Accepted solution]

It's unfortunate, @mscuthbert, that we don't have options in terms of the file format for downloaded submissions. Since student names are concatenated in the filenames for their submissions, writing your own script to split first and last names isn't that easy. If Canvas added a delimiter as part of the filename that would make it easier to distinguish submissions. Consider making this suggestion via the Canvas idea process:

How do I create a new idea in the Instructure Comm... - Instructure Community

[checkma]

I have another question, though. Why has this still not been done? It's been two years for a five-minute fix (most of which is finding the source code).

[chriscas]

Hi @checkma,

I know how you feel, as I have submitted quite a few ideas, and many of them have not been developed either.  This does happen for a multitude of reasons though:

• The idea needs to be submitted to the correct ideas section of the community as @ProfessorBeyrer mentioned a couple years ago, making a question post is great but doesn't get to the right team.  I don't think the original question poster ever did submit this particular item as an official idea.
• Instructure will usually evaluate the idea, determine how many people would want the idea, consider if it would negatively affect others, then perhaps look at development time, roadmap, etc...  Even though I agree this would likely be a somewhat quick fix, it could actually negatively affect a lot of current users who may have build scripts and automations based on the current name format.  Even if that's a relatively low number of users, they will likely be unhappy at having to unexpectedly change their code.
• Look at how the idea would fit into other areas of development.  For example, if they were working on the gradebook for a major project, they'd likely re-evaluate many of the grade-related ideas to see what may fit into the project.

Instructure recently posted the Turning Your Feedback into Better Prioritization a... - Instructure Community - 637959 blog post about revising the ideas process overall if you'd like to take a loot at that.

I guess the bottom line, in my opinion, is that almost everyone has a handful of ideas to enhance Canvas, but there likely is not universal agreement on those ideas, and if everyone idea was developed, Canvas could become a cluttered mess of options.  This particular idea wouldn't necessarily clutter the interface any more, but with so many ideas out there I know it's hard to evaluate every single one.

I hope this info helps.

-Chris