Feature Request: Parent-Friendly Graded Assignment Notifications

[rusignola]

As a parent, I’d like to be able to more easily see how my child is doing in class without having to repeatedly log into Canvas and navigate multiple steps.

Current Problem

• I have email alerts enabled for graded assignments, which results in 2–3 messages a day.

• The current notification looks like this:

   

  Subject: Assignment Graded: Probability of Compound Events Practice Problems (p 104 - 106), [Child's Name], SL Algebra 1 S1

  
  Your assignment Probability of Compound Events Practice Problems (p 104 - 106) has been graded. graded: Sep 19 at 1:36pm

  
  You can review the assignment here | Update your notification settings

  These notifications are not parent-friendly:

  • They don’t include the grade or score.

  • To see the actual graded work, I must:

    1. Click the link.

    2. Log into the system.

    3. Click “preview.”

    4. Wait for the graded assignment to download.

    5. Locate and open the file.

    6. This process repeated multiple times a day adds up to hundreds of unnecessary steps over the school year.

        

  •  

    Desired Improvement

    Instead of the current format, I’d like the email to provide the grade directly in the subject line and include the graded work as an attachment. For example:

    Subject: Graded 84% – Probability of Compound Events (p.104–106), [Child’s Name], Algebra 1 S1

    
    Your assignment Probability of Compound Events Practice Problems (p 104–106) has been graded. graded: Sep 19 at 1:36pm

    
    [Attached: scanned graded assignment]

     

    Benefits

    • Saves parents significant time and frustration.

    • Provides immediate visibility into student performance without multiple logins.

    • Encourages parents to stay engaged and supportive of their child’s learning.

    • Reduces barriers for families with multiple children or students with many daily assignments.

       

      Summary

      By including the score in the subject line and attaching the graded work directly to the notification email, Canvas would make assignment feedback far more useful to parents, helping us support our children’s academic progress in real time.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi there, @rusignola ...

For new feature ideas like you've posted above, there's actually a separate space here in the Canvas Community website to submit those for consideration.  However, please know that the entire feature idea process is going through some changes at the moment, and I'm not exactly sure when the new process will be put in place.  You can read more about this at:

Turning Your Feedback into Better Prioritization and Release Processes: Our Path Forward

Also, here are the Guides related to creating new ideas here in the Community:

• What is the feature development process for Instructure products?
• How do Ideas work in the Instructure Community?
• What are the guidelines for submitting a new idea?
• How do I create a new idea in the Instructure Community?

Also, you didn't necessarily mention this, but do you use the Canvas Parent app at all?  I've not used this myself (I'm a Canvas admin, and I'm not a parent), but it might be another useful tool for you if you've not used it before:

• Canvas Parent Android Guide - Instructure Community
• Canvas Parent iOS Guide - Instructure Community

I hope these links will be helpful for you.  Good luck as you formulate your idea for submission here in the Community.

[chriscas]

Hi @rusignola,

In addition to @Chris_Hofer's post about the idea process, I wanted to quickly point out a setting that *may* help here (I'm a higher-ed admin where we don't really do observers, so I'm not 100% sure).  In your notification settings area, you should see a checkbox to include scores for grading notifications.

If you enable that checkbox, the notification email should include the grade.  I don't think it'll be in the subject though to try to preserve some privacy.

I hope this helps a bit!

-Chris

[rusignola]

Thanks, I flipped that setting -- we'll see what happens. Appreciate it!

[VPundir]

@rusignola 
Do report back once you know whether or not it works, for people arriving at this thread later.

[rusignola]

It appears to have added the score to the email body. Would still love to see the attachment to avoid having to login to see the work, but this is a good start.