Is anyone else having trouble with the new design of Speedgrader for Discussions?

[ValerieBurks]

When I logged on today to grade discussions, the design had changed tremendously. It used to be all posts for the individual student were readily accessible on the left navigation pane. Now, I have to toggle through to get to the student posts and replied. My grading time has tripled, making the "speed" in Speedgrader rather ironic. 

Is there a way in the options to go back to the previous design?

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @ValerieBurks, @hbaz , and @katieb1,

Instructure has recently posted a blog about this change at Addressing Your Feedback on Recent Discussion Chec... - Instructure Community - 631743.  If you haven't seen that yet, I'd encourage you to take a look, as there is a feedback opportunity included.

-Chris

[james_whalley]

@ValerieBurks In your SpeedGrader, are you seeing the new Next Reply and Previous Reply buttons on the right above the grading?

[ValerieBurks]

Of course—that is the new design, and the problem.

[james_whalley]

@ValerieBurks Sorry if that seemed like a stupid question. When doing beta testing of the new Discussion Checkpoints feature, which is what caused this change in the SpeedGrader for Discussions, I had come across some conditions that would cause the entire Discussion to appear on the right but not provide the Previous and Next buttons. I just wanted to make sure you were not in that predicament, which is even harder for navigating through posts.

[hbaz]

I'm having the exact same issue after seeing the changes this so called "upgrade" made to Speedgrader for discussions. I searched the options and found no way to revert these changes.

The only temporary workaround I found was using search to put in the student's last name, or full name if multiple students with the same last name, in order to pull up all their submission. Even this 'workaround' is riddled with errors because a message saying "Sorry something is broken" pops up every other letter typed in the search bar.

I even contacted support. Online chat was of no assistance, but calling them provided the information that: 

• Only 'admins' can reverse the change
• There are no options to reverse this downgrade to Speedgrader and no classic version is available.
• They say some teachers were involved in testing the feature and "liked the changes so they could see missing student submissions", but this should be taken with a boulder of salt.

Both options had the agents say to post it on community boards, but who knows when they'll even acknowledge how inconvenient and unpopular a change like this would be. I say if enough of us contact them here and Support directly over the phone they'll get a better idea of how much of a burden this change places on instructors.

[james_whalley]

@hbaz I understand how frustrating it can be when there is a change you cannot revert. I have definitely felt like that about some features. I will note that contacting Instructure through the Canvas Question Forum won't really work, as the folks helping in here are not employees of Instructure.

[hbaz]

I'm fully aware that Instructure does not read these forums, more so because this is where they direct me when I contacted them through chat, over the phone, and submitting a ticket that this new feature is a downgrade to Speedgrader. It does not matter how you contact them, they do not care and will always shunt instructors to these forums so they don't have to be bothered with any negative feedback about poorly thought out downgrades to the user experience. 

Even if only a fraction of the instructors frustrated contact them to let them know how unpopular this change is, then maybe they will think of a change a few months down the road, maybe.

[ValerieBurks]

I, too, am using that workaround and experiencing the "Sorry—something is broken" message before all individual student messages load. It's definitely quicker than the "Speed"-Grader, but considerably slower than the previous design. 

Yes, I can imagine they received feedback from a certain class of users who may have endorsed this change. However, for those of us who diligently read the entire message board during the posting period, toggling through the entire discussion thread to get to individual posts is unnecessarily time-consuming.

You are certainly conscientious for contacting support (for which we all all benefit); and I will likely send a half-hearted email. Unfortunately, though, my faith in the power of the people to effect positive change is somewhat shaken of late.

[hbaz]

I'm there in not having much faith in the power of the people's ability to enact positive change, but I'm hoping at the very least that, even if just a fraction of unhappy instructors give Canvas support feedback on how ill conceived this change is, it will be equal to Legos along a barefoot path for them.

[katieb1]

I'm also having this problem. It is adding so much time to my workload. The scrolling is also making me dizzy. 

For me, it isn't even centering the student I'm supposed to be grading? Their posts keep appearing just off-screen, so I have to scroll more. 

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @ValerieBurks, @hbaz , and @katieb1,

Instructure has recently posted a blog about this change at Addressing Your Feedback on Recent Discussion Chec... - Instructure Community - 631743.  If you haven't seen that yet, I'd encourage you to take a look, as there is a feedback opportunity included.

-Chris

[bulandre]

Yes, I came here to log the same complaint! Using Speedgrader is now so much more time consuming because the load time is slower and it takes time to scroll down to each student's "next reply." Related to that last part--I have to waste time clicking "Next reply" until I get back to what I hopefully recognize as their first reply to know that I've graded all of them for each student. I only require my students to make a minimum of 2 replies, but many of them choose 3 or more. Before, I could tell exactly how many posts each student made in the forum I was grading because they all appeared on one screen. Now I'm losing time with all of the scrolling through hundreds of posts. This is awful Canvas. Please don't let this be one of these issues Canvas workshops for months or years before correcting. 

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi @bulandre ...

I'd recommend reading through the blog posting that @chriscas linked to in his above reply.  There's also a link in that blog to a Maze survey where you can provide feedback to the Product team about your experiences.  You might consider filing that out and/or posting a comment to that blog posting from Sam.

[mpaoletti]

Joining the fray. Have been complaining to anyone who will listen since 1/22. Our IT dept. says: 

The initial test of what would happen if we disabled this have been done. ... If we were to disable this it would cause all discussions to lose their due dates, all students post would be deleted from Speed grader (the post will still be on the discussion but if you go to speed grader it will say no submission), and we still need to do more in depth test to see what more will happen. This will be for all discussions not just those that used the checkpoint feature. As you can see from just this test, I do not think Canvas will unilaterally turn it off any time soon.

I am so furious that Canvas has rolled out this cumbersome feature, ruining the discussion forum grading experience. i teach entirely online, and as others here have posted, this mess has tripled my time grading. I am going to recommend we switch LMSes ASAP. 

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

@mpaoletti ...

Sorry to read of the frustrations you are having with the SpeedGrader and the new view of Discussions within there.  As has been mentioned earlier in this topic, I would also recommend reading through the blog post by Sam at: Addressing Your Feedback on Recent Discussion Checkpoints Changes.  There is an area below here blog post to add your comments.  Also, she has included a link to a survey where you can provide feedback that will help Sam and her team as they move forward with this feature in Canvas.

I hope this will be of some help to you.