Moving Assignments

[beth_schlenker]

When adding new assignments, is there any other way to move them in the instructor gradebook other than dragging them one by one through all of the other assignments in the gradebook to get them where you want.

I would assume that if I put them in the "Assignments" the way that I want them, they would appear in the gradebook this way as well, but this is not the case.

Thank you for any help.

[James]

@beth_schlenker 

Yes, there are other ways, but things get a little more difficult if you have already dragged some columns.

The default order in the gradebook is the order they appear on the assignments page. Rather than dragging them on the gradebook page, where drag / drop is the only technique, you can reorder them on the assignments page. You can drag / drop them there or there is an option to "move to" under the three vertical more dots to the right of each assignment.

If you use assignment groups (such as activities, homework, quizzes, etc.), then this technique limits you to ordering within assignment groups. If you drag to another assignment group, then you actually change the assignment group, which is probably not what you want.

Since you have already moved things in the gradebook, that becomes sticky and doesn't change things back when you drag them in the assignment groups unless you reset the sort order in the gradebook.

The How do I arrange columns in the Gradebook? lesson in the Canvas Instructor Guide explains more about changing the order. To get the gradebook to reset and match the assignment order, you would arrange by the default order and then click apply settings. If you have manually dragged columns, it will still say "default order", but it's more of a "default order with customizations". Clicking the "apply settings" will reset it to the default order that they appear in on the assignments page.

That lesson also potentially explains what you're seeing. If you have dragged columns in the gradebook, then when any new assignments are added to the gradebook, they are added to the end of the gradebook. That's a note in the Manually Arrange Columns section. It then adds that resetting the default view will put them where they need to be -- which strongly suggests ordering them on the assignments page rather than in the gradebook.

If you don't want them in assignment order, then you also have other pre-built sort orders such as assignment name, due date, point value, and modules.

If none of those completely match what you need, then manually dragging the columns around within the gradebook is necessary. If you have to do this, it works best when all of the assignments have already been created. Otherwise, new assignments go at the end and we're back to the same situation you're in now. You can reset them and lose any custom order or drag the new ones to where they belong.

My preference may not be your preference, but I arrange them in order within the assignments page in the order they appear but within each assignment group. I then use the default order in the gradebook. My wife does the same, but moves the total column to the beginning. Canvas provides a lot of flexibility here.

Also note that you can filter assignments. This makes the order they are in less important since I don't have to scroll through 190 columns (that's how many assignments one of my classes has) to find the one I want that is about 93 columns in.

[beth_schlenker]

I do put the assignments in groups of which they are in the order that I want them to appear in the gradebook.

However, I added a group of tasks (assignments) that I want students to complete at the beginning of the semester to get familiar with the course. I wanted this to be the first things students would see in their gradebook so they could see their progress. I moved this new group of assignments to the top of the list of assignment groups in assignments. I had hoped that in doing this, these tasks/assignments would appear first in the gradebook. I refreshed my browser a couple of times. However, they did not.

[James · Accepted solution]

@beth_schlenker 

Changing the order of the columns directly from the gradebook is for your benefit and your benefit only. It's a personal customization that does not apply to anyone else other than yourself. What you change there won't be seen by anyone else. That's by design.

Dragging an assignment group around will change your view in the gradebook provided you do not have not customized the order manually. If you have reordered columns from within the gradebook, then you will need to go into the Gradebook Settings and change the sort order to Default View and then click Apply Settings. Refreshing the browser multiple times does not pick up changes if there has been manual customization.

However, it sounds like you're trying to do this for students. That's very considerate and thoughtful, but Canvas already has you taken care of.

Students do not see things in same order we do, so how we organize things is really for ourselves more than the students.

Students do not see assignments page in the order we see them. By default, they see overdue assignments first, followed by upcoming assignments, undated (no due date) assignments, and past assignments. This is explained in the Canvas Student Guide lesson How do I view Assignments as a student?

Students do not see the same gradebook that instructors see. What they see is explained in How do I view my grades in a current course?

The student's default sort order is by date so the content that is due first will appear first. As long as you have a due date on those items at the beginning of the semester, they should show up first.

If you don't have a due date, put them in. Canvas works better with due dates. Several types of reminders and benefits to students rely on the due dates.

[beth_schlenker]

I know that the assignments are arranged in order of due date for the students in their gradebook.

I rearrange assignments in my gradebook for myself and the only way to do so is to drag them little by little to get them to where I want them to be for my view.