Section Filter Not Showing in SpeedGrader

[geores]

I just read this similar post, but it's different enough that there's potentially a different solution.

For one of my teachers, when the Gradebook is set to filter for a section, the SpeedGrader loses its "Showing Sections" filter.  The first line of the dropdown is the first student's name instead of the filter option.  The only way to get the filter back is to remove the filter in the Gradebook, then refresh the SpeedGrader.  This is only happening for one of her courses - the other courses still work normally (knock wood!).  It's happening for all of the assignments we've tested in that course.

The SpeedGrader section filter appears just fine when I look at her course as an admin, but I get the problem when I masquerade as the teacher.  The Course Settings for this course and her other courses look identical to me.  Where should I be looking?

Thanks!

[geores · Accepted solution]

Hey everyone - I stumbled across the solution, but I don't have any idea why it would be the key.

There’s a student in the course who is inactive (which we do mid-year, instead of deleting them, to preserve their grades & comments).  The course also has a late policy in place giving all students a 0 for Missing Submissions.  When the inactive student gets that automatic a 0 for an assignment, the SpeedGrader doesn’t show the section filter menu.  When we erase the 0 grades for that student, the SpeedGrader section filter showed back up.

So our immediate problem is solved, but no idea why this would be the case.  Thanks to everyone for your help!

[JeffCampbell]

A few thoughts. If this is only happening on one of the teacher's classes, and all classes have the same settings, I'm tempted to lean to a possible tech issue and would suggest submitting a help ticket to Canvas Support (Help menu on far left of Canvas, then select the option to Report a Problem).

Second, you mentioned this is happening when you masquerade as a teacher. Any chance that something is up with the settings for the user roles in this course? This seems like a very minor possibility.

Third, run a test. Have the teacher removes all filters in the Gradebook. Then close out of Canvas. Reload and launch Speedgrader from the assignment page rather than the Gradebook. Does this still occur? Is the teacher ONLY launching the Speedgrader from the Gradebook? I'm wondering if the issue might be tied to the workflow being used.

[geores]

Thanks so much for your speedy response!  I will probably be entering this as a ticket in the near future, but I was hoping someone would see this, recognize the issue, and share what worked for them. 

The teacher is enrolled in each of her courses as "Teacher."  That's just looking at the People list in her courses.  Is there somewhere else I should be looking?

I've opened SpeedGrader both from the Gradebook and from the Assignment - same problem either way.

I appreciate you helping me think through a solution.  And I guess I'll take heart in it not being an obvious fix.  I sure do hope to find a fix, though!  🙂

[JeffCampbell]

Out of curiosity, when you say it is missing the "Showing Sections" filter, are you saying that Speedgrader does not show the feature highlighted in this image (which shows up when you click on the student's name)?"

That should show up regardless of whether you access Speedgrader from the assignment or from the Gradebook. Even if I filter my sections in the Gradebook before accessing Speedgrader, it still gives me this option. Can you share a screenshot of what you are seeing (obviously blurring names)? Maybe that might help us understand a bit more.

[geores]

That is EXACTLY what I'm saying, yes!  I've never seen that menu disappear before. 

I've also now tried removing the only filter that was still in place:  Grading Periods.  It didn't make a difference whether it was on or off.  She still can't see that section filter. 

[JeffCampbell]

Looking at that picture, I see a pink line around the edge of the picture. The kind of pink that I usually only see when viewing the page as a student. Normally a student is unable to get to Speedgrader, but just to make sure...is that pink part of your institution's design or is someone in Student Viewing mode (or some other alternative viewing mode)? Only wondering if the viewing method might be what is hiding it. If you went through the same steps to get to that point with that teacher's course in another course (by another teacher), does it happen to them too? That could be important if you get to the point of submitting a help ticket.

You mentioned in another comment about turning on a feature for the graded checkpoints. You might check the Settings page in the course under Feature Options. That is at the individual course level. I'm not sure the location at the administrative level.

[geores]

You are noticing the details - that line is tiny!  🙂  The pink line shows that I'm masquerading as the teacher whose course it is, the same way it shows a teacher viewing as student.  I only get the error when I'm acting as her.  When I'm on the same page as an admin, the section filter is there.

I've compared her course settings, apps, and feature options for one of her courses that works and for this course that doesn't, and they're identical.  She also has the same Teacher role in both courses.  I'm looking for any and all corners of Canvas to poke, so if you can think of more, please let me know!  I sure appreciate it!

[KristinL]

Hi @geores - I saw a thread earlier today that feels similar. Does the teacher you're supporting have the new Discussions Checkpoints feature enabled? If so, it may be that is causing the filters to not work as expected. If you confirm that this is correlated, please submit a Support ticket so our agents can take a closer look! While not ideal, it may be possible to work around this issue if/when the filtering in SpeedGrader is essential to grading workflows!

[geores]

Hi KristinL - I was excited to check that out, because surely it's some new feature that's triggered this, right?  But she doesn't have any discussions in this course.  Could that have been activated without making a discussion first?

[KristinL]

Hi! I believe that the feature can be enabled without having an active discussion first.

[geores]

Do you know where?  The help file in the Guides indicates it's a setting applied to an individual Discussion.  Should I be looking somewhere else?  Thanks!

[geores · Accepted solution]

Hey everyone - I stumbled across the solution, but I don't have any idea why it would be the key.

There’s a student in the course who is inactive (which we do mid-year, instead of deleting them, to preserve their grades & comments).  The course also has a late policy in place giving all students a 0 for Missing Submissions.  When the inactive student gets that automatic a 0 for an assignment, the SpeedGrader doesn’t show the section filter menu.  When we erase the 0 grades for that student, the SpeedGrader section filter showed back up.

So our immediate problem is solved, but no idea why this would be the case.  Thanks to everyone for your help!

[JeffCampbell]

Glad to hear you discovered a solution. I would definitely report that to Canvas Techs through the ticket system. That sounds like one of those less common scenarios that they may have overlooked (it happens). It will allow them to do some testing to work out a fix.

[geores]

I did put in a ticket, and then I sent them the solution just before I posted it here.  There isn't obvious logic to why that scenario generates that particular problem, so hopefully, as you said, they'll work on a fix.  Thanks for your support!  🙂

[geores · Accepted solution]

Sorry to add to an already solved post, but Instructure Support just sent the real solution.  It's less complicated than what I posted earlier, because evidently I didn't notice that the "inactive students" view was on the whole time I was testing this earlier.  🙄  Anyway, as long as you don't mix viewing inactive students with your normal, active students, you won't get this particular error.

They also let me know that this inactive vs. active setting will not cause the issue at all in the "Modernized Speedgrader," due to roll out in the near future.

[JeffCampbell]

Good to know information. Marking both as solutions because they both add to a better understanding of how the system works. And as we all know: