Students viewing Discussion Comments without Grades link

[JRyanPalmer]

Our district has told teachers to hide the Grades page from students since we're not using the Canvas gradebook as our "gradebook of record." Because of this, I'm struggling to figure out how students can view my feedback to them on a Discussion.

I open the discussions in SpeedGrader and am able to write comments to the students (not a reply - comments are only visible to students and teacher, replies are visible to everyone in the discussion), but I don't know how the students can view my comments. 

All the instructions I've found on Canvas support direct students to go to the Grades page to be able to view teacher comments, but this isn't an option for our students. They can see their score for the discussion by going to the Assignments page, but it doesn't appear to show them my comments.

I'm hoping there's another way for students to view my comments, since the Grades page isn't an option. 

[ryan_corris · Accepted solution]

Hey @JRyanPalmer!

When we first started using Canvas, it was suggested that our teachers hide Grades from the Navigation menu for the same reason.  Here are two possible options that might help you that our teachers used.  While they are not perfect, they did work.

One option is to periodically enable the link for Grades in the Navigation menu and then disable it again.  Sometimes teachers would have some time during class where they would have the students review the discussion posts and the teacher's comments. (This could really be used for any assignment.)  When that part of the class was over for the day, the teacher would again disable the Grades link from the Navigation menu.  While this may take a few extra seconds for the teacher, it also makes sure that students see the submission comments that students may not even view on their own anyway.

A second option is to have all of your grades posted in Canvas whether they are Canvas specific assignment or assignments outside of Canvas.  Under submission type the options for No Submission and On Paper could be used for assignments or assessments outside of Canvas.  If you have to manually enter these other grades in your student information system anyway, enter them manually in Canvas and let Canvas push them to the SIS.  Since all of your grades in Canvas should be the same as all of your grades in the SIS, it should be possible to enable the Grades link in the Navigation menu.

If either or both of the suggestions help your situation, I would love to hear about it.  If these ideas don't work for your situation, no worries.  Just thought I would share.

[dbrace]

Hello @JRyanPalmer,

I can confirm (after speaking with Canvas Support on the phone) that it is not possible for students to view (private) comments that teachers have left on discussions when using SpeedGrader.

-Doug

[ryan_corris · Accepted solution]

Hey @JRyanPalmer!

When we first started using Canvas, it was suggested that our teachers hide Grades from the Navigation menu for the same reason.  Here are two possible options that might help you that our teachers used.  While they are not perfect, they did work.

One option is to periodically enable the link for Grades in the Navigation menu and then disable it again.  Sometimes teachers would have some time during class where they would have the students review the discussion posts and the teacher's comments. (This could really be used for any assignment.)  When that part of the class was over for the day, the teacher would again disable the Grades link from the Navigation menu.  While this may take a few extra seconds for the teacher, it also makes sure that students see the submission comments that students may not even view on their own anyway.

A second option is to have all of your grades posted in Canvas whether they are Canvas specific assignment or assignments outside of Canvas.  Under submission type the options for No Submission and On Paper could be used for assignments or assessments outside of Canvas.  If you have to manually enter these other grades in your student information system anyway, enter them manually in Canvas and let Canvas push them to the SIS.  Since all of your grades in Canvas should be the same as all of your grades in the SIS, it should be possible to enable the Grades link in the Navigation menu.

If either or both of the suggestions help your situation, I would love to hear about it.  If these ideas don't work for your situation, no worries.  Just thought I would share.

[JRyanPalmer]

Thanks for the ideas @ryan_corris. I think your first option might work. While I understand the second one, I think it would prove to be more complicated, especially system-wide, since many teachers aren't using the Canvas gradebook at all. One of the other issues is that what shows up in Canvas for the grades isn't always something that should be included in the students' actual grades. 

For example, I'm using the discussions for my daily warm-up activities, however I don't input those grades daily. I put in one score based on their percentage for the month. This works well with Canvas as I've been able to enter only one assignment for the month's warm-ups into our approved gradebook. If the Canvas gradebook was visible, it would show each of the warm ups as individual assignments and calculate a grade based on then individually. While I'm sure there are ways I could finagle it to work, it'd be a lot of tweaking and extra time.

Again, thank you for your suggestions, I really appreciate your insight!

[ryan_corris]

Definitely sounds like the first option would be much easier in your situation @JRyanPalmer.  Best of luck with exploring and finding your best workflow!

[JRyanPalmer · Accepted solution]

UPDATE - A student showed me that there IS a way to view teacher comments on a Discussion, even with the Grades link hidden. On the course Home Page, right under the To Do list on the right, is a section that shows comments/feedback from teachers. Anytime a student as a comment/feedback from a teacher, it will show up there. Student can click that, which will open the discussion post, along with the teacher's feedback! 

I couldn't replicate this using the "student view" and the Test Student account, so I can't get a screen shot myself, but a student did show me on his account. So there is a way!  🙂