Outcomes Script

[simmons1]

Greetings!

Does anyone know of a code that would allow for one more layer of granulation in learning outcomes? For example right now a learning outcome can go as far as 1.1, but a group of professors is asking for an even more specific outcome of 1.1.1. I hope this is making sense.

[garth · Accepted solution]

 @simmons1 ‌ you can manage nested outcomes using "Groups"

• How do I create outcome groups for a course? | Canvas Instructor Guide | Canvas Guides 

A "Group" is like a folder.

So you can create the top level folder named "My Outcomes 1"

Inside that folder create "My Outcomes 1.1"

And inside that a folder named "My Outcomes 1.1.1"...and so on.

Inside each folder create the outcomes specific to the version represented by the folder.

I am not aware of any limitation on the depth of the "Groups", as far as I know you can nest folders inside of folders as deep as you need.

This can be done in the Canvas UI, but you can script it, reference the API documentation here:

• Outcome Groups - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation 

I hope that helps.

[simmons1]

Thank you so much  @garth  We have faculty that want to want to pull learning outcomes into their assignment rubrics, which requires exactly the granularity your shared in your explanation. By embedding an outcome group inside another outcome group to create the 1.1.1 structure has solved my problem, so I won't need to go down the scripting path (thank goodness).

On a separate pedagogical/user experience geek-out note:

A debate that has arisen from these faculty members that the outcomes structure in Canvas is not very user friendly. They keep saying, "If only we could map rubric criterion back to the outcomes, then we wouldn't need to create such unnecessarily detailed outcomes purely to fit our assignment rubrics." 

Has anyone else in this vast Canvas Community wished that rubric criteria could map back to outcomes? 

[James]

 @simmons1  

Has anyone else in this vast Canvas Community wished that rubric criteria could map back to outcomes? 

Yes, people wish for all kinds of things rubric and outcome related.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this. You can link outcomes to items in a rubric. Getting the information out in a usable manner is a different beast.

What I did last summer was to name all of my outcomes using a common 1.1, 1.2, ... 3.7, ... 9.2 type notation. Then I linked the rubrics to those outcomes for assignments. I wrote a script that would go through and gather all the rubrics for the students, parse out the outcome based on the first part of the title, and then put it into an Excel spreadsheet along with the student's name and other information. I was then able to do a Pivot Table in Excel to see the breakdown.

Like I said, I'm not sure if that's what you're talking about, but know that there are many people who would like to see outcomes reworked.