Feedback Discussion • Differentiation Tags Bugs

[SamGarza1]

As you test and explore Differentiation Tags, please use this space to note any bugs/features that aren't working as intended you encounter.  If you can share screencasts or links to the behavior, that may be helpful.  

[James_Kocher_UF]

Hello! Already shared this with my CSM but curious if others are experiencing this. 

• it was turned ON for the whole institution when it got enabled. We were told it wouldn't be
• I enabled it in one of my courses. I can see tags now in ALL my courses, not just the one it was enabled in. I can also see tags when masking as a teacher in a course I'm not in.
• In the course I've created tags in, they don't come up in the Assign To box, even when I type in the name.

Also, unrelated. I see the auto-saved content message on this forum. Anything like that coming to discussion? 😄

[SamGarza1]

Hi @James_Kocher_UF,

We’ve resolved the issue of it incorrectly showing in all courses and updated the enablement instructions. You can find the updated instructions here. If anything still feels off, definitely let us know—we appreciate you helping us catch this early!

For the Assign To issue, with our feature flag update could you check to see if it's on for the sub-account that you're testing in? If it is and you're still not seeing Tags in the Assign To list please send me a link to the course and I'd be happy to take a look. 

[James_Kocher_UF]

Hi @SamGarza1 !

So the course was at the root account. I had it disabled but unlocked, but it was on in the course. They weren't showing. I moved the course to a smaller subaccount and turned it on at that level. I see it in my course now, but I also see it on in other courses in the subaccount that I'm not even a teacher in.

Also not seeing it in Assign to yet. Here's the course: https://ufl.instructure.com/courses/507392

Will this be the behavior once it goes fully live? That it has to be on at the subaccount level for it to work at the course level?

[SamGarza1]

Hi @James_Kocher_UF 

Apologies for any confusion in getting this enabled; the Differentiation Tags feature flag is incorrectly at the course level when it should be at the account level. This is because the account setting won't show until the feature flag is on in the same account. 

I did take a look at your course and the account setting is off in the sub-account your course is in.  

When we look at releasing this feature our plan is to deprecate the feature flags and have the long term control of Tags be based on the account setting. Which when on will show Tags in all of the courses in the account it's been enabled in. The account setting still gives admins control and flexibility while reducing complexity on the development side.

[James_Kocher_UF]

The course that this is in is https://ufl.instructure.com/accounts/12211/settings#tab-features, and it's enabled. The Subaccount above it isn't, though.

What is causing tags not showing up in Assign To?

[SamGarza1]

The account setting needs to be enabled in the sub-account the course is in to work.

[James_Kocher_UF]

Ok, that worked. Just curious, why is this a two-step process? Are there other intended uses for tags that don't necessitate this additional setting to be enabled?

[SamGarza1]

This is just while it's in development. Long term the feature flag will go away and it will just be the account setting. 

[chriscas]

Hi @SamGarza1,

When I'm testing this, I'm getting a n error when trying to add a tag to some users.  Is this perhaps because the users are admins (but in this test course as students)?

-Chris

[audra_agnelly]

@chriscas I just tested this with a root admin enrolled in the course as a student. I did not receive any error.

[SamGarza1]

Hey @chriscas, 

That shouldn't be the case since we just look at the role in the course. If possible, could you send me the course link and the user you were trying to add? This will let us get a developer to investigate. 

[chriscas]

Hi @SamGarza1,

The course is: Course Roster: Testing - Canvas (campus-wide).  I was trying to add Scott Alexander and Christopher (personal) Casey to a tag.

-Chris

[SamGarza1]

Thanks for sharing! The issue seems specific to Scott Alexander, so I've ticketed this and a developer will look into it. 

[StuartAnderson]

Hi Sam,

University of Manchester here (the UK one, not the US one!).
I am also having a problem seeing Tags within the Assign to dropdown.  I've done all the checks...

1. Enabled the feature flag in my test area subaccount.
2. Checked the feature cascades to other subaccounts in this testing area subaccount.
3. Checked the feature is enabled within my test course.
4. Setup 3 test groups of Tagged students in the People area.
5. Checked the Assign to dropdown for Pages and Assignments.

I still do not see the Tagged options in the Assign to dropdown.

Testing course:

https://uom.instructure.com/courses/568

Is there anything else I should be checking or trying?

Thanks!

[SamGarza1]

Hi @StuartAnderson,

It looks like the account setting is still off. You can turn it on here under the features section https://uom.instructure.com/accounts/568/settings#tab-settings. 

We are working to simplify this process so in the future everything will be managed by the above account setting. 

[StuartAnderson]

Thanks @SamGarza1 . I have got it working now, but I do think there is some kind of bug causing confusion.  For example, right now I have this setup:

ROOT
¦---- (Subaccount 0) Testing Zone (https://uom.instructure.com/accounts/103/settings#tab-settings)
            ¦
            ¦---- (Subaccount 1) Testing - eLearning (https://uom.instructure.com/accounts/110/settings#tab-settings)
            ¦                ¦---- (Course 1) SA Sandbox (https://uom.instructure.com/courses/46142/settings#tab-details) 
            ¦
            ¦---- (Subaccount 2) Testing - ITS (https://uom.instructure.com/accounts/567/settings#tab-features)
            ¦                ¦---- (Course 2) FEAT_Test_Area_01 (https://uom.instructure.com/courses/568/settings#tab-details)

In account (0) I have:

• Settings->Feature option->Course-> Differentiation Tags ENABLED.
• Settings->Features->Differentiation Tags NOT ENABLED and NOT LOCKED

In account (1) I have:

• Settings->Feature option->Course-> Differentiation Tags ENABLED.
• Settings->Features->Differentiation Tags NOT ENABLED and NOT LOCKED

In account (2) I have:

• Settings->Feature option->Course-> Differentiation Tags ENABLED.
• Settings->Features->Differentiation Tags ENABLED and LOCKED

Course 1 correctly offers up the Tag Manager in the People area as the Feature option is enabled.  It also offers up the Tagged cohorts to Assign to despite Features->Differentiation Tags not being enabled in account 1.

Course 2 I had some trouble with. Course 2 correctly offers up the Tag Manager in the People area as the Feature option is enabled. But it only offered up he Tagged cohorts to Assign to once I had both ENABLED and LOCKED  the Settings->Features options in account 2. I think I needed to apply LOCK to force the setting to cascade through to courses.

For me it is therefore inconsistent what needs to be applied to make this feature work correctly with both Manage Tag options and seeing created Tags within the Assign to UI.

The above settings are still in place, but might change by tomorrow if you did wish to sanity check my setup.

[SamGarza1]

Hi @StuartAnderson, 

Thank you for the detail! Yes this is the known misconfiguration that we're working to resolve and I apologize about the confusion it's causing. During early development we had multiple feature flags that we used so Tag creation and Assign To Tags could be worked on in parallel. We're working to merge the flags and have one flag for admins to enable at the account/sub account level. Our goal is to have the feature managed only be the account setting, which can also be locked and cascade down, but the feature flag will remain until after a feature preview is completed. 

This update is currently on beta and I'll share more about this change will be in this week's update. In addition to updating the flag and setting we're working on documentation for enabling this. 

[sharon_kitching]

@StuartAnderson  - did you tick the checkbox on the settings page & the LOCK option? This has to be done as well as the Feature Option. 

[LiamNeedham]

See this has been mentioned above but firing up a different thread. I'm also having an issue when trying to assign tags to users from my course's People page.

This is at The University of Manchester in the following Sandbox course: https://canvas.manchester.ac.uk/courses/397/

Please can this be looked into? Thanks!

[sharon_kitching]

Got the same error today on BETA. We only turned it on today. Works in some courses, not others.

[tle1]

We're still having issues getting the tags activated in a sub-subaccount.

https://umich.instructure.com/accounts/1627

The main campus instance isn't going to do the testing, we're only going to do the opt-in adopter portion at Ross (business school) and initially I'd like it only turned on for a sub-account inside the ross subaccount (56)

Our campus level admin hasn't been able to locate the feature to turn it on.

Are you able to look into it and see which settings may need to be enabled so we can start testing the feature?

Thanks!

[lwisfranco]

Hello, I have the same error doFetchApi to add tags in my  course: 

In my course i have sections enrollments, in my case I delete the secction enrollment and with this adjust I solve the error.

For this case, Differentation tags not compatibility with sections?

[JarrodHiles]

@lwisfranco I was also getting this error on some test students in a test course. I think you're correct. 

Students in multiple sections are unable to be added to a tag.

I removed all but one section enrolment for a student and was then able to tag them. 

[tle1]

I can also confirm I saw the same thing today. Multiple sections spit back errors trying to tag them.

[LiamNeedham]

Good spot - same happening here

[SamGarza1]

Hi @lwisfranco, this is a known bug that my team is working to resolve. We hope to have the fix out in the next couple of weeks. 

[IvanZheng]

Hi @SamGarza1 , just following up on this issue—has it been resolved? We had the same issue when we tested.

[SamGarza1]

Hi @IvanZheng this was resolved in the 7/30 deploy. Please let me know if you're still experiencing this issue. 

[tle1]

I was trying to test to see what would happen if you had a tag used as an assign-to filter on an assignment, then deleted it and restored it (after creating a new tag with the same name)

Unfortunately it failed to restore from the /undelete.

Even when there was no tag with the same name it would not restore.

Is there anywhere in the non-api where we can identify a tag by it's internal tag number, like a group or assignment number besides putting in the trashcan and seeing the number there?

https://umich.instructure.com/courses/767262/undelete/group_category_61654  -- the undelete restore button -- I suppose we could do that on the beta site

Not a big fan of the ability to name a tag group the same as a currently existing one (one that is not deleted). This also applies to groupsets and group names incidentally.

[JarrodHiles]

and it does seem a little too easy to delete a tag unintentionally by editing an existing tag and changing from 'multiple tags' to 'single tag'. After saving, they're gone for good. 

(Also noticed a bug in that after changing from 'multiple tags' to 'single tag' and saving. Returning to edit the tag has the 'multiple tags' radio button selected). 

[SamGarza1]

Hi @tle1 , Thank you for leaving feedback. Tags will be part of the existing Groups table in Canvas Data so that could be one way to access the id. I'm going to create a ticket with my team to look further into the undelete process to ensure it's working. 

[LiamNeedham]

We're having an issue launching Speedgrader via tag. Launch SpeedGrader Filtered by Student Group is turned on in course settings, and seemingly we are able to do this from the assignment page (i.e. we can select our tags to launch in Speedgrader), but it throws up an error message upon clicking to launch Speedgrader that we can't get to to the bottom of:


Anyone able to replicate or spot something obvious we might be missing?

[SamGarza1]

Hi @LiamNeedham I wasn't able to reproduce this exact issue when launching speedgrader from an assignment only assigned to a Tag. The Tag wasn't found however and I was defaulted to another Group. Do you see the same error if you filter the traditional gradebook and launch speedgrader from there?

We'll document this and start investigating what's occurring. 

[LiamNeedham]

Hi Sam, here's a demonstration of the issue. The same is occuring when trying to launch speedgrader from the Gradebook. For context:

- This is happening regardless of which tag is selected

- Each tag/student has made a submission to the assignment

[SamGarza1]

@LiamNeedham Thank you for the video! Let me investigate and I'll get a ticket created for my team if this turns out to be a bug or something we missed. 

[SamGarza1]

@LiamNeedham Just wanted to follow up on this. We were not able to reproduce the issue and I believe the issue you're experiencing is due to how the users have be added to the course. 

[DanJagger]

Hi @SamGarza1 

I work with @LiamNeedham and @GarethLogan ... we've managed to get the Diff Tags working on our Beta Environment now. The issue wasn't to do with how the users were added to the course but that we had enabled the Moderated Marking feature in the Assignment. Once we had removed that they worked. 

We're hoping to use the Diff Tags in Sept/Oct on our Live environment to allocate submissions to marking but it is frustrating that we can't incorporate moderated marking into that flow to mimic the Double Marking that is required in UKHE.

Bit of a one step forward one step back! But at least we've figured out why they weren't working.

[SamGarza1]

Hi @DanJagger Thank you for following up on this. With the moderated grader aspect I was able to do some more testing and in my instance at least I was able to use moderators or launch speedgrader filtered by group when an assignment was assigned to a Tag. Trying to use both resulted in speedgrader not loading/having errors. I've created a ticket for our team to investigate why it's breaking and we'll work on a fix for this. 
And please let me know if you're testing Tags in a course with only moderated grading on and it's still not working. 

[DanJagger]

@SamGarza1 ... We're trying to find solutions to our large scale assessment workflows - 100s students, 50+ Markers allocated specific students, double blind marking etc...

The moderation features don't really fit within our model (I know they aren't designed exactly for that purpose). Certainly seems Moderated marking and Diff Tags can't be used together so we'll have to find an alternative workaround. Please let us know if there's any change to that though