Let’s Talk About Deleting Differentiation Tags

[SamGarza1]

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As we continue developing Differentiation Tags, we’re taking a closer look at how deletion should work—and we’d love your input.

This is one of those areas where expectations may vary widely depending on how you're using the feature. Our goal is to better understand your baseline expectations so we can design an experience that feels intuitive and minimizes surprises.

What We Want to Know

We're not looking for a vote between predetermined options—we're trying to understand what you'd naturally expect the system to do.

So tell us:
What would you expect to happen when you delete a Differentiation Tag that has active coursework that students have been assigned to with that tag?

Please let us know in the comments what you would expect. We’re listening, and your feedback will directly influence how this behavior evolves.

Thanks for helping us get this right.

[ProfessorBeyrer]

I hope that deleting Differentiation Tags would not remove the connected coursework or availability settings for the things that had been differentially tagged. For example, if an assignment was tagged and the tag was deleted, hopefully the assignment availability would switch from "available to this tag" to "available to these users."

It would also be nice if the tag connections could be restored if a tag is brought back, like grade data are restored when users are re-enrolled in a class. I wonder if this would mean that tags could be archived instead of deleted.

[kikpe]

@ProfessorBeyrer  this is a great idea, on the Assign To screen it could have the name of the students that were in the deleted tag so it still shows their assignment attempts in the gradebook. I would expect that if a tag was deleted, it would preserve the assignment submitted but also be visible in SpeedGrader/gradebook. 

[rake_9]

I agree with the others, so far - this is exactly what I would expect "if an assignment was tagged and the tag was deleted, [...] the assignment availability would switch from "available to this tag" to "available to these users."

I'm less convinced about the usefulness of a tag being restored.  There's a lot to unpack there about what deleted might mean (so, is deleting a tag somehow like "concluded?" or like "inactive?" or like "removed? or something else, since those are enrollment statuses?)

I can absolutely see that people will delete a tag and then realized they hadn't meant to do that.  How an "undo" option might be conceptualized and deployed could be tricky.

[venitk]

@SamGarza1 If a tag was used to assign something and students have submitted to the assignment, I would expect to not be able to delete the tag. 

Or, If I could delete the tag, I would expect the individual names of the students to auto-populate in the assign to field. 

I would not expect the submitted student work to be deleted. 

[tobe_baeyens]

I think you should get a warning when trying to delete a tag that is in use.

Something like: "This tag cannot be deleted because it is currently being used to assign coursework."

In that warning, there should be an option to automatically convert the “Assign to” field from the tag to the individual users.

Once this change is confirmed, it should be irreversible. The tag cannot be restored afterward.

[audra_agnelly]

I really would not want to see anything happen to existing assignments if a differention tag is deleted. The assignment would need to remain assigned to the original group of students and not to any students outside the group. The teacher should have flexibility to then edit who the assignment is assigned to, whether that be removing students from the original group or adding additional students.

We are K12 so our courses run August-June. In April a teacher may not have a need for a differentiation group that they created in September, but Canvas can't make it easy for them to lose assignment scores and submissions from earlier in the year if a group is deleted. Many times, our teacher mistakenly think an action taken during a later grading period does not impact prior assignments (ex. they like to delete Assignment Groups, thinking that the action only applies to the current quarter).

I think perhaps an Archive state may be more appropriate than a deletion. In this state all past data is maintained, and the teacher has methods to see those original student lists, but the archived group does not come up for selection when assigning work.

Another scenario for the development team to consider:

1. Student A is assigned to a group
2. They complete multiple assignments assigned to their group
3. Student moves out of the school and their enrollment is deleted from the course
4. Student returns to the school and is added back to the class (status = Active)
5. In the interim, the group has been deleted.
6. What happens to their assignment scores? Typically a status change from deleted to active restores all their prior scores. I would expect the same to happen here, would it?

[SamGarza1]

Hi All,

Thanks to your feedback, we've finalized how deleting Differentiation Tags will work. Users will be able to delete a tag even if it’s been used with Assign To—those tag-based overrides will automatically convert to individual overrides. If an individual override already exists, it will be preserved, since it takes precedence and a new one will not be created. We've also documented your feedback around restoring tags and will continue evaluating that experience as adoption grows.

[audra_agnelly]

@SamGarza1 could you confirm the current expected behavior when deleting a tag? The popup says "Removing the tag from a student preserves past assignments in the gradebook and removes the student from any upcoming assignments where they have been assigned via tag." but when I remove a tag from a student, previously graded work is greyed out in the gradebook and unassigned. Language in the popup implies to me that the grade would be preserved, but from your post right above it sounds like that is future functionality still in development?

[tle1]

venitk

Community Champion

‎05-30-2025 09:35 AM

@SamGarza1 If a tag was used to assign something and students have submitted to the assignment, I would expect to not be able to delete the tag. 

Or, If I could delete the tag, I would expect the individual names of the students to auto-populate in the assign to field. 

I would not expect the submitted student work to be deleted. 

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This needs to also be implemented for group sets. I've had instances where instructors delete an attached groupset because they want to start over on the group creation. They give the new set the same name and wonder why the submissions aren't accepted as a group submission. 

[tle1]

@SamGarza1 If a tag was used to assign something and students have submitted to the assignment, I would expect to not be able to delete the tag. 

Or, If I could delete the tag, I would expect the individual names of the students to auto-populate in the assign to field. 

I would not expect the submitted student work to be deleted. 

---------------------

This needs to also be implemented for group sets. I've had instances where instructors delete an attached groupset because they want to start over on the group creation. They give the new set the same name and wonder why the submissions aren't accepted as a group submission. 

[tle1]

Also how does recovering tags work if you create tags to the limit (40?) and then need to undelete a tag?