Feedback on Gradebook enhanced filters

[John_Gaspar]

My team and I started using the new filters a few weeks and while the additional options for filtering may be useful we found some significant usability problems and I lost a useful management tool.

Some background.

• My team is working with a larger course/subject. We have over 600 students in 16 tutorials. Students work on a project in groups of 3 or 4 so we also have about 150 groups (8 to 10 per tutorial).
• The teaching team comprises a coordinator, a head tutor (me), and 10 tutors. Most tutors teach a single tutorial but some have two.
• The subject has almost 40 sections as there are 2 sections per tutorial (as duration changes over the semester) plus lectures and workshops.

Setting up a filter for one or two tutorials is OK but more than that (and we do need more than that) is time consuming and difficult to use with too many clicks and scrolls needed to move from one selection to another. This is a problem for me because the old filters were a very useful tool to review, manage and help tutors and groups, but the enhanced tool makes it impossible.

I'm hoping that at least some of the old functionality will be returned for us to use, or that the UX is redesigned so it's easier to use.

[jsailor]

Thanks for sharing your feedback and explaining the way in which your courses are structured. This is always helpful! I do believe that you will be pleased with some of the changes that are coming to the design based on the continued work that our team is doing and also the feedback that we have received. This is so exciting for our team as this is exactly what feature previews are for - to get feedback so that we can iterate on the feature before it is released to all, so thank you again for taking time to share your thoughts!

[sage_arnote]

I do agree that the loss of the larger "Section" filter is quite problematic and hated by a majority of my staff.  I did create a tutorial if it's helpful to others but would prefer it revert to the old ways 🙂 

April 2022 Canvas Gradebook Updates--Sort by Section

[jsailor]

Hi, @sage_arnote,

The section filter definitely is not gone, but we can see what you are referencing, specifically referring to the saved filters. That said, I love that you are supporting your staff with video tutorials. I do want to remind that this is still in active development and based on feedback we've received, we are updating the workflow. I believe you and your staff will be very happy with the new designs which we'll showcase here in this space very soon! 

[sage_arnote]

Thank you for the feedback.  I did not mean to come off as negative…the filter enhancement can be useful, but our staff just has wished the “Section” specific filter could exist on its own with a drop down like was present before.

[John_Gaspar]

@jsailor You wrote "The section filter definitely is not gone" - do you mean that you cans still filter by section, or that the section filter is still available? If the latter could you screenshot where I can access it because I have looked high and low but can't see it.

[sage_arnote]

You can still create and save a filter so that you can go to it and sort by section.  It requires that you set up the filters, then you will have to click the filter option and enable/disable whichever section you'd like to see.  It requires an extra click versus the way it used to be.  I demonstrate in the video I referenced above:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFu9Emv8pp8

[John_Gaspar]

@sage_arnote, the new filter system works OK for the average tutor, who needs to filter one or two sections. It is jut a few extra clicks and it's done (for the semester, anyway. It'll need to be recreated next semester).

My use case is very different. The old section filter just needed to be activated and once it was I could review each class (or section) by going down the list. My subject this semester has 600 students, 16 tutorials, and 150 groups, so I've lost an important management tool. For now (he says hopefully).

[John_Gaspar]

@jsailorhow is the development going? My uni is in peak marking at the moment and I'm getting a lot of complaints about enhanced filters. None of the issues I spoke about seem to have been fixed, not even ensuring that the list of section names is in presented in the drop-down list in alpha-numeric order.

The version I looked at a month ago included some really positive changes. Do you have a roll-out date for those?

[vrs07nl]

We too would like to see this option or at least the ability to reuse Section as many times as needed in a given filter set up

[garrett_william]

1. I feel like sections and grading periods should be automatic. I've never really filtered by module or assignment group, although I'm sure there are use cases where that is a nice feature. I like how this currently works and see its removal as a negative. Many of our course instructors are novice users and will hate the fact that they have to manually set something up that was once preloaded and easy to use.