[SpeedGrader] Change functionality of Eye Icon in SpeedGrader

Faculty expect the Eye Icon in SpeedGrader to work the same as the old Mute/Unmute feature, but it does not.

 

We recently discovered that if an assignment has the Automatic Post Policy applied and you hide grades, it is only hiding the grades that exist at the time you click Hide Grades. Grades you enter after hiding grades are still ‘honoring’ the Automatic Post policy applied and are visible to those students. We had been working under the assumption that clicking Hide Grades on an assignment with an Automatic Post Policy would hide all (current and future) grades, until grades are posted.

 

We would like to propose that the Eye Icon in SpeedGrader be changed so that it toggles between the following two states:

  • State 1: The assignment Post Policy is set to Automatic and all grades are Posted (same state as the old 'Unmute' function)
  • State 2: The assignment Post Policy is set to Manual and all grades are Hidden (same state as the old 'Mute' function)

 

Fancy differential Post/Hide functionality would/could be achieved in Grades.

 

This feature request is a companion request to https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/15168-identify-hidden-grades-in-grades-and-speedgrader 

Added to Theme

Improve Gradebook settings options Theme Status: Identified

27 Comments
Steven_S
Community Champion

I agree that having the eye icon in the speedgrader function like the old mute button would be more intuitive than what we have currently.  I would also like to see a more intuitive "fancy differential Post/Hide functionality" in grades, and I had an idea that could improve both functions:  https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/15498-co-locate-controls-to-hidepost-existing-grades-and-manua... 

venitk
Community Champion

I think this would achieve the intuitive use that instructors expect in SpeedGrader. This is also how most people would use the GPP and hide/post: either all grades (past and future) are invisible, or they're all visible. A tool tip would explain where the "fancy differential" could be achieved in grades.

A downside would be if this encourages instructors to think that Hide in Grades leads to all future grades being hidden. In other words, would they interpret what they do in SG to translate to behavior in Grades? Hide in Grades only hides past assignments, whereas Hide in SG would hide all past and future assignments.

venitk
Community Champion

Honestly, what I would really love is for SG and Grades to have a clickable eye or three-dot dropdown or what have you that does what you describe (Hide all past and future, or post all past and future) AND have a More Options option that would give people who need that fine tuning ability to differentiate between past and future grades... actually... I might make that an idea...

venitk
Community Champion
aclem
Community Novice

This relates to something I am asking for also...

I'd like to be able to click on the eye icon and set Speed Grader to hide the grades I am going to enter before I enter any of those grades.

 

Configure  hiding (muting) grades in Speed Grader so one can activate hiding before entering any grades. In the current setup one has to enter grades before hiding them in Speed Grader. In the past one used to be able to mute them proactively. Now if one clicks on the eye icon before entering grades, one gets told there are no grades to hide. To hide grades proactively one must go into the grade book and set up the release protocol--an unnecessary extra step. Why not leave it so it can be done in Speed Grader?

man20
Community Explorer

We need to be able to mute individual assignments and all the grades and comments need to actually STAY MUTED!!  The new feature is deceiving and pointless and is causing me a lot of issues.  I need grades for "worksheets" to be automatically posted but, for papers and quizzes I need to manually release those grades.  The all or nothing feature is absolutely terrible.  

Chris_Hofer
Community Coach
Community Coach

Hello  @man20 ...

I'm not sure I understand.  It is true that with Grade Posting Policies, you can set an overall posting policy following the information in this Guide: How do I select a grade posting policy for a course in the Gradebook? (where you can either select to "Automatically Post Grades" or "Manually Post Grades" for everything).  But, if you leave this setting to automatically post grades, you can still configure individual assignments to manual post grades: How do I select a grade posting policy for an assignment in the Gradebook?.  So, in your scenario, let's say you had 10 worksheet assignments and the rest of your assignments were papers and quizzes.  You would use the first Guide I linked for you to keep this at "Automatically Post Grades".  Then, for each of your papers and quizzes, using the second link I provided, you would choose the "Manually" option.  I believe this should eliminate "all or nothing" for you.  Hope this helps.

man20
Community Explorer

Hi,

Thank you for your feedback, I appreciate it. Maybe you can help me understand the new function of the “eye”

Icon. Today I had to grade their essays in a “worksheet” they completed (which are created under the quiz tab). I wanted to “mute” all my comments and grades until I was done grading the last essay. So after I graded the first one (because you can’t chose hide or post until at least 1 is graded), I selected hide grades and it said hiding grades was successful at the top. I went through all 26, double checked my work, clicked the “eye” icon to post grades and the only option I had was to hide them, indicating that they were never hidden at all. This has happened to be before and I was told it was because they were set to automatically post (which I need to have because they have multiple attempts). So how do I mute grades in this scenario and have them actually stay muted? Is this a weird glitch that keeps happening to me or is there a way to fix this?

Thank you

Melisa

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erinhmcmillan
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

Hey, Melissa,

You can change your automatic post policy assignment to be a manual post policy at any time, but the manual post policy only applies to new grading moving forward. So I'd recommend setting these assignments to manual post policy, do your grading, then post grades so they're visible to students. 

Hiding grades only works for grades that are already visible—and most often as part of automatic post policy assignments—as you figured out. 

You may also find the PDF included in https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-17986-student-grade-visibility-flowchart  to be helpful as well as a reference.

Hope that helps!

Erin

milesab
Community Explorer

I may be missing something but it looks like it is impossible to tell if an assignment is set to a manual or automatic grade posting policy from the speed grader until grades are entered.  This is concerning for faculty since they cannot be certain if the assignment they are working on in the speedgrader is hidden or not until they start posting grades.  Indicating what grade posting policy an assignment is set to before grades are posted would be ideal.