Do not Allow Enabling of Rubrics in Course Navigation

[james_whalley]

I've noticed that Rubrics being enabled does not make the Rubrics page visible to students. Also, instructors do not gain functionality when it is enabled versus disabled. Allowing it to be enabled and not viewable to students is confusing, as the standard for the course menu is for items without the "hidden" icon to be visible to students.

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[James]

If Rubrics are disabled in the course navigation menu settings, then I am seeing the visibility icon (crossed-out eye) for Rubrics. That much is consistent with the documentation and the quick fix for faculty who are bothered by the lack of visibility icon can move Rubrics to the top of the disabled section and have relatively quick access to it with the assurance that students cannot see it.

The issue is only relevant if rubrics are enabled in the course navigation menu.

The current behavior is a contradiction of the documentation. That makes it a bug, not a feature. Whether a documentation error or a programming error is open for interpretation.

According to How do I manage Course Navigation links? from the Canvas Instructor Guide, there are at least three applicable statements.

• Links to sections that don't have any content and that students cannot create content for will be automatically hidden for students and will display the Visibility icon to instructors.
• Disabling the link creates Page disabled; redirected to Home page. ... Rubrics ...
• Any Course Navigation link that is hidden from students displays the Visibility icon [1]. A link may be hidden to students because the feature area has no content [2] or because the link is disabled [3]. 

The sentence immediately following the first one is funny, given where rubrics came from.

The second one is incorrect. Disabling the Rubrics navigation link and then trying to access it directly creates an Access Denied page, it does not redirect to the home page.

The first part of the third one is completely incorrect. Students cannot access rubrics. Other roles can access rubrics, but not students and the note specifically says students.

The second part of the third statement parses words. A link may be hidden. Should we read "may" as might be or just a verb and the emphasis is on the reasons? That is, is it saying these are two documented two cases where navigation links are marked as hidden? In this case, there is a reason other than the two that they provided -- the link is hidden to students despite being enabled in the course navigation and despite having content in it.

Perhaps the emphasis is on the word may? That is, we don't have to hide the link despite these conditions being true? It doesn't matter because the link is hidden to the students.

Rubrics were originally on the Outcomes page. They were moved to their own navigation. The way it current is, students will never be able to see the Rubrics page. In student view, whether rubrics are enabled or disabled in the navigation settings, students get an access denied page. 

The Outcomes page is available to the students when enabled through the course navigation.

While acknowledging that there is a problem, I completely disagree with the proposed solution. Faculty should be able to enable the rubrics. That way they can move it closer to the top if they use it a lot. Not allowing them to enable it would forever force it to the bottom.

You can make the behavior match the documentation (there are multiple ways to interpret that) or make the documentation match the behavior.

Making the behavior match the documentation is what I think most people would want. They want the visibility icon when students cannot see it. On the other hand, making the behavior match the documentation could also be accomplished by allowing students to see rubrics. This gains little to nothing the way rubrics are right now as the students have no idea where the rubric is used. Students could be looking at the wrong rubric and then try to argue that they followed the rubric (despite it being the wrong one). However, it would allow students to see the rubrics in one place and there are certain locations (discussions and quizzes) where the rubrics are not apparent to the students (or faculty).

Making the documentation match the behavior complicates the instructions. Why is this one thing different than the others? It throws Rubrics into the same category as Settings, which doesn't have a visibility icon either but doesn't seem to bother people. The difference is that settings are forced to the bottom and cannot be disabled. But Settings isn't on the course navigation page. What else on the course navigation page acts like Rubrics? Do you create a carve out in the documentation for just one thing?

[james_whalley]

Fair enough. I guess the best thing might be for there to be an enabled status that contains the visibility icon. That way, Rubrics, Item Banks, and New Analytics could all be enabled (allowing you to put it wherever you want in the instructor's Course Navigation menu), but keeping it hidden from students (with the visibility icon there to clarify the fact. I would also include Attendance in that list, even though it is technically an LTI, since it does not show to students when activated.

[Renee_Carney]

Thanks James & @james_whalley 

I wanted to add that this functionality was also per a Community request.  You can find it at https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Idea-Conversations/quot-Rubrics-quot-as-a-menu-option-in-Course-N... 

@james_whalley  Would you like to edit this idea to better reflect the problem you are trying to solve for, or would you like this one to be archived and start fresh?

[james_whalley]

@Renee_Carney I'll start a fresh one. As for the idea you linked above, I didn't post on that because it was marked as developed and because it includes a request for students to be able to see Rubrics.

[Renee_Carney]

Thanks @james_whalley 

I shared the past idea with you just so that you were aware that some of the current functionality was because other users had requested a solution for issues they were running into.  I'm glad you had seen it.  We look forward to the new submission.