Import Grades from CSV should ignore read-only columns

[matthew_weather]

  This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

  Idea will be open for vote May 5th - August 5th, 2015  Learn more about voting...

The Gradebook import feature should ignore any column that is marked as "(read only)" in the "Points Possible" second row of the CSV file.

That would allow teachers to do this:

1. Export exiting gradebook
2. Change some grades
3. Upload that same file back

And in fact, that's what is suggested in the documentation: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-2850

However, as of sometime in Spring 2015, we currently have to individually ignore each of those summary columns at the end of the CSV file (the assignment group summaries, the Current/Final score, and the Current/Final grade) by marking them them as "Bogus, ignore" or remember to delete them out of the CSV before upload.

  Response from Instructure

This is a Top Issue and has been resolved in the Canvas Production Release Notes (2015-07-18)

Gradebook CSV Uploads and Grading Scheme

Read-only columns as part of a Gradebook comma separated values (CSV) file are not considered new assignments.

Explanation: When a grading scheme was enabled and the Gradebook exported for a course, the Gradebook created extra read-only columns. When the Gradebook CSV file was imported with no changes, Canvas considered the extra columns to be new assignments. This behavior occurred because the importer was not checking the status of the columns and did not see that they hadn’t changed. Canvas code has been updated to disregard any columns or assignments that do not include any changes from the original file. This read-only column change also applies to assignments that do not include a grading scheme.

[matthew_weather]

Here's what it looks like:

[Ron_Bowman]

 @matthew_weather ​ I agree it would be nice for that to be automatically removed.  Since I am paranoid, I usually delete all columns except for the one I am importing so it does not affect me too much.   However, I can definitely see the benefits of not having to deal with it.  I am spoiled by ANGEL since all I needed was a column heading the same as the one in ANGEL (no item number necessary) and any extraneous students were excluded on the import. 

Ron

[matthew_weather]

This is the way it used to work - an upload used to automatically ignore those summary columns. But it changed in March or April 2015.

[curtain]

this is a real problem with documented functionality and I am bummed that we have to vote to get this 'fixed'.  It seems like this is a straight-up bug.

[tfreeman]

This is a bug that originated in February, 2015 and I created a ZenDesk ticket in the Canvas Support Center

https://help.instructure.com/tickets/1467398

and continued to merge the subsequent teachers' tickets into one as they reported it here until 19 were on one ticket.  This is still not fixed and should have just simply been repaired soon after it was broke and they knew about it.  The Assignment Group columns are not supposed to be separated into two (current score and final score) columns and these are the columns that choke and brake the re-import of the updated .csv gradebook fiile. There are dozens of instructors here at MTU who are very angry about this and many of whom have said they just can't or won't use Canvas for grading until it is finally fixed.  i am definitely not happy either.

[curtain]

If you have access to Canvas Labs, here is the link to it as a Top Issue bug

Top Issues: Gradebook .csv uploads do not disregard read-only columns when a grading scheme is enabl...

[tfreeman]

Thanks Scott

[Renee_Carney]

This is a Top Issue​ and has been resolved in the Canvas Production Release Notes (2015-07-18)

Gradebook CSV Uploads and Grading Scheme

Read-only columns as part of a Gradebook comma separated values (CSV) file are not considered new assignments.

Explanation: When a grading scheme was enabled and the Gradebook exported for a course, the Gradebook created extra read-only columns. When the Gradebook CSV file was imported with no changes, Canvas considered the extra columns to be new assignments. This behavior occurred because the importer was not checking the status of the columns and did not see that they hadn’t changed. Canvas code has been updated to disregard any columns or assignments that do not include any changes from the original file. This read-only column change also applies to assignments that do not include a grading scheme.