Missing Label Placed Incorrectly/Submission on paper and online option

[shantel_black]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

When the Missing Label was created it caused a lot of issues for me because I was teaching a distance education class and so I had many of my students submit assignments online but several that were at the same location as I was submitted them in class (paper copy). On canvas I could only select one(online) or the other(paper copy) not both, so all the students that had turned in all their assignments in class and not submitted them online had all their assignments show up as missing, even though I had entered a grade for them.

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through Canvas Production Release Notes (2017-10-07) 

[thompsli]

Here is a related Idea: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/9511-allow-missing-label-to-be-enableddisabled-by-choice?sr=se...‌. That seems like a good way to cover many of the issues discussed here.

[laurakgibbs]

Thanks to everybody sharing their concerns. For my way of grading, these labels are a disaster. I have written in detail about my problems with this totally inappropriate and unwelcome intrusion into my Gradebook here:

Gradebook Dismay: The Thoughtless Tyranny of Red Ink 

[rlbrown21]

"Yes, this is in fact functioning as designed, so a feature idea is the correct channel."

Seems to me that the design has a flaw.  This should really be pulled out, or become a feature faculty can CHOOSE to enable or not.  This is starting to create a lot of stress and panic in students at our school as well.  

[rlbrown21]

I really think this should be optional.

[rhhelms]

I agree!  I'd love to have a paper and online option - sometimes I allow my students to choose which they'd prefer. 

[dbrooks1]

I've had so many student complaints about the "missing" label that I've set Canvas to on paper only and told the other students to send to me through email.  I need to the option to have both paper and online submissions.

[laurakgibbs]

I have prepared a general feature idea to put the Missing label feature back into Beta for now; this Idea page also has all the 5 feature requests related to the Missing label that you can read and vote on.

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/9693-roll-missing-label-in-gradebook-back-to-beta 

If you know of feature requests besides those five, let me know! Thank you! 🙂

[Renee_Carney]

This idea has been developed and is On Canvas Beta How do I access the Canvas beta environment?

For more information, please read through the Canvas Beta Release Notes (2017-09-25) .

[kimberly_smith1]

So VERY glad to see that the red 'missing' label in the Gradebook appears to be going away. Though I don't allow students to submit a particular assignment online OR on paper, I do use both types. I also allow students to choose which assignments to complete within an assignment (e.g. Group #1, 3/5 - ignore lowest 2; Group #1, 4/5 - ignore lowest 1) - so 'missing' often really just means "not choosing this one". I agree with what others have said in terms of the lack of pedagogical soundness of the 'punitive' type labeling, but also say that if the goal of placing that label is to encourage students to NOT miss assignments (psychologically speaking = positive punishment),... 1) this is diluted when the label is not accurate and, 2) positive reinforcement is better (make we could replace the missing label with stars or something for on-time, high scores, etc.).  Thank you again for preparing to eliminate those awful (and often inaccurate) red labels for my students!

[laurakgibbs]

And thank you for sharing your practices here,  @kimberly_smith1 ! I hope that somehow all these reflections will be taken into account by the Canvas engineers going forward. When it comes to communication about grades, it is really important to accommodate different philosophies and practices. And I totally agree with you about the need for positive, not negative, reinforcement: that's why I do the type of grading that I do — nothing punitive. I have my notes here about how to stop punitive grading (and red labels are definitely not part of that strategy ha ha). 

Anatomy of an Online Course: Grading: An Omnibus 

🙂