More descriptive statistics (at least, median and mean) for every column in "Grades" (gradebook)

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

One can see the mean for individual assignments in "Grades" (gradebook) but the median is not provided. Would like to see that as it is a crucial measure of central tendency in performance. For columns in the gradebook, that are an average of category assignments and an average for the course ("Total"), no descriptive statistics are provided at all. I would, at the very least, want mean and median provided, but, like for individual assignments, I'd like a graph of distribution of marks too. Thanks.

P.S. I'm aware of the boxplots in Course Analytics.

34 Comments
Beth_Young
Community Contributor

One reason that it can be useful to display a wider range of statistics to students is that there's often at least one student who fails to complete the assignment and earns a zero. The zeros lower the median grade and give a distorted impression of how difficult the assignments are and where students stand in relation to their classmates.

cohenf
Community Participant

May I inquire into the progress on this? The "Radar" category is not very specific in that regard. Having to constantly export to Excel, instead of a simple point-and-click on "statistics" option, is getting a bit tiring. Thank you.

ethomas
Community Novice

I'd like to make sure that we are including grade distribution in this enhancement request, meaning number or percentage of students who earned 90 - 100%, 80 - 89%, etc., for manually entered scores. 

I understand that this information is sort of provided in the quiz analytics for quizzes created in Canvas, though I have issues with how difficult it is to decipher that information too.*

This is such a basic feature of any grade book system that I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that it does not exist for all columns in the Canvas grade book.

*Should the Canvas developers consider modeling these statistics after those available in the Quiz Statistics ... I personally find those graphics hard to read. Translating the bar graph to a student count requires that I hold a piece of paper horizontally on my monitor and line it up with the top of the 90% bar to get an accurate count of how many students earned in the 90% range. That raw number should be directly on the graph or available by hovering my mouse

over the bar.

mrdjl
Community Novice

Hello -- is there any update on this?  It's been more than a year now, and the median specifically is a feature that should be incorporated into the gradebook.  Boxplots by definition are supposed to show the median (as opposed to the mean which Canvas currently shows), so incorporating the median would help improve that feature as well.

JamesAshby
Community Contributor

Being able to view histogram charts for any assignment, not just a quiz, is also critical for our faculty. Is there any update on this feature idea?

breklis
Community Participant

Please add assignment statistics to the new gradebook, including these additional statistics options.  Right now, the new gradebook does not offer any assignment statistics.

#gradebook_new

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

The Radar idea stage has been removed from the Feature Idea Process.  You can read more about why in the blog post Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.

 

This change will only impact the stage sort of this idea and will not change how it is voted on or how it is considered during prioritization activities.  This change will streamline the list of ideas 'open for voting', making it easier for you to see the true top voted ideas in one sort, here.

bengaynor
Community Participant

I'm going to reiterate that this is a necessary feature in the New Gradebook. For those who haven't realized/are not yet using the New Gradebook, we losts the in-column stats. Theses were replaced with the Course Analytics page, but mean, perhaps the most-used data piece, is missing.  @kpasch  mentioned this a few weeks ago and was told to come here. I think there's something to be said for data showing up in the gradebook itself, including course average, individual assignment averages, and section averages, but I'd be fine with it being on the Course Analytics page as long as the average were included. Canvas knows the numbers and should be able to calculate that information. I just spoke with a teacher in my school who's a new Canvas convert, but she's feeling rather disenchanted by having to manually calculate assignment averages. If I'm going to keep convincing people at my school to use Canvas for grades, the gradebook needs to provide them with tools they are accustomed to having.

newgradebook‌ analytics‌ 

Update/note: The median is an option on the Course Analytics page, along with the high and low scores. When I already have nearly 100 assignments six weeks into school, though, this page starts to get overwhelming.

Update 12/2/19: My district has now enabled "New Analytics." Mean is, in fact, an option here, but it still seems more cumbersome that just including it in the gradebook to begin with. Plus, even once I've updated the grades, they can be slow to transfer to the analytics page.

RobDitto
Community Champion

There is an explanation that the removal (for now?) of median from New Analytics was a deliberate decision, along with hopeful news that section mean may be added:

hansoma
Community Novice

I wish to add emphasis on getting access to any scored item in the Grades as a histogram with other analytics; immediately after grades are entered.  I post an announcement notifying students that an activity has been scored immediately after I complete the grading process.  I have always included a histogram of the scores in this announcement.  This is available in the New Analytics, in a roundabout way--but the refresh can be delayed 24 hours.  The instructor seems to have no control over when the refresh occurs.  There should be a button to refresh the data for the analytics immediately so instructors can see the data graphically immediately after competing grading/scoring.  The current workaround is copying the data to Excel and creating a histogram manually--doable, but there has to be a better (more efficient) way.