Option to use decimal separators (comma, point) interchangeably

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(5)

Hi all

We have an issue, which had been raised in a similar way before. It's very important and affects many (European) users.
It concerns the decimal separator in Canvas. We had a lecturer who set a (new) quiz with a formula question type. The solution response had one position after the decimal comma (4,2). The course language was set to German, that's why only commas as decimal separators were accepted.
However, the use of the decimal separator is taught and used differently as well in Switzerland as in the whole world. Many students chose a decimal point instead of a decimal comma, mostly because it's preinstalled on their calculators or keyboards and it's commonly used in programming and maths.
Most of them were unaware that the use of a decimal point would change the result completely while proceeding with the quiz. (4.2 will be 42 in the final submission). The lecturer had to correct all results manually which meant a great deal of work.

Here's my question:
Is there another way to define the decimal separator within Canvas? 
In my opinion, both options (comma and point) should be used interchangeably or at least there should be a warning message when the result is altered.

Colleagues from Belgium and Spain had raised this issue before me:
New Quizzes: bug with numeric questions for non-en... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)
Option to use a comma (",") as the decimal separat... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

Instructure support has advised me to create a feature idea.

 

5 Comments
Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
Status changed to: Open
 
jacqueline_gass
Community Member

YES PLEASE!

samuel_heer
Community Participant

Very important feature idea!

Actually, this is less a feature idea, but more a bug that needs to be solved! Especially in German-speaking regions (but probably also in the rest of the world) there are regionally different rules regarding the decimal separator (comma vs. point), so there is an urgent need for more flexibility in this respect.

Thanks in advance to Instructure for solving this problem.

aramos_anahuac
Community Member

This also happens in Latin America. In México we use a period to separate decimal, but the rest of Latin America they use comma.

ProductPanda
Instructure
Instructure
Status changed to: Archived
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