Remove the Dashes from the Score Box in Quizzes and Exams

  This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas
  Idea will be open for vote May 5th, 2015 - August 5th, 2015  Learn more about voting...

 

Currently, the score box for an ungraded question is pre-filled with two dashes: --

 

Those dashes must be selected and deleted before a score can be entered, which takes extra time/clicks. Sometimes I accidentally leave a dash behind and the student gets a negative score rather than a positive score. You can imagine how well that is received.

 

Could we just have a blank score box? Or, if the dashes can't be eliminated, please replace them with a character that can't be misread as a minus sign. An asterisk, perhaps? For unanswered questions, pre-filling the box with a 0 would also save time.

 

 

  Comments from Instructure...

 

Greetings all!  We often remind the Community that even archived ideas can become a real feature, and this one is proof of that!

This feature is complete.  You can find more information in the Canvas Production Release Notes (2015-09-19)

 

Manual Quiz Question Grading

In a manually graded quiz question, instructors no longer have to remove the dashes in the point field. Once an instructor starts typing a score, the dashes are removed automatically. However, if no value is entered and dashes are still present, the question is still considered ungraded.

18 Comments
Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

Hi  @Beth_Young ​

I can see why this would be frustrating in your workflow.  Your idea will move forward for voting, but until then I might have a tip that will help?  I usually click into the gradebook, remove the dash, add the score and then use my arrow keys to move up/down/left/right.  This way I don't have to remove the dash each time - it is automatically highlighted and replaced.

Beth_Young
Community Contributor
Author

Thanks. If I'm understanding you correctly, what you're describing is essentially what I do (click into the box, remove the dash, add the score) but clicking in the box doesn't always highlight the two dashes. Sometimes it does, but not always.

I'm not sure what you mean about the arrow keys? When I enter the grade and use an arrow key, I'm still in the same box.

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

I read your request wrong.  You are talking about questions in a quiz.  I was thinking about scores in a gradebook.  Sorry for the confusion.

mhebert
Community Novice

Agreed - I believe I posted such a request in the old system before. This is especially annoying in the iPad Speedgrader where you don't really have access to the finesse of a mouse used on a laptop.

barrybrown
Community Participant

I like seeing the two dashes to let me know I haven't yet assigned a score.

A better approach would be to make the GUI work correctly: upon clicking in the box, the two dashes should be removed automatically. If I don't enter a grade, the dashes are replaced.

mhebert
Community Novice

I would think the absence of any score would also work to let you know you haven't graded it?

lcroney
Community Novice

In general, I find the process of filling in grades in the gradebook frustrating. Half the time, I think I've entered the grade, then it doesn't show up. I'm sure this is something I'm doing wrong, but it should all work a little more smoothly without us knowing a secret handshake.

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

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Beth_Young
Community Contributor
Author

u0438341​ kindly revived this feature idea:

If you still like the idea, please vote for it when it opens.

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

Greetings all!  We often remind the Community that even archived ideas can become a real feature, and this one is proof of that!

Please take a look at the Canvas Beta Release Notes (2015-09-08)

Manual Quiz Question Grading

In a manually graded quiz question, instructors no longer have to remove the dashes in the point field. Once an instructor starts typing a score, the dashes are removed automatically. However, if no value is entered and dashes are still present, the question is still considered ungraded.

This change resolves a fixed bug in Canvas:

Explanation: When an instructor opened a manually graded quiz in SpeedGrader and clicked the dashes in the points field, any scores typed in the field were inserted around the dashes instead of remove them completely. This behavior occurred because the points field was not focusing correctly on the dashes. Canvas code has been updated to remove the dashes when points are entered in the field.

You can test this feature in your own beta instance.  Find  out more at How do I access the Canvas beta environment?