Speedgrader keyboard efficiency - auto select grade textbox and auto deselect textbox - less mouse

[paulbui]

When a student submission first comes up, please auto-select the grade textbox, so graders do not have to select it using the mouse

Also, after hitting the Enter key when inputting a grade, the textbox should be deselected or out of focus.

The keyboard shortcuts in the Speedgrader only work when the textbox is not selected, so you still have to use the mouse to deselect it.

Example workflow / use case using keyboard shortcuts:

1. Grader brings up a student, and the grade input box is already selected (cursor is in the box)
2. Grader enters grade and hits Enter key
3. Grader hits 'j' key to advance to the next student (or any of the other keyboard shortcuts)

Reduces use of the mouse in the speedgrader

[Renee_Carney]

@paulbui 

I commented on your other idea as well.  Again, thank you for sharing your perspective.  

As I mentioned in the other thread, the tab indexing is designed for accessibility over efficiency. 

The attach and add audio comment boxes are inline before the submit button to enable keyboard users to include those options in their workflow before they submit.

[paulbui]

Ok, I figured out a solution. I implemented a userscript in Tampermonkey / Greasemonkey to autoselect the grading box

[Renee_Carney]

@paulbui That sounds like a great solution for ya.  Thanks for sharing

[jvwowd]

I agree that the speedgrader is very difficult to use in a way that provides speed. At my institution, we have written some exams in Canvas (especially in the times of COVID-19 when we don't have the option of in-person exams).

The workflow for us is that each instructor in a multi-section course will grade one or two problems across all sections to maintain consistency in grading. So sometimes we are grading 300+ quizzes at a time and speedgrader takes a long time.

In particular, we have to either click the update button or press the enter key after entering a score. At this point there is something happening on the front end of Canvas that causes a page refresh taking a few seconds before allowing us to move onto the next student. A couple of seconds may not sound like much, but it adds up over hundreds of quizzes. It would be great if we could move on to the next student IMMEDIATELY after clicking update or clicking enter.

I would also like to see the shortcut keys be customizable. 

I would also love to see speedgrader incorporate some of the features of the Gradescope software which in my experience works like a gem. In my opinion, the most powerful feature of Gradescope is being able to see all submissions for a certain question at a glance and being able to group them so that common mistakes can all be dealt with at once by applying a single grade and detailed feedback comment. In the experience of most of the instructors in my department this can cut grading time in half for many problems. (6-8 hours of grading down to 3-4 hours).

[paulbui]

James Jones has created some userscripts to inject some more efficient components and tweaks to the SpeedGrader:

https://github.com/jamesjonesmath/canvancement/tree/master/quizzes/quizwiz

One notable QuizWiz tweak is the addition of a "Submit + Advance to next student" button

His GitHub also contains a collection of other "Canvancements"

I also created a SpeedGrader userscript so that the Speedgrader's numerical grading box is auto-selected on document load, and the Enter-key submits the score and advances to the next student.

https://github.com/paulbui/canvas-tweaks/tree/master/gradebox_tweaks/installer

[weintrau]

auto advance to the next submitted (ungraded) assignment in speed grader after i save my grade. too many clicks. study the whole app to make it more anticipatory of what the instructor will do next and redesign! very clunky.

[BenjaminRead]

Just now I wrote a post concurring with paulbui. But now I'm amending that post:

1) The software may have changed since paulbui's initial post. After advancing to a new student, I can select the grade textbox with the "g" key, that part does not require, or no longer requires, using the mouse.

2) After entering a numerical score in the grade textbox, I can leave the textbox by hitting shift-tab. Then I can use the other keyboard shortcuts, for instance to advance to the next student.

Maybe the shift-tab should be documented in the help screen that comes up when you hit "?"

No external software / plug-ins are required.

-- Ben Read, UC Santa Cruz