Syllabus assignment list option to sort with most current on top

[ehill1]

  

  Idea open for vote Wed. October 5, 2016 - Wed. January 4, 2017  Learn more about voting...

The syllabus assignment view provides a great summary of all the events & assignments in a course. However, a long list of assignments and events requires a needles amount of scrolling on behalf of the user as the semester progresses. A view option to allow chronological or reverse chronological order would give maximum flexibility.

  Comments from Instructure

October 2016 update form Chris Ward
Thanks for taking the time to vote on this idea. From the discussion in this thread, it appears that sorting won't be a satisfactory solution here, so we'll be closing this idea. However, if you want to propose a solution around filtering I can see a lot of value there.

[cward]

Thanks for taking the time to vote on this idea. From the discussion in this thread, it appears that sorting won't be a satisfactory solution here, so we'll be closing this idea. However, if you want to propose a solution around filtering I can see a lot of value there.

[ehill1]

I disagree with the choice to close the idea. I think filtering is an excellent idea, but in the mean time, it would help the rest of us who actually use the syllabus page to sort in increasing or decreasing order. I think this is a relatively simple fix that will meet the short term needs of many. I think the idea of filtering needs a lot more community input and discussion before it's ready to implement. From the comments, it sounded like many of the people who requested filtering didn't use the syllabus page view in any case, so these solutions are meeting the needs of two different groups of users who are using the same software in different ways (i.e., different use cases).

[ssimpso4]

I agree, Emily. A simple option for the user to sort the Syllabus list by due date seems pretty uncontroversial to me.

A fault of the community-voting process is evident here: users that admittedly don't even use the functionality have the ability to scuttle even limited enhancements. Sometimes it seems like the forest is lost for the trees: those that comment immediately seize upon the little things instead of focusing on and expressing support related to the big picture. In this case, the big picture is that the assignment list in the Syllabus is unwieldy and provides zero options for customization via sorting, hiding, or filtering. It seems there's general agreement on this point.

Instructure's own guidance for feature requests points out the need to avoid the temptation to over-prescribe fixes . . .

. . . yet overly-prescriptive nit-picking seems to have derailed making progress on this acknowledged need. It's especially bothersome considering the # of up-votes this request received in just the first few weeks that it was open for voting.

Consequently, this whole discussion will be replicated, unnecessarily in my opinion, in coming months in a different request thread . . . Deactivated user  @ehill1 ​  @kcorp ​ Deactivated user​

[kcorp]

I agree with Emily and Steve. A simple option for the user to sort the Syllabus list by due date seems seems like a simple and uncontroversial fix. I'm not quite sure why people are voting an issue up or down if they don't use that feature. Rather they are just voting because they have an opinion.

[ronmarx]

Oh, I do so agree with your sentiments, Stephen. There seems to be a numbered cohort here who nit-picks ideas to death. A quick social engineering fix would be to remove down votes. If someone doesn't like an idea, they can simply not vote and leave a comment. I don't think Instructure needs to have its users advocate for it—they have plenty of engineers who are active here, and I've already learned a great deal from them in the past year.

In solidarity,

i_Ron