Treat zeros as ungraded for both teacher and student views

[JACOBSEN_C]

Choosing for a gradebook to treat ungraded assignments as zeros should set that as the default to the grades view students see.

🔎 This idea has been archived. While this idea isn't open for comments, it is an important part of Instructure’s idea conversations and development process. Contributions like this are valuable as Instructure prioritizes work on new or existing features.

[awilliams]

Hey  @adriano_cavalca . I hope you are having a good Friday! I can tell that you are curious about the feature idea process and even have some critiques. It is good to hear that you have some experience with software development. We have been trying to help you learn more about our system not only as it functions here in the Community, but as a whole within the Canvas product. We want to help you understand because we value your input and want it to be impactful.

Based on your statements it seems you may still not have read over the documents that best explain the system. With your experience in software I am sure you can understand the importance of documentation and understanding the system before critiquing it. Here are the two documents again:

• How does the feature idea process work?
• What is the feature development process for Canvas?

Once you have read those and understand the scope of the input Canvas considers for product development (including Open source contributions, Community input, direct user research, etc) it may help explain why we think the current process is a respectful one to all parties involved, including professors and students, even if it means sometimes ideas evolve for a long time before any code is written.

If you have specific suggestions on the process we would love to hear them in the Meta Community Group‌, but further comments in this idea related to the process instead of the idea are not helpful. It may also be good to review the guidelines for this Community; What are the Canvas Community guidelines?

Have a great weekend!

[adriano_cavalca]

Currently... request pending for almost 3 years, plus 131 votes up and counting. Thank you.

[JACOBSEN_C]

This gremlin surfaced for an instructor again at our institution.  This discussion and Kona's illustration & solutions helped quite a bit. In the end, though, it, the "treat ungraded as zero" curveball, really **really** needs to be sorted out.  If it adds any emphasis (et. larger Instructure), in my experience, when instructors find that "treat ungraded as zeros" does not on their students' end (does not impact scores shown in student grades), usually half or 2/3rds of the way into a term, you lose an instructor advocate for Canvas.  They vocally, openly, and adamantly question why an LMS is used at all, how accurate the Canvas gradebook calculates grades, whether Canvas and educational technology as a whole is affecting student learning positively, and so on.  Grades & gradebooks being the hallowed ground that they are, the teachable moment of 'oh, so you're using "treat ungraded assignments as zeros" feature doesn't actually' in this context is a catalyst to very severe volatility that works against the whole effort to it all. 

Please strongly advocate for a fix to the issue, or, to anyone that readily has the ability, fix the issue.

Also, a "visual indicator in the gradebook that would differentiate between a zero that was given for a failed assignment versus a zero for not submitting the assignment" would be a pedagogically sound feature to add, something that can be readily quantified and graphed in canvas analytics (& Canvas Data), and it's pretty surprising it isn't already something developed & implemented; the difference between a student earning zero points on an assignment and a student not attempting that assignment at all being as night & day as it is.

[kimberly_smith1]

Hello Clint,

I really like your idea of differentiating between a zero for a failed assignment versus a zero for no submission. Is there a feature request somewhere for this? I would vote up on it

Based on your comments, I think you (and the teachers at your school?) might be interested in an issue in the New Gradebook which, in my view, is related. That is, the New Gradebook adds red late/missing labels to students' Gradebooks automaticallly - even if the assignment was one that was submitted on paper, or one that was not actually required (e.g. student allowed to select 10/15 to complete), creating confusion for students and parents. In the New Gradebook (coming soon to a Canvas near you), these labels must be removed by the instructor manually one at a time, on a student-by-student, assignment-by-assignment basis (so potentially very labor intensive). An idea to allow instructors to turn this feature off is open for voting at https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/10605-a-global-option-to-enabledisable-missing-and-late-status... . Along the lines of accurate an Gradebook, your teachers might also be interested in https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/9718-include-a-keep-highest-scores-rule-instead-of-ignore-lowe... 

[JACOBSEN_C]

thanks for the tip.  got an idea on how that is depicted in canvas analytics?  the instructor needs a visual on it to discern any patterns in student behavior; to identify intervention potential. 

[kimberly_smith1]

I'm not sure how this will be managed in analytics. At my institution, instructors have the option to deploy the New Gradebook as beta in their courses (via Settings > Feature Options). After briefly checking it out, I decided to stick with the current Gradebook for now. You may find the answer at New Gradebook Users Group  or perhaps https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-11512-new-gradebook-faq-wip . Hope this helps

[Renee_Carney]

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.

[KristinL]

Feature Option Overview: Apply Score to Ungraded Assignments was released in April. This request has been Archived.