Currently instructors cannot create hypothetical scores for students like What-If scores. This would be very helpful as we get close to the end of the quarter to see if a student has the ability to reach a particular grade or not.
Add a function to allow an instructor to put a "what if" grade into the gradebook for particular students. This would allow instructors to see how a particular grade might affect the overall grade in the class for a student.
Currently the only way I know to do something like this is to change the actual grade of an assignment. This sometimes causes other problems...like sending students a message that something has been graded.
I've heard students have a "what if" grade function. I would find this useful as an instructor as well. I sometimes plug grades in to the gradebook to see what a student needs to get a certain grade, but this is not ideal since the student gets a grade notification.
Students can do What-If--professors should be able to also. I use it with students in on-line office hours, but I often want to know what would push my students to the next grade tier--or not--especially when calculating participation grades and would like to be able to access it for an individual student myself. I can only do it by actually changing a grade but then students get a notice the grade has changed.
Still waiting and very much wanting this feature - for advising, predicting, and overall peace of mind without having students see all the various grades I'm entering. Seriously, 2016 and nothing has moved on this?
I would love this feature. My workaround is to "hide grades" for that assignment, then fiddle with the grades, then "post grades" again. I have to keep track of what the original grade was so I don't mess it up unintentionally.
More rationale:
One of the big advantages to using the Canvas gradebook is transparency with students, but sometimes the students need a little nudge - "if you turned in assignment X and Y you could be at an 82%!" While an experienced college student could figure that out, I work with middle and high school students, and they have not yet figured out how to use their own what-if grades. Their grades are also fairly complicated to calculate for themselves, with sometimes dozens of small assignments each semester. Also, sometimes I don't want full transparency because I haven't completed grading an assignment or I am just trying to decide what kind of weight I want to put on an assignment. I'd like to be able to try out grades for my students to see what the impact might be on their total grades before I finalize those grades. A muted or manually-posted assignment works if you haven't put grades in yet, but sometimes it is an after-the-fact decision. I hope that my workaround doesn't send a notification to the students when I post grades a second time- that would be annoying for them.
This seems like it should be a very easy implementation that will reduce the burden on faculty, counselors, administrators, etc, especially in this time of online learning. As another commenter said, many of us cannot now call students into our offices to have them login to Canvas for the what-if feature. Having it available on the faculty view would make it tremendously easier to answer the emails asking about various outcomes. Yes, ideally, the students would take it upon themselves to do the math but that is not realistic for some, and is certainly not happening for all.
