Changing the teacher of a class without losing data in gradebook

[EdTechSpecialis]

Hello, 

We have multiple cases of classes that need to have the teacher changed or added.  We have been following the procedure to do that, making sure that we add the end date for the previous teacher, and add the new teacher with the correct start date...  The problem is, when the new teacher opens the gradebook, the students are there, but all previous grades are gone.  It is catastrophic.  There must be a way to protect the grade data throughout the change in personnel.

Best regards, 

Miles Harris

[chriscas]

Hi @EdTechSpecialis,

Can you tell us how exactly you're adding the new teachers?  Are you doing it manually in Canvas, in your student information system, somewhere else?  What exact fields or checkboxes are you using?  Grade information in Canvas is not really tied to a specific teacher at all, so something here seems really weird to me.  I'm wondering if you're adding a teacher to a new section with restrictions enabled and the existing assignments aren't assigned to that section.  I can definitely say this is not a global issue with Canvas, as we switch teachers at my institution somewhat regularly, and grades are visible to the new faculty without issue.

-Chris

[EdTechSpecialis]

Thanks for responding Chris - I appreciate it. The information for our Canvas comes from our SIS - PowerSchool. So, classes, schedules and what teachers are assigned are taken care of in PowerSchool, then sent to Canvas. The way PowerSchool works is when one teacher leaves, the date will be entered and the next day becomes the start date of the new teacher. While that's the prescribed process, the gradebooks will have their assignment grades purged and what remains is a gradebook with students and empty (or completely missing) assignments. You mentioned something I need to gain a better understanding of... Adding a teacher to a new section with restrictions enabled with existing assignments not being assigned to that section... In our case, the course and all of the students all remain the same. The teacher is all that's being changed in PowerSchools (and then Canvas of course). But when that teacher change is made, the gradebook problem happens.

[chriscas]

Hi @EdTechSpecialis,

I'll move this post over to the SIS area, where some people with more familiarity with PowerSchool may be able to give some guidance on this.  I don't think it's necessarily a Canvas issue, but maybe something with the integration with PowerSchool or the processes your school is doing in PowerSchool.

-Chris

[melodyc_lam · Accepted solution]

Hi @EdTechSpecialis --

This is unfortunately the behavior that happens with any teacher of record change. I'm an admin for a very large school district in NC so I have processed a lot of tickets and requests for help in this exact same situation.

What actually happens between PowerSchool and Canvas is the following:

1) Teacher of record change happens in PowerSchool

2) On next sync, it detects that there was a teacher change, so a new course is created in Canvas for this new teacher of record

3) All sections are moved over from the old course to the new course, but the old course is still in Canvas, just with no students and no teacher.

In Canvas, student submissions and student grades are attached to enrollments, which live in the course and not with the student -- so as long as the OLD course is still there and undeleted, you can crosslist the students from the new course into the old course. Once the students are back into the old course, the submissions and grades are restored. In fact, the new teacher can resume teaching from the old course and everything will work, such as updated enrollments through the year from PowerSchool and the Grade Sync functionality.

Because your sections are created by SIS, the only way to make sure that everything works out with your SIS is to do a crosslist. Here are instructions to do so.

If you're the admin for your district, you should be able to find the old course in Canvas using the convention that was created with your integration and how your courses and subaccounts are set up. I can't speak to how it was done unless you're in NC, so this is an exercise left to you.

Hope this explanation helps and alleviates some of the concern/stress.