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michael_barbour · ‎09-17-2019

Another piece of basic functionality that all other LMSes have, but Instructure doesn't seem to want to incorporate. During our transition from Blackboard, this was the single most requested feature from faculty based on something that they've been able to do for 8 years in the former LMS. And it seems that they still won't be able to do it. Here's a novel idea, instead of this ideas forum and up voting and stuff, just create a quick matrix of things that other LMSes have done for at least 5 years - of even 10 years - that Canvas doesn't. Any feature that all of your major competitors do that you currently don't, stick that in the queue for development ASAP.

michael_barbour · ‎07-23-2019

In our case, we just finished transitioning from Blackboard to Canvas over the past five semesters. Canvas was sold to faculty and staff as a better LMS, and overall I believe it is. But yes... When you have some of these basic functionality items that your old LMS had, that your new - "better" - LMS doesn't have and doesn't seem interested in developing, it is disappointing.

michael_barbour · ‎07-23-2019

It seems there are several basic functionality items that Moodle, Blackboard, D2L, and others have that doesn't seem like it should take that much to add, that Canvas just refuses to incorporate. This one is a good example, so are https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/4700 and https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1117-anonymous-discussion-forums - both of which got similar messages today about not being developed.

michael_barbour · ‎02-05-2019

While not part of the actual suggestion, I have faculty that would love to be able to actually tag an Outcome to a particular piece of static content (e.g., a page or other item inside of the module).

michael_barbour · ‎01-25-2019

This is a great suggestion. The limitation of Outcomes at present makes it a pretty useless tool, unless you are a very small organization. Being able to attach an Outcome to a specific line of a rubric or to an entire question bank, but not to a quiz or assignment limits which assignments one can realistically use with Outcomes. This situation, at least in our case, makes Outcomes a feature that we just can't use (even though we want to). There is the additional issue of this limitation with third party tools. For example, say my quizzes are delivered in ExamSoft or some other third party application that is simply more powerful and functional than the Canvas quiz feature. Even though I am using quizzes, because I am not using the Canvas quiz feature it means I am not using a Canvas question bank. So there is no way for me to attach a Canvas Outcome to the question bank hosted in a third party tool. But if I could just attach the Outcome to the Quiz itself in Canvas, then when the third party tool populates the grades back into Canvas through the LTI, it would align those grades to the Outcome for the quiz. MKB

michael_barbour · ‎10-19-2018

Hopefully we can get enough votes on the new thread.

michael_barbour · ‎10-15-2018

Thanks for chiming in on the other thread! I think it important to get some traction over there because you'd think that this would be an easy feature to incorporate given that this is already an assignment feature and the item is essentially an assignment.

michael_barbour · ‎10-15-2018

So it wasn't developed in the way that you had actually recommended cesbrandt, but they did do enough to allow you to work around the issue. I'll buy that...

michael_barbour · ‎10-14-2018

I would argue that "The assignment would look and act like a normal assignment to the student, except it wouldn't appear in the gradebook." means that it would have all of the features of a normal assignment, which includes the options that are available for submission. I mean students can submit a file for a normal assignment.

michael_barbour · ‎10-12-2018

With all due respect to the Canvas folks, but this item has not been completed - at least not based on the way the original post indicates. I reviewed the Canvas Production Release Notes (2016-08-06) and it still doesn't allow for submission type options if the instructor selects "Not Graded." In fact, there is a new feature idea for this topic at https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/12306-options-for-not-graded-assignments to address the fact that this was not actually included in this update (even though Canvas claims that it is)!

michael_barbour · ‎09-13-2018

Okay, as I read through the thread here, I think this is the feature I'm hoping they develop. Basically, if I have 10 assignments in the course, but I want the gradebook to show the student's average for assignments 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9. In other LMSes I have used, I could create a manually calculated column that read something like: assignment 1 + assignment 2 + assignment 4 + assignment 6 + assignment 8 + assignment 9 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 So this is the feature that I'd like developed. It seems like something very basic. And literally every other LMS has this feature! MKB

michael_barbour · ‎09-04-2018

I'm not sure if this is included in the original vision of what folks had in mind with this idea, but I have faculty that are asking about the ability for students to grade themselves and have that grade show up in the gradebook.

michael_barbour · ‎08-11-2018

It would be useful to know the timeline on these ideas. For example, I see that this feature was suggested back on 13 April 2015. But at the bottom of the idea it says that it was "Last modified on May 8, 2018 9:18 AM." The first comment was made on 15 April 2015, and the last comment before me appears to be 18 July 2018. The item states "Idea is currently in Product Radar," and according to one of the items in the comments that happened on 20 October 2017. So that was almost 22 months ago. I know they have the link to what the product radar means, but that tells the average person little. For example, what percent of features that have been placed on the radar have gotten developed? How long is the average time from radar to development for those that have been developed? What is the longest time something has spent on the radar thus far and still been developed? What is the longest times something has spent on the radar that has yet to be developed? I know this kind of information would help a lot of us who are wondering if these kinds of suggestions will happen and what to say to faculty and students when they ask about some of these features. Right now I'm limited to saying that someone at Instructure thinks this is a good idea and has recommended it, but that was almost two years ago and there is no guarantee any recommendation will every be developed.

michael_barbour · ‎08-06-2018

Just had a conversation with WordPress support too. Here is the chat from those folks... In case it helps some other folks. This question is not about my specific site, but about a WP hosted site that my institution has. While they love WP and even won an award for the content they created from their professional association, because it is not an institutional service that have to transfer the content to something that we - as an institution - license. The folks involved have decided to convert it over to our learning management system - Canvas. I was wondering if there was a tool for that on your end or if you provided a service for that which could be purchased? I looked at the online help around exporting and I don't believe an XML file will be useful, and it seems like the paid $129 service is only good for two specific domains. But I figured I should check all the same, just in case. Thanks in advance... MKB Hi there - I'll need a couple of minutes to read through this. I'll be right back. No worries... Sorry for sending it twice. No worries! I've caught up and I think I understand where you are and what you're needing. As additional reference, it appears that the WP site used primarily pages (and not posts). The only tool we provide is the Export feature and, as you know, it can only export an XML file. There are two trains of thought I have... 1. How many pages are we talking about? It would be painful, but copying and pasting page content is likely a sure thing. 2. Have you spoken with Canvas to find out if they can manage an XML file coming from a WordPress site? Yeah, Canvas import is limited to .zip files (i.e., exports from other LMSes) or imcss files (i.e., Canvas export files). The copy and paste option seems to be the only one we have. I believe it is about 25-50 pages. Yeah, that's challenging and I totally feel your pain. Canvas kind of ropes your content in. Hard to get out/in. I had sort of come to that conclusion from the Canvas Community discussion I had, but I figured it was worth reaching out to WP to make sure I didn't miss anything on the WP end. Thanks for the confirmation. You have a great day! Not missing anything here unfortunately. You've done your due diligence. Best of luck to you on the move. Let us know when have any other questions. Thanks so much! You have a great day as well.

michael_barbour · ‎07-30-2018

Yeah, when I started searching the Canvas Community, and Googling in general, I had the same thought... The "that would be too easy" thought... The two groups never crossed my mind, so that's greatly appreciated! MKB

michael_barbour · ‎07-30-2018

@kenneth_rogers , the folks on my campus looking to do this are looking to shut down their WordPress site, so embedding it into Canvas wouldn't be an option for them. Thanks for the suggestion though... MKB

michael_barbour · ‎07-30-2018

I am wondering if anyone has any advice on the export from WordPress and import to Canvas process. Say I have a course site created on WordPress. I have the ability to export all of those pages and associated files, and I believe the export file that is generated is an .xml file. In looking at the import options from the Canvas side of things, there isn't a WordPress or a .xml option. Anyone had any success to trying this? MKB

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