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Muting an assignment does not mute comments?

Question asked by Ken Black

on Apr 20, 2015
Latest reply on Oct 15, 2017 by Debi Griggs

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I had an instructor ask me exactly when students can see comments if more than one instructor is working on an assignment at the same time. I was all set to prepare my usual "be sure to MUTE the assignment" email when I tried a bit of an experiment just to make sure.

I found that if even if an assignment is muted, a student CAN read any submitted comments and even (if they are savvy enough to click the VIEW FEEDBACK button) to read comments in the crocodoc submission. I double-checked the Canvas documentation, and they are careful to state that students do not receive any notifications regarding comments, etc., but I never realized that if a student got nosy and clicked on the assignment link in the gradebook they could still see both the crocodoc comments as well as general comments in the COMMENT box! Below is a screen capture from a student login of the GRADES area of a sample assignment, and even though the assignment has been muted, if the student clicks on the "comment" word balloon or clicks the VIEW FEEDBACK button, they CAN see the comments. Is this by design? I had always assumed muted meant muted.

Stefanie Sanders

Apr 20, 2015 1:17 PM

Correct Answer

Kenneth, I tried to reproduce this and could not; my testing indicates that muted does indeed mean muted. I tried this with a quiz, and again with an essay submission.

Steps to reproduce on a quiz:

As teacher, navigated to student's assignment submission in the SpeedGrader.
As teacher, muted the assignment in the SpeedGrader.
As teacher, entered and submitted a comment in the Add a Comment field.
As that student, logged into the class and navigated to Grades tab; scrolled to the assignment, and could not see a comment bubble upon which to click.
As the student, clicked on the link to the quiz, and saw these messages: "Your quiz score is unavailable because your instructor has not finished grading it. When your instructor finishes grading this quiz, your score will be available on this page." "You may not see all comments right now because the assignment is currently being graded."

Steps to reproduce on an essay submission:

As teacher, navigated to student's assignment submission in the SpeedGrader.
As teacher, muted the assignment in the SpeedGrader.
As teacher, entered and submitted a comment in the Add a Comment field; also added Crocodoc annotations on the essay itself.
As that student, logged into the class and navigated to Grades tab; scrolled to the assignment, and could not see a comment bubble upon which to click.
As the student, clicked on the link to the assignment, and clicked on "View Feedback"; the Crocodoc annotations I made as a teacher were not visible.
As the student, I saw these messages: "Grades are unavailable because the instructor is working on them" and in the right pane: "You may not see all comments right now because the assignment is currently being graded."

So maybe the best course of action would be to send a help ticket to determine why the muting functionality is not working as designed in your instance?

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Stefanie Sanders

Apr 20, 2015 1:17 PM

Kenneth, I tried to reproduce this and could not; my testing indicates that muted does indeed mean muted. I tried this with a quiz, and again with an essay submission.

Steps to reproduce on a quiz:

As teacher, navigated to student's assignment submission in the SpeedGrader.
As teacher, muted the assignment in the SpeedGrader.
As teacher, entered and submitted a comment in the Add a Comment field.
As that student, logged into the class and navigated to Grades tab; scrolled to the assignment, and could not see a comment bubble upon which to click.
As the student, clicked on the link to the quiz, and saw these messages: "Your quiz score is unavailable because your instructor has not finished grading it. When your instructor finishes grading this quiz, your score will be available on this page." "You may not see all comments right now because the assignment is currently being graded."

Steps to reproduce on an essay submission:

As teacher, navigated to student's assignment submission in the SpeedGrader.
As teacher, muted the assignment in the SpeedGrader.
As teacher, entered and submitted a comment in the Add a Comment field; also added Crocodoc annotations on the essay itself.
As that student, logged into the class and navigated to Grades tab; scrolled to the assignment, and could not see a comment bubble upon which to click.
As the student, clicked on the link to the assignment, and clicked on "View Feedback"; the Crocodoc annotations I made as a teacher were not visible.
As the student, I saw these messages: "Grades are unavailable because the instructor is working on them" and in the right pane: "You may not see all comments right now because the assignment is currently being graded."

So maybe the best course of action would be to send a help ticket to determine why the muting functionality is not working as designed in your instance?

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Ken Black

@ Stefanie Sanders on Apr 20, 2015 1:27 PM

Interesting. Thank you, Stephanie. I will do that after I make sure the settings for a sample class replicate those that are elsewhere.

Ken

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Ken Black

@ Stefanie Sanders on Apr 20, 2015 1:35 PM

Well, I tried it on my own class on our TEST installation and masqueraded as one of my own students and could not replicate my original issue, either! It must be because I did the original test on a sample, "manually"-created class. Hmmm. Anyway, thanks for verifying my original thoughts as to what "muting" really meant, Stephanie. Please go ahead and mark as "answered." (Or place it in the "should have tested more before asking the question" category!)

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Ken Black

@ Ken Black on Apr 22, 2015 10:19 AM

Hmmm. Perhaps I wasn't imagining this after all, Stephanie. I see on the latest Release Notes for this weekend's updates that this very same behavior was identified as a Fixed Bug. (Check that section under Gradebook.) Anyway, thanks again!

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Stefanie Sanders

@ Ken Black on Apr 22, 2015 10:41 AM

Thank you for pointing that out, Kenneth; good eye! I hope this means that the bug was fixed between the time you saw it, and the time I saw it and you re-tested it. I have tested this functionality in the past to make double- and triple-sure that students couldn't see anything (e.g. instructor comments, Grademark annotations, and Turnitin scores and GradeMark access) while an assignment was muted, so I suspect it was a bug that cropped up recently and was quickly squashed.

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Debi Griggs Oct 15, 2017 6:08 PM

Has anything changed on this? I posted a comment to a muted assignment and a student answered my comment. If the comments are truly muted, how could she see the comment to answer it?

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6 Replies

Stefanie Sanders Apr 20, 2015 1:17 PM
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Correct Answer
Kenneth, I tried to reproduce this and could not; my testing indicates that muted does indeed mean muted. I tried this with a quiz, and again with an essay submission.

Steps to reproduce on a quiz:
1. As teacher, navigated to student's assignment submission in the SpeedGrader.
2. As teacher, muted the assignment in the SpeedGrader.
3. As teacher, entered and submitted a comment in the Add a Comment field.
4. As that student, logged into the class and navigated to Grades tab; scrolled to the assignment, and could not see a comment bubble upon which to click.
5. As the student, clicked on the link to the quiz, and saw these messages: "Your quiz score is unavailable because your instructor has not finished grading it. When your instructor finishes grading this quiz, your score will be available on this page." "You may not see all comments right now because the assignment is currently being graded."
Steps to reproduce on an essay submission:
1. As teacher, navigated to student's assignment submission in the SpeedGrader.
2. As teacher, muted the assignment in the SpeedGrader.
3. As teacher, entered and submitted a comment in the Add a Comment field; also added Crocodoc annotations on the essay itself.
4. As that student, logged into the class and navigated to Grades tab; scrolled to the assignment, and could not see a comment bubble upon which to click.
5. As the student, clicked on the link to the assignment, and clicked on "View Feedback"; the Crocodoc annotations I made as a teacher were not visible.
6. As the student, I saw these messages: "Grades are unavailable because the instructor is working on them" and in the right pane: "You may not see all comments right now because the assignment is currently being graded."
So maybe the best course of action would be to send a help ticket to determine why the muting functionality is not working as designed in your instance?
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- Ken Black @ Stefanie Sanders on Apr 20, 2015 1:27 PM
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  Interesting. Thank you, Stephanie. I will do that after I make sure the settings for a sample class replicate those that are elsewhere.
  
  Ken
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- Ken Black @ Stefanie Sanders on Apr 20, 2015 1:35 PM
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  Well, I tried it on my own class on our TEST installation and masqueraded as one of my own students and could not replicate my original issue, either! It must be because I did the original test on a sample, "manually"-created class. Hmmm. Anyway, thanks for verifying my original thoughts as to what "muting" really meant, Stephanie. Please go ahead and mark as "answered." (Or place it in the "should have tested more before asking the question" category!)
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  - Ken Black @ Ken Black on Apr 22, 2015 10:19 AM
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    Hmmm. Perhaps I wasn't imagining this after all, Stephanie. I see on the latest Release Notes for this weekend's updates that this very same behavior was identified as a Fixed Bug. (Check that section under Gradebook.) Anyway, thanks again!
    1 person found this helpful
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    - Stefanie Sanders @ Ken Black on Apr 22, 2015 10:41 AM
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      Thank you for pointing that out, Kenneth; good eye! I hope this means that the bug was fixed between the time you saw it, and the time I saw it and you re-tested it. I have tested this functionality in the past to make double- and triple-sure that students couldn't see anything (e.g. instructor comments, Grademark annotations, and Turnitin scores and GradeMark access) while an assignment was muted, so I suspect it was a bug that cropped up recently and was quickly squashed.
      1 person found this helpful
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Debi Griggs Oct 15, 2017 6:08 PM
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Has anything changed on this? I posted a comment to a muted assignment and a student answered my comment. If the comments are truly muted, how could she see the comment to answer it?
1 person found this helpful
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Muting an assignment does not mute comments?

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