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Notification of Student Comments in Speedgrader

Question asked by Eric Werth

on Oct 14, 2017
Latest reply on Oct 18, 2017 by Eric Werth

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Does anyone know if Canvas will notify me as a teacher if a student leaves comments in the document viewer window of Speedgrader? I use point annotations in Speedgrader to provide feedback to students, but am unsure if I am automatically notified when they reply to these the way I am if they were to leave a comment and hit the "submit" button. I want to be sure that I know whether I need to check each submission in Speedgrader for replies to my feedback.

Thank-you in advance for any thoughts on this question.

Ken Black

Oct 15, 2017 7:37 AM

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Unfortunately not, Eric Werth, though it looks like the engineers in Canvas are thinking of developing that in the future. Take a look here: Canvas Release: Canvas DocViewer and then scroll down to see Jeff F's commented dated June 13, 2017. (Sorry I cannot provide a more direct link to the comment for you. Unlike Community discussions, it does not appear that there is the direct ability to link to a specific comment in a document!)

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Ken Black

Oct 15, 2017 7:37 AM

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Eric Werth

@ Ken Black on Oct 15, 2017 8:58 AM

Thanks for the help Ken Black! That gives me some direction until the feature is added to DocViewer, and is good information to pass along to the faculty I work with.

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Erin Thomas Oct 17, 2017 3:53 PM

Yet, in the student view, this very text is placed in the comments area: "Teachers and submitter will be notified of all comments."

This is misleading because we (instructors) are NOT notified when a student posts a comment on an assignment. I have added an item to my calendar twice a week to check for student comments. How efficient.

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Eric Werth

Oct 17, 2017 7:39 PM

I wonder how difficult it would be to add a button in docviewer to prevent students from replying to comments?

The best solution in my mind is to allow students to reply to annotations and be notified as the instructor when these are made, but until this is implemented I would rather prevent students from replying. They could still read the annotations I add and leave feedback in the comments section on the right-hand side of the screen, but I would rather turn off their rights to make additions to docviewer than risk missing something my students wrote.

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Ken Black

Oct 18, 2017 6:08 AM

Erin Thomas and Eric Werth - About the best I can suggest for both of your examples is to create a new Feature Idea, as outlined here: How do I create a new feature idea? Previously, when Canvas used crocodoc as the tool for document viewing within SpeedGrader, it was more or less easy to see why such items as you mention would be difficult to program in, since it was an external tool. Now that DocViewer has been developed in-house, perhaps such things can be more readily accommodated. That said, I know from being in this Community long enough (and dabbling very, very superficially in some programming) that nothing is as easy as it may seem, especially when it involves programming! In Erin's specific example, however, it sounds like although notifications may be in the future (as I originally indicated), you raise a good point about the information being given to students as being potentially misleading.

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Eric Werth

@ Ken Black on Oct 18, 2017 8:50 AM

Thanks again Ken. I agree that even items that seem small can be very difficult when it comes to programming and testing. I found a product idea related to making student replies to annotations optional here, Make student reply feature on instructor annotations optional and added my vote. It could be that this feature would be as difficult to program as informing the instructor if a student replied to an annotation, but I will let those more versed in programming Jiu-Jitsu make that determination!

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6 Replies

Ken Black Oct 15, 2017 7:37 AM
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Correct Answer
Unfortunately not, Eric Werth, though it looks like the engineers in Canvas are thinking of developing that in the future. Take a look here: Canvas Release: Canvas DocViewer and then scroll down to see Jeff F's commented dated June 13, 2017. (Sorry I cannot provide a more direct link to the comment for you. Unlike Community discussions, it does not appear that there is the direct ability to link to a specific comment in a document!)
4 people found this helpful
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- Eric Werth @ Ken Black on Oct 15, 2017 8:58 AM
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  Thanks for the help Ken Black! That gives me some direction until the feature is added to DocViewer, and is good information to pass along to the faculty I work with.
  Like • Show 1 Like1
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Erin Thomas Oct 17, 2017 3:53 PM
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Yet, in the student view, this very text is placed in the comments area: "Teachers and submitter will be notified of all comments."

This is misleading because we (instructors) are NOT notified when a student posts a comment on an assignment. I have added an item to my calendar twice a week to check for student comments. How efficient.
Like • Show 1 Like1
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Eric Werth Oct 17, 2017 7:39 PM
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I wonder how difficult it would be to add a button in docviewer to prevent students from replying to comments?

The best solution in my mind is to allow students to reply to annotations and be notified as the instructor when these are made, but until this is implemented I would rather prevent students from replying. They could still read the annotations I add and leave feedback in the comments section on the right-hand side of the screen, but I would rather turn off their rights to make additions to docviewer than risk missing something my students wrote.
2 people found this helpful
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Ken Black Oct 18, 2017 6:08 AM
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Erin Thomas and Eric Werth - About the best I can suggest for both of your examples is to create a new Feature Idea, as outlined here: How do I create a new feature idea? Previously, when Canvas used crocodoc as the tool for document viewing within SpeedGrader, it was more or less easy to see why such items as you mention would be difficult to program in, since it was an external tool. Now that DocViewer has been developed in-house, perhaps such things can be more readily accommodated. That said, I know from being in this Community long enough (and dabbling very, very superficially in some programming) that nothing is as easy as it may seem, especially when it involves programming! In Erin's specific example, however, it sounds like although notifications may be in the future (as I originally indicated), you raise a good point about the information being given to students as being potentially misleading.
2 people found this helpful
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- Eric Werth @ Ken Black on Oct 18, 2017 8:50 AM
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  Thanks again Ken. I agree that even items that seem small can be very difficult when it comes to programming and testing. I found a product idea related to making student replies to annotations optional here, Make student reply feature on instructor annotations optional and added my vote. It could be that this feature would be as difficult to program as informing the instructor if a student replied to an annotation, but I will let those more versed in programming Jiu-Jitsu make that determination!
  2 people found this helpful
  Like • Show 1 Like1
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