[Gradebook] Generate Automatic Messages to students who do not submit work

[lisa_braun]

I have found the "message students who..." function in gradebook very effective to nudging students to complete assignments. I suggest an option that, when you create the assignment, you can automatically choose to have the message sent to students after the turn in deadline has passed. I compare it to a "out of office" email that you might send to your colleagues. This personalized message will allow teachers to effectively use the message system and encourage student completion of work in a timely manner, without additional messages from the teacher. 

[Chris_Munzo]

Hi, Lisa - We are a third-party partner of Instructure, https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers/partnerships/aspiredu?sr=search&searchId=8d4c0b14-...‌ and we have an analytics solution called Dropout Detective.  It does a number of things that Canvas K-12 schools like:

• Allows teachers to see all classes & all grades of a student on one screen;
• Gives admin-level users (guidance counselors, sports coaches, special ed teachers) personalized dashboards of just the students assigned to them;
• Provides a centralized place for users to enter notes about contact with a student;

And to your point, we can send automated email messages to students based on various criteria.  One of those triggers is "# of missing assignments".  We do require a contract with your school and we do charge for our services.  We have a good number of Canvas K-12 schools that we can provide as references.

Let me know if you'd like to learn more.  Thanks!

[scottdennis]

Good idea, Lisa.  Maybe this feature might also allow for the message to be send X number of days before the due date?

[Chris_Munzo]

Scott, this is a question that we struggle with all of the time:  Do people want to manage activities from their email inbox?  Some do.  My son is a sophomore in college -- he hardly ever checks email.  And can you imagine what the inbox of a student would look like if he/she got an email before the due date of every assignment in every class?  Eventually, you'd get numb to the messages.  No easy answers to that question.

[scottdennis]

True story, Chris.  My son is a high school sophomore.  I learned recently that he relies almost exclusively on the to-do list on the dashboard to tell him what he needs to do in Canvas.  

[bryanjos]

I like the idea of the message being triggered a certain number of days before the due date, as long as students have the ability to turn off these notifications if it's cluttering their inbox per Chris's concern.  We could already kind of do this by creating an announcement that is delayed to post at a particular time (either before or after the due date).  It's just not filtered to send ONLY to students who have not yet submitted anything.  But how many students submit the assignment well in advance of the deadline anyway?  So the filtering itself may not be so terribly important, as long as the announcement gets out there.  The announcement approach and the "Message Students Who..." approach are both workarounds that require more work on the instructor's part, which brings up why this idea was suggested.

As for whether or not students check e-mail or submit their assignments on time, both bring up much bigger questions of how students learn organization, communication, and responsibility.  Do submission reminders help them develop organization skills and responsibility?  What about a dashboard to-do list?  Or requiring them to check e-mail?  I don't know the answers to these questions, especially since today's work environment continues to evolve with automated messaging, calendars, reminders, and more.  Consistently checking e-mail seems to be of critical importance in much of the Western work world, but that may change in coming decades as other modes of communication become more efficient.  Food for thought...

In the meantime, this is a nice feature idea, and of course it would be up to each instructor whether to use it or not.

[9910503]

Having the ability to set a date for the email reminder to go out would allow everyone to customize as they wanted. I would have one go out 1 or 2 days after the assignment was due, when the assignment had truly been forgotten or not completed.

[kmcgreger]

My first reaction is all for this. However, then, I  remind myself that at east half of college's value is learning to meet deadlines, time management, and acceptance of consequences when not met. Continuing to hold hands of students as in high school may be actually more damaging than helpful to the students' growth. On the other hand, it may be valuable in letting students know that in fact a submission they "know they submitted" actually did not upload correctly. Therefore, with consequences still in place, this may be a great asset.

[thompsli]

Also, not everyone who uses Canvas is in higher ed. I use Canvas in an online school with 7th-12th grade students, and I definitely use more in the way of repeated reminders and various ways  of reaching out to parents with 7th graders and gradually fade it as they move up in grades and get used to the expectations.

I'm also a fan of reaching out more the first few assignments of the term (when students may still be confusing about whether or not something was submitted and need a little technical help to navigate the LMS) and fading that within the term. (It's reasonable to not know how to submit the first assignment and need a little hand-holding if this is your first class through online school and you're 12 years old, but if you're still confused by the 8th assignment with exactly the same directions then there are bigger issues in play than I can resolve through Canvas Messages.)

[bryanjos]

Agreed!  Very good point about helping students get used to using Canvas.  This holds true in higher ed too.  Freshmen especially are learning to meet new expectations while having more freedom than ever before, so it's good to help them get a successful start.

[fisher1]

Hi  @kmcgreger ‌

I agree with you that students should learn to be responsible and manage their own schedules. Before tech, people used (and are still using) paper planners, sticky note reminders, etc. Now, people are using Google Calendar reminders, the Canvas Calendar, iOS reminders, etc. Even as an adult, I am still sent reminders by others about certain meetings, events, and tasks. All of these are great things because my memory isn't perfect. To me, I see this feature request as yet another example of how technology is shaping our world and improving our productivity. If Canvas can make something better, why not do it?