Ability to Save and Copy from Frequently Used Comments in Speedgrader/DocViewer

[jherron]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

For more information, please read through the  Canvas Release Notes (2021-06-19).

We're aware that there are two parts to this idea. The "Speedgrader" piece of the request is complete; the idea remains open for DocViewer annotations comments.

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It would be a great timesaver for writing instructors and anyone else making many of the same comments to students on assignments to save and store comments in SpeedGrader/Crocodoc DocViewer as one is able to do in Turnitin's Grademark feature. This feature would help SpeedGrader really live up to its name, too.

This has been a request since August 2012: Ability to Save and Copy from Frequently Used Comments in Crocodoc : Help Center

[adamson]

I would also like an update about this important need, please.

[nancy_lachance]

I wanted to post a shoutout to a small company that has provided a great third-party solution to the "stored comments" issue.  The company is 11Trees and the product is Annotate PRO.  It is a browser add-on the allows you to create banks of comments that you can then click and add to SpeedGrader.   Not only that, but it provides a way to review the comments you have provided by category and by student. The developer is a pleasure to work with and has made some major improvements just in the time we have been working together.  It currently works with SpeedGrader (including adding comments to rubrics) and with DocViewer (annotaitions directly on documents) as well as Word. I will be working it out over the next four weeks but it has been a godsend so far.  https://www.11trees.com/live/

[amcc]

Thanks for the reminder about AnnotatePRO,  @nancy_lachance . I corresponded with the developer a couple of months ago and this sounds like the functionality that Canvas should provide in speedgrader / docviewer without all the apparently ineffectual nudging from the user community.

I have no doubt that Instructure has many committed staff juggling lots of competing priorities, but this request--which goes back to 2012, has nearly 550 upvotes, and has been on Product Radar for 2.5 years--languishes and users like me are getting more frustrated and disillusioned with each passing month.

I've encouraged my multicampus institution's Canvas support group to investigate ways to incorporate or support Annotate PRO, but I doubt they want to get into using 3rd-party tools.

[ajmccann]

Nancy,

Andrew here from 11trees (developers of Annotate PRO - AP as we like to call it).

Many thanks for highlighting our work! While not formally announced, we are delighted to share that AP is now free to all individual faculty - create as many libraries and groups and comments, use our toolbar for Canvas and Google Docs, or our app for Microsoft Word...Forever free.

While AP works closely with Canvas (and Google Docs), no formal integration is required. You just install our Chrome Extension and away you go...Please observe your institution's rules and regs regarding 3rd party solutions...but you could be hammering away with AP in a minute or two...

11trees is now a formal Canvas partner and we've been a signatory to the Student Privacy Pledge for quite a while now. We take this stuff seriously and are honored to be part of the Canvas community.

We offer premium individual accounts as well as institutional accounts...see our pricing for more info. Advanced features include the ability to easily share Libraries across hundreds (potentially) of faculty and aggregate the resulting data, histories of feedback at the course, assignment, and student level (great for student conferences!), fill-in-the-blank forms, and the ability to easily convert manually created comments into reusable comments.

Please don't hesitate to be in touch with questions...we've got some exciting and ground-breaking stuff coming for the school year and we'd love this community to be on the forefront of guiding AP's development.

[Renee_Carney]

The Radar‌ idea stage has been removed from the Feature Idea Process.  You can read more about why in the blog post Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.

This change will only impact the stage sort of this idea and will not change how it is voted on or how it is considered during prioritization activities.  This change will streamline the list of ideas 'open for voting', making it easier for you to see the true top voted ideas in one sort, here.

[amcc]

Thanks Renee. The sort (an informative overview) reveals that this is currently the 10th most-voted feature idea across all stages. I look forward to seeing the top-10% list mentioned in the blog post.

[Renee_Carney]

Thanks!  That's next on the list after I get all of these ideas updated!

[gulick_24]

A comment bank for individual users would be amazing; that would save me so much copy-and-pasting.

[gulick_24]

This would also be great data for academic advisors and for retention staff, so they can help emphasize those resources earlier in the semester.

[gulick_24]

@andrewmccann Thanks for this info; I'm going to pass this along to my instructor team as a work-around until Canvas can get their version built (or maybe just keep using it in perpetuity if they like it as much as it sounds like they'll like it).