[DocViewer] Bulk Download of Annotated DocViewer documents by assignment

Instructors can easily bulk-download student submissions, and instructors can individually download the PDF showing the annotations they've made to a student's submission in DocViewer. There is currently no way to bulk download all annotated submissions for an assignment in one click.  Faculty frequently want to keep a portfolio of this feedback / graded work for each student.

 

Similar requests have been made by Eric Castro and Robert Jones, but haven't received the votes needed.

71 Comments
annesinterests
Community Explorer

Having this feature is even more-important (IMHO) than bulk-downloading the original document.  This way, the student's original submission AND the feedback are all in one place.  Even if students don't view the feedback, we instructors have a record that we gave it and what it was...

Alden Weight -- wow!  Thanks for doing the research to gather evidence of how much time the current system wastes! 

For institutions interfacing with TurnItIn and using QuickMarks, does anyone know if they have a bulk download feature for scored papers?  I know bulk download of student-submitted work is available in TurnItIn, but I haven't experimented with scored papers because I use SpeedGrader for scoring and TurnItIn for Similarity Reports.

elord1
Community Novice

I have spent ages searching for a way to do this and have just been on the phone with Canvas chat.  We need to keep evidence of all marked work complete with annotations and feedback.  I have just read through these comments and can't believe that this isn't even on the road map and it has been in comments since 2012.  Surely, most institutions and teachers need to keep this evidence?  Very frustrating.

James
Community Champion

Earlier this year, there was a question about how to download the annotated submissions via the API. We found and documented how it can be done: https://community.canvaslms.com/thread/30644-download-annotated-submissions-via-api 

abenson3
Community Novice

Annotating assessment in speedgrader - I would also be able to download in bulk the assignment with the annotated comments. It is available on other LMS and given that it is possible to download them individually already I would have thought doing so in bulk shouldnt be too difficult. This is a feature needed for moderation and benchmarking and inefficient to do individually in larger classes.

m_lilley
Community Novice

I agree with Eric. This is a much needed feature. 

paul_casson
Community Novice

Not very user friendly for those of us with limited knowledge of whatever API is

James
Community Champion

 @paul_casson 

I agree with your assessment. 

It wasn't intended to be user friendly. It wasn't written for people who have limited knowledge of the API. It was a technical discussion of people trying things and documenting what worked and didn't worked to help figure out how to make it happen. It is not an announcement of a production-ready implementation that you could purchase and use.

When someone wants something from Canvas that is not part of the standard package, we often have to get creative. This means using the API, Canvas Data, Live Events, GraphQL, or other tools. All of those technologies have a definite learning curve and overhead involved. Use of those are geared more towards a developer than a typical user who wants an easy-to-use solution. That other discussion was for people who have those skills.

I was tying the two discussions together so people who found one could find the other one. Some people will be able to benefit from the other discussion, other people will not be able to.

kieran_nee
Community Novice

This is a must-have addition to the SpeedGrader functionality. The capability to download the annotated documents one by one is there, and an API workaround now exists. Why a bulk download option isn't available at the click of a button is baffling. 

sus_taylor25
Community Novice

Seems an obvious addition to speedgrabber.  Other tasks can be done in bulk so why not this equally relevant one?

Thanks

uwe_zimmermann
Community Participant

The problem as I see it is that the individual download suggest quite a meaningless name, which has to be changed individually, while the bulk-download of submissions automatically assigns the student name and id.