Hide Section visibility from students

[james_trueman]

I'm aware that Khaki 2017 is considering Sections and that there are other great ideas/observations around this such as from Jayde Colquhoun.  This is my brief contribution to the mix.

We can use Sections to divide students into groups for marking and assign different assignment due dates at this Section level. When this is done, we may be adding particular students to a Section for private reasons - maybe if they have a personal issue, need more time, and really don't want anyone else knowing about it (quite rightly so). However, the problem is that Sections are also used to great effect for Teaching and Learning purposes, and we need students to be able to see which Sections different students are allocated to.

So my suggestion is that a new control is added when creating Sections, a True / False 'hidden from students' selection (also manageable via the API).  It could be the other way around by default, it doesn't matter. (i.e. visible to students). In this case, when this 'hidden from students' is True, the Section name does not appear in the People Area to students or any other listing where Section details might appear.  

This will ensure that Sections can be used to properly and confidentially manage the student journey for assignments.

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

For more information, please read through the Canvas Release Notes (2020-08-15) 

[james_trueman]

Just wondering - does GDPR highlight the need for a solution like this?

[jenny_millea]

The University of Canberra supports this feature request. It would enable confidential administrative management of students with Reasonable Adjustment Plans.  

[Stef_retired]

Comments from Instructure

The Section column can be hidden from students in the People page when more than one section exists in the course. This change prevents students from viewing sections for other students when they have access to view the People page.

For more information, please read through the Canvas Release Notes (2020-08-15) 

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this conversation. Your investment in this idea helped refine a feature that is now part of Canvas! 

[s_j_beale]

@Stef_retired Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't students still see each other students in different Sections through the Inbox function, even if when 'People' is turned off? i.e. It still appears to be a GDPR/privacy issue for us, which is a major sticking point. 

I would also say that this should not be marked as 'Completed' for the reasons above.

[Stef_retired]

@s_j_beale While this idea has been marked as 'Completed,' your subsequent request to extend this functionality to the Inbox remains open for conversation:  Section Anonymity: Provide the Option to Make Section Enrolments Invisible to Students