Missing Label Placed Incorrectly/Submission on paper and online option

[shantel_black]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

When the Missing Label was created it caused a lot of issues for me because I was teaching a distance education class and so I had many of my students submit assignments online but several that were at the same location as I was submitted them in class (paper copy). On canvas I could only select one(online) or the other(paper copy) not both, so all the students that had turned in all their assignments in class and not submitted them online had all their assignments show up as missing, even though I had entered a grade for them.

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through Canvas Production Release Notes (2017-10-07) 

[kimberly_smith1]

Hello Laura,

It seems to me that the punitive labels, particularly when inaccurate, could potentially even be provoking a subtle kind a 'learned helpless' response in some students. I don’t imagine myself ever using them, but I suppose there might be some other application I have not thought of that is appropriate (when accurate). Thank you for sharing your notes

[laurakgibbs]

That's how I see it: I want all my communication with students to be forward-looking, leading to some action.

If you missed the Part A reading, just do Part B, no problem!

If you missed A and B, okay, do the extra credit reading this week!

And so on.

But to label something as "missing" just makes no sense to me: what are they supposed to do? It kind of implies that they can still turn it in, but they can't. And reminding them every time that they look at the Gradebook about how they missed assignments in the past is just a drag on the future, in my opinion.

Feedforward, not feedback! Just keep swimming. 🙂

Something I share with my students along those lines:

Online Course Wiki / feedback 

[kimberly_smith1]

I love the "feedforward" ":-). This is my approach, and one of the several reasons offer a variety of extra credit and drop lowest fro each major aassignment group (just do the other one), but hadn't heard the term before. BTW - I also liked your happy dance gif about the 'rollback to beta'... right there with ya.

[erinhmcmillan]

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through Canvas Production Release Notes (2017-10-07) 

[Renee_Carney]

 @shantel_black  Nice Work  for submitting this idea, as well as,  @rlbrown21  Thank You ,  @thompsli  Thank You ,  @RhondaB  Thank You , vambrose Thank You ,  @dbrooks1  Thank You ,  @hvhenderlight  Thank You , mary.bolton Thank You ,  @ibagdasa  Thank You ,  @rhhelms  Thank You , laurakgibbs Thank You , &  @kimberly_smith2  Thank You  for your contributions. Your investment in this idea helped refine a feature which is now part of Canvas! 

[craigring]

While it is great that the 'missing' label has been taken away from student view. There are some concerns I have, especially with upcoming releases that were previewed at CanvasCon Europe. 

Although the 'missing' label has been hidden, the system still recognises the assignment as missing. This means that instructors see red for some assignments that have been handed in, analytics will always be off and 'message students who... haven't submitted yet' will still have the names of all of the 'paper demons' who just wanted to cut and stick for a change 🙂 (I know there is a potential workaround where you can change 'message students who... scored less than' but it just becomes confusing for staff and students alike with wording)

Do students still see 'missing assignments' grouped together? Or has this been changed as well?

There were product previews for the Student 'To Do' Dashboard and the Analytics 2 features at CanvasCon. Both of these look very lovely, but could be rendered useless if 'missing' (but not missing) assignments are plastered all over the dashboard, or graphs show a 0 for hand ins. Don't even get me started on Context Cards! 

It is a shame, as this fix seems to be less fixed and more brushed in a cupboard while walking away whistling.

[kimberly_smith1]

While some of these concerns have technically been addressed in the New Gradebook, the red "Missing" and "Late" labels can currently only be removed on a "student-by-student per assignment" basis. If interested, there is a related feature request open for voting:https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/10605-a-global-option-to-enabledisable-missing-and-late-status... 

[kimberly_smith1]

Hello Renee,

I wonder if you might please consider reviewing the following post and providing feedback? The manual process required to removed the late/missing labels one at a time, per assignment for every student, presents a number of concerns. Thank you.

It appears that we will soon no longer have access to the Old Gradebook. As such, I wonder if we will have a global option to disable the late/missing labels before this happens? A number of us have expressed concern about these labels (please see 'Some History' below). I realize that Canvas now considers these initial concerns to have been addressed, because instructors now have the option to manually control these labels by changing the assignment status in the ‘Grade Detail Tray’ (e.g. https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-13333-canvas-release-new-gradebook#jive_content_id_Grades_M... ). However, as the New Gradebook is currently designed, instructors who want to remove such labels can only do so one at a time, by changing the Status on a "per-assignment+student-by-student" basis in the Grade Detail Tray.

Most Importantly...

In many cases, ‘not done’ assignments might be neither ‘late’ nor ‘missing’ (please see example below). Because the removal of late/missing labels in the New Gradebook is currently a manual process, where instructors can only remove these labels one at a time (for each assignment/every student), both students and parents will be seeing these labels in the Gradebook until this manual process of removing each individual inaccurate label is complete. Doesn't this issue potentially undermine the confidence students (and parents) have in this grading system, and make them wonder if they can trust their instructors to provide accurate student progress assessments. Would it not be better to address the issue now... before instructors start having to respond to panic emails from students and parents (please see 'Some History' below), and trying to explain to them why what they see in the New Gradebook in Canvas at any given time may not be accurate - resulting in unnecessary stress for us all? Again, I realize that initial concerns have technically been addressed. But isn't there some way to provide a global disable option, rather than this being a manual 'per-assignment+student-by-student" option?, so that instructors can prevent the display of these inaccurate lables? I have already submitted this as a feature request at A global option to enable/disable Missing and Late Status labels in the New Gradebook  However, it may not be until after we lose access to the Old Gradebook that a majority of instructors become aware of the issue (and instructors then start searching/requesting/voting for this). Once that happens, I expect the issue will move up on the Product Radar list, as evidenced by the concerns expressed in previous posts (please see 'Some History' below). I imagine that regaining student/parent confidence will take much longer than losing it. 

An Example...

For those who allow students a choice of assignments to complete, manual removal of late/missing labels could become a nightmare. By way of example, I would ask that Canvas programmers and engineers please consider the following scenario: An instructor with 4 classes in a 16 week semester, with 50 students in each class, allows students to choose 5/10 assignments to complete in a given assignment group. The instructor cannot know which of these assignments students will choose until all of the assignment deadlines in that assignment group have passed. As such, to prevent students from seeing inaccurate late/missing labels in the New Gradebook for assignments that were not actually required (e.g. neither 'late' nor 'missing'), each time an assignment deadline passes, the instructor must:

1) go to the Gradebook column for each assignment in that assignment group (10 assignments)

2) click on the cell where each student’s grade would appear for that assignment (200 students)

3) change the Grade Detail Tray to ‘No Status’ (= 2000 grade detail tray changes)

If you then consider instructors with larger classes, and/or those who allow assignment choices in more than one assignment group, I think the need for a more global option associated with this feature becomes clear. For me personally, I have four assignments groups for which I give students the option of choosing from a number of assignments to complete across the semester (12/15 reading quizzes, 3/4 video quizzes, 3/5 critical thinking assignments, and 4/5 exams). Each of these assignments have different due dates, associated with when we will be covering the materials in class. Thus, if I would like to prevent the display of potentially inaccurate late/missing status labels to my students in the New Gradebook, this means changing the Grade Detail Tray of each cell for [(# of students) x (15+4+5+5)]. With just 100 students, this would = changes in 2900 cells, and this does not consider any extra credit or on paper assignments.

Some History…

When this MISSING/LATE label Gradebook feature was originally introduced for the 'Old' Gradebook (in late summer 2017), many of us expressed concerns for a variety of pedagogical and/or logistical reasons, and requested an option to disable that feature. In some cases the concern was about those labels appearing for assignments that we, as the instructor, did not actually consider to be late or missing. In other cases, there were objections associated with the punitive nature of these messages in general (even if accurate). As a result, Canvas temporarily removed the feature from the current (old) version of the Gradebook. Below are some links from within the Canvas Community associated with comments and requests during the original roll out of the red MISSING/LATE assignment label feature. 

Allow "Missing" label to be enabled/disabled 

Missing Label Placed Incorrectly/Submission on paper and online option 

No MISSING label for zero-point assignments  

Instructor override of missing submission badge 

Manually graded or "EX" assignments still show as missing 

Gradebook Dismay: The Thoughtless Tyranny of Red Ink 

Finally...

If a global option to disable these labels cannot be provided, is there some way to prevent students from viewing the Gradebook entirely (not just the Gradebook totals)? At this point, I'm not sure what I would provide to students instead of the Gradebook, but it might be something to consider if the display of inaccurate labels cannot be prevented (before I have time to manually remove them, one at a time, after each assignment deadline). 

Thank you for your time.

[laurakgibbs]

Oh my gosh, is the old Gradebook going away?

That will indeed be a disaster for me.

The so-called missing assignments are NOT missing in my classes. It is not a case-by-case thing; they are NEVER missing.

The so-called late assignments are NOT late in my classes. They are NEVER late.

The old Gradebook is not putting the wrong labels on my students' assignments, thanks to the rollback that happened in response to widespread dissatisfaction as detailed in many discussions here at the Community.

I had not heard that the old Gradebook was going away.

If so, then I will really be in trouble with the inappropriate and unwanted labels.

Thanks for asking about this,  @kimberly_smith1 ‌!

[Renee_Carney]

 @kimberly_smith1  

Thank you for your post.  I see you copied and pasted it in another place.  I deleted that post so that we can keep one thread, here.  

I read your post a few times, and I see 2 main themes.  1) You're worried about the timing of the New Gradebook and losing access to a workflow that works well for you in the old one.  2) You have a different assignment structure than some and the current missing/late labels do not accompany this structure of choice well.

Let me know if I missed one, but I think that summarizes it?  So I'll address them here:

1) I know you're already following the New Gradebook Users Group, which is the best place to continue to get up to date information.  When we have a switch over date we will announce it there with plenty of warning.  We make it a priority to make sure users have adequate warning, and time to change, before we turn off an old feature and move to the new.  This is also why we have the beta experience.  We want users to explore and provide feedback!

2) I can see where giving students the choice to complete a specific number of a whole of assignments would not work with the current missing/late label structure.  There will always be assignment that will never be submitted, and therefore counted missing.  And i can see where this would cause undue panic or alarm to students and parents, as they are provided with more up-to-date information.   You have taken the right steps with creating a new feature idea.  https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/10605-a-global-option-to-enabledisable-missing-and-late-status...