[Mobile - Canvas Teacher] Canvas Teacher: Option to Hide Grading Tabs

[rseilham]

TL;DR: The ability for users to hide the grading, comments, and files area so documents can be viewed in full screen when grading in the Teacher App. 

The Teacher app currently doesn't give the ability to hide the grading, comments, and files area when using the app on an iPad in landscape or portrait mode. It would be helpful to temporarily hide this section so the user can have full-screen access to documents in SpeedGrader for annotations. 

This is a current view on an iPad in portrait mode: 

This view limits the usability of SpeedGrader, especially for annotations. 

Comments from Instructure

This was corrected for iPads with Canvas Teacher Release Notes (iOS 1.7) , but is not in the notes. Grading tabs can be hidden in portrait mode, but not in landscape.

[profrich]

ipad pro speedgrader for ios  #Canvas teacher app.  Being able to hide the grading comments section in the Canvas Teacher app would be a MAJOR improvement!  I used my wife's iPad Mini and discovered how much easier and faster it is to use her iPad mini (rather than my MacBook Pro) to mark up papers in the Teacher app. I was so impressed, I went out and bought an iPad Pro, thinking that the grading would be even better with a larger screen.  However, on the iPad mini the grading comments section can be minimized, but on the iPad Pro, the comments section cannot be minimized and takes up nearly HALF of the screen. What a major disappointment!  The iPad Pro actually has less usable screen space for markup than does the iPad mini.  The frustrating problem could easily be resolved simply by making it possible to minimize the comment section on the iPad Pro the same was it allows on the iPad mini.

For those who like to markup papers with lines, circles, handwritten short comments (along with other functions in the new Grader), the Teach app on the iPad is a great alternative. I strongly recommend that you try it. But currently, the iPad Pro implementation is a disappointment.

[rseilham]

Wow, I didn't know the mini could hide that area. Quite interesting! I guess there is some screen size magic going on there. It would be nice to have this option for all screen sizes though. Thanks for sharing. 

[KristinL]

Hello! It looks like this idea is resurfacing -- https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/11236-teacher-app 

[rseilham]

My idea might have life again! Thanks  @KristinL ‌

[Renee_Carney]

Comments from Instructure

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas. This was corrected for iPads with Canvas Teacher Release Notes (iOS 1.7) , but is not in the notes. Grading tabs can be hidden in portrait mode, but not in landscape.

[profrich]

ipad pro speedgrader for ios  #Canvas teacher app.  Being able to hide the grading comments section in the Canvas Teacher app would be a MAJOR improvement!  I used my wife's iPad Mini and discovered how much easier and faster it is to use her iPad mini (rather than my MacBook Pro) to mark up papers in the Teacher app. I was so impressed, I went out and bought an iPad Pro, thinking that the grading would be even better with a larger screen.  However, on the iPad mini the grading comments section can be minimized, but on the iPad Pro, the comments section cannot be minimized and takes up nearly HALF of the screen. What a major disappointment!  The iPad Pro actually has less usable screen space for markup than does the iPad mini.  The frustrating problem could easily be resolved simply by making it possible to minimize the comment section on the iPad Pro the same was it allows on the iPad mini.

For those who like to markup papers with lines, circles, handwritten short comments (along with other functions in the new Grader), the Teach app on the iPad is a great alternative. I strongly recommend that you try it. But currently, the iPad Pro implementation is a disappointment.

UPDATE 11-17-17. 

[Renee_Carney]

profrich Have you checked this since the 1.7 release?

[profrich]

The ability now to hide the comments/rubrics in the iOS Canvas Teacher App is a big improvement.  Thanks!  However, not being able to do view the NOTES/Annotations at the same time as the student assignment is still a MAJOR flaw.  Anytime I want to make a comment (e.g. with a highlight), a new window appears that takes up the entire screen on my iPad Pro 10.5". This makes it impossible to view the student assignment text while trying to make a teacher note about it. It's very frustrating.

[profrich]

Renee, I have installed Canvas Teacher v1.7 in my iPad Pro 10.5".  The primary "Comments" window is resizable and allows typing a general comment while being able to scroll through the student assignment.  However, that's not what I am talking about.  I'm talking about how, even still in v1.7, if I e.g. highlight text in a student attached assignment and want to make a specific comment about it, the window that pops up takes up the entire iPad Pro screen, whether it's turned vertically or horizontally.  It does not allow the grader to view anything in the student assignment while trying to make a comment about anything that has a highlight, a pin-drop, a box, or a strikethrough.  

In other words, Canvas Teacher v1.7 has not resolved this significant issue, at least not for my 10.5" iPad Pro.  I am still hopeful that it will one day work as I think it should--which would be similar to being able to resize the "Grades/Comments/Files" window that is now possible.

[rseilham]

profrich‌, 

Thanks for the additional information, and yes, you are correct adding a comment to an annotation does take up the entire screen on all iOS devices. Since your feature idea is similar but different than this original feature idea, I suggest you create a new feature idea to bring more attention to this request.

How do I create a new feature idea in the Canvas Community?