Mute uploaded Assignment data by default

[steven_boulton]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

It would be helpful for Canvas not to force the creation of a new 'assignment' for each new column of data that is uploaded into the Grade Book from a .csv file or, if that 'assignment' must exist, for it to be unpublished and muted by default, not the other way round as it currently is.

As it stands, if you have a new data set that you would like to store in the Grade Book, when you upload from a .csv file you have to create a new assignment. This assignment is not only published by default, but it also is unmuted in the Grade Book. The result is that students who have notifications turned on for assignments get notified about this ‘new assignment' immediately upon the upload having taken place and go into Canvas and start panicking that they have been given another assignment to do. Also, unless staff have been super-quick and muted the associated column immediately, then students can get to see the column contents in their Grades area too.

We'd like to be able to store data in the Grade Book without it having to be an 'assignment' or, if it must be an 'assignment' in the eyes of Canvas, without that assignment being published and unmuted by default, as this triggers these unwanted notifications to students and results in some student panic.

This has been annoying in situations where support staff have been calculating overall grades for a course #offline and have wanted to put the final result in a new column in the Grade Book but only release it at a given time. As it stands, as soon as they upload the .csv file, the results are out there for quick-fingered students who happen to be online at the time. As soon as you have some students who have seen their grade and not others you then need to manage the complaints from the others as to why they haven't seen their grade yet etc. All this would be avoidable if the assignment column created by the .csv upload was muted.

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-16958-canvas-release-notes-2019-07-13 .

[Stef_retired]

 @steven_boulton ‌, we've archived this idea, because it contains two separate requests, one of which is covered by an existing idea, and the other of which is possible to accomplish: "do not create a new assignment column upon csv upload," and "mute newly created assignments by default." With respect to the latter, we'd like to direct you to an idea that is currently open for voting and in Product Radar status: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1694-mute-assignment-as-a-option-at-assignment-creation 

Turning to the former, I did some testing, and found that when I marked certain columns in my csv file as Read Only (by choosing Protection | Locked in Excel), upon import, I was presented with an option to ignore those columns as "bogus." When I selected that option, no new column was added to the Gradebook in the upload. This is depicted in How do I upload changes to the Gradebook?

Please investigate the above-linked resources; we hope they will meet you and your instructors' needs! 

[James]

stefaniesanders,

I agree that there were a couple of requests here, but I wanted to comment on something you wrote.

I'm not sure that the Protection | Locked in Excel had anything to do with it. I did not test this, but CSV is a text-only format and doesn't convey that extra information, so when importing there should be no way for Canvas to know that it's protected or locked. The "Bogus ignore it" appears when you have columns that aren't recognized by Canvas; it shouldn't matter whether they are protected in the original sheet or not. I think  @steven_boulton  wanted the grades in the gradebook, though, so that wouldn't be the right option for him anyway.

I'm not a big fan of muting, so I haven't tested this, but the correct workflow should be to create the assignment in Canvas and mute it*. Then export the gradebook so the right column is there with the Canvas ID in parentheses. Get the grades into the proper column and then save the CSV file. Finally import it back into Canvas and since it's already there and muted, it should stay that way.

* Technically, you could mute it at any point before the import, it doesn't have to be muted before the export, but you might as well do it then so you don't forget about it.

[Stef_retired]

Thanks for correcting me on that,  @James ‌; I mistook correlation for causation (not the first time, either). And the documentation does specifically state, "Read-only columns are automatically ignored in the upload" (referring to Canvas's read-only columns, not read-only columns in the csv), and that should have given me pause.

With that in mind,  @steven_boulton , please try the workflow James has suggested, and if that doesn't address the issue, please resubmit as separate ideas.

[steven_boulton]

Hello stefaniesanders,

Thanks for your time looking into this, but I have to say that overall I find the response a little bit disappointing.

First, I don’t really understand why you need to break this into two issues: "do not create a new assignment column upon .csv upload," and "mute newly created assignments by default."

It’s not so much the new assignment column being created in the Grade Book upon .csv upload that bothers me, it’s the new assignment itself. In the world of Canvas the two things appear to be inseparable, but my overall point is that it would be nice to be able to store data in the Grade Book that is not related to a specific assignment. As such, I think it must surely be possible to insert in the workflow a situation where a .csv is imported and for any new column of data in that .csv for the following options to be presented to users:

a) This is bogus data, ignore it
b) This is just data, create a column to store it in, but do not give me an assignment associated with it
c) Create and publish a new assignment, set to muted in the Grade Book
d) Create and publish a new assignment, set to unmuted in the Grade Book

This would cover all options (as an unpublished assignment would not show up in the Grade Book).

Then I could upload the data I wanted to store just because it’s data and nothing else by selecting option b), or if I wanted an assignment related to it, I could select option c) and rest assured that the assignment column is muted until I deem it fit for the students to see the contents of it. As it stands, I’m forced into a) (in which case I get no data) or d) (in which case I get an assignment and students are notified, which is what I am trying to avoid).

You response to the "do not create a new assignment column upon csv upload," question was to note that I would be presented with the option to ignore columns as ‘bogus’ data (an option that does appear when you have new columns in the .csv with which the Canvas Grade Book for that course is not familiar). This is true, but you have only described option a) above and I don’t see how this helps me. If I just select to ignore the data then it’s not uploaded to the Grade Book. I want the data in the Grade Book, but I want the column containing it to be muted (and thus invisible to students) by default. Following your instructions means I don’t get the data into the Grade Book in the first place.

As an aside, on this issue,  @James  contribution is accurate. Although you may lock columns of data in the .csv file using the functionality in Excel, Canvas ignores this when you upload to the Grade Book. Any new columns, locked or otherwise, are just treated as new data and the options to create a new column or ignore are still offered. James’ suggested methodology of creating the assignment in Canvas, muting it in the Grade Book, exporting the Grade Book and then importing an updated .csv with grades in it does work, in as much as the grades are successfully imported and the column remains muted after the import, but this does not solve the overall issue for me, because in order to do this I have to create an assignment and publish it before it appears in the Grade Book in the first place. Only then may I export the Grade Book containing that column. As soon as I have created the assignment and published it, however, I fall down the same trap that I am trying to avoid, in as much as I have now alerted students with notifications turned on of the appearance of a new assignment that might cause them to panic, as noted in my original posting. Yes, I can unpublish the assignment after I have set it up, published it, downloaded the Grade Book, input my data and re-uploaded that .csv into the Grade Book, but by that time the students have already been notified about the assignment, and then I get drawn into answering questions from students who cannot find the assignment or their grade details anymore (as I will have unpublished it by the time they get to it, in most cases).

You perception of my second issue, "mute newly created assignments by default" is really I guess closer to what I am asking for. If assignments were muted by default then that has much logic to it, I feel, but your link to the item as open for voting and on the product radar wasn’t that informative. When I follow this I end up at https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1694-mute-assignment-as-a-option-at-assignment-creation and there I see that, ‘Idea will be open for vote Wed. June 3, 2015 - Wed. September 2, 2015.’ I appear to be able still to vote on it, but I’m not sure what difference this makes if voting has closed. There was an update from someone called Jason Sparks in ‘September’ to say, “This idea is under consideration. We are looking at some implementation ideas. More to come as we progress.” But there’s no mention of which September this was. The idea was posted in 2015, so one assumes September 2015, but it could have been 2016 or 2017. The workflow for a successful idea goes: > Product Radar > In Development > On Beta > Completed, so I’m not sure where ‘under consideration’ sits on that timeline. It looks like, if this is 2 and a quarter years old now, as it may well be, that it’s not really a priority and thus not happening.

So, overall then, thank you both very much for your time on this, but I'm not sure I'm any further forward .

[Stef_retired]

 @steven_boulton , thank you so much for your comprehensive response. I do see these as two separate ideas, in that the idea as written starts with an "if...then" statement, which I interpreted as: "if this feature can't be implemented, this other remedy would be satisfactory." This makes voting problematic; as a voter, I wouldn't know how to cast my vote if the second remedy would not be satisfactory to me.

So let's turn to the status of what I called "this other remedy," the one implied by the "then" statement, namely, https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1694-mute-assignment-as-a-option-at-assignment-creation , which is currently in Product Radar status and open for voting. The "Under Consideration" stage referenced in the comment from a product manager was retired, in favor of Product Radar; you can read more about that at New Ideation Stage:  Product Radar‌. And you've probably already seen the document What is the feature development process for Canvas?‌, so you know that community ideation is one of many inputs Instructure considers when putting a feature on the roadmap for development.  

The ability to upload a csv file that generates a gradable column that does not also generate an actual assignment (option b in your proposed dropdown) is, as you note, not currently how Canvas grading is designed; indeed, it's currently not possible to create a gradable column in the Gradebook at all, csv upload or not, without also generating an assignment. As such, before that option could be included in the dropdown, that ability would first have to be developed. The Canvas Gradebook is predicated on transparency to students, so as part of the ability to upload a new data set to the Gradebook via csv, one must also consider how the grading scheme will display beforehand to students; how will they be able to determine, with a quick glance at their Grades tab, how their final grade will be calculated—before the data set exists?

One of our development priorities is Priority: Gradebook Enhancements. I know I've already given you a lot of links to read, and as a former instructor of large courses, I know how busy you must be—but you sound like you're passionate about improving Canvas, and are invested in the ideation process overall with specific focus on the Gradebook, so I hope you can take the time to review our New Gradebook priority, and perhaps even join the beta testers in the New Gradebook Users Group. Should you decide that you want to submit a new idea for the ability you've described, please be sure to include details of the various use cases that this feature would cover with additional consideration to the fundamental aspect of grade transparency in Canvas. How do I create a new feature idea? will help with that.

Again, thanks for your time and valuable feedback.

[steven_boulton]

Thanks for this reply stefaniesanders. I take your point about the 'if' statement meaning you might know know how to vote to support the idea. I personally think there ought to be room in the Grade Book for the storage of items that don't need to be exposed to students through their Grades area but which one might wish to have a record of (for example: attendance (or not) at events, or administrative details such as a User ID for a separate, third-party product that is linked to from the VLE but that may not be integrated via LTI). It would be beneficial to be able to store these in the Grade Book for cross referencing purposes, but I also see the point that this isn't why Canvas was developed so you might not want to go down this road.

I'll look into the New Grade Book Users Group as that seems like it might be interesting. Thank you for alerting me to it.

[Stef_retired]

You are so welcome,  @steven_boulton ! An instructor can add a single notes column to the Gradebook from the UI (How do I use the Notes column in the Gradebook?) and Canvas admins can add additional notes columns through the API; however, those columns are not currently included in instructors' csv exports or imports. You might want to support this feature idea: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/9260-import-notes-column-into-gradebook 

As you start looking through the New Gradebook resources, you'll find that one of the items listed in Phase II of the priority is the ability to create additional notes columns, and that might well address some if not many of your described use cases. We're happy to have you here and hope that you will provide feedback in the New Gradebook Users Group‌.

[Renee_Carney]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas 

For more information, please read through the Canvas Release Notes (2019-07-13) .

[Renee_Carney]

 @steven_boulton  Thank You  for submitting this idea, as well as,  @James  Thank You  for your contributions. Your investment in this idea helped refine a feature which is now part of Canvas!