Duplicate students in Canvas Gradebook

[krobinson81]

I have several students who have moved course sections in semester 2.  I can view these students in their new section when using the section gradebook filter, but I can still view them in their old section as well.  Is there a way to hide them in the gradebook in their old section?  

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @krobinson81,

If these are multiple sections using the same Canvas course shell, the only way to accomplish what you're looking to do would be to totally remove the students from their original section.  As a Canvas admin myself, I can tell you this may not be possible or may have a lot of unintended consequences depending on whether (and how) your school integrates Canvas with their student information system.  I'd suggest asking your school's Canvas team (usually in the eLearning / IT / Digital Education areas) if this is something they could do or not.

Hope this helps a bit!

-Chris

[downinge1]

This wasn't the case previously -- filtering by "Section" showed only active enrollments within the section. What changed to cause this issue? 

We are also running into this issue. Canvas previously would annoyingly show inactive enrollments in the "People" tab, but if you filtered in the "Grades" area by section you would only see active enrollments. This changed from Fall 2023 to Spring 2024 and now a student moved from section 001 to section 003 will be marked as inactive in section 001, but still show up in the Grades filter.

[PaulFynn]

@krobinson81, we have the same problem where we undertake 'longtitudinal crosslisting' where we treat, for example, Dissertation modules as 'roll-on roll-off courses' throughout the year with a single site and multiple sections for each of three trimesters.

Normally where a student is removed from a section in our SIS they will be marked by our system as "Inactive" on the Canvas course roster and continue to be visible on the course roster, but without access rights etc. (other Canvas statuses may be used in other institutions).

When a student is removed from their SIS section, but then readded to a later SIS section in the same crosslisted course, then the inactive flag is removed, but leaving the student with what appear to be two active sections. For example the student defers Trimester 1 and re-enrols in the module in Trimester 2, but appears to be live in both.

This is generally an uncomfortable position to be in, as it cuts across the use of section specific communications, activities and assignments. Where, for example, Section is the basis for enrolling students in assignments, then 'dual enrolment' students will have access to both assignments. Fortunately in our institution we have moved to individual student enrolment so this doesn't arise, but can still impact formative assessments etc.

Our current workaround is to manually make a new section named "Transferred from [old section ID]", remove the redundant section from the student, and readd them to the 'Transferred from" section. This restricts them from the old section whilst maintaining a historic record.

We also keep a module level hidden 'Change Log' in the form of a discussion, and would record the changes there for audit purposes.

As @chriscas identifies, there can be unintended consequences so this does need checking through with your Institutional Canvas team,

Overall this is an area which could do with refining by Instructure, but if your institution has a SIS based enrolment solution, then it may be that a solution could be programmed in.

[lynnj]

My teachers are finding the same thing happening now. Everything seems to be syncing to Power School properly, but they have begun to see students in more than one section in their gradebooks. The question is, what changed? Is there some sort of admin setting we need to turn on/off to stop the students from showing up in multiple sections? Is there a way that the teachers themselves can stop them from showing up? We are approaching our semester turnover, and I anticipate that this will turn into an even larger issue as more kids change sections and teachers look more closely at their gradebooks. Manually changing each of them individually really isn't an option given how long it would take. 

Any ideas?

Jennifer

[downinge1]

We reached out to Canvas and they are currently working on the issue and are aware of its impact. It is not working as intended and appears to be the result of a January 3rd update.

In the meantime, you can still determine active student enrollments via Speed Grader. If you open Filter -> Sections and filter by section, then click on the 3 dot dropdown for an assignment and select Speed Grader, it will show only the students in the section you've filtered by.

This is an annoying workaround and we hope it is fixed soon!

[krobinson81]

Thank you for the responses.  Hopefully they will have the issue fixed soon.  Are any of you seeing issues with grades and missing assignments due to this issue?  My teachers are seeing that students are receiving a zero for missing assignments in their old section even though they have turned it in for their current/active section.  I have checked on the students side and fortunately it isn't impacting their grade report, but it is extremely frustrating for the teachers.  

[paul_fynn]

From experience, @krobinson81, that is likely to happen if you are using section based assignment allocation rather than individual student assignment allocation.

If you are not prepared (understandably) to remove the student manually from their old section, the only workaround that I can think of would be to mark the assignment as 'excused' in the original section in speedgrader.