Linked Assignments into Modules, order not respected

[abrown8]

As an instructor, I went to my modules section and linked assignments from paper & online homework, so that students could see them from Modules. They are in order: 12345678 in the Assignments menu.

After they populated the Modules section, they were in order: 43218765. Luckily, our institution makes it a habit of typing out the objective number at the front of the assignment, so I can reorder them quickly, but I feel like checking the order of the original list of assignments and then ensuring the modules are in the same order would be optimal.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi @abrown8 ...

I'm not sure that I'm completely following ... but the order of your items on your "Assignments" page of your course doesn't necessarily correlate to the order on your "Modules" page.  On your "Modules" page, you can order your content items just the way you want as an instructor...and that order should not move.  As you are initially building your modules and the content within them, set the order of the items the way you want, and you should be "good to go".  Does this help to answer your question?

[Ron_Bowman]

@abrown8 -

As to what @Chris_Hofer mentioned - it is not too bad to move items around in a module with drag -n- drop unless you have more items than are displayed at one time on a page.

However, I am not sure, but if you do a bulk add of assignments to the module, they may be added alphabetically - I have never paid attention to it.  Of course for selection, the items are alphabetical.  Or, as is usually the case my items are alphabetical to begin with.  If you are adding the items one at a time, then just add them in the order you want them to appear.  I am not sure about dragging and dropping the files in with the initial setup.

You may have to play around with adding content to see what is happening so that you can figure out the way you want to add items to the module to minimize the amount of sorting work that you need to do.

I just tried adding in quizzes that showed alphabetical, but when I added a group to the module the placement was random.  I checked the due dates and none of them had due dates, so that was not it either.  I thought it might be the id of the assignment for the initial ordering, but that is not the case either.

Sorry I can't be of much help in explaining what is happening

[abrown8]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, it's true that Modules & Assignments don't *need* to have the same order, but I was doing a Bulk Add using shift+click to say "I want all Unit 1 Online Homework assignments to show up in one module." Granted, our institution uses too many assignments (about 40 per unit, since the homework system in question blocks students from advancing from one objective to the next, despite not being a prerequisite, but this isn't really relevant), but the sorting algorithm used is ordering assignments into the given module in a regular, if annoying, way. It will reverse the order of each block of between four and six assignments for no apparent reason.

I think that I need to speak with someone on the technical / coding side of Canvas, but the pop-up that I was supposed to click on was not popping up. I probably just need a system restart for that to be fixed.

Thanks anyway.

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi @abrown8 ...

I'm not sure if this will help at all, but @James Jones has developed a "Canvancement" (Canvas Enhancement) that lists the items you choose to add to a module in alphabetical order.

How to List Items Alphabetically when Adding to a ... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

Just thought I'd provide this link in case you wanted to take a look at it.  😊

[abrown8]

Thanks, Chris!
I'm on institution machines, so Greasemonkey is a no-go, but I can do it on my home machine.

[Ron_Bowman]

@abrown8 -

Don't use greasemonkey.  use tampermonkey.  James even states that in his instructions.

[Ron_Bowman]

@abrown8 -

I should also point out that you may find other scripts written by james useful.  Personally, I would install quizwiz rubrics (even if you don't use clasic quizzes).  The addition of that will save you 3 clicks on entering grades on a rubric.

here is his canvancement git hub page 

another very useful one is the all course sort script (which lucky for me my institution incorporated into our instance of canvas)

[James]

@abrown8 

I would recommend Tampermonkey over Greasemonkey. It has better browser support and Greasemonkey made some breaking changes a few years ago that caused some scripts to stop working.

[abrown8]

Fair, though the point is that I don't have install privileges on anything because the IT guys can't trust people to be responsible with scripts with all the ransomware about.