"Message Students Who" has changed and now...

[probinson1]

Hi all,

I used to (until this quarter) be able to, in the gradebook, click:

1. "Message students who"
2. Select from the dropdown, "scored less than"
3. Enter "-1" in the value.

This allowed me to email all students in the class FROM the gradebook, where I was at that moment, and send a general message to all. I set it up with the -1 to catch everyone, even the zeroes for non-submission. That often prompted the procrastinators to get hopping.

Today, however, I went to do the very same and when I entered "-1" for the "scored more than" value, the number changed to "NaN," which I'm guessing means "not a number." I tried simply making the choice zero, but the same thing happened.

Now my options are to message students who have not submitted, then message students who have and have been graded, increasing the number of emails I am sending out. It might seem minor, but you have not added an additional layer of "one more thing to send the same message" (yes, I know it's not the same, but just the "well done" from me was a good kick in the shorts for the procrastinators, as I've said).

Any idea why that changed?

After playing around, it seems I can message students who "scored less than [number]" which does what the other did before. But now I'm concerned that this option will inexplicably disappear one day, too.

Polly

[chriscas]

Hi @probinson1,

I tested this out and see what you mean.  I'm going to assume this is is likely a bug introduced in a recent update.  A developer probably didn't take into account the possibility of negative numbers being used in the gradebook (or the meaages too), so coded too simplistic of an input check.  I'd recommned that you contact Canvas support if you're able to report this and get ti looked at further as that's the official support route for bugs.  The community here is great for helping other users confirm things, but since most people here are not Instructure employes, we can't create tickets or have anything looked at by developers like Canvas support can.

Hope this helps a bit!

-Chris