show students with "lastname, firstname"

[alvarso_uw]

In most of Canvas the default is to SORT students by "last name" BUT to SHOW students as "first_name last_name" in the list, which makes it extremely annoying (at least for me), to find students. I would be WAY easier if the display would be "last_name, first_name" instead.

I'm guessing there's lots of people who like "first_name last_name", that's why the default is like that, but it would be great if we had the option to show "last_name, first_name" for us that look students up by last name all the time.

Example locations to clarify as much as possible:

- People list

- Group assignment list (where you drag/drop into groups)

- Speed grader pulldown list

In all those locations, which I use a lot, I have to find the last name after the first name, which slows thing down a lot (my groups are 70+ students!).

The list shows

  Peter Alpha

  Jane Beta

  Joe Gamma

  Anne Delta

I want *all* of those lists to be:

  Alpha, Peter

  Beta, Jame

  Gamma, Joe

  Delta, Anne

Hopefully this was clear enough, but feel free to ask for any clarifications.

Thank you for any tips, help, or advice to propose this as an upgrade.

Alvar

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

@alvarso_uw ...

I can understand where this would be helpful in other parts of Canvas (you can do exactly what you want in the Canvas Gradebook).  The proper place to suggest new ideas and enhancements to Canvas is over in the "Ideas and Themes" space here in the Community.  Here are some resources for you:

Instructure Community Guide - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

Be sure to check out the section on "Ideas and Themes" in the above link.  Then, when you are ready, go to:

Canvas Ideas and Themes - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

...and then click on the blue "View and Submit Ideas" button.  On the following screen, click on the blue "Submit an Idea" button.

Hopefully this info will be a good starting point for you to create your Idea.  You may even find that a similar Idea already exists...in which case it's not necessary to create the idea...so as to avoid duplication.

I hope this will help.  Good luck!

[julian_ebeli]

Hi.

Your system admin has access to an account setting

Allow markbook users to view and export student first and last names in separate columns

This would give you a separate lastname column in the markbook you could sort on 🙂

The setting can be accessed on subaccounts, realising that all the courses in the affected subaccount would get the change.

Julian

[Chris_Hofer]

@julian_ebeli ...

While it is true that at the Canvas account level, Canvas administrators can enable the option:

"Allow gradebook users to view and export student first and last names in separate columns"

...this does not apply to other areas of a Canvas course...which is what @alvarso_uw is asking about.  The option you mentioned (it's slightly different here in the US) is specific to the Gradebook.  If I am reading the above posting correctly, Alvar would like other areas such as People, Groups, and the SpeedGrader to be able to display LastName, FirstName.