Traction on Assignment "Ideas"

Megan Day
Megan Day
Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant
in Blackbaud Learning Management System™

As Director of Ed Tech and a classroom teacher, I can speak first hand about flaws in the LMS assignment workflow. I'm trying to get some traction on a couple of “Ideas” that would make a HUGE impact on the number of clicks required when dealing with assignments. Please help by upvoting them!

Ability to edit an assignment from Assignment Detail page (HUGE!!!)

Attendance indicator should be included on assignment detail page (Just added this but definitely feel like this was just completely missed in the assignment updates that occured awhile back)

Thank you in advance for your help!

Comments

  • Megan Day
    Megan Day
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant

    Of course as soon as I posted another one came up…. ?

    Make the Assignment “Export list” usable! - Just added this idea but it's been an issue (open ticket with support) since 2020.

    Here are two more that are related to the idea I created. Blackbaud reps, feel free to merge if you think appropriate.

    Add the assignment description to the exported assignment report

    Exporting Assignment Descriptions

  • Adrian Skrentny
    Adrian Skrentny
    Fifth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Facilitator 1

    @Megan Day
    I agree those would be helpful features. I voted for those ideas.

  • Michael Morrissette
    Michael Morrissette Blackbaud Employee
    Ninth Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply Name Dropper

    Hey @Megan Day -

    I have some good news for you! We are planning on adding the Assignment Description to the Assignment list in the Assignment Center, and the Assignment tab on class pages. This new column will also be included in the export. I can't give a specific ETA on this right now, but I can say that it is currently included in our planned work for the rest of the school year. As always, priorities may shift that cause us to push this out, so I don't want to make any hard promises, but it is something I want to implement.

    As for the Absent indicator, I can completely see the value in having an at-a-glance view of that information from the evaluation screen. We have to be careful with how many indicators we show next to the student name as the field can only hold 4 icons as of right now. If we were to implement this, it'll likely be part of a larger project to make those indicators more useful to teachers.

    I also agree with the need of having a way to get to Assignment settings from the Evaluation screen. We'll take a look at that workflow and see what might make the most sense. No timeline on this, but I completely agree with the frustration being experienced.

    -Mike

  • Megan Day
    Megan Day
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant

    @Michael Morrissette Thanks for the reply!

    Glad to hear there is some progress on the assignment export list! Will be keeping an eye out for this one.

    I believe the gradebook only shows 4 indicators at once as well, right? If there are more than 4 (which in my experience, rarely happens) it shows an ellipsis. That would be an adequate solution for the evaluation screen as well. (Is that page called the “evaluation screen” now? I had always heard it called the “assignment detail page” and want to make sure I'm using the right terminology when working with support and posting ideas.)

    As for the ability to edit an assignment from the assignment details page/evaluation screen, I'll make sure it stays on your radar. :)

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