Buzz: Questions & Answers

Hi!

The “Show inactive enrollments” setting is currently a user-level setting and cannot be configured domain-wide.

I’d like to better understand your workflow so we can determine whether there’s another way to accomplish this. Are you looking for teachers to identify assignments that still need grading after a student’s enrollment ends, or are you looking for administrators to identify these assignments across the district?

Also, are you referring to assignments that students have submitted and that are awaiting grading, or assignments that students haven’t submitted yet?

With a little more information, we can look into whether there are any reporting options that might help.

Thanks!  We end enrollment for students at each quarter and semester.  Once this happens, pending items disappear from the needs grading area (something I think would be great for Buzz to correct).  Our grading team needs to know which items to score, so we are hoping they could look in the gradebook for pending work.  

Hi Julianne,

Thanks for explaining your workflow! I have a few additional questions so we can better understand how your enrollments are managed and recommend the best approach.

• How are final grades issued for students who still have pending work when their enrollment ends?

• Are enrollments ended manually or through an automated process, such as an SIS sync?

• Are these continuous (self-paced) courses or range courses?

• When an enrollment ends, are you setting an end date or changing the enrollment status (such as to Completed or Withdrawn)?

• What is the main goal of ending enrollments at the quarter or semester: stopping student access, preventing late submissions, or something else?

One thing worth noting is that if only the enrollment end date passes, students retain read-only access, and pending grading items should remain in Needs Grading for 14 days to allow teachers to grade the remaining work. If the enrollment status is changed to something other than Active, the enrollment is removed from Needs Grading immediately.

Thanks for asking:

Final grades are not issued until we score pending work.  Generally this means we extend their enrollment while teachers finish.

Enrollments are ended through a SIS sync (school pathways manual registration with set dates)

These are continuous courses.

Enrollment ends via a set end date in manual registration in SIS.

The main goal of ending enrollments is to stop student access.

Currently, when our enrollment end dates pass in SIS, the items pending in Needs Grading are gone immediately.

Hi, Julianne!

Based on what you’re describing, it sounds like your SIS sync may be changing the enrollment status in Buzz when the end date passes, not just setting the end date. That status change is what removes the pending items from Needs Grading immediately.

In Buzz, the enrollment end date by itself already stops students from submitting. Once the end date passes, students can still view the course in a read-only state but can no longer work in it (E.g start assessments, make submissions). Teachers can continue grading pending items from Needs Grading for up to 14 days after the enrollment end date.

To keep that grading window, we recommend working with your SIS admins (School Pathways) to:

Change the enrollment status 14 days after when a student’s enrollment ends.
If a status change is needed, have the SIS update the enrollment status (for example, to Completed) 14 days after the end date.
This way students lose the ability to make submissions on their end date, and your grading team still has time to score pending work before final grades are issued.