Assignments Overview

Assignment Options 

The Assignment tool is Canvas's option for conducting a variety of assessments of student learning. From online submissions of papers and paragraphs to offline activities like performances or paper exams, the Assignment tool makes it easy to collect and share scores and feedback with students.

As with content tools, Discussions, and Quizzes, the published or unpublished (draft) setting is an option to limit whether students can see an Assignment. Dates and times can be used to control when an Assignment can be submitted. And remember that the published and date settings for a Module override the settings for linked Assignments they contain.

Each Assignment has a submission type, which designates whether it is an online assignment using Canvas, an online assignment using an external tool, or an offline assignment. For Canvas online assignments, you can decide the online entry options for students: text entry, website URL, media recording, and/or file upload. For file upload, you can limit the file type that can be uploaded. This option is especially useful if your students use Pages to write papers - Pages can export to MS Word format, but MS Word cannot read files created in the native Pages format.

Finally, you can create group assignments and/or require peer reviews of assignments. These options can be especially useful in a fully online class, as students are less likely to make connections with each other when they do not regularly meet in person.

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Canvas Instructor Guide

• What are Assignments for instructors? Links to an external site.
• How do I create an Assignment? Links to an external site.
• What are the different Assignment types available to instructors in Canvas courses? Links to an external site.
• What is the difference between assignment due dates and availability dates? Links to an external site.
• Additional  Canvas Guides for Assignments Links to an external site.
• Add an assignment group in a course Links to an external site.
• Weight the final course grade based on assignment groups Links to an external site.

 

Assignment Tips

Meaningful feedback is extremely important, especially in online classes. 

Byte-sized Canvas: It's Time to Rethink Feedback Links to an external site.

Here are some general tips, including how to restrict file types for submission.

Byte-sized Canvas: I Did NOT Know That, redux Links to an external site.