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How to create assignments for your canvas course.

• Quick Start
• Instructor Help
• Student Help

How to Create Assignments

Using assignments in Canvas provides a streamlined process for assigning homework and creating quizzes for students.  Canvas considers an ‘assignment’ to be anything that is graded, whether that be a quiz or homework assignment, and whether it’s delivered entirely online, paper-and-pencil, or is a participatory assignment with no actual deliverable.

This Quick Start guide will cover the creation of assignments where the student submits a file electronically, on paper, using an external tool such as Turnitin or Panopto , or where no submission is expected (e.g. class participation). See How to Create Tests and Quizzes for Your Canvas Course and Create and Manage Discussions for more information about using those tools as assignments.

1. In the Course Navigation menu, click the Assignments link.

2. Click “ +Assignment ” at the top right.

3. Write the assignment title and directions for students.

4. Assign the number of points available for the assignment.

5. Choose an “ Assignment Group” . Assignment groups are, in essence, a category of assignment. For more information about using Assignment Groups, see the Canvas guides regarding Assignments.

6. There are four submission types :

• No Submission: an activity where nothing will be collected from students (e.g. a participation grade)
• For the full details about the online assignment subtypes, (text entry, annotation, file upload, etc.), please see the official documentation .
• We have a recorded mini-webinar on annotation assignments, including assignment ideas, available on the Training Webinars page.
• On Paper: assignments/quizzes/activities that were written on paper and collected by the instructor
• External Tool: assignments submitted through a 3rd party tool that is integrated with Canvas, such as a textbook publisher’s website or Turnitin

7. Submission Attempts: You may allow unlimited submission attempts for Online assignments, or restrict attempts to one or more. When a student submits to an assignment they have already submitted to, the previous submission is retained as well, and the instructor may view both.

8. Group Assignments and Peer Reviews:  Assignments can be created as either a group assignment or peer review assignment.

9. Assign options- You can assign an assignment to your entire class, a specific student, and/or a section of your class. You can also set the due date and the availability dates (when your students can submit their assignment). Each section can have different due dates and availability dates.

10. If you are finished creating the assignment, click on “ Save & Publish “. If you are not finished creating the assignment, click on “ Save ” and you may come back and work on it more later without students having access to it.

Instructor Help for Assignments

Creating assignments.

• How do I create an assignment?
• How do I add a moderated assignment to be graded by multiple reviewers?
• How do I create an online assignment?
• How do I add or edit details in an assignment?
• How do I add or edit points for an assignment?
• What assignment types can I create in a course?
• How do I limit submission attempts for an assignment?
• How do I add an assignment that includes anonymous grading?
• How do I enable anonymous instructor annotations in student submissions?
• How do I import SCORM files as an assignment?
• How do I publish or unpublish an assignment as an instructor?

Managing Assignments

• How do I use the Assignments Index Page?
• Can a student resubmit Canvas assignments?
• How do I assign an assignment to everyone in a course?
• How do I assign an assignment to a course group?
• How do I assign an assignment to a course section?
• How do I assign an assignment to an individual student?
• How do I view differentiated assignments with different due dates in a course?
• How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• How do I delete an assignment?
• How do I duplicate an assignment?
• How do I move or reorder an assignment?
• How do I use Direct Share to copy an assignment to another course?
• How do I use Direct Share to send an assignment to another instructor?

Creating and Managing Peer Review Assignments

• How do I create a peer review assignment?
• How do I use peer review assignments in a course?
• How do I automatically assign peer reviews for an assignment?
• How do I manually assign peer reviews for an assignment?
• How do I view student peer review comments as an instructor?

Creating External Tool Assignments

• How do I add an assignment using an external app?
• How do I create a cloud assignment with a Microsoft Office 365 file?

Using Assignment Groups

• How do I add an assignment group in a course?
• How do I create an assignment shell in an assignment group?
• How do I create rules for an assignment group?
• How do I move or reorder an assignment group?
• How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?

Grading Considerations

• How do I add a grading scheme to an assignment?
• How do I download all student submissions for an assignment?
• How do I upload all student submissions for an assignment?
• How do I exclude an assignment from the course’s final grades?
• How do I give extra credit in a course?

Student Help for Assignments

• How do I view Assignments as a student?
• How do I filter assignments by type as a student?
• How do I submit an online assignment?
• How do I submit a text entry assignment?
• How do I enter a URL as an assignment submission?
• How do I submit a media file as an assignment submission?
• How do I upload a file as an assignment submission in Canvas?
• How do I upload a file from Microsoft Office 365 as an assignment submission?
• How do I know when my assignment has been submitted?
• How do I manage celebration animations in Canvas as a student?
• How do I submit a cloud assignment with Microsoft Office 365?
• How do I download assignment submissions from all my courses?
• How do I annotate a file as an assignment submission in Canvas?
• How do I use DocViewer in Canvas assignments as a student?
• How do I submit a PDF assignment with annotations in the Student app on my Android device?
• How do I add annotations to a submission in the Student app on my iOS device?

Groups and Peer

• How do I submit an assignment on behalf of a group?
• How do I know if I have a peer review assignment to complete?
• How do I submit a peer review to an assignment?
• Where can I find my peers’ feedback for peer reviewed assignments?
• How do I view the rubric for my assignment?
• How do I view the rubric for my external tool assignment?
• How do I view rubric results for my assignment?
• How do I know when my instructor has graded my assignment?
• How do I view assignment comments from my instructor?
• How do I view annotation feedback comments from my instructor directly in my assignment submission?
• How do I view my Roll Call Attendance report as a student?
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Getting Started with Canvas Assignments

• Last modification date Updated On June 8, 2023
• Categories: Assignments , Canvas , Uncategorized
• Categories: assessment , Getting Started , Grading

Canvas  Assignments  are a way for instructors to provide students opportunities to practice using the knowledge and skills they have gained or to assess student performance related to such knowledge and skills. (Creating an Assignment is the  only  way to create a new column in the Gradebook.)

In Canvas there are four basic  Submission Types  for assignments. The submission types include:

• No Submission : For assignments for which you are not collecting any content from the students.
• Text Entry : For students to enter text directly into a text box on Canvas.
• Website URL : For students to enter a URL (usually to a blog, video, podcast, etc.).
• Media Recordings : For students to upload or record media for submission.
• File Uploads : For students to upload files for submission ( Restrict Upload File Types  will allow you to limit which types of files may be submitted).
• On Paper : For assignments students will submit in person.
• External Tool : For assignments which students will submit through a third-party tool (such as Turnitin, Panopto Video Quiz, and PlayPosit).

Managing an Assignment

Managing assignment groups.

When getting started with Assignments, learn to

• Create an assignment shell with the Canvas guide  How do I create an assignment? 

If you select  Peer Reviews Appear Anonymously , annotation tools in  SpeedGrader  will become unavailable.

If you change the  Assign To  area from  Everyone  to select students after submissions have already begun, and do not have a second set of Assign To dates, submissions from unassigned students will disappear.

• Published assignments are visible as existing outside of availability dates, but students cannot see the details.
• If looking to update the due and/or availability dates on multiple assignments, see   How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• If choosing the option to make an assignment a  Group Assignment : If only assigning to specific groups, make sure to click the  X  on the  Everyone Else  choice under  Assign to .

Media Recording  Assignments are not recommended due to technical reasons. Instead, have students submit media by embedding it in a  Text Entry  assignment through Panopto .

Clearly express expectations and criteria for grading by using a  Rubric .

Be cautious limiting submission attempts, as students often make mistakes loading documents and need multiple attempts to ensure you have the correct submission.

• Delete an assignment with the Canvas guide  How do I delete an assignment?
• This duplication process will not work for Quizzes.
• Attach a rubric to an assignment for grading or to communicate expectations to students with the Canvas guide  How do I add a rubric to an assignment?

Accessibility Tips

• Use descriptive text for links, instead of long URLs or ‘click here’. 
• Make instructions brief and to-the-point. Avoid long paragraphs and sentences.
• Consider allowing multiple submission types to accommodate technical limitations students may face.

Assignment Groups  are a way to categorize different graded items in Canvas. For example, you may have journals, blogs, and essays which your students create in your course. Assignment Groups allow you to label and group different types of assignments separately in order to better organize and for ease when applying weighting (see  How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups? ). When getting started with Assignment Groups, learn to

• Add and delete assignment groups with the Canvas guide  How do I add an assignment group in a course?
• Move or reorder an assignment group with the Canvas guide  How do I move or reorder an assignment group?
• Make rules governing grading expectations within assignment groups with the Canvas guide  How do I create rules for an assignment group?

Additional Resources

• CTI Resource: What is the Assignments Index Page?
• How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?
• Canvas Student Guide

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Create Assignments in Canvas

A variety of assignment types are available in Canvas and to link from external resources. View how-to guides of these resources to help build your assignment.

• Canvas assignments
• Weighted assignments
• Peer review assignments
• OLI assignments

Add a new Canvas assignment:

Assignments created in Canvas are automatically created using simple steps and include available and due dates, assignment types, student or group assignment selections and more. Follow the steps below to begin building an assignment.

Note: All assignments are tied to columns in the Canvas Gradebook. So, when you create a new assignment you also create a new column automatically in the Grading area. 

• “No Submission” and “On Paper” create a grade column but  do not  allow students to upload any materials to the assignment in Canvas.

Create a weighted assignment:

Weighting assignments as a percentage of the final grade can be done easily through the assignments area of your course. To set up weighting, you will need to:

• Set up assignment groups
• Organize assignments into the assignment groups
• Set assignment group weights
• View assignment groups

Step 1: Set up and organize assignments into assignment groups

• Once you have groups set up, you can organize assignments into the groups by drag-and-drop

Step 2: Set assignment group weights

Step 3: Weight an individual assignment

Step 4: View assignment groups in the Grades area

When assignment groups are set up in your course, you will notice columns corresponding to each assignment group appear in the gradebook. These columns will keep track of student performance in each assignment group.

NOTE: You can weight final grades based on assignment groups . See the Canvas website for more information on weighting final assignments here.

Set Up a Peer Review Assignment

Peer review assignments provide students with the opportunity to give feedback on each others’ work. With a Canvas peer review assignment, student names may be displayed to each other or you may opt to make the peer review process anonymous. You can also opt to provide students with a rubric they can use to grade and provide feedback on each others’ work.

• You start the process of creating a peer review assignment by creating an assignment in your Canvas course. You can create an assignment either in the Modules area or Assignments area of your Canvas site.

• You will be presented with the option to Manually Assign Peer Reviews or Automatically Assign Peer Reviews
• Manually Assign Peer Reviews - requires you to manually assign students to review other students’ work
• Automatically Assign Peer Reviews - Canvas will randomly assign students to review as many peers as you specify

Currently, a peer review assignment does not carry separate points or due dates for the peer review portion of the assignment. The points for the assignment encompasses both the assignment submission and the peer review process. If you would like separate points for the assignment submission, you may choose to create a separate assignment that students submit their work to in addition to submitting it to the peer review assignment. Another benefit of creating a separate assignment is that you could then attach a separate rubric to this assignment in the instance when a different rubric is used for Instructor and TA grading than is used by students for peer review.

  If a rubric is attached to a peer review assignment, students  must  complete the rubric in order for their review to be considered complete.

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Create an assignment in canvas.

In Canvas, any activity with an associated point value is considered an Assignment and will appear on the Assignments page, as well as in the gradebook. Assignment formats include quizzes, discussions, online document submission, and no submission, and external tool assignments. You can give an assignment to everyone in the course or target it to a specific section or user.

Types of Graded Activities in Canvas

The following table lists the types of graded activities in Canvas and their strengths and weaknesses.

To Create an Assignment

On the Course Navigation menu, click Assignments

On the Assignments list page, click Add Assignment

On the Assignment edit page, create the assignment by adding a name, instructions, and specifying the assignment options

(See the Assignment Options table for details)

Assignment Options

The following table describes the options for creating assignments.

Canvas - Get Started

The following list of pages will guide you through getting started with this tool. The current page is listed in bold.

• Log into Canvas
• Notification Preferences
• Access your Course
• Create an Assignment
• Create a Quiz in Canvas
• Add a Syllabus to Canvas
• Early Course Access for Students
• Communication
• Five Keys to Grading
• Prepare Final Grading

Create an assignment

The procedure for creating an assignment differs slightly depending on whether you are adding the new assignment to an assignment group or not.  Learn about assignment groups . The first procedure below walks you through adding a new assignment to an assignment group. The second shows you how to add a general assignment (without an assignment group).

• In the Course navigation, click Assignments . This takes you to the assignment page for your course. Note : You can also create assignments from the Calendar .

• Click Save  to finish creating the assignment or More Options to specify assignment details and directions in a new page.
• When you click More Options , the text editor appears, where you can enter directions for the assignment and provide additional information. Underneath the assignment description, you can set the due date and the number of points for the assignment if you have not yet done so. Leave these fields blank if the assignment is ungraded or there is no due date. To specify whether students can submit the assignment online, in class, or that no submission is needed, use the Submission Type field. To automatically send an email to registered students about assignment changes, select the Notify users that this content has changed check box. Students will receive the email only if they have notifications turned on in preferences.When you have finished adding details, click Save or Save & Publish .

Add an assignment (without assignment group)

• The Assignment text editor opens, where you can enter directions for the assignment and provide additional information. Underneath the assignment description, you can set the due date and the number of points for the assignment if you have not yet done so. Leave these fields blank if the assignment is ungraded or there is no due date. To specify whether students can submit the assignment online, in class, or that no submission is needed, use the Submission Type field. To automatically send an email to registered students about assignment changes, select the Notify users that this content has changed check box. Students will receive the email only if they have notifications turned on in preferences.When you have finished adding details, click Save or Save & Publish .

• Help Center
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• Privacy Policy
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Use Assignments with Canvas

Google Assignments and Canvas expanded Google Docs Editors and Google Drive to be compatible with Canvas for file submissions. With Assignments, you can distribute and grade student work, analyze student submissions for plagiarism detection, and use Google Docs and Drive with Canvas. 

Features and benefits of Assignments

When admins enable Google Assignments in Canvas settings, you can use its features and benefits.

• Grade in Google’s grading interface or in SpeedGrader™.
• File attachments to an assignment so each student gets their own copy to edit and submit.
• Detect missed citation checks and possible plagiarism with the originality reports feature.
• Students can submit Drive files to Canvas assignments, which instructors can grade in SpeedGrader™.
• Embed Drive files with the Canvas rich text editor.
• Add Drive files to Canvas Modules.

Assignments also provides improvements from Google Apps LTI:

• Officially supported by Google and covered by the Google Workspace for Education Terms of Service.
• Provides an option for admins to require students to use their school-issued Google accounts.
• Uses Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) 1.3 for stronger security.
• Create a new Canvas assignment.

Students can submit Drive files that you can grade with SpeedGrader™.

For teachers

Allow students to submit drive files with canvas assignments.

• After you create a new Canvas assignment, next to "Submission Type", select Online .
• Under "Online Entry Options", select File Uploads.

Important: You must select File Uploads or the submission will fail.

For students

Turn in assignments.

• Ensure you're signed into your school account. 
• Next to "File Upload", click  Google Drive.
• To open a Google Drive window, click Select file.
• Select the Drive file.

• Sign in to Canvas.
• Open the course.

• Sign in to your Google Account.
• Click Allow .
• Select the Google Drive file.
• Click Submit.

Open all   |   Close all

From October 2023, Instructure will no longer support the Google Apps LTI. This means:

• No new installs will be allowed.
• No further development will be made on it.
• No customer support will be available.

Google and Instructure makes sure that Google Assignments LTI 1.3 has the Google Apps LTI functions, and includes:

• Improved security
• Flexibility
• Integrations 

Current Google Apps LTI users won’t lose access but should transition over to Google Assignments LTI 1.3.

To use the latest Assignments features, you can install and migrate to Google Assignments LTI 1.3.

No. Currently, you can’t embed a form or select one as a file type for quizzes. To use Forms for quizzes, create a form and share the link with your students. Learn how to create a Google Form.

• Any submitted work for the Google Apps LTI Cloud assignment that you want to migrate will reset. 
• If you want to keep your previous submissions, make a copy of the Canvas assignment .
• Find the Canvas assignment you want to migrate to Google Assignments LTI 1.3.

• Click Find .
• If you can’t find this option, request your Canvas administrator to turn on Google Assignments LTI 1.3 .
• Link your Google Workspace for Education account.
• Click Continue .
• Attach the Drive worksheet files.
• Choose your grading tool, then make sure the due date and points are updated.
• Click Create .

Related topics

• Set up Assignments in Canvas
• Set up Assignments in Schoology or another LMS
• Set up Assignments in Blackboard
• Set up Assignments in D2L/Brightspace
• Set up Assignments in Moodle
• Set up Assignments in Sakai

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Create & customize canvas assignments - knowledgebase / teaching learning and research / canvas / assessments and grading / assignments - oit service center.

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Create & customize canvas assignments.

• cb christine brown
• ej edwin jeng
• mv maggie vecchione
• MK Melissa Kane
• rt rebecca taub
• Last updated: Jul 3, 2023 by Claire Streckenbach

Canvas allows you to create assignments for your students and customize the settings to meet your grading approach for your course.  Within the grading settings of a Canvas Assignment,  you can select the grading settings for each assignment based on the assignment’s type, objectives, and expectations.  You may also choose to use points, percentages, or complete/incomplete to track progress and provide feedback to students about their work. 

Create Canvas Assignments

To create an assignment:

• Log in to Canvas at canvas.brown.edu  and select your course from the Global Navigation menu on the left.

• Enter the name of the assignment in the Assignment Name  box.
• Enter a description of the assignment in the box below if relevant.

Your new assignment will appear on the Assignments page under the assignment group you selected.  Any Assignments you create automatically show up in the Calendar, Syllabus page and Gradebook.  

For more information on how to create and manage assignments, please see the following links:

• How do I add a rubric to an assignment
• How do I manage rubrics in a course
• How do I set notifications

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• Enable TurnItIn for Student Assignment Submissions
• Enter Grades into Canvas Grades
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• Create Weighted Assignment Groups in Canvas for Grading
• Canvas Speedgrader
• Annotate Student Submissions using Speedgrader
• Create Weighted Assignment Groups for Grading
• Canvas Quizzes

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New Quizzes April 2024 Update

May 13, 2024

Penn State will continue to only support the creation of quizzes (built from scratch) using Canvas’s New Quizzes​ ​tool. New Quizzes is the updated Canvas quiz engine which may eventually replace the existing...

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Integrations

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Digital Accessibility for Canvas with YuJa

YuJa Panorama (YuJa) is a digital accessibility platform that integrates with Canvas to help instructors create more inclusive learning materials for students with disabilities.  On May 3, the tool will be added to Canvas.

The User Interface changes introduced are:

• A new “YuJa Accessibility” course menu item that launches the YuJa Panorama Portal.
• Accessible Alternative Formats icons added throughout the course (in Modules, Assignments, etc.)
• An icon in the Content Editor that displays the accessibility report for the page or the content being edited.

YuJa features include:

• Automatic Accessibility Scoring: YuJa will scan course documents and generate an accessibility score to help instructors identify areas where their course materials might not be accessible.  This scan may take up to 48 hours to complete.
• Alternative Formats: Based on the scan, YuJa automatically generates alternative formats of the course materials, including high-contrast themes, text-to-speech versions, and Braille.  This allows students to select the document format that best suits their needs.
• Accessible Content Design Tools: Additional tools within the Rich Content Editor (RCE) that allow for the generation of visually appealing and interactive course content without needing to know HTML.

Training: ODU faculty/staff training is scheduled for  Thursday, May 16, 2024, from 1 to 2 PM EST via Zoom . The training will be recorded, and the recording will be made available to all faculty and staff.

• YuJa Panorama Instructor’s Guide
• FAQ's for Panorama
• YuJa Panorama Student’s Guide

Support: YuJa’s technical support is available.  Users may reach support in several ways, including:

• YuJa Panorama Support page
• Telephone: 1-888-257-2278
• The LTI shortcut in Canvas
• From the Course Navigation Menu, click YuJa Accessibility to access the Panorama portal.
• Click the person icon on the top right corner to open the dropdown list.
• Click Support to open the support page.
• On the support page, users can type in the search bar to access help articles.

Posted By: Tiffani Manners Date: Thu May 02 16:12:52 EDT 2024

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Simplify ‘Multilingual Support’ using Dataverse and AI-Translate in Canvas Apps

As I work on an enterprise canvas app designed for multiple geographies, translation becomes a crucial aspect due to its support for multiple languages. Initially, I followed the method outlined in Microsoft documentation to create translation components and translate label texts for each language, which turned out to be time-consuming. The method is described aptly in Microsoft Docs .

As the project expanded and more components got added, the need for a quicker translation method became apparent. Through research, I discovered that Microsoft introduced Dataverse functions, which streamline this process significantly. By leveraging AI-translate capabilities, I could achieve translations in a fraction of the time and with increased efficiency.

Below, I have outlined how I have implemented this approach:

1. Navigate to make.powerapps.com in your environment, create a solution, and then proceed to create a canvas app. Once the canvas app is created, click on it to open.

2. Add data source as Environment (Microsoft Environment).

3. Once it is added, the next step is to use AITranslate function.

Whenever a language is chosen from the dropdown menu, I update the content accordingly to the selected language.

For that “OnSelect” of the LangaugeDropdown , I am using the below formula.

The AITranslate function has two parameters:

• Text: The text to be translated
• TargetLanguage: The target language code in which the text is to be translated.

For more information about languages supported for the source and target language, see Translator Language Support—Translation

In the given scenario, I’ve chosen “French” from the language dropdown, resulting in the translation of content into French, as illustrated in the screenshot below.

Conclusion:

As the demand for multilingual support in enterprise canvas apps grows, the need for efficient translation methods becomes increasingly evident. While the traditional approach outlined in Microsoft documentation provides a solid foundation, it can be time-consuming, especially as projects scale.

Fortunately, with the introduction of Dataverse functions by Microsoft, the translation process has been streamlined significantly. Leveraging AI-translate capabilities has allowed for faster and more efficient translations, ensuring that the app remains accessible and user-friendly across various geographies and languages.

By adopting these innovative tools and methodologies, developers can save time and resources while delivering high-quality multilingual experiences to users worldwide. This not only enhances user satisfaction but also strengthens the app’s competitive edge in the global market.