how to make assignment visible to students in canvas

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Making Canvas Items Available or Unavailable to Students

Have you ever been confused about how to make sure students can’t access a quiz scheduled for later in the semester, or wanted to make a module available at midnight without having it to publish it manually? This article explains Canvas’s tools for making items like Discussions, Assignments, Quizzes, and Pages visible or invisible to students.

Finding and Understanding Canvas Publication and Availability Settings

You are probably familiar with the publication settings in Canvas, but you might not be familiar with exactly what they do.

• Publish: set the item so that it exists for students. If you publish an item and do not set an “Available” date or put it in a locked module, it will be completely available to students and will appear in the Course Summary and calendar (if it has a due date). Published items have green check-marks to the right when seen in the Modules, Assignments, Discussions, or Quizzes views.
• Unpublished: item is visible to instructors, designers, and administrators, but students cannot tell that it exists. It will not appear in students’ to-do lists, the Course Summary, or the calendar, even if it has a due date set. Students will also not be able to see it in the Gradebook. If you have legacy materials in your course, you want them unpublished; anything that is part of the current course must be published for students to access it. Unpublished items do not have a green checkmark; instead, they display a circle with a line through it.

It’s common for faculty to think these are the only two options (all or nothing). Fortunately, you have many other options for customizing the visibility and release of your items.  Note that you must publish the item for all these options to work.

• Available From: date on which students can access the item if it is published. A published assignment with an “Available” date in the future will show up in students’ calendars and the Course Summary, but they will not have access to it. If your item is unpublished and has an “Available” date, it will  not  become available on the date and will not be visible in the Summary or calendar. You must  publish the item before the “Available” date.
• Until: date on which students can no longer submit the assignment/quiz/discussion. This is not a due date, and students will not receive a reminder. See this Canvas article for more information on “Available” and “Until” dates.

• Lock Until: this option appears only in the module settings. It allows you to lock everything in a module until a specific date. Items in the module  and the module itself  must be published for it to become available on the set date. Even if a given item in the module does not have an Available date set, putting a lock on the module will make the item locked from any access point (e.g., the Assignments area).

There are also two ways to set a date when the item needs to be completed. They work similarly, but the process of setting them differs based on whether the item is graded or not.

• Due Date: date on which a graded  item (assignment, quiz, or graded discussion) is due; this date will display in the Course Summary and students’ calendars
• To-do Date: date on which an ungraded  item (content page or ungraded discussion) is due; this date will display in the Course Summary and students’ calendars

What Is the Best Way to Handle Publication and Availability?

While the exact settings you use may vary based on your course and needs, here is a rule of thumb:

Whenever possible, publish your items and restrict their availability to students using “Available” dates on the items or “Lock Until” dates on the modules.

Why? Primarily, you want students to know what the requirements are, when they’re due, and how they will figure into the gradebook well in advance. This is especially important for major assignments like papers and tests. Secondarily, this method avoids the possibility of forgetting to publish items when you want them to become available. It also allows you to make students aware that items will exist without letting them see that you haven’t yet added the prompts! A published, unavailable assignment serves as an ideal placeholder. If you are concerned about students seeing a test or exam too early, an “Available” date allows you to prevent that.

If you have regular weekly assignments (homework, discussions, reflections, etc) that students know will recur, it’s not a big deal to have those unpublished until the week before.

Deciding Between “Available” Dates and “Lock Until” Dates

“Available” dates are set by item. “Lock Until” dates are set by module, and affect all items that are in the module, but  only  items in the module. If you have a module that is available from September 15, for example, and you have an item that is due that week but is not in the module, its availability will not be affected.

“Available” dates are best if you would like items in a particular module to be accessible at different times. For example, if you have a weekly discussion that you want to include in a module, but you would like to have a student discussant post discussion questions in advance, they will not be able to open that item if it’s in a locked module. If your module does not have a “Lock Until” date, you can make that discussion available a couple of days early and restrict other items until the beginning of the week using “Available” dates.

Using a “Lock Until” date is more efficient to set up and works well as long as no students need access to items in the module earlier. If you use “Lock Until” dates, you may need to leave major assignments out of the modules, which might not be ideal.

In either case, remember that the  whole module  has to be published (you’ll see that green checkmark in the module title bar) in addition to the items being published. From the Modules page, you can publish anything simply by clicking on the circle with the line through it; it will turn into a green check. You can learn about publishing items (link describes assignments, but other item types are the same) and modules in the Canvas resource guide.

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Options for Access and Visibility in Canvas

Tawnya Means

UNL Teaching and Learning

Do you want to control what and when your students see your content in your Canvas course site? There are quite a few options that provide for controlling the access and visibility of Quizzes, Assignments, Files, Announcements, Modules, Pages, and even your course site open and close dates.

Limiting Access and Visibility for Quizzes

Perhaps you might need to curve an exam score or don’t want your online students to receive their scores until you’ve uploaded those of the students who took paper exams. The Canvas Gradebook enables you to limit students’ access to quiz and exam scores by muting and unmuting . You can also limit whether and when students access quiz or exam questions and answers.

Canvas allows you to restrict quiz or exam access to particular students or sections via differentiated access . This option is especially helpful if you want to provide access before or after a due date, or only allow particular students to access a quiz or exam (such as for a makeup).

Having trouble getting uploaded quiz or exam scores to appear in the Gradebook? Once you’ve uploaded the scores, be sure to unmute them. Otherwise, they will only be visible to you and your TAs. And remember that assignments or quizzes that are not published will not display as columns in your Gradebook.

Limiting Access and Visibility for Assignments

While you can control student access to assignment submission via the open and close date fields in the assignment settings, Canvas provides additional options. Just like with the Quizzes tool, you can use differentiated access to restrict assignment submission (including for graded discussions) only to particular students or sections. Here are some details on how those differentiated assessments will appear on the Syllabus and Calendar tools, as well as other areas of your course site.

In addition to muting assignments via the Gradebook , you can also do so in SpeedGrader . Muting can be particularly useful if you want to limit students’ access to scores and feedback until all of your grading of a particular assignment is complete.

Limiting Access and Visibility for Files

Canvas enables you to restrict student access to particular files and folders on your course site. With this function, you can link to files — perhaps for a quiz, exam, or assignment — while restricting students from accessing them directly. Using this feature, you can either fully restrict access to files and folder, or limit students’ access to a particular window of time.

Don’t want students to be able to access the Files tool at all? You can hide the tool from students by dragging the Files tool to the bottom of the Navigation tab in the course settings.

Limiting Access and Visibility for Announcements

You can manage when students see an announcement by using the delay posting option . This function allows you to select a specific date and time in the future for an announcement to post, which can be handy when you are traveling or just want to plan ahead.

If you want to enable comments for announcements, you have a number of options. You can require students to post a response to an announcement before they can see other replies (this option is also available in Discussions ) and enable them to like replies to an announcement . Finally, when you are ready to move on from an announcement, you can close it for comments .

And, if you do not want to enable comments for announcements at all, Canvas allows you to disable that function . If you have your notifications set up to send you emails , you can see student questions in your email inbox and reply directly from there. You can also reply to questions using the mobile app .

Limiting Access and Visibility in Modules

Modules offer an additional way for you to control access to and visibility of your course site’s components. You can use the Modules tool to lock a module and its contents (including pages, assignments, quizzes, and files) until a particular day and time . You can also create prerequisite modules that require students to complete a module before moving on to subsequent ones. Finally, you can add requirements to a module so that students must complete certain requirements in a module (such as achieve a certain score on a quiz or view particular course site pages) before moving on to the next ones.

Visibility of Pages and Courses

You can limit access to your course pages by publishing and unpublishing them . Students will only see published pages. You can also limit access to your entire course site through the Publish option and using the course access options . You can allow students access before the start of the term and after the term ends using the dates set in the course settings. The course must be published for students to view it and once your course site has a graded assignment, it can no longer be unpublished.

Questions about visibility or any other questions about Canvas?

Reprinted from Teach@Warrington

Written by Tawnya Means

Text to speech

Online & Canvas Support

How can we help you today, how to make your canvas course visible to students. print.

Modified on: Tue, 4 Jan, 2022 at 1:07 PM

By default your Canvas course is not visible to students.  To make it visible, click the Publish button in the upper right corner of the Home page:

Publishing the course does not mean all the individual content will be visible.  Modules and pages and files ... may be individually published or not by clicking on the slash or checkmark symbol. In this example, the module, Overview Week 3 page, and Learning Materials header are published and visible to students. But the "Mudslide Materials" page is not published, and thus not visible to students:

To test whether students can see content in a published course, switch to Student view, which is available across almost all areas of Canvas. Just look for the "Student View" button in the top right and give it a try!

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Create & customize canvas assignments.

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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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TC Technology Knowledge Base

• Publish and unpublish an item or module in Canvas

Updated on Jun 25, 2024

Canvas allows you to work on a draft of your course content (e.g., quizzes, assignments, pages) before making it visible to students. When you are ready for students to see the content, you will need to publish the individual item and the module in which it is contained.

1. Log into the myTC portal.

Access the myTC portal.

2. Click the Canvas icon in the top-right corner.

3. Click Dashboard in the Global Navigation Menu.

4. Click a course card to access that course.

1. Click Modules in the Course Navigation Menu.

2. To publish an item or module, click the unpublished icon of the item or module that you would like to publish. When the module is published, a green circle with a check will appear.

3. To unpublish an item or module, click the publish icon of the item or module that you would like to unpublish. When the module is unpublished, a green circle with a check will disappear.

If your items are in an unpublished module or unpublished course, the content is not visible to students even though the individual items are published. Be sure to publish the module and follow these instructions to publish your course .

Canvas for Faculty

• Find your Canvas course
• Get Canvas help
• Set your Canvas notifications
• Add a profile picture to Canvas
• Add an event to the Canvas calendar
• Change what courses appear on your Canvas Dashboard
• Move course cards on your Canvas Dashboard
• Change the nickname of a Canvas course
• Add an image to your Canvas course card
• View your Canvas course as a student
• Share a link to a Canvas course
• Download a student roster in Canvas
• Send a message to all course users in Canvas
• Sign into the Canvas Teacher app with a TC UNI (Instructor)
• Create appointment slots in the Canvas calendar
• View student activity on the Canvas People page
• Delete Announcements in Canvas
• Import a past Canvas course in a new course
• Add a syllabus to your Canvas course
• Create an announcement in Canvas
• Create a module in Canvas
• Add an item to a module in Canvas
• Add a file to a module in Canvas
• Make a video for a module in Canvas
• Move items within a Canvas module
• Indent a module item in Canvas
• Create a page in Canvas
• Add a website link to a page in Canvas
• Allow file attachments in Canvas Discussions
• Set the front page of a Canvas course
• Change the home page of a Canvas course
• Change sharing settings for a Google Doc collaboration in Canvas
• Upload files to a Canvas course
• Link to a Canvas course file within a page
• Upload a file directly to a page in Canvas
• Recover deleted course content in Canvas
• Embed a Google Doc syllabus in your Canvas course
• Add a direct link to your Google Doc syllabus
• Replace a PDF Syllabus in Canvas
• Upload and Embed a PDF Syllabus in Canvas
• Delete Content in Canvas
• Create a folder in the Files section of Canvas
• Edit a Module on Canvas
• Publish a Canvas course making it viewable to students
• Find your Canvas Gradebook
• Arrange columns in the Canvas Gradebook
• Enter a grade with SpeedGrader in Canvas
• Change the status of a grade in Canvas
• Leave a comment in the Canvas Gradebook
• Create a quiz with individual questions in Canvas
• Give extra time for a quiz in Canvas
• Assign a different quiz date and time to students in Canvas
• Create a survey in Canvas
• View anonymous survey results in Canvas
• Show a link on your Canvas Course Navigation
• Hide and reorder Canvas Course Navigation links
• Change your Canvas course end date
• Change your Canvas course start date
• Set Home Page as the Modules Page in Canvas
• Enable Attendance in Canvas
• Add a TC Student (Participating Auditor) to your Canvas course
• Add a TC Student to a non-Banner Canvas course
• Accept Canvas course invitation without a TC UNI
• Reset your Canvas password
• Set your site settings to address problems recording in Canvas
• Receive an Undelivered Message in Canvas
• View average course grade analytics in Canvas' New Analytics
• Compare the Canvas course average with an assignment, section, or student in New Analytics
• Compare Student Course Grade to Course Average in Canvas
• Identify and Email Students in Canvas Based on Assignment Grades
• View weekly online activity analytics in Canvas' New Analytics
• Send a message to a student who has not viewed or participated in a Canvas resource
• Student Level Analytics in Canvas
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• Turn on Honorlock for a Canvas Quiz
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• Add Multiple Due Dates to Canvas Assignment
• Create a Group Assignment with randomly assigned students in Canvas
• Add an assignment to an Assignment Group in Canvas
• Assign an assignment to individual students in Canvas
• Use the Automatically Assign Peer Reviews option to an existing Canvas Assignment.
• Use the Manually Assign Peer Reviews option to an existing Canvas Assignment.
• Create a rubric in Canvas
• Create a Canvas Discussion Board
• Post to a Canvas Discussion Board
• Mentioning other users in a Canvas Discussion Board
• Anonymize Discussion Posts
• View Canvas Discussion Board in split screen format
• Add Multiple Due Dates to Canvas Discussion Board
• Replace the cover image in the Home Page welcome presentation with the Canvas Template
• Replace a faculty picture in the Canvas Template
• Set a cover video in the Canvas Course Template Welcome presentation
• Upload a course introduction video on the Home Page with the Canvas template
• Edit text information on a Canvas template homepage
• Set the front page of a Canvas course with Canvas Template
• Replace Home Page module thumbnail images with Canvas Template
• Embed a Padlet for student introduction on the Home Page with Canvas Template
• Edit the Course Schedule in the Canvas template
• Import the Course Template and pre-populate using the Canvas Template Builder
• Enable the universal template in your Canvas course
• Fix a broken homepage thumbnail link
• Create a custom built Overview page using Canvas template
• Link learning activities to the Overview page in the Canvas template
• Remove sections of the Overview page in the Canvas template
• Customize activity rows in the Overview page of the Canvas template
• Embed a video to the Overview page in the Canvas template

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Canvas resource center.

Welcome to the Canvas Resource Center where you may find self-help guides on a wide range of topics regarding teaching and learning using Canvas. Begin by typing in a keyword and clicking on Search.

How do I make the Announcements link visible to students?

You will learn how to make the Announcements course navigation item visible to your students.

Generally speaking, as soon as you create your first Announcement, then the Announcements course navigation link will become visible to your students.

Guide on How do I add an announcement in a course?

Creating Announcements with Canvas LMS video

If your students still cannot see the Announcements course navigation link, follow this guide to make sure that the Announcements link is in the list for visible course navigation items.

Guide on How do I manage Course Navigation links?

Related Guides

• How do I use the Announcements Index Page?
• How do I edit an announcement in a course?
• How do I show recent announcements in the Course Home Page?

Article Summary

You have now learned how to make the Announcements course navigation item visible to your students.

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• Next: How do I set notifications so that I get an email every time I post an Announcement in my course?

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Making Discussions Visible in Canvas

Canvas and Desire2Learn (D2L) share much of the same functionality, but with the move to Canvas there might be confusion about some of the details about how to get the desired results for your courses.  One of the most common questions we are seeing is about how students will access Online Discussions inside the course.  While the advice below was prompted by the questions about Discussions, the same is true for Quizzes and Assignments.

In D2L there was a dedicated “Discussions” button that could be added to the navigation bar.  In Canvas, this same button exists, but it is only available to Instructors for building purposes.  There are two ways to make sure students can access your discussions; place the Discussions in Modules, or make them Graded.

The best way to make sure students can find discussions is to place them in your Modules in the most appropriate location.  Most courses are separated into units, and the discussion can be placed into the appropriate unit for when the Discussion starts.  Other instructors may create a separate unit just for ongoing discussions that are meant to cross multiple units.

It is also worth knowing that all items that are worth points will be visible to students in the Assignments area.  This includes quizzes and discussions.  While we would encourage you to include those items in your Modules, they will also be added to Assignments for you automatically.

If you have additional questions about Canvas please reach out to 24/7/365 support by going to http://uww.edu/canvas .

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E-Campus Faculty and Staff

How-to: create graded assessments in canvas.

By:  Robyn Brown  &  Gracia Ostendorf     

Types of graded assessments in canvas.

There are multiple ways to collect work, assess student performance, and record scores in your Canvas course. Three of the most commonly used options for assessments are Assignments , Quizzes , and Discussion Boards . Each offer unique, and pedagogically different, opportunities for engaging students with your course content. This guide will explain each type of Canvas graded course activity further, as well as provide the step-by-step instructions for creating them within your Canvas course site.

Any graded assessment will automatically show up in your Canvas Gradebook, where you can keep track of your students’ progress and course grade. You simply need to ensure that the assessment you’ve created is a “graded” type in Canvas for it to appear in the Gradebook. Watch the video or read through the steps below to learn how to do that for Canvas Assignments, Canvas Discussions, and Canvas Quizzes.

Explore Each Type and How-to Create Them

Assignments, discussion boards.

“Canvas Assignments” is a broad term used for all of the graded activities within Canvas. “Assignments” can include:

• Note: It is possible to have a Discussion Board in Canvas that is not graded. This type of Discussion Board would not be referred to as an “Assignment.”
• Online Submissions (i.e. files, images, text, URLs, etc.)

Assignments in Canvas can be used to challenge students' understanding and help assess competency by using a variety of media. The Assignments page shows students all of the Assignments that will be expected of them and how many points each is worth. Any assignment created and published in the Assignments page will automatically show up in the Grades, Calendar, and Syllabus features so students can view them. The reverse is also true: any assignments created in the Calendar will automatically show up in the Grades, Assignments, and Syllabus features. Assignments can also be organized in Modules.

Assignments can be used to:

• Set up online submissions that can be quickly graded in the SpeedGrader
• Grade Discussions, either by the whole class or student groups
• Set up peer reviews
• Facilitate online tests and exams (using Quizzes)
• Open Quizzes for a limited amount of time
• Record attendance
• Create ungraded activities

A Canvas Assignment includes instructions written by the instructor and collects student work in a variety of possible formats, such as:

• a text submission
• a website URL
• media recordings (audio or video files)
• file uploads

To Create An Assignment in Canvas:

• Create a new assignment in your Canvas course by clicking “Assignments” in the left-hand navigation menu, followed by the blue “+ Assignment” button in the upper-right-hand corner
• Add instructions for the assignment in the text editor box
• In the options below the text editor box:
• Select the number of points the assignment is worth
• Keep Submission Type as “Online”
• Select the formats you’d like to allow for students’ submissions (Online Entry Options)
• Choose a due date for the assignment
• ***NOTE: Assignments, Quizzes, & Discussion Boards must be “Published” in order to be visible to students. View the Canvas Guide for Publishing Assignments for more details.

Additional Resources: E-Campus’ Canvas Instructor Orientation’s: Create Assignments Resource

Quizzes in Canvas are assignments that can be used to build formative and/or summative assessments to test students’ understanding of course contents.

There are four different quiz types:

• A graded quiz is the most common quiz and rewards students’ points based on their quiz responses
• A practice quiz is a learning tool to see how well users understand course material without providing a grade
• A graded survey rewards students with points for completing a survey but grading is not based on right or wrong answers
• An ungraded survey obtains opinions or other information without providing a grade

To Create a New Quiz

• Click on Quizzes from the Navigation Menu and click on the Add Quiz button
• In the Details tab, enter the name of your quiz. In the Rich Content Editor, introduce your quiz with formatted text, images, video, or sample math equations. You can even use the media commenting tool to record an introduction to the quiz. Then scroll down to finish setting up the quiz type, group assignment selection and give it a due date if needed
• Click on the Questions tab, manually enter a new question by clicking the Add New Question button. Name the quiz questions, select a question type (short answer, essay answer, multiple choices, etc.), assign a point value and click Update Question
• Preview your questions. If you’d like to view question details, click the Show Question Details checkbox
• Save and Publish. Once you’re satisfied with the questions, save your quiz and publish it. If you’d like to come back to it, just click Save

Here is a video tutorial on How to Create a New Quiz in Canvas . You may also create question banks so that you can find individual questions easily without having to create them each time. Check out this guide on How to Create a Question Bank .

Additional Resources: E-Campus’ Canvas Instructor Orientation’s Create Quizzes Resource

Canvas provides an integrated system for class discussions, allowing both instructors and students to start and contribute to as many discussion topics as desired. Discussions can also be created as an assignment for grading purposes (and seamlessly integrated with the Canvas Gradebook), or simply serve as a forum for topical and current events.

Discussion topics can be organized as focused or threaded discussions. Focused discussions only allow for two levels of nesting, the original post, and subsequent replies. Threaded discussions allow for infinite levels of nesting. Focused discussions are relatively short-lived interactions, while threaded discussions allow replies within replies and may last for a longer period of time.

Use a focused discussion for single posts and related comments. One discussion leader typically posts a message and multiple learners comment on it. Participants may leave a side comment to a reply, but cannot develop the conversation beyond two layers of nesting. focused discussions might also be used to:

• answer a single question
• share resources amongst peers
• collect results from a simple research activity
• share solutions to a single problem
• correct misconceptions
• clarify course policies
• get feedback on a work in progress
• share insights about a single reading

Use a threaded discussion for multiple posts and related comments. One or more discussion leaders post a message and multiple learners comment on it with the freedom to create any number of related discussion topics and comments.

Threaded Discussions might also be used to:

• post and answer multiple, related or unrelated questions
• organize results from a complex research activity
• share and iterate upon ideas shared by each student in the course
• debate the pros and cons of a single issue or multiple issues
• ask multiple questions of a single discussion leader
• refine ideas between multiple discussion leaders and multiple learners
• facilitate group discussions around multiple topics
• facilitate discussions around a discussion (fishbowl conversations)
• explore at length the feasibility of different solutions to a complex problem

To Create a New Discussion:

• Click on “Discussions” from the left-hand course navigation
• Click “+ Discussion” on the right-hand side
• Create a title for your discussion
• You can also add links, files, and add images
• Post to “All Sections” of the course or select special groups (if created)
• By default, discussions are crated as focused discussions. Select “Allow threaded replies” to create a threaded discussion
• To require users to reply to the discussion before they can see any other replies, click the Users must post before seeing replies checkbox
• To enable a discussion podcast feed, click the Enable podcast feed checkbox
• To allow students to like discussion replies , click the Allow liking checkbox
• To add an ungraded discussion to the student to-do list, click the Add to student to-do checkbox. Student to-do items display in the course calendar, in the student-specific List View Dashboard, and in the global and course home page to-do lists. Graded discussions automatically display in a student's to-do list
• To make the discussion a group discussion, click the This is a Group Discussion checkbox
• Adjust date settings
• Click Save, or Save & Publish to post it to students

Additional Resources: E-Campus’ Canvas Instructor Orientation’s: Create Discussion Boards Resource Canvas Guide: What are Discussions?

E-Campus have created a How-To: Set-Up and Use Canvas Gradebook guide. Once you have created graded course activities in Canvas, Canvas Gradebook will be your next step.

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Using canvas to differentiate assignments

Written By Mollie Page ()

Updated at June 15th, 2020

Canvas allows you to customize assignments by allowing assignments to be posted for individual students, a select group of students or class sections.

NOTE – Events can only be assigned by class or by section, but Assignments can be customized down to individual students.

To assign an assignment to an individual or select group of students:

On the Calendar page for your course, click on the day you want the assignment to be due

Click on the Assignment Tab.

Be sure you have selected the appropriate calendar– this cannot be changed once you click more options.

Click the More Options button to further customize the assignment

Customize the assignment by filling in the assignment title, a description of what you want students to do and any links they will need.

Fill out the points, group, submission type and other options as desired

When you get to the “Assign to” section, you can customize to whom it is assigned and the due date.

In the “Assign to” section, click the x after Everyone to clear the field

Then type the first letter of the student you wish to assign this assignment to and select that student.

Continue selecting students to build a list of students who should complete this assignment.

Note – all students selected at this time will have the same due date.

If you want to have different due dates, set the first group and their due date here and see instructions below for multiple due dates.

When you have selected all the students, select the appropriate due date for the group.

When you have finished customizing the assignment, click on Save or Save & Publish

Save will save your work, but the assignment will NOT be visible to students yet. You will need to go back into the assignment and publish when you are ready.

Save& Publish will save your work AND publish the assignment to students. Students will be able to see the assignment and may receive a notification depending on their Canvas settings.

To create a different assignment for another set of students, start the process over again with a new assignment.

Assigning the same assignment with different due dates.

At the bottom of the Assign box, click on +Add to create another set of assignment options.

Select the other set of students as described in steps 5-7 above.

Select the appropriate due date.

Add additional groups and due dates as necessary by clicking +Add.

When you have finished customizing the assignment, click on Save or Save& Publish

Save will save your work, but the assignment will NOT be visible to students yet. You will have to go back to the assignment and publish when you are ready.

Resources for differentiated content and process

If you prefer to create your own differentiated assignments :

Within Canvas

Create differentiated modules and link different students to different modules

Create quizzes and practice quizzes at different levels and link students appropriately

Create different assignments and create a custom assignment by group

Type or copy your own differentiated questions, textbook questions or web links in the assignment description box

Create your own assignments in the program of your choice (word, ppt, notepad, etc). Upload files to your canvas page and link to the appropriate file in the assignment description box

Provide scaffolds to support differentiated processes:

Interactive graphic organizers: https://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm

Downloadable graphic organizers in word: http://www.thinkport.org/graphic-organizers.html

Build differentiated assessments in DigiExam and provide each student with the appropriate Exam ID code. DigiExam can be added to your Canvas pages.

With DigiExam, you can create custom assessments and rubrics that can be taken online.

Options include spell check and computer lock down for more secure online testing

See separate guide on using DigiExam

Use Quizlet to build different review options for students

Quizlet has free teacher accounts for up to 8 classes of students: https://quizlet.com/teachers

Paid account offers upgrades like allowing images, voice recording, unlimited classes and additional customization

Quizlet can be integrated into Canvas: http://wise.overlake.org/canvas/how-to-embed-a-quizlet-in-a-canvas-page

If you prefer to use pre-designed differentiated practice sets:

CK-12 Adaptive Practice: https://www.ck12.org/assessment/ui/browse/practice/

Adaptive practice – students keep answering questions until they answer 10 correctly

Practice questions for: Math, Science, Spelling

Teacher accounts allow teachers to create classes and track student progress (requires account registration and login for teacher and students)

You can also create your own customized non-adaptive quizzes.

SAS Curriculum Pathways: https://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/

Note: Curriculum Pathways will no longer be available  after  the 2020-2021 school year.

Repository of 1500+ FREE web and app based products for education.

Subjects include English, Math, Social Studies, Science and Spanish

Explore a list of tools: https://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/#/pd/ataglance

Highlights:

Writing Navigator – supports students through the writing process with online tools for planning, drafting, revising and publishing final drafts. https://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/#info/1759

Explore Primary Sources  – database of primary source documents ranging from excerpts to full text, includes historical context and suggested questions. Some primary sources are available adjusted by grade level. https://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/Launch?id=2600

Spanish Language Builders – provides interactive online practice listening and writing in Spanish. Includes practice and quizzes and students can save, print or email results. https://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/#info/1764

Quill:   https://www.quill.org/  

Interactive writing and grammar activities designed to improve writing quality

Teacher can create class rosters and generate usernames and passwords

Diagnostic assessment is used to create personalized learning plan

Assignments can be given to the whole class or selected students.

Newsela: https://newsela.com/

Repository of articles that can be adjusted to different reading levels.

Includes articles for science, social studies, current events, issues, and primary sources

Some articles are available in Spanish, which can also be adjusted to different reading levels.

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Canvas at Penn

Penn's Source for Courseware Innovation & News

New Gradebook: How and When to Release Students’ Grades and Feedback

As mid-semester assignments and exams are approaching, you might be wondering how and when to make grades and feedback visible to students. There are several ways to control the release of students’ grades and feedback:

• Instead of the Automatic Grade Posting Policy (the default), verify that you are using the Manual Grade Posting Policy which hides grades and feedback until the instructor releases them. You can adopt this policy on a course-wide or assignment-specific basis.
• If you have already started grading without selecting a Grading Policy, you may want to “Hide Grades” for any previous entered grades and verify that you are using the Manual Grading Policy.
• “Hide Grades” is not the same as the legacy mute function. If you select “Hide Grades” and then continue to enter grades while using an Automatic Grade Posting Policy all of the grades entered after clicking “Hide Grades” will be immediately visible to students .
• When you are ready, release grades to students by selecting Post Grades from the Assignment Options Menu.

New Gradebook FAQ: https://infocanvas.upenn.edu/guides/canvas-for-facultystafftas/grading-for-faculty-staff-tas/new-gradebook-faq/

If you have any questions, please contact Courseware Support at  [email protected]

Last Updated: 20 Oct 2021

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Canvas @ Tufts

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• How do I post (and hide) student grades?

By default, grades in Canvas are hidden from students until you decide to manually post them. (This is a change from previous versions of Canvas, which automatically released student grades when they were entered.)

Instructors can post Assignment, Discussion, and Quiz grades from SpeedGrader or the Gradebook.

Posting grades

Go to grades.

In the column of the grades you want to release to students, hover over the header to reveal three vertical dots. Click the three dots and select Post Grades

This displays the Post Grades information tray.

If there are no grades or comments on the assignment, the Options menu will display that there are no grades to hide or post. Instead, select Grade Posting Policy and choose to post grades Automatically. For more details, see How do I select a grade posting policy for an assignment in the New Gradebook?

Select posting options

To post grades and submission comments to all students, select Everyone . An assignment notification will also be sent to all students. Any future grades or comments you enter for this item will be immediately available to students.

To only post grades to students with graded submissions or submissions with comments, select Graded. Only those students who have been graded will be notified, and any grades or comments you later enter for ungraded students will remain hidden until you repeat this process and post them.

You can also choose to only release grades to a single section of your course.

The "hidden" icon at the top of the assignment column will disappear, indicating that the grades have been posted.

Hiding grades

In the column of the grades you want to release to students, hover over the header to reveal three vertical dots. Click the three dots and select Hide Grades

This displays the Hide Grades information tray.

If you have not begun grading the assignment yet, the Hide Grades option will not be available. Grades are already hidden by default and will not display to students until you post them.

This will hide the grade for this assignment in every student's gradebook. The "hidden" icon will appear at the top of the assignment column.

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