Assignments:
Canvas Instructor Guide: Assignments
Canvas allows you to create many different types of assignments, so you can choose the best format for your courses. Broadly speaking, Canvas supports five assignment types: Quizzes, Discussions, and assignments that take online submissions (including entries into text boxes, uploaded files, and so on), external tools, and ungraded assignments. Assignments can be assigned to everyone in a course to to specific groups. When you create any type of assignment, it automatically shows up in the grade book and can be graded using the SpeedGrader tool. As an instructor, you can select an assignment type when creating an assignment shell. However, you can also create assignments within an assignment type by visiting each type's respective Index Page.
>> Be sure to set a due date when you create an assignment; when you do this, Canvas creates an entry in the To Do list on the student's Dashboard to help them track their assignments. (See directions below).
When creating an assignment in Canvas, instructors can specify the following information:
You can attach documents to an assignment by clicking the Attach button and selecting the file you want to attach. You can choose from course files and/or your computer.
When editing assignments, make sure to click the notification box at the bottom of the page before saving so students receive a notification about any changes made, if necessary.
Canvas features integrations for Perusall, Turnitin, and VoiceThread, which allow instructors to incorporate additional feedback and promote academic integrity.
Additionally, Canvas's analytics tools allow instructors to track student progress on assignments and identify areas where students may need additional support.
Turnitin can be used to generate similarity reports, and is built into WU's instance of Canvas. Learn more about how to use it on the Turnitin page of this guide.
Canvas allows you to create custom groups of assignments (for example: reading responses, major projects, weekly responses). These groups can be weighted to make grade calculation easier. For example, you may want weekly reading responses to count for 20% of your course's final grade. By creating custom groups of assignments and then weighting them using the Assignments tool, you can make each individual assignment worth whatever you like, and the grade book will calculate the massed grades within that group as 20% (or whatever percentage you set) of the final grade. Assignment groups can be multiple or single assignments (so, for example, if you want a final project to count for 50% of the final grade, you can create a group that contains only this project).
Learn how to set up categories and adjust the weighted grades on Canvas's instructor guide – How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?
The links below will demonstrate aspects of this feature.
You can also create special rules for groups of assignments (for example, dropping the lowest graded assignment from an assignment group. Learn more about that feature here – How do I create rules for an assignment group?
Canvas Instructor Guide:
Canvas peer review is a feature that allows instructors to enable students to review and provide feedback on each other's work. This feature can be used anonymously or to show student names.
In order to assign a due date and set assignment availability, scroll to the bottom of the Assignment creation/editing page, to the section labeled "Assign Access." This has fields where you can set the due date and availability for the assignment. (For more detail on the difference, see the Canvas instructor guide: What is the difference between assignment due dates and availability dates?)
The "Assign To" field allows you to assign work to the entire class, individual students, or specific groups of students (called group sets) that you create.
Learn more about Groups in the Canvas instructor guide.
When you create or edit an assignment you can set limits on how many times a student can submit an assignment under the "Submission Attempts" section.
You set the assignment due date in the "Assign" section at the bottom of the page. In this section you also set when an assignment is available to students. Be sure to enter a date in the "Available from" box, or students will not be able to make a submission. If you do not want to allow late assignments, enter the submission cut off date in the "Until" box.
This is specific to assignments that have file upload submissions. Sometimes a student may have issues submitting an assignment. If you want the assignment in the SpeedGrader system, you can submit a file that they send you on their behalf. See directions in the Canvas Instructor Guide – How do I submit an assignment on behalf of a student as an instructor?
At some point you will probably need to allow a student to resubmit an assignment. I recommend initially setting up your assignments with at least 2 attempts so that you don't have to moderate an assignment if a student uploads the wrong file. It is possible to reassign or reopen an assignment for a specific student. Learn more in the Canvas Instructor Guide: Can a student resubmit Canvas assignments?
If you want students to turn in multiple types of files as different aspects of one assignment, you can achieve this by allowing multiple submissions.
For this sample assignment, students will submit a text file and a video file. Beside the "Submission Type" section of the Assignment set up page, I checked the boxes for Media Recordings and File Uploads. Media Recordings allows students to create a video or audio file directly in Canvas using the My Media / Kaltura tool.
Because students will submit two files, they need to have at least two submission attempts allowed. In this example, I am allowing unlimited attempts so that I don't have to reopen the assignment if a student uploads an incompatible file or mistakenly uploads a file meant for another class.
When a student turns in their work for this assignment, they will need to make two submissions to the assignment (I strongly recommend explaining this to them both in class when you discuss the assignment, and in the written assignment directions.
Once a student has made both submissions, you will be able to view both in SpeedGrader.
The screenshot below shows the first submission I made as a test student, the video submission. Look at the top right corner of the screenshot where it says "Submission to view." You will have multiple submissions to choose from in this drop down menu, allowing you to look at both submissions. Because this was the first submission I made, there is an orange note below the drop down menu that says "Note" This is not the most recent submission."
The screenshot below shows the second submission I uploaded, the text file. This is the most recent submission. You can also see the file that I uploaded under the "Submission to view" drop down menu in the top right of the screenshot.
If you use the comment box to leave feedback, you can switch back and forth between submissions without losing any comments that you are typing in the comment box. Once you are finished with your comments, don't forget to click the red "Submit" button to save it and release it to the student! This does not mean that you can switch between students without losing what you were typing in the comment box.
If your class involves repeated in-class assignments like workbook page, you may prefer to create assignments through a .csv file. This allows you to bypass creating assignments in Canvas. Instead, you download a spreadsheet, open it with a program like Excel or Google Sheets, and create columns for assignments. You would then track the grades in your spreadsheet. After each assignment, you are able to save your spreadsheet as a .csv file and re-upload it to Canvas, thus keeping your grades up-to-date for your students. You can use Canvas-created and .csv-created assignments with each other in the same course.
Videos demonstrating the process can be found below the written directions.
To create the initial .csv file, navigate to the course gradebook. It does not matter if you have already created assignments in Canvas or not. Click on the "Export" button at the top right corner of the page, and select "Export Entire Gradebook."
Canvas will create a .csv file that downloads to your computer. Open the file, which should look something like the image below (shown in Excel).
Add columns for your desired assignments following the directions on this Canvas help page. Then import the file back into Canvas. Your new assignments should appear in the gradebook!
Kaltura gives you the ability to create quizzes by embedding questions within a video. As a student watches the video, it will pause and provide a question that they must answer before they move on (you may have experienced this format in video trainings you have done).
You have the option to upload a video that you want to embed questions in, or to create video using the Kaltura recording tools in My Media.
Note: Even though you are creating a quiz, you will create an Assignment in Canvas.
Directions are available below in both video and written format.
You can create a quiz from your My Media folder, or by following these steps as you create a Canvas assignment. I will demonstrate the process by creating a quiz from the My Media folder, then embedding it in a Canvas Assignment.
First, create a video in My Media or upload a video to your My Media folder.
Open My Media and click the "Add New" button in the top right corner of the page, then select "Video Quiz" from the dropdown menu.
Select a video from your My Media collection. This will open a video editing window. Select a timestamp where you want to add a question, then click the blue "+ Add a Question" button on the video screen. You will be given several different types of questions to choose.
Note: if you create a True/False question be sure that the green check appears next to the correct answer.
Once you have finished adding questions. Click the blue "Done" button at the top right of the screen. If you want to edit questions or add more, click the blue "Edit Quiz" button that appears at the top of the quiz page.
The edit page gives you several different settings that cam be adjusted in terms of details, scoring, and experience (allowing the viewer to change or skip answers).
You will be able to view and edit your Kaltura quizzes anytime by navigating to your My Media folder.
First, navigate to the course where you want to use your Kaltura Quiz.
Next, create an Assignment by clicking on the Assignments tab or by creating an Assignment within a module.
Note: You are going to create a Canvas Assignment, NOT a Quiz!
Type any directions you want to include on the Assignments page in the rich content editor box. Adjust the "points," "Assignment Group," and "Display Grade as" fields according to your preferences. For Submission Type, select "External Tool" from the dropdown menu.
Click the "Find" button and select "In Video Quiz Kaltura" from the menu.
The next screen will allow you to select your pre-made quiz, or create a new Kaltura quiz (follow the steps from step 1 if you want to create a Kaltura quiz from scratch).
Set your "Submission Attempts" field, Assignment group, due date, availability date range, and click the red "Save" button at the bottom of the page.
The student view of your quiz will show an embedded video on the Assignment page, along the lines of the screenshot below.
Kaltura automatically creates a column in the gradebook, and should grade the assignment for you. You can adjust the grade either by going into SpeedGrader or the gradebook.
Discussions allow students and instructors to create posts in response to a prompt you create, or they can take the form of a group discussion. You can choose to make your Discussions ungraded or graded.
Canvas Instructor Guide: Discussions
To begin, click on "Discussion" in the the course's left side bar. Then on the Discussion's page, click the red "+ Discussion" button in the top right corner.
On the new Discussion page, you can enter your prompt. If you look for the word "Options" near the bottom of the page, you'll see check boxes that allow you to allow students to respond to each other in threaded replies, you can require students to post before viewing other responses by checking the appropriate box, and you can check a box to set a Discussion as graded or ungraded.
Because I want this to be a graded discussion, I checked the "Graded" box in this options section, which brings up more fields like "Points Possible," a drop down menu for the groups you want to assign the discussion to, and information to fill out about when the Discussion assignment is due.
Be sure to save and publish your Discussion!
Canvas Instructor Guide: Rubrics
Rubrics in Canvas are a feature that allows instructors to create a set of criteria for evaluating student work and assigning grades. Rubrics provide a clear and transparent framework for grading assignments, making it easier for instructors to provide feedback and for students to understand what is expected of them.
To create a rubric in Canvas, instructors can navigate to the Assignments tool and select the assignment they want to create a rubric for. They can then select the "View Rubric" option and create a new rubric, or edit an existing one.
Rubrics in Canvas can be based on a variety of criteria, such as content, organization, grammar, and citation. Instructors can also customize the criteria to align with specific learning objectives and course outcomes.
Once a rubric is created, instructors can use it to evaluate student work by selecting the appropriate rubric when grading an assignment. The rubric provides a clear set of expectations and criteria for each level of achievement, which allows instructors to assign grades more accurately and provide more effective feedback to students.
Rubrics can also be added to discussions and Quizzes.
Here is a sample rubric in editing mode.
To add a rubric to an assignment, open the assignment and click the "+ Rubric" button at the bottom of the assignment's page.
This will open a pop-up with any rubrics you have created. Select the rubric you want to apply to the assignment, then click the "Use This Rubric" button at the bottom of the pop-up.
Here is what a sample assignment with a rubric looks like.
Tech support: For technical assistance, start a ticket with WITS
Brainstorming: For ideas on how to use tools in your course, contact the DLS