[Assignments] Submit an assignment on behalf of a student

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

As an instructor, I'd like the option to submit assignments on behalf of my students. This feature should enable me to pick a file from my computer and upload it as a submission for a given student. I should then be able to assess the submission just as if the student had submitted it themselves. A note should appear somewhere that indicates I submitted the assignment on behalf of my student. This would help me in cases where, for instance, my students submit an assignment on paper or the submission is a performance (a speech or presentation) that I capture on video.

 

transferred from the old Community

Originally posted by: Bill Hanna
Special thanks for contributions by: Paul Gibbons, Sydney Cheek-O'Donnell, Kona Jones, Stefanie Sanders

369 Comments
SethBattis
Community Contributor

…or when some knucklehead emails me their paper as an attachment and I just want to get it graded and done, rather than get all pedantic about how it was "supposed" to be submitted.

A great implementation of this would be to be able to drag a new submission on to the SpeedGrader to upload it, btw.

mrobertson
Community Novice

This is a great idea.

We've had a number of instructors ask us why they are unable to upload on behalf of a student like they could in that "other system" we used to use.

nbrown2
Community Member

This would be great for an instructor to be able to run a paper through Turnitin so the student could see the report, as opposed to using the "Test Student" account.

James_Kocher_UF
Community Champion

Maybe we should have a feature request for a sub-setting of student as "knucklehead"  Smiley Happy

sruggenberg
Community Novice

This would be a useful feature – most commonly for those situations where a student uploads a file in .pages or forgets to add the .pdf suffix to a document. I an download, view, and save, but I then can't grade it as I would have otherwise. Currently, I attach to my comments on the assignment to keep an archive copy of the readable document, but this feature would be helpful.

I know ... there are other ways to try and "force" individuals to upload the correct files the first time, but there are instances where this feature would be very useful.

buellj
Community Contributor

This is a frequent request for faculty. For those that have Turnitin, it would also allow after the fact originality checking when there is a concern.

reevesj
Community Novice

On a closely related note, it would be great if bulk uploads were possible without first bulk-downloading, for instance after grading scanned copies of tests.  If the instructor could create placeholder submission files for each student, then the instructor could bulk-download, replace the files with the ones to be uploaded, and then bulk-upload.

I have submitted an idea to this effect: 

SethBattis
Community Contributor

Yes. A thousand times: yes. That would be fantastic.

cms_hickss
Community Coach
Community Coach

This would be great, especially when a student says or does actually have an issue uploading an assignment and mails it to the Teacher instead (sometimes through Conversation and other times through our University email client). It would be nice for the Teacher to be able upload that document to the assignment on the student's behalf (and mark it as such); especially if that assignment needs to go through Turnitin or another similar LTI.

ayw
Community Novice

Glad I read to the end of the other forum from 2011. I wish all of the original posts could be counted toward this vote...