[ARCHIVED] Changing ability to RESET A QUIZ entirely so I can unpublish assignment

[dacia_hayslip]

Yet another irritating and time consuming glitch in CANVAS:

If I want to unpublish a quiz for a while (or any assignment) because I realize students need more time or I need to reteach or whatever, I can't if a student has "jumped the gun" and submitted (usually poorly) the assignment. Yes, I can change the "available from" date, and yes I can moderate and give the student another attempt - but all of this should be able to be bypassed. 

Why does CANVAS restrict this ability?  It's unnecessary and irritating. 

[greydon · Accepted solution]

Hello @dacia_hayslip 

Thank you for contacting Canvas Support. We're sorry to hear you've been experiencing issues with resetting a quiz in Canvas. We understand that you know how to use the available from-until dates and moderate to give extensions, etc. Currently, if there is a recorded student submission there isn't a way to override these settings and unpublish the quiz back to it's empty state before the quiz was submitted. Obviously, we understand the desire and need to override things in Canvas and we encourage you to mention this within the Idea Conversations that we have as we do implement suggestions from great ideas such as this.

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Idea-Conversations/idb-p/ideas

However, there should currently be a work around by duplicating the quiz. If you do have a single student submission and want to reset it back and unpublish this, we can duplicate the assignment to create an exact copy without the student submission. This is a feature of New Quizzes and if you are using Classic, you can export/import that back into the course or simply "migrate" it to a new quiz. Hopefully this helps! 

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-duplicate-a-New-Quizzes-quiz/ta-p/577

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-migrate-a-Canvas-quiz-to-New-Quizzes/ta...

If you have more questions regarding this issue(s) please feel free to respond with descriptive information as to give us a clear insight into the problem.

Thank you for contacting Canvas support

[cstrikwerda · Accepted solution]

Hello @dacia_hayslip 

Quizzes as well as Assignments will not be able to be unpublished if a student has submitted.

Here is our reference for making changes to a quiz after it has been published:
https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/Once-I-publish-a-quiz-how-do-I-make-additional-c...

In order to answer your question 'why does canvas restrict this ability?' this would be how Assignments and Quizzes function in Canvas, that after submissions have been made, we would not be able to unpublish. I believe the rationale behind this would be to maintain the data inside the Assignment/ Quiz. 

The Product and Engineering team want to hear from you if there is anything that would make your experience with Canvas better. Feel free to submit your suggestions to our Ideas Page here: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Idea-Conversations/idb-p/ideas

How Idea Conversations work in the Community:
https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Community/How-do-idea-conversations-work-in-the-Instructure-Commu...

[greydon · Accepted solution]

Hello @dacia_hayslip 

Thank you for contacting Canvas Support. We're sorry to hear you've been experiencing issues with resetting a quiz in Canvas. We understand that you know how to use the available from-until dates and moderate to give extensions, etc. Currently, if there is a recorded student submission there isn't a way to override these settings and unpublish the quiz back to it's empty state before the quiz was submitted. Obviously, we understand the desire and need to override things in Canvas and we encourage you to mention this within the Idea Conversations that we have as we do implement suggestions from great ideas such as this.

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Idea-Conversations/idb-p/ideas

However, there should currently be a work around by duplicating the quiz. If you do have a single student submission and want to reset it back and unpublish this, we can duplicate the assignment to create an exact copy without the student submission. This is a feature of New Quizzes and if you are using Classic, you can export/import that back into the course or simply "migrate" it to a new quiz. Hopefully this helps! 

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-duplicate-a-New-Quizzes-quiz/ta-p/577

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-migrate-a-Canvas-quiz-to-New-Quizzes/ta...

If you have more questions regarding this issue(s) please feel free to respond with descriptive information as to give us a clear insight into the problem.

Thank you for contacting Canvas support

[cstrikwerda · Accepted solution]

Hello @dacia_hayslip 

Quizzes as well as Assignments will not be able to be unpublished if a student has submitted.

Here is our reference for making changes to a quiz after it has been published:
https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/Once-I-publish-a-quiz-how-do-I-make-additional-c...

In order to answer your question 'why does canvas restrict this ability?' this would be how Assignments and Quizzes function in Canvas, that after submissions have been made, we would not be able to unpublish. I believe the rationale behind this would be to maintain the data inside the Assignment/ Quiz. 

The Product and Engineering team want to hear from you if there is anything that would make your experience with Canvas better. Feel free to submit your suggestions to our Ideas Page here: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Idea-Conversations/idb-p/ideas

How Idea Conversations work in the Community:
https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Community/How-do-idea-conversations-work-in-the-Instructure-Commu...

[ScottRader · Accepted solution]

Yes. This software is designed with  "This is how it is built and you need to conform to the structure" versus the reality of real-world teaching and user experience. There are really two mentalities with software design:  1. We need to understand the contours of everyday usage and conform our UI or 2. Our software is awesome and user attempts that fail indicate a problem between the seat and the keyboard. Think about  your favorite app that use frequently and with almost zero effort. It's designed with the former philosophy in mind.