[ARCHIVED] Delete a single student Assignment

[craig_milgrim]

A student submitted a paper to the wrong assignment.  Is there a way to delete the incorrect submission?

[Robbie_Grant · Accepted solution]

 @craig_milgrim ,

Currently, you cannot delete a submission from an assignment in Canvas. What you can do is open the assignment back up just for that student and have them re-submit.

https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-9973-4152101242 

There are a couple of feature requests that address this issue and might provide more insight:

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1293 

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1124-submit-an-assignment-on-behalf-of-a-student 

Robbie

[Robbie_Grant · Accepted solution]

 @craig_milgrim ,

Currently, you cannot delete a submission from an assignment in Canvas. What you can do is open the assignment back up just for that student and have them re-submit.

https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-9973-4152101242 

There are a couple of feature requests that address this issue and might provide more insight:

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1293 

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1124-submit-an-assignment-on-behalf-of-a-student 

Robbie

[craig_milgrim]

Thanks for your reply

Sad that this "great idea" was submitted in 2015 and 2 years later is not even in line to be added.

[JoeHurst]

this is a feature that definitely needs to be added. i often have students submit things that don't need to be submitted and that is an easy fix. the one that isn't is when they get into an assignment that shouldn't be open. i don't know how that is possible because there are some things that were unpublished and then somehow become published and they do that as if it was the assignment they were supposed to do. my only possibility is to just keep hitting the x to ignore it until there is a new submission. meanwhile, i can't close the assignment which was never actually assigned and other students get in there when they aren't supposed to either. it is very frustrating to keep dealing with and you should definitely change that so a student's submission can be deleted.

[lzeitlin]

This is a very important feature. Students don't need to be reminded of errors, and faculty don't need clutter of assignments that will never be read or graded. I am surprised that it is not more frequently requested. It's in every LMS I've ever worked with until this one.

[ewalsh3]

It is egregiously bad that this is not a feature. Students frequently either submit the wrong file to the assignment or submit the correct file to the wrong assignment and often realize it right away--before the due date. Then they email the instructor to ask them to remove it. 

What is the rationale for not having this obvious function?

[appleton]

You can't just open the assignment up.   You have to reset the due date, as they can't resubmit after the original deadline for submission.    So, if they are supposed to lose some points for late submission, that has to be done manually because you have to set the "new" assignment up so that they are not submitting late.

[joe_greene]

It's comical that Canvas continues to roll out updates all the time and yet completely ignores basic functions like deleting an assignment that was incorrectly done. In our situation we need a clean record for any potential grade audits. Instead of deleting any accidental submissions, when we go back through those records we're going to be stuck with as many as 3-4 submissions for a single assignment. That's somewhere between amateur and incompetent design.

[AmyR8]

This is another feature that seems basic that is not available in Canvas. It won't even let me unpublish the assignment because a student erroneously completed it.

[aprilr2]

I complete agree.  I was sharing a course with other teachers (I was told I need to publish to share in the commons) and a student completed a lesson assignment in the middle of the unit.  I want to be able to delete the assignment so that I can unpublish.  I want to publish one lesson at a time.  I have to delete the whole assignment and recreate.  What a waste of time!!!

[AshleyM7]

Is this still not a feature? We have all been remote learning in some capacity for over a year now. This feature request is now 4 years old! We need to be able to unsubmit/delete a student assignment. This is absurd.

[kmcgrath]

Also, if the assignment was set to one submission, you have to allow multiple submissions for everyone - you can't just add an additional attempt like you can for a quiz. 

[NicoleSimmons]

@Robbie_Grant any updates on this???

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Good evening, @NicoleSimmons ...

Unfortunately, I don't think deleting a student's work that was submitted to the wrong assignment is possible.  Students can now re-submit the assignment, but I assume that is not what you are asking about.  How do I limit submission attempts for an assignme... - Instructure Community

The Feature Idea that you will want to follow is: Move or Delete Incorrectly Submitted Assignments - Instructure Community.  Feel free to "rate" that Feature Idea and also leave a comment so that Instructure engineers know why something like this would be important to you within Canvas.

Sorry that I don't have better news for you at this time, but I hope this has helped to answer your question.

[AaronPotter]

This is not "solved."  Stop claiming you have "solved" a problem by noting that YOU HAVE NOT DONE ANYTHING AND DO NOT INTEND TO.  I suggest Canvas have a different tag instead of "solved" for these common requests.  How about "ignored"?  Perhaps "user told to take a hike"?  Maybe "round-filed," if you're feeling cheeky.

Or, here's an idea: when a SIMPLE request like this, which would literally take any competent programmer less than a DAY to implement comes up, how about you actually do it?

[MWilliams24]

I cannot comprehend how this is still not a feature in Canvas.

Scenario: Student inadvertently submits their assignment prematurely/incomplete (but to the correct portal)

• If the assignment was set to single submission only, the instructor now needs to:
  • set the assignment to two submissions for ALL students, and to avoid giving other students a second submission, the instructor needs to organise a time to make the assignment available to only this particular student, then needs to change the assignment back to single submission and make it available to all students again.
• The instructor is forced to live with the clutter and annoyance of having an assignment submission which does not belong there.

Scenario: Student inadvertently submits to the wrong assignment portal

• All points above, plus
• The instructor can no longer unpublish the assignment portal because it contains submissions.
• The instructor can no longer convert the assignment a group assignment because it contains submissions.
• The instructor is now consistently prompted (via the Dashboard to do list) to grade a submission which does not need to be graded.

Scenario: Student inadvertently submits to a past assignment portal which has already been graded

• All points above, plus
• The Gradebook icon now suggests that the student has not been graded because their most recent submission is not graded. To get around this, the instructor needs to click ‘Use this same grade for the resubmission’ – essentially grading a submission for a completely different assignment using the grading rubric/rules for this assignment.

Add on to this the extra workload for instructors (and us admin staff) when they contact us to ask how to delete a submission, only for us to have to tell them that it is impossible in what is supposed to be a modern LMS. Even the archaic Blackboard Learn allowed submissions to be deleted.

I do see value in the core philosophy that is “keep a record of anything and everything”, but when it results in headaches and workload for countless instructors, students and admin staff, a line must be drawn. It would not be a monumental task to allow deletion of submissions while keeping a record of who deleted the submission and when (for auditing purposes).

If there are concerns about instructors inadvertently/recklessly deleting submissions they shouldn’t be, then this can be made available to admins only, or a toggleable user permission. Alternatively, this can be made “difficult” for the average user (e.g. only make it possible through the API).

This has been requested on the Canvas Community since 2011. This idea has had hundreds of comments and five-star ratings across multiple idea threads over the course of more than a DECADE. In 2015, Instructure posted an update stating:
It's a great feature idea and we would like to solve this problem. However, our immediate roadmap is overflowing with other great ideas and we will not realistically get to this feature request in the immediate future. I'm going to have to Archive this for now, but don't lose hope. This is a really solid feature request and one that deserves our attention. It won't evaporate from our minds just because it's archived right now.

Well, fair to say it has evaporated from your minds and I think we’ve all lost hope.

[CurtisHartling]

I love how so many of these issues are marked as "Solved! Go to the solution". Then, when you go to the solution, the solution is, "you can't do that". Solved indeed. Ugh.

[Chris_Hofer]

@AaronPotter , @MWilliams24 , and @CurtisHartling ...

I completely understand the frustration, and I have been there with you on some of my own Feature Idea submissions that I thought would be great additions to the Canvas product.  I'm still waiting on some years later, too.  However, I've also had a couple of my Feature Ideas developed (which seemed minor but still important/helpful to me) by Instructure that I never thought would become part of the core Canvas environment.  There are a couple Guides here in the Community that I would like to refer you to:

• What is the feature development process for Instru... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com) -- Specifically the section on "If my idea doesn’t align with a priority, is it still important?"
• How do I create a new idea conversation in the Ins... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com) -- Specifically the section on "Be patient" (which I recognize is easier said that done).  One of the sentences in that paragraph states, "This process means that even if everyone agrees that developing a given feature would be a good use of finite development resources, it may be a long time before the feature can be developed, and it may have to wait in line as part of a larger development schedule."

You can also get an idea of Instructure's product roadmap by checking out this link: Product Roadmap - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

I'm not sure if any of this will help or not, but I thought I'd provide my $0.02 for what it's worth...from a fellow Canvas admin.

Take care, and be well.

[SusanNiemeyer]

To me, the Instructor of the course should have the ability to delete a student submission for all of the reasons that @MWilliams24  (and others) have listed.

I would not give the student the opportunity to do this because, in some circumstances, the instructor may wish to “keep a record of anything and everything.”

However, if the Instructor wishes to delete a submission, then he or she should have the ability to do so. That would give authority and control back to the Instructor.

[SusanNiemeyer]

@MWilliams24   Could I suggest that you repost your last response here?

 https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Assignment-Enhancements-Users/gh-p/student_enhancements

It seems to me that this feature could and should be incorporated into Assignment Enhancements.

[MWilliams24]

Great idea, I just made a post here: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Assignment-Enhancements-Users/Allow-instructors-admins-to-delete-... 

[AnoopSingh]

Another of those basic features that canvas doesn't have. 
They need to hire good people.