[ARCHIVED] Do teachers' submission boxes on Canvas become locked?

[rpsimon]

From a teacher: "The students are telling me that the submission box on my canvas is locked.  Can you unlock it or do I have to do something"

Can someone help me with this please?

[Steve_Watts · Accepted solution]

Hi rpsimon
There are some options in the assignment settings that might cause it to be locked for students. The first thing to check is whether it has Available From/Until dates set. If it does then students won't be able to submit outside of the specified date range. Also check that it's assigned to "Everyone" in the Assign To box. We've had cases recently where a teacher has wanted to give a different due date to an individual student but when adding that extra date they've removed the availability for the rest of the class without realising. So if you do add a date for specific students, make sure you also have "Everyone else" to ensure the whole class can still access the assignment. See these pages for details on setting dates and assigning to specific students/everyone:
How do I assign an assignment to an individual student? 
How do I assign an assignment to everyone in a course? 

If the assignment is included in a module, also check the module settings. The module might be locked until a specific date, or its availability might be conditional on the students completing a previous module.