[ARCHIVED] How do I submit an assignment for a student?

[francishatstat7]

A student was unable to submit an assignment direct to Canvas and emailed it to me (Word Doc).  How can an instructor submit it to the Canvas site for the student?

[kblack · Accepted solution]

Hello  @frank_hatstat  Welcome to the worldwide Canvas Community. We're happy to have you here, and thanks for the question.....which, alas, is a relatively frequent one.  There is currently no way to do this in Canvas, though it is still out there as a Feature Idea that is on the Product Radar and one that can still be voted up and commented upon here:  https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1124-submit-an-assignment-on-behalf-of-a-student .  The only other alternative at the moment is to have the student re-submit it in Canvas (assuming you have not set an "Until" date).

Not the answer you want to hear, I imagine, but I hope it helps a bit.

[francishatstat7 · Accepted solution]

Thanks again for your follow up.  You are correct.  It is not the answer I wanted to hear but still good info for the future.  I also voted this up as a desired feature.

Thanks again,

Frank

[bneporadny]

Hi  @frank_hatstat ,

I don't believe there is away for the instructor to submit an assignment for a student.  Did the student contact the Canvas help desk to have them assist them with submitting the assignment?

I am also going to share this ticket with the Canvas Admins‌ & https://community.canvaslms.com/groups/designers groups to see if anyone in there has any suggestions for you and how they may have handled this type of issue in the past. 

Brian

[francishatstat7]

Thanks for your follow up, Brian.  I appreciate your efforts.

Best,
Frank

[kblack · Accepted solution]

Hello  @frank_hatstat  Welcome to the worldwide Canvas Community. We're happy to have you here, and thanks for the question.....which, alas, is a relatively frequent one.  There is currently no way to do this in Canvas, though it is still out there as a Feature Idea that is on the Product Radar and one that can still be voted up and commented upon here:  https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1124-submit-an-assignment-on-behalf-of-a-student .  The only other alternative at the moment is to have the student re-submit it in Canvas (assuming you have not set an "Until" date).

Not the answer you want to hear, I imagine, but I hope it helps a bit.

[francishatstat7]

Thanks for your reply and guidance. I tried to reply in the forum but see that was not designed into it to reply.

Francis A. Hatstat, JD, MBA

Adjunct Professor

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[francishatstat7 · Accepted solution]

Thanks again for your follow up.  You are correct.  It is not the answer I wanted to hear but still good info for the future.  I also voted this up as a desired feature.

Thanks again,

Frank

[CarrieBrotherso]

Hmmm, I will vote up the need for a fix. This problem can occur quite frequently, especially in composition courses geared toward developmental students who tend to have technical issues. The problem is an example of how the digital divide disproportionally hurts those who are already disadvantaged. Allowing a professor to upload a paper sent over email or with unsupported word processing software would be very helpful to these struggling students.

[NilsHeadley]

This is an unacceptable answer. It is a common problem but you decline to fix it. Come on.

[Chris_Hofer]

@NilsHeadley ...

Ken Black (now retired...and a fellow Canvas Community member like yourself) did not work for Instructure, so he wouldn't have been able to fix anything.  However, Ken was correct in giving people a link to the existing Feature Idea that relates to what you'd like to see implemented in Canvas.

Submit an assignment on behalf of a student - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

I completely understand that wanting a feature like this would be helpful.  And, there have been things I've wanted to see implemented in Canvas that were also suggested many years ago.  So, like you, I can get frustrated at times for things I'd love to have in Canvas.  However, I would suggest participating in the discussion that I've linked above and then also taking a look at:

• What is the feature development process for Instru... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com) ... see the section on "If my idea doesn't align..."
• How do idea conversations work in the Instructure ... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com) -- see the section on "How do I rate an idea?"

Hope this will help a bit...take care.

[STEVEHELGESON]

Because I wanted the assignment in the system, and to run it through Turnitin, I just used student view to submit under Test Student. Clunky Work-Around at best.

[sallis]

Hi all,

It's April 2020 and as far I can see this facility still has not been incorporated into Canvas. I have just started using Canvas, having used Blackboard LMS for many years. On Blackboard it was very easy for an 'instructor' to load an assignment on behalf of a student - which is especially useful when, as an instructor all you want to do is to load an assignment for a student and get it marked for them. It is a real shame this facility is not available on this platform (still almost 2 years since the original enquiry was posted). Do the Canvas people actually take any notice of such suggestions, I wonder?

 Richard

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Richard,

This feature is something our product team hopes to get back to this year; they have been working on student assignment improvements and instructor improvements were after that... well, before COVID-19 showed up! Our teams are currently working to revise the roadmap so we can get it back on track and get back to working on assignment features. As soon as we're back up to speed, we'll get it added to our https://community.canvaslms.com/community/ideas  page, which is where we post all features in development.

Thanks!

Erin

[sallis]

Thanks Erin.

I appreciate your reply.

Regards,

Richard

[clpage1]

This is an important feature for teachers working with students with disabilities and those disadvantaged students who have limited internet access. For instance, a visually impaired student who has trouble navigating and using screen readers may need measures to help them until they become fully fluent in the navigation and voiceover. Submitting a Help Desk ticket would be just as troublesome as submitting the assignment. Also, an assignment submitted via video recording or orally could be recorded by the teacher and submitted for students. Students with limited internet access could still work on a project on their computer, then hand off a thumb drive for the teacher to upload. Unfortunately, in order to do any of that, I have to have students' login information or actually get on their computers. 

[t_madarasz]

Actually it seems from the voting page, that this idea originated from 2015. 5 years now and still waiting, although it has gathered above a thousand votes.

[lenz]

Keep waiting, t_madarasz. I've been using CANVAS for 3 years and in those years have never seen anything change based on user feedback. Perhaps they're hoping we'll all retire or die? 🤬 Chérie

[Chris_Hofer]

Good morning, @lenz ...

I'm not sure what you mean.  Instructure has developed many things (including some of my own submitted Feature Ideas) based on user feedback.  In fact, there are just under 700 Feature Ideas (28 pages worth as of today) of submitted Feature Ideas that have been marked as "Completed" which you can view here: Idea Conversations - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

The Community isn't the only source of how they determine what users want to see in Canvas.  They gather feedback from other sources, too, outlined in:

What is the feature development process for Instructure products?

Also, I am not sure if you review the monthly Canvas Release Notes (and the more frequent Deploy Notes) or not, but usually they try to cite related Feature Idea requests when there is a new feature being added to the core Canvas product.  For example, if you look at either of these documents, sometimes you will see in the table under each heading a row for "Related Idea Conversation" with a link to the Feature Idea submission from someone in the Community.

• Canvas Deploy Notes (2022-06-08) - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)
  • RCE: Vector Button in Equation Editor --> Bring back the vector button in the equation edito... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)
• Canvas Release Notes (2022-06-18) - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)
  • Gradebook: Message Observers of Students Who --> "Message OBSERVERS of Students Who..." in Grade bo... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

Once these items are pushed out to your school's "production" environment on June 8 and June 18 respectively, then the Community Managers will update the Feature Ideas I've linked above to indicate they have been completed (replacing the current yellow label with a green label).

Finally, I know it can be frustrating to wait for things to be developed.  I've been there with you, too.  There are a couple documents here in the Community that have some helpful paragraphs:

• What is the feature development process for Instru... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com) -- Read 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) -- Read the section on "Be Patient".

So, I wanted to share this with you...for what it's worth.  I hope some of these things will help.  Take care...be well.

[lenz]

No, Richard, they don't. They don't take any notice at all. I've been using CANVAS for 3 years and HATE most of it, but when a university the size of ours gets suckered into buying something, you use it. 🤬
Chérie

[rungun_nathan]

It is sad, but I have generally found that Canvas is slow to create features that users want... And like many other software today - they have a click-happy interface.  You click away to glory to do anything, key board short cuts, batch processing etc are not tools that are used commonly anymore...

[klwhiteside]

Well, it's September 2020. Is there a link to how this can be accomplished or a published Canvas Guide on the process? Or, is there a workaround that someone is using while we wait for the feature? 

[mwakefield2 · Accepted solution]

Sadly, as mentioned previously the developers do not seem very interested in instructor suggestions that should be fairly easy to code and are often regular features in most commercial LMS offerings as well as in Moodle (which has had this particular feature for about 6 years now). Simple things have languished for many years on end in favor of features the coders find fun and interesting but may not be particularly useful from the instructor's perspective. It is simply a fact of life with Canvas, and as instructors we just have to play the hand we are dealt without any recourse, as most of us do not get to choose the LMS for the institutions where we are employed. /rant

One half-baked workaround for the submit-on-behalf-of-student problem that I have often used over the years is to upload the file sent to me by the student as an attachment to an assignment comment in Speedgrader. It still means I have to open the file locally to do any markup on it, vs using the tools in Speedgrader, but it serves as a note to me that the assignment was at least handed in. Better than nothing. Found a video on this here, if needed.

[lenz]

1.  Amen Brother or Sister.  I have seen ideas languish 5, 6, even 7 years while their authors are being thanked for their input, appreciated for their contribution to the CANVAS community, and assured that their ideas are invaluable to the growth of CANVAS.  Can we all spell D I S I N G E N U O U S?   On the other hand, there may be some movement on something I have been complaining about forever - loss of feedback in SpreedGrader without warning.  While I hesitate to mention it (there are still 36 hours left), for the first time since I began using CANVAS I may actually have made it through the entire quarter without losing too much of my work.  

(Sorry, I had to leave for a second there to find wood to knock on...) 

To me, this means that they've actually begun to do something about this issue (as opposed to increased operator proficiency, which we can never assume in my case). There are some new warnings that I find really helpful, but I hope they aren't finished because there are still glitches. and I want to experience at least one quarter of 0 feedback loss in my teaching career.

2.  Half-baked or not, thanks for the workaround for ss who do not submit their oeuvre into CANVAS themselves!  I've bookmarked it for the inevitable next time this happens to me. 

Cheers and Happy Holidays to All

[benprytherch]

I just found this discussion after trying to figure out how to upload assignments on a student's behalf.  I just assumed it would be something we could do. And now I see that it's been asked for year after year after year after year.  Please implement this!

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello @benprytherch ...

I'm not sure if you have seen this yet or not, but I would encourage you to check out the Feature Idea called Submit an assignment on behalf of a student - Instructure Community.  Posting feedback in this Feature Idea (rather than here in this topic) would be the best way for your comment to be seen by Canvas.  It would also help to provide a use case so that their engineers know any potential struggles you might be having with the current workflow.  Also, you can give that Feature Idea a star rating.  More information on that is located in How do idea conversations work in the Instructure ... - Instructure Community.

I hope this information will be of some help to you.  Let Community members know if you have any other questions about this process...thanks!

[SusanNiemeyer]

@Chris_Hofer - Here's the problem with these 700+ Idea Conversations: they are not logically grouped. There's just one idea after another idea after another idea after another idea.....  The whole set-up of figuring out which of these 700+ Idea Conversations, randomly ordered on 28 pages, have any level of interest based on "stars" is not working. It's an unworkable, ineffective, inefficient way at gathering feedback.

I've seen you explain this many times..... but Canvas Instructure could do so much better if they really wanted useful feedback from invested instructors and administrators using their product. 

What I would recommend is that the Idea Conversations be broken down into separate categories such as:

• Course Settings and Navigation
• Assignments / File Submissions
• Quizzes
• Inbox Messages
• Gradebook

Then If I'm interested in making a suggestion about the "Rich Content Editor" for example, I could see what ideas had already been submitted. The current use of "tags" doesn't work. 

Here's the bottom line: We should be advocating for a better way to recommend ideas to Canvas Instructure. "Idea Conversations" might have worked well when Canvas was a smaller, newer LMS, but now, they just lead to more frustration. 

[Teach2022]

Replying to this thread to show consistency... we STILL want this feature to upload on behalf of a student. Or, in my case, I'd like to upload my own document to have the template in the system so student's won't copy the example. 

[Chris_Hofer]

@Teach2022 ...

I would encourage you, if you haven't already, to participate in the Feature Idea conversation I had linked above in my reply back on October 5, 2021:

Submit an assignment on behalf of a student - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

Or, in my case, I'd like to upload my own document to have the template in the system so student's won't copy the example. 

---

Are you looking to upload a file for your students to complete, have them make annotations to the file, and then submit it back to you?  If so, then you can set up an assignment to do this.  Reply to Message - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)  Scroll about half-way down this link to the information under "Select Online Entry Options".  There is a check-box for "Student Annotations".  There is also a section under that for "Select Annotation File".  You can upload whatever file you want, and students will be able to annotate their own copy of the file.  Your file will not be touched.  (Note: This is similar to using the third-party integrations of either Google Docs/Drive or Microsoft Office 365 for submitting cloud assignments...as both of these have similar functionality.)

I hope this will help a bit.  Sing out if you have any questions...thanks!

[AdamHungate]

I have been griping about this feature for years now. Blackboard may have been a little cumbersome, but it was feature-rich and capable of all of these things Canvas lacks. I wish we had stayed on it instead of Canvas, but the professors were not given a choice but to use this limited software. There are many other flaws that could easily be fixed and resources added if they chose to do so, but clearly because they rope us in by conning the admins to buy it and leave us with no alternative but to use their clunk without the ability to have an alternative, we have no real voice they have to listen to- they only answer to the money people who could care less about functionality in favor of the bottom line.