[ARCHIVED] Just to be clear, I can't hide an assignment (by unpublishing) if it has submissions?

[annespinoza]

I've read enough to know that you can not unpublish an assignment once it has submissions. Am I alone in thinking this is crazy? I have a lot of assignments, and I find that having 100 small assignments including a few get-to-know-you assignments from the beginning of the year is very distracting to students (especially those with ADHD). I want to remove assignments that are no longer needed and are just cluttering up the screen. How can I do that? I can only imagine what my canvas page will look like by the end of the semester! 

[tomjohnson189]

I have the same question.

[James · Accepted solution]

@annespinoza 

This was asked as a question, which is expected to have an answer, but you gave the answer to your own question: You cannot unpublish an assignment once it has submissions. It really sounds like this is more of a request for a feature than a question.

There is an existing conversation around the idea Ability to unpublish assignments with student submissions where you can share you reasons for wanting this functionality.

[annespinoza]

 I guess I was hoping someone would say, "oh yes, there is a way to do that". But alas no. Thanks, I'll check that link out.

[kmeeusen]

Hi @annespinoza 

There is a solution if the only submission is one that you made as the Test Student (Student View).

• Reset the Test Student,
• Then delete the Test Student from it's section under the Settings Tab

Otherwise, as @James and @tomjohnson189 stated, there is no way to unpublish and assignment once there is a submission.

You could also simply delete the assignment, then create an identical one, and not publish it until you are ready for students to attempt it.

Kelley