Can a teacher submit an assignment for a student?

[michael_hartman]

I am having my students scan their homework and upload them to a Canvas assignment as a pdf file. However, I have a couple of students that don't have the ability to scan their homework. Therefore they turn them in to me directly. I would like for all the assignments to be in Canvas, that way I don't have to keep up with a couple of random papers. So is there a way as a teacher that I can scan the work a student turns in and upload it under their profile? Thanks.

[ericwerth · Accepted solution]

Hello  @michael_hartman .  The only way that this would be possible, currently, is for someone with administrator rights to "act as" the student and while acting as the student submit the assignment on their behalf.  There is an open feature idea for this functionality that has garnered a great deal of support and which you may want to vote up as well, https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1124-submit-an-assignment-on-behalf-of-a-student 

In the meantime, if the students cannot scan their work, could they take an image of the assignment on their phone and submit this in addition to sending you what they have?  It may be easier to grade from the document that they send but there would be a record on the submission in Canvas and the files there if needed.  I do have some faculty who require students to submit photos of their written work/notes and in these examples I have noticed that with a high-quality image, one could make out their writing in the SpeedGrader window fairly easily.  Typed responses should be even easier to read from an image.  This is just a thought, but ultimately as can be seen in the feature idea, many individuals would like the ability to submit work on behalf of a student if the feature captured the correct metadata to differentiate this from standard submissions of the student.

I hope this helps!

[ericwerth · Accepted solution]

Hello  @michael_hartman .  The only way that this would be possible, currently, is for someone with administrator rights to "act as" the student and while acting as the student submit the assignment on their behalf.  There is an open feature idea for this functionality that has garnered a great deal of support and which you may want to vote up as well, https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1124-submit-an-assignment-on-behalf-of-a-student 

In the meantime, if the students cannot scan their work, could they take an image of the assignment on their phone and submit this in addition to sending you what they have?  It may be easier to grade from the document that they send but there would be a record on the submission in Canvas and the files there if needed.  I do have some faculty who require students to submit photos of their written work/notes and in these examples I have noticed that with a high-quality image, one could make out their writing in the SpeedGrader window fairly easily.  Typed responses should be even easier to read from an image.  This is just a thought, but ultimately as can be seen in the feature idea, many individuals would like the ability to submit work on behalf of a student if the feature captured the correct metadata to differentiate this from standard submissions of the student.

I hope this helps!

[michael_hartman]

Thanks for the information. I have vote and hope to see it become a reality one day.

[mlescroart]

Has there been any further action on this? I would very much like to have this feature as well.

Cheers,

ML

[jordanm]

I've been in and placed my vote. Any chance this could be resurrected and actioned given the new world order of online learning? It's that much harder if we can't upload an assignment for a student who has emailed it in desperation when things have glitched for one of a million reasons. Also nasty for those with administrator rights. 

[ericwerth]

Hi  @jordanm   I know that the folks at Instructure monitor these boards and review ideas often and this is clearly something that instructors would find valuable.  The more support the idea gets the better, so if you know of others who can vote the idea up and leave a message of support, let them know!

[KimWhiteside]

Hello. I've been searching the Community to find out if there's been an update regarding this feature. Having the ability to submit an assignment on behalf of a student is an essential feature in my opinion. 

[kim_wine]

I really need this option. My students struggle with uploading work, and I end up uploading what they send me, via multiple routes, into the comments in Speedgrader. If I could do it as a teacher, it would be easier to demonstrate everytime so they would eventually get it. 

[TRE5]

I would also greatly appreciate this option. It would safe considerable time if this option was available. 

[thomas_walker1]

I figured I'd post here and on the original as maybe a thread that started sooner than 2015 might carry more emphasis.

EDIT: and obviously I would love this feature to provide me with a means of documentation for the grade I am currently just stuck sticking a number to without connected evidence as to why.

EDIT 2: and why is this marked solved when there is no solution after 2 years (or 6 years from the original post)?

[RobertoRoman]

My thoughts exactly! The original post shows "in development" with no option to up vote. It shows submitted by Community Team on 4-14-2015. So how long has it been "in development," and what's the status? 

Original post: 

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Idea-Conversations/Submit-an-assignment-on-behalf-of-a-student/id... 

[Chris_Hofer]

@RobertoRoman ...

I think I have some good news for you.

First, the reason that you cannot vote on Feature Ideas (and actually, with the current Community interface, it's not voting but rather giving a star rating) is that the entire Feature Idea process has been temporarily disabled so that Instructure (the folks that make Canvas) can do some work on the Feature Idea process.  The plan is for the new Feature Idea process to be re-opened at the beginning of February 2023.  So, if you can hang on just a little while longer, that would be great.  Also, you can read more about this at: Idea Conversations: The Path Forward.

Second, the even better news is related to your question about when Instructure might implement a way for instructors to submit an assignment on behalf of students.  I'm not sure if you follow the Canvas Product Roadmap site, but I would highly suggest that you check this out: Canvas Product Roadmap - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com).  You'll see that under the Q1 2023 tab, the currently listed 5th item under the "CANVAS LMS" heading is:

---

Enhanced gradebook functionality allows educators to submit an assignment on a student's behalf in order to support students struggling with submission and capture evidence of classroom assignments.

---

Clicking on the "+" icon next to this item will provide you with additional details.

So...I hope this info will be of help to you and will be helpful to you when it becomes available!  Let Community members know if you have any other questions about this...thanks!

[RobSheppard]

I too would like to see this feature. It's such a common need, not to mention an accessibility issue.

[jaynewell]

I'll be the first--hopefully not the last--person in 2022 to ask for a proxy upload feature.

[thomas_walker1]

This has been posted for a while and I've replied & read replies from multiple people ... but does it mean anything that this morning the message said it has a solution instead of it simply being listed as a daily digest?

If not that obviously needs it own complaint because something like this should only be referenced as a solution if the problem being identified is actually being fixed.

Of course that being said I may just have to stop wasting my time submitting concerns and receiving daily digests if nothing ever comes from them.

[KristinL · Accepted solution]

Hi! I have an update for everyone!

Submit an assignment on behalf of a student is now in Beta! Please read the Canvas Release Notes (2023-03-18) for more details.

[thomas_walker1]

Thank you!

Reading the Release Notes the one question I have is in regards to the statement "When the Submission-submit on behalf of student permission is enabled...". Is this something enabled by the teacher or by the system / district administrator? If system / district administrator, do they get notifications when new features are made available or will we need to start notifying & lobbying for this ourselves?