Assignment Enhancements | Google Documents Not Correctly Uploading

[bludlow]

In the last day or two the following has been observed:

• With Assignment Enhancements enabled
  1. Students submit an online assignment using file upload
  2. The file uploaded is a Google Document or comes from Google Workspace
  3. When the file uploads is does not open in preview mode and there is no file extension on the filename (if I have understood correctly the file should be converted to a docx file)
  4. When the file is downloaded it will not open because it is missing the file extension (if docx is appended to the filename it will open in Word)
• With Assignment Enhancements disabled
  1. Students submit an online assignment using file upload
  2. The file uploaded is a Google Document or comes from Google Workspace
  3. The file uploads and is converted to the Microsoft equivalent (docx, pptx, etc)
  4. As expected, the file opens in preview mode
  5. When the file is downloaded it has the file extension (docx, pptx, etc) and opens

[jsailor]

Hi, @bludlow. Thank you for alerting us to this issue. Do you happen to have a support case open for this that we can track? Typically, it is best to send in a support case for this type of concern so that our support team can start digging and then escalate to our engineering team more quickly.  

[bludlow]

I believe our district Canvas administrator has opened a support ticket.  I posted here so others encountering the same problem will be aware of what I found.

I have no idea how to open a support ticket, or if that is even a possibility because I am not an administrator 🙂

[melodyc_lam]

Hi, @bludlow and @jsailor 

I am also seeing this behavior with Google Assignments LTI 1.3 and I'm glad I encountered this thread -- I tried to contact Canvas support but got directed to talk to Google support (twice), and now I'm stuck trying to explain to Google support what the issue is (it's been a week of back and forths and Google now thinks it's a network issue and not their tool...ugh).

Please let me know what I can do to help guide this along (if anything). It's frustrating for teachers right now when they're trying to grade assignments. I've been directing teachers and students to submit a Google Doc URL but they really want the old functionality back 🙂

[KaelynB]

Canvas also keeps directing me back to Google, but this thread certainly leads me to believe that Canvas needs to do more to remedy this issue, not Google.

[BenJam1n]

I am encountering the same problem here.  I have been asked to present to several classes on how to navigate around the issue.  I am not sure when this happened, but one of my English instructors noticed an issue within the last five weeks. 

We provide O365 to students, but a majority, since COVID, have come from schools that used Google Classrooms during the shutdown.  An increased portion of our populus is now more familiar with Google's Office suite.  Additionally, many have now purchased Chromebooks.  Again, we highly encourage the use of 0365, but it is difficult to enforce when so many students require technological accommodations in our area. 

Is there any estimated time on a fix?

Cheers,
Ben

[jsailor]

Hi, all. We have been working in conjunction with the Google team to find a solution to this problem. We now have a fix in place and ready to deploy. Our current plan is to hotfix tomorrow, so you should see resolution by tomorrow afternoon. Thanks again for alerting us to the issue and for your patience as we worked across partners to resolve the issue. 

[jacob_standish]

That is great news! Will this fix the existing file submissions that are currently missing extensions or just new submissions moving forward? 

[melodyc_lam]

Hi, was the hotfix deployed @jsailor? I checked this morning with Assignment Enhancements on and I'm still getting the unintended behavior when attaching a Google document.

[jsailor]

Hi, @melodyc_lam, the hotfix took a bit longer than originally anticipated, but yes it has been deployed and is verified as working by many other users.  

[KaelynB]

It looks like it is working for me!