Adjust all assignment and quiz dates on a single page

[harris60]

The Problem:

Managing dates one item at a time is tedious when you are planning an entire semester. This is true for new classes, but also for existing classes since the ability to globally adjust imported dates never works for the way my institution designs new semesters.

I would like a spreadsheet format that shows all date related events on one page. I could then set up all events and synchronize them where necessary. This could be an online form, or the ability to download a csv template and reupload the dates.

I have attached a simplified snapshot of this kind of spreadsheet.

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

Please read through the Ready Release Notes (2020-04-18) 

[Beth_Young]

For some reason, I can't follow the link you sent. I get a page that says "Unauthorized: This place or content does not exist or access to it is restricted. If you think this is a mistake, please contact your administrator or the person who directed you here."

[kona]

Try this link instead - Adjust All Assignment Dates on One Page

[Beth_Young]

This link works, thanks!

I'm not sure I can dive into this again tonight, but as soon as I get a chance, I'll update on whether my difficulties have vanished.

[James]

I'm glad Kona came along with the right one. She and I wrote the link in one place (private) and then copy/pasted it into a public location but the private one came up for me when I started to type in the name. Sorry about that. I'll edit the post to be the right one.

[Stef_retired]

For anyone interested in this topic, be sure to RSVP to the CanvasLIVE event Adjust all assignment due dates on one page, which is coming up this Friday, January 13, 2017. RSVP “yes” if you will be there--and if you’re interested, but your schedule doesn’t allow you to attend in real time, RSVP "no" or "maybe" to receive all event updates. Your RSVP ensures that you will receive a notification should the event be cancelled or changed.

[druker_stephen]

James,

Wow indeed! I'm new to Canvas and you are a super-genius! This spreadsheet saved my life when I had to copy a course from a 6 week to 8 week format. If you are ever just dying to make additions to it, I have two suggestions:

1) Include Module start dates

2) Include Announcements start dates. 

If you did those two things, I think it would cover pretty much all the scheduling in a Canvas course. 

Thanks again for making such a useful tool!

Steve

[James]

 @druker_stephen ,

Thanks for the suggestions, but I'm not dying to make additions. Every type of object has its own properties and I didn't want to have a bunch of stuff on a page that you couldn't use. There are other options that would be nice to have for quizzes like the settings, but they don't apply to anything else. Unless I make a page for quizzes and a page for assignments and a page for modules and a page for announcements, they just don't fit together -- but that defeats the purpose of having everything on one page. Your comprehensive list leaves out differentiated assignments and terms and multiple grading periods and calendar events and probably some other things I'm forgetting or not aware of.

The point is -- it's a lot harder to make one page that does everything and still provide any other functionality. So, if I did that, it would have to be another spreadsheet that did just dates and pretty much nothing else (except maybe published)

However, the code is released under the ISC license, so people can take it and build from it to add their own functionality.

[cheryl_angelrot]

I am impressed with the tool that's been created, but unfortunately it would be too cumbersome for us. We really look forward to a product enhancement which enables this "one-stop shop" for setting dates within the LMS user interface. We use the calendar tool heavily, but as noted in the earlier comments, it only adjusts one of the three dates for an item, so it does not solve our whole problem. 

Availability dates are not only helpful for grading, but they help to ensure the functionality of some of our automation between the LMS and SIS, so we really encourage faculty to enter availability and due dates. We look forward to this becoming less cumbersome for them in the future.

[vivies]

Cheryl,

I thought I’d let you know that we have an app that is the 'one-stop shop' that you are asking for for adjusting course dates from one spot. It is called Adjust-All HQ and it sits INSIDE your LMS, as a tool on the left (instructor view only).

Adjust-All HQ is an LTI (Learning Tool Interoperability) external application that integrates tightly with Canvas Learning Management System and offers the ability to adjust all course dates and some settings in one place!

From one page, instructors can do the following:

• Change due dates/times
• Change available from and until dates/times
• Change quiz show and hide answer dates/times
• Change announcement, module, assignment, discussion, quiz dates/times
• filter items by type – assignments, modules, announcements, quizzes or assignments – to make adjustments in a particular area only.
• filter items by groups or sections to make adjustments to items assigned to specific students, instead of everyone.
• publish/unpublish modules, quizzes, discussions, assignments – in bulk or individually

A few more features coming up include: mute/unmute in bulk, delete items from one page, and duplicate from one spot.

Please reach out to me over in our partner space of the community to find out more, request a free 30-day demo, etc:

Certified Partner - Etudes, Inc. 

[aaron_bannasch]

Hi  @James ‌

This is a fantastic tool and works exactly as described for me up until the Save Due Dates step. The script runs, and doesn't throw any errors, but nothing happens. I'm pretty confident that I've configured everything correctly; using the same token I can manually PUT a date change to an assignment using the Canvas doc/live/api but I can't get it to work through the tool. When I look in the Script Editor at the Execution transcript it says Execution succeeded at the end. I did notice that the processConfigurationForm function in the canvasAPI.gs script file shows an error when I use the debug tool, but I couldn't tell if that was related or just a coincidence. The error I get there is TypeError: Cannot read property "canvas_host" from undefined. (line 53, file "canvasAPI")

If there is anything you can recommend to troubleshoot, or if there are specific details from the Execution transcript that would help you diagnose this please let me know. I find this tool very useful and would enjoy helping continue to develop it, even though I have very limited Google Apps Script skills.