[Assignments] Assign to everyone except selected students

[betiana_capriol]

There are some assignments that go out to the majority of my students except one or two per class. It would be great to be able to assign to "everyone" and then have a button to select which students are exempt from the assignment.

[richard_gardner]

With this issue as with so, so many more issues, it has become obvious that Canvas does not employee actual teachers. If it did, they'd fix all this stuff in a hurry instead of waiting 5 years and counting for many obvious changes. 

[davidhinrichs]

I would truly appreciate an official response from Instructure on this topic. Is this planned on the timeline for improvements? If not, why not? This is one of the most important functions of an LMS. 

[RussellCGPS]

Same. We moved from two systems to one with Canvas and both allowed this using the Groups feature, which Canvas also has. But it doesn't work for that.

[jacqueline_morg]

I've seen a few comments from Canvas team members saying this idea has been backlogged, but I'm really hoping the several pages of comments from teachers over the years pushes this feature up the priority list.

For me, the biggest use is for modified students and ELL students. As a high school teacher, I have a number of students with modified diplomas for whom I need to provide shortened or simplified versions of materials. Similarly, when I have students who are still learning English, I endeavor to provide alternate versions of materials to eliminate some language complexity. This means when I give a quiz or an assignment with different guidelines to meet those students' needs, I need to type in every. single. name. in that class, except the 1-3 per section that I'm assigning the modified content to.

Also, recently since COVID is forcing some students into isolation, students in-class are submitting on paper but students in isolation need to submit it online. Originally I had it set to 'online submission' for everyone, even if most students were submitting a paper copy, but all my students were getting flagged for missing assignments that they'd handed in on paper. The 'everyone except' feature would allow me to set assignment submission as 'on paper' for in-class students and an 'online submission' assignment for students needing to connect from home.

[ElizabethOrnela]

Hello, 

I have a student in my course who is on modified curriculum.  Instead of putting him in a different course, I'd like to keep him in my course but be able to assign him his own assignments (which I can do) but also assign everyone in my course an assignment and exclude him.  There is a feature to assign it to everyone but I'd like an option to assign to everyone EXCEPT and then list students who would not be assigned that assignment.  Thanks!

Elizabeth 

[diane_wells]

The "everyone except" feature is highly desired and needed in the K-12 range of usage! The general education teacher can create an assignment and assign to everyone except the special education students. Then the special education teacher can duplicate the assignment, modify as needed for the special education students, and assign this adjusted assignment to only the SpEd students. 

Is the only work around now to create new sections? One for general education and one for those students needing modified assignments? Are all instances allowed to make new sections in courses or is that a permission given at the subaccount level?

Canvas - is this request still on the radar?

[richard_gardner]

The last poster asked: "Canvas - is this request still on the radar?"

I'd like to ask: Canvas, is ANY request still on the radar?

[Sandie]

Hi

This has been brought up by a member since 2015 and still in the backlog for development? I apricated that instructure developers has been make so many changes and provided many useful features in Canvas. However, I think this has been overlooked since the first step that most lecturers will do when create a new assingment is to select their students which means you wont able to exclude only one or two student but have to select all others.

[JOYVANGEN]

I am a teacher with a number of students whose IEPs require that they have a reduced number of distractors on multiple choice quizzes. The simplest solution I could think of was to create a duplicate quiz, make the necessary edits, and then un-assign the original quiz. However, there doesn't seem to be a way to do this.  I can enter all of the other students' names manually, but this is tedious and leaves a lot of room for error.

Alternatively, a "reduce choices" accommodation that could be selected for students could also be helpful. While the time adjustments are nice, this is pretty limited in terms of students' needs.

I've used a different LMS that made it very easy to un-assign a task to a particular student, without having to go through and enter dozens of other students' names manually.  I'm frankly surprised that there isn't already a way to do this on Canvas.

[richard_gardner]

To Joyvangen,

I also would be surprised there isn't a way to do this. I said "would be" surprised, because I am surprised about such things no longer. Look over this list of comments, it stretches back to at least 2015, which is 7 years ago. But on so, so many other topics, which, just like this one, are "no brainers," the list of comments also stretches back 5 or 7 years. Canvas/instructure is a dysfunctional company that simply cannot get its act together. I have no special window into their leadership or organization or finances; but their incompetence is what lets me know. I am not a person that talks so bluntly, so for me to talk this way means I'm beyond frustrated and have been for years.