[Assignments] Automatically Differentiate Due Dates for Different Sections

[OrgishN]

Problem statement:

Many teachers at my school teach different sections of the same course. To help with this, they crosslist their sections (which is great!). The problem is many of these sections occur on opposite days and teachers regularly either a) forget to differentiate the assignment due dates to match the day where each section meets OR b) complain that it takes too many clicks to quickly differentiate these assignment due-dates.

Proposed solution:

Create some sort of way to automatically separate due dates for an assignment by section. Maybe it is a) a course setting where a person can indicate that they want this to happen automatically or b) an assignment setting where a person could simply click a checkbox to indicate they wanted separate due dates for their sections. Bonus points would be if a teacher (or administrator) could set something where Canvas knows that Section B is always X days after Section A. Then, if a person chooses a due date and clicks the checkbox, Canvas automatically differentiates the due dates by the appropriate time. To the extreme possibility, creating some sort of rules-based system where a user could personalize their own differentiation checkbox to quickly execute a desired rule would be cool. Any of these would both save teachers time AND improve the student experience.

User role(s):

admin,instructor,student,designer

[AllisonHowell]

Hi @OrgishN, your problem sounds like something that might be solved with Course Pacing. Have you taken a look at this feature? It automatically sets differentiated due dates for students based on the amount of time an instructor says an assignment should take. You can set paces by section, so it could work well for your particular use case. You can learn more about it in the Course Pacing Feature Preview User Group. I would love to know if you think this could be something that would work for your institution or, if not, why it won't. 

I look forward to hearing back from you!  

[AllisonHowell]

Added to Enable Differentiated Learning at Scale for further consideration.

[hddenton]

Problem statement:

Sections in the same course meet at and submit assignments at different times. The current process is to manually input individual due dates for specific assignments across 6-8 sections of the same course. The current process makes time-sensitive assignments (such as bellringers/starters or assignments due at the end of class) tedious to create and assign.

Proposed solution:

Upon creation of the section, include an option to specify what days or times the section meets. In assignment creation, teachers can "auto-assign" due dates such as end of day (11:59 P.M.), 5 minutes after class start, at class end, etc.

User role(s):

instructor