With the most recent update to the "Assign to" interface, instructors must now click "Manage Due Dates and Assign To" before they are able to see the due dates for an assignment, as well as any due date issues. If a due date is outside of the course start/end date, there is no indicator that is available on the Assignment Details page notifying the instructor of this issue, instead, the instructor is able to press the "Save" button, at which point the button text changes to "Saving..." but does not proceed beyond that (no changes are saved). An error message related to saving potential changes is only articulated within the "Assign to" interface, where you are told, "Due date cannot be before/after the course start/end date." This is particularly an issue for instructors who import course content from courses taught in previous terms.
The solution for this issue would be the addition of an error message indicating a problem with the due dates displayed outside of the "Assign to" interface, preferably somewhere on the Assignment Details page. It is very common for instructors to roll courses forward from one term to the next, which often will retain the previous term's due dates. With the recent update to the "Assign to" interface, instructors frequently forget to update their assignment due dates while making changes to assignments, primarily because their due dates are not immediately displayed when editing an assignment now. If due dates are not to be immediately displayed, there should be some form of notification that is available to instructors without needing to open the "Assign to" interface.
admin,instructor,ta,designer
