[Assignments] Recurring Assignments

[sbrown11]

I am a college professor, and I frequently give recurring assignments such as a weekly reflection paper wherein the students answer essentially the same questions each week about that week's materials.

It would be great to be able to create this one time with the due date, points value, etc., and then make it recurring for every week rather than having to either create new assignments and copy/paste the content (but still assign all the values), or use Commons, which I find to be very cumbersome, and which still requires me to change all of the due dates, etc.

[scottdennis]

Hello  @smoushabeck ​,

You are correct that these are separate feature requests/needs that originated in the community.  Recurring calendar events has been implemented whereas recurring assignments has not.  The ask for a method for creating multiple copies of an assignment is something under consideration but at this time we do not have a timeline for when it might be implemented.

[Renee_Carney]

  Idea is currently in Product Radar Learn more about this stage...

[mikeys]

One shortcut to ease the pain of copying multiple assignments. The idea is to create the description in a google doc, and then embed that doc in every Canvas assignment. The benefit is that if you need to change the assignment description, you can do it once in the google doc, and it will show up in every instance of the Canvas assignment. (you still need to create X copies of the Canvas assignment grrrr)

1. Create a google doc which is the formatted description of the assignment.
2. In google docs, go to File -> Publish to the Web
3. Click the 'embed' tab
4. Click 'Publish' and then copy the code that just appeared.
5. Create or open a Canvas assignment and enter Edit mode
6. Click HTML view
7. Past the code you just copied
8. You're done!
9. (To remove the margins in the canvas view, go to the google doc -> File -> Page Setup -> [set margins as desired])

[Stef_retired]

Great idea, mikeys​! I love leveraging Google Drive for repetitive items, and I've written up some ideas in Using Google Docs for dynamic Canvas content​.

you still need to create X copies of the Canvas assignment grrrr

This is definitely a pain point, but you'd be surprised how quickly it can be accomplished simply by right-clicking + Assignment to open the assignment the interface in multiple tabs. The windows will automatically launch in edit mode. Then it's just a matter of switching tabs to the one completed assignment, clicking on HTML View, copy-pasting the code, and then pasting it into the HTML view of all of your open tabs. I recently saw a demonstration where the presenter was able to create 15-20 identical assignments in under a minute.

And, once you've saved them all, you can use  @James ​'s handy Canvancement Adjust All Assignment Dates on One Page​ (video demonstration is here: Adjust all assignment due dates on one page​) to give each assignment a different due date.

[Renee_Carney]

The Radar idea stage has been removed from the Feature Idea Process.  You can read more about why in the blog post Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.

This change will only impact the stage sort of this idea and will not change how it is voted on or how it is considered during prioritization activities.  This change will streamline the list of ideas 'open for voting', making it easier for you to see the true top voted ideas in one sort, here.

[jennifer_canna1]

Similar to setting a weekly, biweekly, or monthly calendar item in Outlook - I would like to see the ability to do this with assignment due dates/times.  For example, instead of having 16 different assignments to set up over a semester for a recurring assignment due weekly, creating 1 that populates the 16 weekly due dates would save me a lot of effort in course prep.

[susanjaehn]

Do we have any updates regarding the implentation of this recurring feature? I see that we can add recurring events, but being able to have recurring assignments without having to edit due dates would be incredibly useful for those of who have multiple courses. 

[TeacherjesA]

I was just thinking of this today and didn't see anything in the Help section.  I hope this can be implemented soon.  Right now I'm just duplicating things and changing the due date and available dates.

[schopenh]

I agree, this is exactly what I need and its missing. Taking way to much time and adding more stress than necessary. 

[mary_mincy]

I can't believe that after sooooo many people have requested this feature that Canvas can't come up with this one.  I even saw a thread where a software developer gave canvas the solution to develop the feature.  I've tried to find a way to vote on this but I'm guessing it isn't open to vote anymore.  If I'm wrong and Canvas has added this feature, will someone please let me know? If I'm right.....then Canvas, PLEASE give us this ability to create recurring assignments so we don't have to go in and duplicate, edit, rename, change the date, and then save.  If I can set a recurring payment with online banking, surely you can do this.....