[Assignments] Submit an assignment on behalf of a student

[CommunityTeam]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

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As an instructor, I'd like the option to submit assignments on behalf of my students. This feature should enable me to pick a file from my computer and upload it as a submission for a given student. I should then be able to assess the submission just as if the student had submitted it themselves. A note should appear somewhere that indicates I submitted the assignment on behalf of my student. This would help me in cases where, for instance, my students submit an assignment on paper or the submission is a performance (a speech or presentation) that I capture on video.

transferred from the old Community

Originally posted by: Bill Hanna
Special thanks for contributions by: Paul Gibbons, Sydney Cheek-O'Donnell, Kona Jones, Stefanie Sanders

[mclowe]

This would be super helpful. We sometimes have students who have trouble using the assignment uploader, and then they email the assignment to the instructor instead. I just had instructor email me an assignment sent to her by a student today with the request that I upload it on the student's behalf (student couldn't figure it out, it's way more time-saving for me to just upload it myself than try to troubleshoot). Since this thread has been going on for three years and has almost 400 votes, hopefully this is coming soon.

[matt_dalziel]

Why wouldn't this be a feature? An additional use case is for printed, in-class tests. I often scan these, mark them using drawboard PDF and then upload. Would be so much easier if I could scan and submit for students (particularly in bulk)- Would also help if the speedgrader doc viewer supported inking as per windows 10 devices.

[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.

[jhlavace]

I would really like to be able to submit assignments on behalf of students, especially programmatically using the API. I teach statistics and use a R-Studio server for assignments. Student create r-markdown documents on the server. I collect the documents directly from their home directories on the server, and convert them to pdf using a script that handles almost everything, with occasional manual intervention in the case their code is too messed up for the script to handle it. I then print the pdf files and attack the printouts viciously with a red pen. These documents are often 10 or more pages long, with number of graphs and tables. I would much rather add few lines to my script to submit these to canvas, so I can grade them in the speedgrader. Alas, that is not possible.

[thompsli]

This is an excellent use case! I could see lots of situations in which assignments would be completed in bulk somewhere outside Canvas and then uploaded using the API like this. 

[nbh115]

Yes, please!!!

[taral_metcalfe]

I like the idea of being able to submit an assignment for a student. If they do not have access to a computer or internet and will complete the assignment on paper and the teacher can submit for the student. I had a test that my students took the other day and one student did not bring their computer. They look the test on paper and I graded by hand. When we went to do test corrections it would have been nice if I could have entered the students data for them so that their data could have been entered when I ran averages.

[taral_metcalfe]

I have had student that cannot get on the internet for an assignment and have turned in a paper copy for me. It would be so nice if I could then enter their scores so I can have the stats for the class correct

[rwinters]

I have a handful of students who submit a PDF after the deadline but with an acceptable excuse. I just go into Speedgrader and submit a comment with the PDF as an attachment. Problem solved. The only negative is that the symbol saying the assignment was submitted doesn't appear in the gradebook, so I have to alert my Teaching Assistants that there really is a submitted assignment there to grade.

[cmitchell]

I think many of us use the workaround suggested by Robert Winters.  The problem is that we can't use the annotation system in Canvas.