[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

[a_valero_haro]

The work around to be able to "submit on behalf of a student" is as follows: Create a group assignment. Create groups for each single student and join the group. Submit the assignment on behalf of the group. Leave the group. Repeat.

[timothy_maw]

I was at a face to face Canvas admin meeting last week and saw a preview of Assignments 2.0 and it appears this feature will be part of that. This is exciting news and I'm hoping that the process for Assignments 2.0 can be quick.

[timothy_french6]

I'd love to be able to bulk import scripts that have been scanned - like 100 English Students complete an exam. 'Acting As' for 100 students is literally the worst.

[josh_langston]

I agree that this is something I thought would be addressed a long time ago.  This feature would be invaluable to Title 1 schools especially.  I always had 10-20% of my students that could not participate in Canvas activities because they did not have devices or computers.  It would have solved so many problems to be able to submit their work on their behalf.

[checkma]

This feature could be implemented along with an "Act like student" option, where you could see Canvas from the point of view of one of your actual students. "Student View" does not allow you to do this; it only gives you a generic view (which has always bugged me). Then you'd be able to upload papers, etc., as a consequence.

[mclark4]

I don't miss much about our previous LMS, but I do miss the ability to submit for a student.  It's often so much less hassle than trying to get an assignment open and time coordinated!

[dkeegan]

Great idea - this is a real frustration with Canvas.  I have another set of math exam papers which I would like to upload and mark on line.

I can't believe it is a major build item given the fundamentals of uploading are in place - this looks like an unnecessary restriction to the general approach.

So please Canvas team - make it a priority for implementation!

[a1063023]

I definitely need the ability to do this.

When grading honours theses, we sometimes get a discrepancy in marking and would like to invite a 3rd assessor (say). I create another "assignment" to store the grades for such cases and need to be able to upload student/group submission into it if and only if another assessment is needed.

At the moment I download their submission and attach it as a comment, but this isn't a great solution.

[Steven_S]

While I have always been in favor of this idea, I have not previously had a strong opinion about it because I had a functional work-around: I simply added the student's submissions as an attachment to a comment in which I also state the date, time and method of submission.  Then if there was any future need to address the source of the grade, everything I need was stored right there in the gradebook.  However, in the new gradebook, that is no longer the case.  Attachments can only be added to comments within the speedgrader, and then those attachments do not appear with the comment in the actual gradebook.  Students do not have access to the attachment, and at some point after then end of the semester my access to speedgrader as an instructor seems to be turned off. 

In my opinion the new gradebook significantly increases the priority of this idea.  I also have another related idea that may interest some of you: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/14939-show-attachments-to-instructors-comments-in-new-gradeboo... 

[thompsli]

I regularly use the same work-around, and my students can still download the submissions I attach as file upload comments from their Grades page even though I'm using the new gradebook. I agree that it is frustrating to have to go to SpeedGrader to attach the file and Gradebook to turn off "missing", though - each of those two places is missing one of the features I need to use this work-around so I have to go two places rather than one.