[Calendar] Change "available until" date when assignment is dragged in the calendar

[Beth_Young]

It is wonderful to be able to change the due date of an assignment by dragging it in the calendar. However, the "available until" date does not change along with the due date. This sometimes results in assignments being locked before they even open. It would be great if the "available until" date would change at the same time as the due date.

[kona]

I second that it would be wonderful if the "available until" date also changed when you changed an assignment due date on the calendar. As it is my faculty either (1) just don't set available dates or (2) don't use the calendar to change their assignment dates - which is sad because this is a super useful feature.

[awilliams]

I agree with the  @Beth_Young  and  @kona ​ This little "gotcha" caused some faculty who were using the calendar to adjust assignments each semester to have assignments students couldn't access. The rest of the "move an assignment on your calendar" UX is so intuitive and effective that it makes this "gotcha" that much more nefarious. In other words, it just works so well that faculty don't even expect that it doesn't change the "available until" date as well and are caught unaware.

[dhulsey]

I would favor linking the release and lock date to the due date in the assignment settings as I saw someone suggest in the old community.  Like this:

Release: Seven Days Before Due Date

Due Date: Actual Date and Time

Lock: Three Days after Due date

or for live classes with tests and whatnot

Release: 90 minutes before due date

Due Date: Actual Date and Time

Lock Date: At Due Date and Time

With this system, an instructor would only ever have to worry about changing due dates, and the release and lock dates would "float" along with the due date whether the due date was adjusted in the present term or updated for the start of a new term.

Regardless, better date management for release and lock dates would be much appreciated. Thanks for posting this idea,  @Beth_Young ​

[snugent]

This is a pain point for our faculty. They were sold on the drag and drop items in the calendar from day one and with those available from & Until dates not moving it is such a pain.

[pmacgreg]

A related feature would be the ability to easily modify/erase "available until" dates (and/or due dates) from the Assignments page either individually or collectively (checking box and selecting and option like "erase dates").  That way instructors can quickly eliminate the problem that is not allowing them to move assignments around.

[pmacgreg]

Thinking more about the topic, if we had an option to modify/erase dates by checking a box, another useful feature would be able to check a box and select "close assignment" in order to close one or more assignments at a time, similar to closing a discussion topic so that no more comments could be received.

[Ron_Bowman]

I ran into this problem last semester.  The students let me know pretty quickly that something was wrong when I extended one of their assignments via the calendar.  The way I use the release date, due date and until date is for handling late assignments.  I use a very small window of opportunity to submit a late assignment.  The due date ends the on-time assignments and my late assignment time ends with the until date 2 hours later.  The nature of my assignments is such that I can have students with special circumstances email me their late assignments (so i do like the idea regarding extending times for a single student: ​ )

pmacgreg​ doesn't the until date perform the "close assignment" option you mention?  Or, are you thinking of something else?

[pmacgreg]

Yes, the "available until" date does close the assignment, however, my problem is experienced when porting the course to a new semester.  I can't move the assignments around on the calendar until I've erased all of the "open until" dates manually (and I have experienced the flood of emails when an assignment was "locked" before the due date from having missed making such an adjustment--annoying both for me and students).  When there are lots of assignments I have to change for a new semester, clicking into each assignment, clicking edit, scrolling down, erasing the date, and then saving becomes tedious.  It would be nice if either Canvas would adjust the "open until" dates automatically relative to the due date (e.g. if I've set it to close two days after the due date in one semester, maintain the close date to occur two days after the due date no matter how I drag the assignment on the calendar in future semesters), or if it would allow us to more efficiently erase/modify the "available until" options in one fell swoop on the assignments page.

[Ron_Bowman]

pmacgreg​

I just came across this response to my question - I missed it earlier.  From what you posted, it sounds like you issue may possibly be resolved by the fixing of the original idea.  If I understand your post,  when porting the course to the new semester, the release and due dates change but the until date does not change.  So maybe the fix suggested will also solve your issue.  In any case, all dates involved with an assignment should be modified the same amount either by dragging and dropping in the calendar or from porting from one semester to the next.

I have to agree - what you are saying has to be done is a pain and I now see the reasoning for your other post.

[rohrbgn]

This is really the obvious solution: available and lock dates need to be specified using relative dates (to the due date), not absolute dates. They would copy from semester to semester and move around the calendar smoothly.