Option to exclude Assignments from Syllabus

[gwk]

It would be good to have an option to exclude the Assignments Summary from the Syllabus page.  Many faculty wish to only have the Syllabus with a course description, lecture schedule, grading, and other policies.  Now if you have any assignments they are automatically put on the Syllabus page - this should be an option only.  Why have an Assignments page if you force a link also on the Syllabus page.  Other ideas describe how some faculty like the assignments on the Syllabus page, so it should be simply kept as an option.

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

For more information, please read through the https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-18528-canvas-release-notes-2020-03-21 

[JACOBSEN_C]

This idea is 3 years old and has 400 up votes.  I think people want it.

[rkiehl]

I can't believe that this hasn't been taken care of with 400 up votes and few no over 3 years.  Forcing the syllabus to have a list of the Assignments (listed under "Course Summary" at ASU) violates the best practice discussed in the Canvas instructional video of forcing the students to go to the content in the Modules (slides, videos etc) rather than just jumping into the homework without even seeing the content of the homework.  As the very least, the list of assignments should be ONLY text, not links.  - RK

[kjohn113]

I too harbor an intense dislike for the Course Summary below the syllabus.  I reject the idea that in creating this feature, Canvas "challenges us as educators to re-think", at least in a good way.  I'm not sure I understand why that would be the job of an LMS.  If that is indeed the intent of the developers, I consider it egregious overreach.  While there is a certain amount of "social engineering" (for lack of a better term at the moment) inherent in any LMS, Canvas insisting on a certain kind of "transparency" such that students can see the name and due date (if there is one) of every page or assignment we have stored somewhere in the course is unnecessary and reeks of developer intrusion into domains that should be under the full control of instructional faculty.  I have had students look at that list, see a due date that I have not yet updated from my initial build of the course, and freak out thinking that something is due when it really isn't.  Or they see an assignment or document listed that I have left unpublished because I am still working on it, and they want access to it, or freak out because it looks important and they can't get to it, when it might just be something I've held onto from another term and would like to revise.  If I could just keep future work out of sight entirely this would not occur.  I don't really have much of a need for students to see how the sausage is made.

[jew21]

I just want to say i wholeheartedly agree. I had a Grad Student yesterday talk to me after class about an assignment due tomorrow which i have not assigned. I think the canvas IT folks are NOT hearing a plea for important changes!

[jew21]

Since ASU is looking at alternative delivery options, perhaps Canvas is not the right choice

[Jeff_F]

 @kjohn113  -  my experience with the Syllabus page is that students cannot see unpublished assignments on that page.   I just tested this using the student view and confirmed it to still be that way (using a test course I unpublished assignments and then went the Home page and clicked the student view button).   By the way, I believe this is a flaw or disconnect as the visible content varies based upon the user role (teacher/ student).

I would like to see an icon or other indication on the Syllabus page that tells the instructor which items are not published and therefore not visible to students.

[acompton]

 @Jeff_F ‌ - This is true about published vs unpublished, but faculty use the available, due, and until dates to control when the assignments are released to students, not whether or not they are published. They shouldn't be asked to discontinue using such a valuable feature like available, due, and until dates (especially since the new grade book will now apply late penalties and grades based on those settings) in lieu of publishing and publishing assignments just to work around this issue on the syllabus tool that could easily be fixed. This would be very time consuming for them to do this for each assignment in every course they teach. Their time is better spent on teaching the content rather than managing publishing and publishing their assignments in order to manage the workaround for the syllabus tool. The assignments links should have the option to either be hidden on that page or made inactive links. It should be possible to use the assignments and their due dates to build a true course outline/schedule to appear at the bottom of the syllabus page that isn't active links to the assignments. 

I apologize if this sounds bitter. This idea has been submitted, supported, and validated for several years now, and it seems to be going nowhere. 

[kjohn113]

It's true that if a document is unpublished, students can't use the syllabus as a backdoor means to see it.  However, just the very sight of a document there has lead several students to ask anxiously about this due date or that quiz, on pages/assignments I was still working on for the rest of the term.  I could do without that sort of thing, frankly.   I guess I could just cryptically try leaving things like that without a title, so there's no indication of what it might be.  The bottom line for me is that I prefer to be able to do that kind of work "behind closed doors", as it were, only rolling out information, documents, or other course materials when I'm ready to roll them out for viewing by the class.

[nsweeten]

If this helps: I've experienced several major LMS systems and Canvas is my favorite so far, as a Student and as an Instructional Designer. Some of the frustrations I experience with Canvas as a teacher are because the system is actually good. It rankles me to see any kind of missed opportunity that could be fixed by micro-adjustments, consistency checks, and non-harmful judgment calls that Instructure resists making, for whatever reasons. 

The good faaaar outweighs the bad. It could just outweigh it even more. 

[acompton]

 @sweetera ‌ - I agree completely, and I would not want to change to any other LMS on the market.

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