Put everything with a deadline into the to-do list

[Beth_Young]

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No matter how many ways I try to direct them otherwise, students start with the "to do" list and don't look at anything else, not the Calendar, not the Syllabus, not the Assignments page. Then they miss deadlines because some types of assignments never appear on the to-do list. Please put everything that has a deadline into the to-do list: reading assignment, practice quiz, homework to be submitted offline, etc.

I tried adding reminders to the things that do show up in the to-do list--for example, in quiz instructions, I said something like, "Remember to read X, do practice quiz Y, do textbook activity Z before you take this quiz." Some students were angry because there were "hidden" assignments inside quizzes. Well, the assignments were not hidden from anyplace . . . EXCEPT from the "to do" list. At the beginning of this semester, I spent a great deal of time personally contacting students who were failing to do assignments, and every single one of them told me "It wasn't on the to-do list so I didn't know I was supposed to do it."

An incomplete list causes more problems than it solves.

  Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the Canvas Production Release Notes (2016-10-29)

[kona]

You actually don't have to have your assignments worth any points. I use a system similar to  @jeffrey_weimer ​, but none of my assignments are worth points. Because of this, it doesn't really matter if you use a weighted gradebook or a points based one. 🙂

[Beth_Young]

Good to know! Thanks!

[Beth_Young]

Unfortunately, I don't think this workaround will work. I believe that an assignment needs to have a submission type for it to appear in the to-do list. Practice quizzes have submissions but don't appear in the list. Readings don't have any submissions, etc.

I could require a fake submission (i.e., write "completed" in the box and click submit when you have finished your practice quiz / reading assignment / offline activity), but that would swell the gradebook and take up more of everyone's time. Students don't react well to "busy work" so I'm not sure it would be a net gain.

[jeffrey_weimer]

I have just created an assignment without a submission requirement. It has a due date. It appears in my ToDo list. Perhaps I misunderstand what you are trying to do. Otherwise, you and I are doing something completely different.

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JJW

[kedgecomb]

There was an instance where a student was taking a course and logged into Canvas and stayed on the global page.  However, he/she did not go directly into the course.  Therefore, he/she only saw the quick view of the "To-Do List."  Needless to say, he/she was missing a lot of assignments and could not figure out why zeroes were being added to the gradebook.  Maybe a more expanded view, with non-graded items, is an idea to ponder. 

[Beth_Young]

 @jeffrey_weimer ​ , I think you are misunderstanding. You posted a screenshot of the teacher's view of the "Coming Up" list. I'm talking about the student's view of the "To Do" list. See screenshots below.

The first screenshot is a student view from the Canvas overview page (seen after you login, before you enter a course). It shows the To Do and the Coming Up lists. Students pay attention to the first but not the second.

The second screenshot is a student view from inside the course. It's the homepage, which is set to my syllabus page, and I've scrolled down to show the period of time reflected on the To Do list. Here inside the course, there doesn't seem to be a "Coming Up" list at all.

In the screenshot above, the assignment labeled "Syntax" due June 15 is a reading assignment. I created it in the assignments tool, which is why it is in bold text, but it has 0 points and no submission, so it doesn't show up on the To Do list. Same as "Morphology" due June 22. Here's the settings for the Syntax assignment:

The tech support folks at my university have posted the rules that govern what appears in the "To Do" list--I assume these rules have been confirmed with Canvas:

These rules exclude practice quizzes, reading assignments, assignments submitted offline, etc. I don't happen to have those assigned within the To Do list time frame and I don't want to disturb my ongoing class by adding things, but you can probably test that for yourself.

We all know that these kinds of assignments appear many other places in the course and students should look in those places. But in my experience, when they decide to do work in the class, they often do only the tasks that appear on the To Do list. When they find out they have overlooked assignments, they aren't angry at Canvas, they are angry at me. Also, they don't learn things they need to learn and then they need to be caught up later (or worse, they don't catch up). I'm not going to elaborate on all the many many ways I have tried to alleviate this problem because this message is so long already, but those ways haven't worked. And it is frustrating to have to spend so much time trying to solve a problem that is caused by the software design.

In a way, I don't blame students, either. Look at how many people in this thread have assumed that the To Do list includes everything. I sure assumed that myself, until I looked into it when I noticed students were overlooking things and set out to discover why.

[Beth_Young]

I just realized that the screenshot above showed only a partial To Do list. Here's a screenshot of the expanded list. In addition to the assignments I mentioned above, "Corpus Linguistics," "Phonetics," and "Phonology" should also appear, but don't. 

[jeffrey_weimer]

"The second screenshot is a student view from inside the course. It's the homepage, which is set to my syllabus page, ... there doesn't seem to be a "Coming Up" list at all."

Odd! My Home Page by Student View shows the "Coming Up" portion. I never set my Home Page as a specific page. Perhaps this is the difference. What happens when you reset your Home Page back to the default? Do you see the "Coming Up" section? Would that solve your problem without generating other issues?

"In the screenshot above, the assignment labeled "Syntax" due June 15 is a reading assignment. I created it in the assignments tool, which is why it is in bold text, but it has 0 points and no submission, so it doesn't show up on the To Do list."

I apologize for a diversion here. This leads me back to a point of contention about the student's complaint as I understand it from you. The first page the students see when they log in to your course shows your (very detailed and nicely done) Syllabus. Your Syllabus has a clearly visible Due Date for the reading assignment. However, the students complain, the Due Date for the reading assignment is not on their ToDo list too, so they want not to be held responsible for not reading the assignment when it is due. Pardon me if my response back to them might rather abruptly be stated simply as "Grow Up"! But this is a discussion for a different thread on student's attitudes.

to the case in point ... Have you considered to eliminate the Syllabus as your Home Page as the way to solve the student's confusion for them? IOW, since you say in your original post ...

... "students start with the "to do" list and don't look at anything else, not the Calendar, not the Syllabus ..."

... I might ultimately ask whether you are making more frustration for yourself by using the Syllabus as your Home Page when your students ignore it anyway? I would ask this especially if, by using the Default Home Page, you gain back views of the Coming Up and ToDo Lists.

Otherwise, I agree entirely that Coming Up and ToDo list views should be expanded to handle the issues you raise.

--

JJW

[Beth_Young]

I used to use the default homepage (Course Activity Stream) and experienced the same problem. That's why I switched my homepage to the Syllabus page. I think part of the reason students don't scroll down through the Syllabus page is that the assignments there take a very long time to load. However, I think students reasonably view "Coming Up" as being stuff they don't have to do yet, while "To Do" is the stuff they have to do.  I would be very surprised if students realized the two lists contained different items.

I do respond as you suggest to their complaints (well, a bit more politely but still I am very clear). I put reminders in the descriptions of the assignments that do show up on the To Do list. I state on the syllabus that they can't rely on the To Do list. I require a "syllabus quiz" that includes a question about the To Do list. I contact people who miss the first assignments that don't appear on the To Do list (e.g., ungraded "introduce yourself" discussion, practice quiz) and remind them that they shouldn't rely on the To Do list. etc. etc. etc.

If Canvas would just make the To Do list a complete list, or call it something less misleading, or just get rid of the list altogether--the problem would be solved.

[jeffrey_weimer]

I understand the student's confusion. Students in one of my course from last semester were totally confused about what was or was not important in considering the Coming Up versus ToDo versus Announcements versus Discussions versus Assignments. It was my first semester with Canvas, so I was on a learning curve as while.

I might suggest again to eliminate the posting of your detailed Syllabus completely. You are clearly doing yourself no favors with it. In fact, you may even be causing yourself more agony than it is worth. Keep the detailed document entirely private. Post only an outline of your syllabus. Put no required due dates on that outline. At best, put it in terms of Week 1, Week 2, ... Week N Put all of the details that you want the students to do with due dates as assignments. For example ..

Reading Group (0% of Grade)

--

Chapter 1 (due Monday 7/6/15, type - text input, 0 points)

Chapter 2 ...

Quizzes (10% of Grade)

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Then, you don't have to apologize for or explain the details of where students have to go to know what to do. You give them exactly what they want all along -- ONE PLACE. Also, this gives you the flexibility that your outline syllabus is a template that stays for all semesters. All you have to do each semester is translate the due dates for assignments in Canvas, not re-write all of the due dates on a detailed syllabus (that you diligently post but none of the students read anyway).

As far as requiring something that is 0pt for 0% of the grade, you can tell the students, they can mark something or not on Canvas. You don't care. But at least they (the students) can no longer complain later about being confused where to go to find out when something is or is not due.

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JJW