'Assign to' panel in Assignments now hides due dates and availability dates

[AM_Learning]

The “assign to” overhaul has been great to enhance the areas where you can apply this feature (Modules, Pages, etc).

However, the change applied in the Assignment area now "hides" where to set due dates.

This change may cause Instructors (particularly those new to Canvas) to miss setting a due date or availability date on an Assignment. 

Would it be possible to make it clearer that the "Assign Access" also includes setting Availability and Due Dates? 

Perhaps include in the Manage Assign To link mention Due Dates? e.g. "Manage Assign To and Dates

Or the heading to be Assign Access and Set Dates

Thanks for your consideration

[james_whalley · Accepted solution]

@AM_Learning It is my understanding that there are already plans for an update to this change based on feedback received thus far. I believe we may see something in August or September.

[lbach]

Is there a specific place to give feedback on this particular change? 

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi there, @lbach ...

You might want to read through this recent blog post:

Updates to the Assign To Interface - Instructure Community - 610506 (canvaslms.com)

[SusanNiemeyer]

Yes, the prompt should read "Assign Access and Set Dates."

I see these kinds of sloppy language mistakes being made all of the time by programmers. For example, the message we receive after we "remove" an item from a module is that the item has been "deleted." No, the item has not been "deleted." It has been "removed." 

[Murre]

The language-change suggestions make sense -- but why was there any need to hide these options at all?  I hope with the updates mentioned, the assignment set-up pages will go back to showing all the fields.

[lbach]

I just found this new updated feature in setting up my fall courses, and it's about to be a gigantic headache for me.

I manage multiple sections of a lab course, where the sections are all in the same Canvas shell in order to make sure all of the information is the same across all lab sections. However, each section has different due dates for assignments based on when the class meets. In the old format, I could make an Excel spreadsheet to update the dates and times for each section, format the date and time in Excel to match the format on Canvas, and then just paste the due date in.

Now, there are two separate boxes to enter into, one for date and one for time. My sort of quick work-around is now useless, and I'm back to manually entering every single value for every single assignment for 6 sections.

It's a little thing, but Canvas is already hard enough to deal with when I've got multiple sections, and this update just makes it harder.