Assignment Tab

[AbbyRipperger]

When I first started takimg classes with my professor we always had access to the assignments tab and it was actually life saving. just recently when the semester started she tryed to add the tab back to all her classes and recieved a nasty email from the distance learning people to not add the module back and that they removed it because "everyone doesnt have it". I call bull. now i keep missing assignments because everything is in the module tab and its almost impossible to keep track of things. does anyonr else have this problem? I want the assignments tab back!!

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

@AbbyRipperger ...

I can totally understand your frustration wanting to have the "Assignments" course navigation menu visible on the left-hand side of your Canvas course.  I don't know what policies your school has in place (other than what you've described above), so I can only speculate.  Many schools recommend something similar to what you've described...hiding the "Assignments" index page and having students instead access course material via the "Modules" page.  (But, this can certainly vary from one school to the next.)  The reason for this is that instructors can build out the structure of their course via "Modules" to include things like module overviews, readings, PowerPoint presentations, videos, discussion topics, quizzes, and assignments.  Some students like to jump ahead and only do the assignments without doing the other activities that lead up to those assignments.  And so, hiding the "Assignments" index page is a way for instructors to give their students only one way to access that course content.  Hopefully your instructor has things organized in a way on your "Modules" page where things are listed in a linear, sequential order...so that you are able to proceed from one item to the next.

Ultimately, these are conversations you'll have to have with your instructor or with the Online Learning / eLearning / Distance Education team at your school who has admin access to Canvas.  Again, they may have some recommendations for the instructors at your school as to "best practices" based on research for designing courses/curriculum and how things should be organized.

Hopefully you'll be able to get some answers from folks at your school.  Good luck!

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

@AbbyRipperger ...

I can totally understand your frustration wanting to have the "Assignments" course navigation menu visible on the left-hand side of your Canvas course.  I don't know what policies your school has in place (other than what you've described above), so I can only speculate.  Many schools recommend something similar to what you've described...hiding the "Assignments" index page and having students instead access course material via the "Modules" page.  (But, this can certainly vary from one school to the next.)  The reason for this is that instructors can build out the structure of their course via "Modules" to include things like module overviews, readings, PowerPoint presentations, videos, discussion topics, quizzes, and assignments.  Some students like to jump ahead and only do the assignments without doing the other activities that lead up to those assignments.  And so, hiding the "Assignments" index page is a way for instructors to give their students only one way to access that course content.  Hopefully your instructor has things organized in a way on your "Modules" page where things are listed in a linear, sequential order...so that you are able to proceed from one item to the next.

Ultimately, these are conversations you'll have to have with your instructor or with the Online Learning / eLearning / Distance Education team at your school who has admin access to Canvas.  Again, they may have some recommendations for the instructors at your school as to "best practices" based on research for designing courses/curriculum and how things should be organized.

Hopefully you'll be able to get some answers from folks at your school.  Good luck!

[paul_fynn]

@AbbyRipperger , seconding @Chris_Hofer's feedback and counter to @SusanNiemeyer , our original faculty operating policy for the first three years was that the assignments tab was hidden and we expected all assignments to be provided through the modules area. As @SusanNiemeyer notes, this also allows requirements and prerequisites to be set.

For the last three years we have a locally developed End to End assessment solution which generates a new assignment for each extension and reassessment, which brings the risk that teachers overlook the need to add an extension assignment to the modules area, disadvantaging extension students.

Hence we have unhidden the assignment tab and discouraged the presentation/linking of assignments anywhere else. We also have converted Assessment Regulations into a graded discussion so that they also appear in the assignments area.

Depending on whether and how your instructor/institution has chosen to use Syllabus, this can be set such that all assignments, To Do items etc appear at the end of the Syllabus page - these are visible to you providing that 1) it is published and 2) you are attached to it.

As a preference we would default to Syllabus as our standard home page - however, in the absence of a page history/page recovery function we can't take the risk that our colleagues will inadvertently discard the work they have spent a lot of time setting up.

Feel free to share these posts with your instructor with a view to informing your institutional design decisions...

[SusanNiemeyer · Accepted solution]

As an instructor, I also hide the Assignments tab so that my students have to go through my Modules, just as @Chris_Hofer described.

One thing that I do for my students is add a "requirement" for each item in the module. That means that the student will see a green checkmark when he or she has submitted an assignment, taken a quiz, or read a page. Your instructor can easily set up "requirements."

As you are a student, I'd recommend that you check your Calendar, To-Do List, and Grades to find out which assignments you still need to complete. 

Good luck with your course!