Can students save Draft answers until ready to submit?

[Carmelo2022]

Hi CANVAS Community,

A Student wrote me the following email:

"I have a request about the platform, I am trying to add different files as sometimes I do it from work on my spare times and not using my computer the whole time so that means I cant save it. As I send the assignments sometimes things are missing and I would like to add them but the platform only allows me to add a new attempt for the assignment which is weird cause in lexis training we could do that last time.

I spoke to my teacher and practically said that I should save it in my computer but I told him about my situation.

The point is I need to add a new doc. but used all my attempts. How can we do it so I dont loose my work that I didnt save it was all sent.

Thanks for understanding and hopefully you could help me."

So my queston is can students save Draft answers?
Can we program the canvas site where the progress of the student's work is saved until they are ready to submit it.

[Chris_Hofer]

@Carmelo2022 ...

I don't believe this is possible.  What kind of assignment(s) is the student trying to complete?  Are they online quizzes (using either Classic Quizzes or New Quizzes), or is it a regular assignment such as a written draft or essay paper?  I wonder if the instructor would be open to letting the student use something like Office 365 or Google Docs/Drive to save their document on the cloud, and then the school could set up the O365 LTI integration or the Google LTI integration so that the student could select the document from his/her cloud storage to submit to the assignment.  This would essentially eliminate the need to save a file on a local computer and not being able to access it on another computer...since it's all web-based.  I suppose another option would be for the student to save his/her work on a USB thumb drive, and then he/she can take his/her documents wherever he/she goes.

These are a couple Guides for students on how they can submit files from their Google Drive or Office 365 account into Canvas.  This assumes that these integrations have been set up in your Canvas environment already (typically by your school's Canvas administrator).

• How do I upload a file from Google Drive as an ass... - Instructure Community
• How do I upload a file from Microsoft Office 365 a... - Instructure Community

Hopefully this will give you some ideas...good luck!

[Carmelo2022]

Hi Chris, students are used to using a Moodle LMS and we migrated to CANVAS so they are missing the funcutionality of Moodle to save drafts. We have set up essay questions in quiz banks and they have complained that it does not allow them to save and come back later . In assignments we have them submiting aasessments by uploading word documents and other media as evidence. A teacher has commented that they undertook training at an RTO that had CANVAS and he was able to save submissions as he worked through them and then submit them all when he was ready. Any further thoughts Chris?

[Chris_Hofer]

@Carmelo2022 ...

A quick side note for you...there is no need to capitalize the word Canvas.

Now...on to your reply.  Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of other suggestions for you.  I'm not sure what "RTO" means.  The only thing I can think of that might be of help is that the RCE (Rich Content Editor) in Canvas now has a feature where it will save text that you can restore if you accidentally existed out of the screen, for example.  Check out these Release Notes:

Canvas Release: New Rich Content Editor (2020-01-1... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

I believe you'd have to be on the same computer in order for that text to be auto-saved.

I do understand that having some features in one LMS would be nice to have in Canvas as well.  I was a former Canvas administrator at a Technical College, and we migrated from Pearson eCollege's LearningStudio LMS to Canvas around the summer of 2014.  There were things in LearningStudio that I missed a lot when we moved to Canvas...mainly the very detailed reporting features that we were able to utilize.  (I guess I liken this to getting a new car.  I'm kind of "old school" and like listening to music on CDs.  My first Prius had a CD player, but my current Prius does not.  I miss that feature.)

Hope this will help a bit.

[Carmelo2022]

Hi Chris,
Thanks for your time in replying to me. Please accept my apologies for placing the word Canvas in capitals, as I kept seeing it represented this way on some sites. The abbreviation ‘RTO’ is Registered Training Organisation.
I will take your advice earlier and look at the Google LTI and review the Canvas Release: New Rich Content Editor (2020-01-1... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

Thanks again for your patience answering my question. I will let you and the community how I get on.
Have a great day!
Regards,
Carmelo