Canvas is terrible at parsing dates/times

[CraigEliason]

I'm an instructor setting up assignments in Canvas. Can Canvas get better at interpreting what I type in for due dates and times? 

If I type "9/20" instead of September 20 it assumes I mean 9:20am today. 

If I type "9/20/23 8am" it again assumes I mean 9:20am today. (?)

If I type "9/20 8:00am" it assumes I mean 9am today. (??)

If I type "9/20 8:00" instead of September 20 of this year it assumes I meant 1908. (!!)

No other software I know of these days struggles with this!

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi there, @CraigEliason ...

There are two things I think will help you as you put due dates into your assignments.

• You can always click on the calendar icon to the right of the date field to select your date and input the time.  (This is what I always do.)  I realize it's maybe not as quick as typing in text like you are doing, but it's a good alternative to make sure the info you are putting in that box is accurate.
• If you hover your mouse over the text boxes for those dates, you'll get a little help flag that shows you exactly what format those boxes are looking for.  As an example:
  
  So....if you input 2023-09-20 08:00, you should get the results of what you're looking for.  The time also works for military time...so if you wanted it due at 2:30 p.m., you could put in 14:30 for the time.

Hope this will be of some help to you!

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi there, @CraigEliason ...

There are two things I think will help you as you put due dates into your assignments.

• You can always click on the calendar icon to the right of the date field to select your date and input the time.  (This is what I always do.)  I realize it's maybe not as quick as typing in text like you are doing, but it's a good alternative to make sure the info you are putting in that box is accurate.
• If you hover your mouse over the text boxes for those dates, you'll get a little help flag that shows you exactly what format those boxes are looking for.  As an example:
  
  So....if you input 2023-09-20 08:00, you should get the results of what you're looking for.  The time also works for military time...so if you wanted it due at 2:30 p.m., you could put in 14:30 for the time.

Hope this will be of some help to you!

[CraigEliason]

I appreciate the workarounds suggested, but really what I'd like to see are commitments that Canvas be changed to work more like I do instead of figuring out the ways I can change to work more like it! 

An effective natural language parser that works with date/time inputs that come naturally to users would seem like low-hanging fruit to improve the user experience of the platform. As I said, modern apps that require such input (like calendar apps) handle this much more adroitly. "9/20 8am" should work without having to specify the year first or reach for the mouse, in my opinion.

This has bugged me for years, but today, entering different due dates for an assignment for each student in the course, I reached a new level of exasperation. 

It may be that this is the wrong place to bring my complaints: if there's a more productive place, please let me know!

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi @CraigEliason ...

Thanks for the reply and the explanation of why you'd like to see things different in this area of Canvas.  The two suggestions I presented earlier are the ways I've found that dates/times can be added to due date and availability date fields...so that they properly display.  I can relate to wanting to have things work the way I want in Canvas compared to how they actually work...so I hear you there.  However, that can't always be the case since Instructure (the folks that make Canvas) are developing their product for lot of folks and not just you and me.  I'm not sure if any of the information in this document might be useful (it might at least give you a sense of their development process), but I thought I would share this link:

What is the feature development process for Instructure products?

If you would like to make new suggestions for enhancements or improvements to the Canvas Community (for example, maybe they could add another option to how dates/times could be added), you can certainly do that via the "Ideas and Themes" area of the Community.

Canvas Ideas and Themes - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

Click on the blue "View and Submit Ideas" button.  Then click on the blue "Submit an Idea" button.  Or, you can just go here:

Canvas Ideas - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

Finally, you'll want to look through the section on "Ideas and Themes" within this page to see how you can create an idea for evaluation:

Instructure Community Guide - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

I hope some or all of this will be helpful to you in some way.  Thanks...