Different due dates for groups with individual submissions

[Fromen]

I've got my class setup in a bit of a funky way this semester, largely because of COVID. The class has been split into 2 separate groups, where one group is delayed from the other by 1 class period (helps with social distancing in-class). This also means each group needs different due dates for assignments. What's the best way to do this?

Some things I already know:

I don't think I can split the groups into different sections. This would be the most obvious solution, but I'm unsure how to retroactively create these given that the semester has already begun, and I don't know how my school sets up these sections.

The students are already assigned to 2 different groups, so I toyed around with creating group assignments to get different due dates. Problem is that there's no way to have individual submissions when using group assignments (just figured that out today after someone submitted for everyone, oops!).

One option that I know would work is to manually select every student for the assign window in the assignment, but with 60 students and ~20 assignments, this isn't practical. Well, it would be if I could copy paste the list from one assignment to the others, but for some reason that's not a feature.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

[Steven_S]

Your canvas admin can probably more easily create two self enroll courses, and cross-list it with your existing class.  You would need to get all of the students in one of the groups to click a link to self enroll in the same cross-listed course, and all of the others in the other course.  It should not change anything about what the students see, but you will probably see each student enrolled twice.  You should be able to use the assign by section feature (do not let it use "everyone else" because students will see two due dates one in the primary course and one in the cross-listed course).  

However, those sections will not be linked to your registrar for anything including withdrawals and grade transmittal.  (When a student withdraws from the primary course, they will still be enrolled in the duplicated section.  You will need to watch for that and ask the canvas admin to withdraw them from that section. If grades are automatically transmitted to your registrar, you will need to copy all grades from the self enroll course to the primary course.)  Anything students have already completed will only appear in the primary course.  You will need to decide which course is the official record, and copy the duplicate grades over.  I recommend using the new sections, so that you can copy the existing scores once and be done with that until the end of the semester. 

Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to assign by group, but there is an idea conversation you can join about that: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Idea-Conversations/Assign-to-by-Group-for-Individual-Assignment/i...

[Fromen · Accepted solution]

Well I seem to have formed my own solution! I manually added all the students to each assignment period while recording keystrokes in a macro. Then for my other assignments, I can just replay the macro and it fills in with all the students. For anyone who wants to do the same, here's more specific instructions for recording the macro:

• Open the assignment to be graded, open the list of students in each group, and open your favorite macro software
  • In the "Assign" section of the assignment, click "+Add" and give each a separate due date
  • Set your macro software to record only keyboard events with no delay
• Start recording the macro, and enter the "Assign to" section
• Begin typing the first student's name, they should appear at the top of the list after the first few characters. Once they're at the top, press Enter and it will automatically complete the student's name
• Repeat the previous step for all students for that time period
• Once complete, stop recording the macro. Add a delay between all events (I used 50ms, although could probably use even less) and save it.
• Repeat for the next group

Then for all future assignments, you should be able to run the corresponding macro after selecting the "Assign to" field in the assignment, and it should automatically get populated with all the students for that group. I realize this is rather convoluted, but there's no way to copy/paste a list of students from one assignment to the next. This is my alternative to copy/paste.

While I do like the idea of creating 2 separate courses (which I'll probably use in future semesters if necessary), I think that would have added unnecessary confusion for everyone being registered twice for the same class. I was also on a bit of a time crunch, and didn't want to wait around for my Canvas admin to configure it all. Thanks for the suggestion though!

[omahahomeschool]

Very clever!

But if only there were a software program that universities could purchase that would make such tasks straightforward!

[Fromen]

There's actually dozens of free macro programs that can handle this task, no need for schools to purchase any software for this! A quick Google search resulted in this page that lists a few. I personally used Corsair's iCUE, but only because it came with my keyboard. I've heard AutoHotkey is good for Windows, not sure what's good for Mac/Linux.

[PShaver]

Thanks for this great solution!