Documents not publishing as scheduled

[cweddle]

I have a course in which, as I have done many times in the past, I posted several documents scheduled to publish for students at specific dates and times. They are consistently failing to appear, both for my students and for me as the test student. I am running two identical courses (not Canvas sections, entirely separate courses) and one is working fine, while the other is not.

Additional info (see attached screenshots):

* The module is already published, with other visible documents in it.

* I have checked the publish dates for the individual files multiple times and have confirmed that the year of the publish date is correct (a problem I have encountered in the past in a copied course; I wish Canvas would provide a global fix for that, but that's another issue).       

* I have confirmed that I can see the files in Instructor view but not in Student view, and have had a student confirm the latter.

I realize that I can immediately publish the files when I am alerted to the problem, but this is a complex class and I don't want to have to continually go in to check and override posting dates (which would negate the purpose of having the scheduled posting function in any case).     

Screenshot 1: shows scheduled posting date of October 2 (it is now Oct. 14)

Screenshot 2: shows that within the module, Oct. 2 is set as posting date

Screenshot 3: shows module as it appears in student view on Oct. 14 (with document not visible)      

Has anyone run into this before? Is there a fix for it?                                      

 

 

 

 

[dbrace]

Hi @cweddle,

I know that you posted this question about 2 weeks ago.

I just tried to recreate the experience but I was not able to.

Please see the PDF file that is attached with 7 pages/pictures showing:

1. an instructor in the "Files" area of a course with 3 pictures/files
2. the availability settings for "picture 03.png"
3. the module that they were put in (showing the availability setting for "picture 03.png")
4. the student experience (not the "Test Student" built into each course but a sample student that I use for testing purposes) for that specific module
5. the student experience when trying to access "picture 03.png" before it was scheduled to be available
6. the student experience for that specific module but the scheduled time (this was the same experience as shown in #4)
7. the student experience when successfully being able to access "picture 03.png" after it was scheduled to be available

If you are still having a problem, I would recommend that you meet with someone at your institution's Canvas team or (if available to you at your institution) Canvas Support directly by using the options that are available in the "Help" area of Canvas.

-Doug

[cweddle]

Hi Doug - 

Thank you for taking the time to do this. 

Your screenshots show the process with which I am well familiar, which is how the schedule-to-post function is SUPPOSED to work and has worked (for me) for years. The problem is that for some reason, it is no longer consistently functioning that way.

The same error as the one I posted screenshots of above repeated earlier this week, but because I was aware of the potential for it to happen, I had students alert me immediately at the scheduled posting time as to whether or not the file was visible (it was not, though on my end it appeared to be). Even going in and "overriding" the posting method by unpublishing the file completely and resetting it to post immediately did not solve the problem; they were still unable to see it, even after waiting a couple of minutes and refreshing Canvas. I had to actually remove the file from Canvas completely, re-upload it, and publish it manually. I did all this while the students were working with me, to test each step and see what made the difference. Apparently, the schedule-to-post functionality, at least for that course, is simply not working.

I will reach out to the office that provides Canvas support on our campus. I had decided to try here first since the issue was not time-sensitive, and there have been SO MANY problems with Canvas this semester, I've become a frequent flyer in that office. I'm starting to mistrust a system that has worked well for me for a long time. I wonder if there has been a series of updates or experiments on the admin side that is causing these bouts of instability?

[dbrace]

You are welcome, @cweddle, and I am sorry that you are experiencing problems with this and other aspects of Canvas.

I think you are doing the next best thing and that is to work with your institution's Canvas team. Hopefully they can figure out what is causing this problem for you or they can reach out to Canvas Support directly for assistance.

If you remember and can, please come back and let us know what the solution was.

-Doug