How To Import An Existing Course WITHOUT Automatically Assigning "0" Points To Students When Assignments Are Assigned?

[brigwald]

Hello!

I put a lot of effort into making my Canvas course, connecting items within various modules, etc...   As a result, at the beginning of the school year, I import the entire course from the previous year, thus preserving all that.   

The issue  that I'm encountering is that it is automatically putting "0" for all assignments for the new students who haven't even had a chance to access the assignment yet.  As soon as I publish an assignment, it applies a "0" to everyone.  As a result, it is affecting students' grades before they even have an opportunity to do the assignment. 

A co-worker had a workaround, where you manually go in and delete the "0" for the assignment.  The issue with that workaround is it overrides Canvas' ability to enter a "0" for assignments not submitted by the due date/time.

Am I missing something?  When I import the class, I have it wipe all the dates.

Thank you for any insight and assistance you can give. 🙂

[mzimmerman]

Hi @brigwald

If the students are being automatically assigned a "0" on the assignments, my guess is that you have a "default grade" ( https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-set-a-default-grade-for-an-assignment-i... ) set up for the assignments?  

If the assignments are not published when they are imported, I'd recommend updating the available/due date settings before you publish them.  There are instructions for doing a "bulk update" of assignment due and availability dates at https://https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-bulk-update-due-dates-and-avail... 

[brigwald]

Hi @mzimmerman 

I don not have a default grade assigned and I always update the date settings prior to publishing an assignment.  When I publish the assignment, it is automatically listing the score as "0".  I have colleagues that have the same issue when importing and assignment.  The difference is when they manually remove the 0's, Canvas will automatically put in the "0" when the due date has passed, so that it indicates missing (as per the Gradebook settings).  In my case, with two different classes, after the due date/time, the grade remains a "-" for non-submissions and I have to manually enter a "0" to indicate it is missing.

Is this something I should take up with support and have them go into the courses to look at things?  

[crafte]

Hi @brigwald do you have a late policy set in your courses (gradebook settings)? If so, importing assignments without a due date or with due dates set in the past will automatically result in zeros to appear in the gradebook. To avoid this, either remove the late policy in the course you are copying and apply it again in the new course after you have changed all due dates or use the adjust dates feature during the course import to change all due dates.

[brigwald]

Hi @crafte ,

Thanks for the idea.  I do have a late policy set (the mark late/missing assignment score to "0").  When I import the class, I select the setting to remove all dates, therefore all assignments imported have no due dates.  So, you are saying that since there were no due dates, it automatically applied the "0", assuming the due date had passed?  I assumed that since there was no due date, it wouldn't mark them.

[crafte]

I have seen this happening when a late policy was applied. Adjusting the dates was the only way we were able to prevent the zeros from appearing in the gradebook after the import.

[brigwald]

So, let me try to wrap my head around this:

1) When I import the class, I need to use the "Adjust Dates" feature by somehow setting a future date to everything?  (I already use the "Adjust Dates" feature to remove the dates all together.) 

2) Once imported, then I can change the gradebook setting to mark late assignments as "0". 

If I am understanding correctly, then a remedy for the current situation would be (and correct me if I'm wrong):

1)  Delete all the future assignments that I have already imported 

2)  Remove the late assignment setting in the current course (I don't believe you can change settings in a previous course)

3)  Do another import from last year's class (but instead of everything, doing a selective import, so as to not disrupt things that I have already used) and use the adjust dates feature to set the due dates to a future day (thus, hopefully preventing Canvas from triggering the late "0").  Removing the late policy will also help with that.

[crafte]

Correct. That should work. Import the assignments again adjusting the due dates during the import or unchecking the automated late policy in the course you copied to before importing assignments again. If you use the second option, you can enable the late policy again after you adjust the dates on the imported assignments.

[brigwald]

Sadly, this didn't work.  When I attempt to extend the due dates during import, it doesn't do it.  (I'm guessing maybe something to do with the fact that our terms are hardcoded into the course and can't be changed by teachers.)  I can try it again this afternoon.  For today's assignment I...

1) Turned off the late policy

2) Manually entered the due date.

3) Saved and published the assignment

4) Turned the late policy back on

It populated all "0" for students, despite the fact that it is due by 7:30am tomorrow. 😞

[crafte]

I just tested this again in a course where the late policy was enabled. I disabled the both late policies - assigning zeros for missing assignments and the one to reduce grades for late submissions. I imported an assignment with the original due from the previous term. After the import, I changed the due date and the until date (although the until date is not the date associated with the late policies). I enabled the both late policies and I did not see zeros in the gradebook.

After you changed the dates, did the gradebook still show the grading fields in an orange/red shading? If so, it means that the due dates were still in the past. 

[brigwald]

No, it didn't mark them as late, simply "0".   😞

Again, I'll try again later today when I have more time.

[TrishaMeyer1]

Hi @brigwald ,

Is this a fully online course? By any chance are your students in a different time zone? Or are you in a different time zone from your institution?

[brigwald]

Hi @TrishaMeyer1 ,

I see the students in class every day and it isn't related to different time zones.

[mzimmerman]

I was just trying to think about other reasons that a 0 would be awarded automatically, and was wondering if you had a missing/late policy set up in the grade book.

[brigwald]

@mzimmerman   Yes, I do, but since I had removed all the dates during the import (via the Adjust Dates feature), I figured the late policy wouldn't be triggered.

[brigwald]

According to Canvas tech support, the issue is that the missing/late setting from the old course is overriding any setting in the new course and automatically applying the "0" as a result.  At the end of the course, if I were to go in and remove the missing/late settings, then that should prevent issues next year (we'll see).  As a work-around, they said to go into the gradebook and change the default grade, by leaving the grade box empty, selecting "override existing grades", and then applying it to the assignment.  I will try that, but my fear is that it still won't trigger the "missing" marker and "0" when the due date/time passes.   We'll see.  Fingers crossed.

[crafte]

Thank you for the update. That was my initial recommendation as well - remove the late policies in the course you want to copy (previous term course) and apply it again in the new course after changing the due dates. Fingers crossed for you. 🤞

[brigwald]

Sadly, the saga isn't over. ☹️

The work around of applying a blank default grade is preventing Canvas from marking items as missing when the due date/time passes.  If I manually mark things as late, then when they do complete the assignment, the missing label is still applied until I manually remove it.  😔

A colleague with more user rights was able to go into my old Canvas courses and remove the missing policy, since everyone seemed to think that was causing the issue.  Once removed, I attempted to important 1 assignment.  The same "0" issue occurred.  I then deleted that assignment all together and imported it again, thinking that it might be an issue with overwriting the existing one.  Same issue.  😔

I am also getting an error whenever I try to change the missing assignment settings, so I wonder if that is also part of a larger problem.

I'll be reaching out to Canvas Support again later today during my lunch and "lay it all out" for them and see if they can escalate this and find out what is happening, since it is happening in two courses that were imported from the previous year.  Other teachers also have the "0" when importing, but they say that they don't have an issue with the missing label being automatically applied when the due date/time passes.

I'll keep everyone updated as I go through this.  😊