How to unpublish multiple assignments?

[kserrano]

I thought that if I unpublished a module, it would unpublish all of the assignments within that module, but that does not seem to be the case.  Is there a way that I can unpublish all of the assignments within a module?

[Robbie_Grant]

 @kserrano ,

The easiest way to accomplish this is to click the unpublish button to the right of each assignment listed in the module.  The green checkmark should then turn to a grey circle.

Robbie

[kserrano]

But then I will have to unpublish hundreds of assignment one by one, which is terrible. Do you know why there is an unpublish button to the module if it doesn't actually unpublish anything that's inside of the module? I don't want my students to see any of the assignments outside of our current module. If I lock the other modules will that prevent them from seeing them?

[Robbie_Grant · Accepted solution]

 @kserrano ,

If you unpublish a Module, technically everything is that module is hidden from the students because they can't see the unpublished module or its contents.  You would also want to make sure that the Assignments tool has been hidden from the course as well.  If you do not hide the Assignments tool, the students will get a message that says "This assignment is part of an unpublished module and is not available yet."

Robbie

[kserrano]

Thanks for your help - maybe I'm doing something wrong? At the bottom of the home page, all of the assignments for the whole year are listed, even though I've unpublished all of the modules except the first one. I looked in Student View and it's the same way - the whole year's assignments are listed.

[Robbie_Grant]

 @kserrano ,

Yes, they are still going to appear at the bottom of the Syllabus page, but if the student clicks on them they will get the message that says "This assignment is part of an unpublished module and is not available yet."

Robbie

[zbrzeznyb]

This is a terrible solution that still has not been corrected.  As the assignments ALL still show in students grades and teacher gradebooks.  This is VERY confusion to students when we could easily correct this with an unpublish all button

[jjjkkk]

Yes, but the module itself is also unpublished. I want the module name (heading) to be visible, like a virtual folder. The module name is published, but assignments that I have in the module are not all published and seen, until I want to unpublish one at a time.

[AniaBigda]

I'm hoping to do the same thing!  

[hyim]

They also still appear in the gradebook which is very frustrating.  I have teachers who have hundreds of assignments in modules that they don't want cluttering the gradebook until they are relevant (particularly since they don't have due dates yet so reordering the gradebook does not help).  They system should treat assignments in unpublished modules the same as if the assignment itself is unpublished.

[kunnmel]

It would be helpful if we could unpublish an entire assignment group all at once.

[jjjkkk]

Has this been corrected yet? I need to be able to unpublish multiple assignments in a module that has been copied from another course. I do not want them to appear on the student view at all, until I publish each individually.

[DeletedUser]

I'm beginning to think Canvas is a poor man/woman's LMS - there are simply so many simple things that you can't do, this being one of them. Is there anyone actually paying attention to all these issues?

[Chris_Hofer]

@DeletedUser ...

I understand the frustration, but I think that taking a look at this Feature Idea may be of interest to you:

Publish / Unpublish ALL Option

As you can see (as of today) from the orange banner, this submitted Feature Idea is currently in development. I think it might meet your needs and the needs of others who have also posted here (and I'm sure the wider Canvas Community of users, too).

I would also point you to a recent blog posting from Instructure's Chief Product Officer:

Idea Conversations: What Comes Next?

Hopefully both of these links will be of some help to you.

[DeletedUser]

Thanks Chris, glad to hear this is under consideration and the plans re ideas conversion. Staggering that there are over 4,000 of them, but hope the most useful will succeed! Kind regards, Barry

[BrianHolt]

That request was made 6 years ago.

I've not used canvas in over 3 years but circumstance are forcing me to again, and one of the reasons I stopped using canvas was little this inability to easily manage my content. I get that software development is hard, but the way instructure prioritizes things is reminiscent of twitter since musk.

[dramofjade23]

I also find it frustrating that this had been in development for 6 years. One of the great features of Canvas is that we can easily move course content. But if we have to go in to unpublish every single assignment each time we import a course, the time saving aspects have been significantly reduced.

[FabianChalmers]

Yes, something has been implemented, but not what was asked for, or at least not what I thought was asked for. I have a whole bunch of assignments copied from last year's course page, and I want to unpublish those for this year's page, to later publish them at appropriate times. The new menu options "Publish all modules and items", "Publish all modules" and "Unpublish all modules and items" do not solve this problem. I still have to manually click the publish button for each assignment, to unpublish them.  This takes too much time and makes Canvas annoying to use.

[Chris_Hofer]

@FabianChalmers ...

I took a minute to test this in my own sandbox course.  On my "Modules" page, I have a module that consists of several types of items: pages, assignments, discussion topics, file attachments, and quizzes.  The module and all items within it are published.  I chose the "Unpublish module and all items" option for the module, and everything except the file attachment (which was a *.rtf file) unpublished successfully.  Then, I chose the option to "Publish module only", and that worked as expected.  The option to "Publish module and all items" also worked as expected.

If your "Unpublish modules and all items" option isn't working as expected, you should reach out to Canvas Support to see if they can assist you further.

How do I get help with Canvas as an instructor?

I hope I've interpreted your question correctly and that the information I've provided helps in some way.  Keep us posted here in the Community.

[FabianChalmers]

Thank you for checking and replying.

However, what I want to do, and what I thought that the original question was about (but now I see that I might have misunderstood it) doesn't really have anything to do with modules, but rather how to unpublish a whole bunch of items in one go. My special case: I copy last year's course for this year. This comes with a lot of published assignments that I want to unpublish. And I'm looking for a way to unpublish all of the assignments with only a few mouse clicks, not one assignment at a time. There is no "Assignment" module, but just a bunch of assignments items listed on the Assignments page.

Hm... maybe you mean that I could create an Assignments module, put all the assignments in there and then unpublish that module and all of its items? Maybe that will work.

Thanks
// MVHMF

[Chris_Hofer]

@FabianChalmers ...

---

Hm... maybe you mean that I could create an Assignments module, put all the assignments in there and then unpublish that module and all of its items? Maybe that will work.

---

Yes...this!  I was thinking along the same lines as I was reading your latest reply.  You can create an "Assignments" module and keep it hidden (unpublished) from your students.  When you want to add in the assignments, just hold down the Ctrl button on your keyboard, and then click on each assignment in the list you want to add to that module.  Or, you can press the Shift button on your keyboard to select a range of assignment names.  Either one will work.  Good luck!

[FabianChalmers]

OK, thanks.

This was not really what I was thinking, but now that I try my idea, it turns out that my idea will not work. The only option is to unpublish all modules and items, which is not what I want to do. I would have to unpublish a specific module with its items for my idea to work. 

The thing is still that when I copy the contents of the previous year's course, all those assignments are published, and I have to unpublish them for them not to show until the right time. I can of course remove the "Assignments" option from the left-hand navigation pane, but that still does not unpublish the assignments themselves, it just hides them from the students. Also, that "Assignments" page holds other information that is useful to the students even before any assignment is published (schedule, for instance), and I do not want to hide that. 

So, I claim that there is no solution to my problem, but to manually unpublish each and every assignment. 
// MVHMF

[Chris_Hofer]

@FabianChalmers ...

I could be wrong...but I think you are missing a key part of publishing and/or unpublishing an entire/individual module.  From your most recent reply, it seems as though you might be using the button at the top of the "Modules" index page that has the options for "Publish all modules and items", "Publish modules only", and "Unpublish all modules and items".

However, what you really want to be doing (after making an "Assignments" module and adding as many assignments to that module as you want) is to click on the icon I've shown here which will give you three separate options: "Publish module and all items", "Publish module only", and "Unpublish module and all items".  Notice here that these options are ONLY referring to the module you are currently working with...not all modules in the course.

The difference between the two areas to pick from is the placement of the word all.

I tested the option to "Unpublish module and all items", and it worked as expected.  I did have one assignment that remained published...but I that was because I had a submission in that assignment, so the assignment item couldn't be unpublished.

I hope this helps to clarify things and will help to make life a bit easier for you now.  Keep us posted...thanks!

[FabianChalmers]

You are correct, I looked at that global Publish/Unpublish.

However, the "local" Publish/Unpublish" option does not work as advertised, I would say. It doe not unpublish "all items", it merely unpublishes the module and does not touch the items. I anyway have to manually unpublish all teh items one by one. See this animated gif: 

[Chris_Hofer]

@FabianChalmers ...

Thank you for the screenshot animation.  However...

---

However, the "local" Publish/Unpublish" option does not work as advertised, I would say.

---

I would have to disagree with you on this.  This is actually working "as advertised".  If you take a look at this Guide:

How do I publish or unpublish a module as an instr... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

...there are two sections about half-way down the Guide called "Publish a Module" and "Unpublish a Module".  Each of these sections contains a "Note" about files...which is what your animated screenshot is showing.

• For "Publish a Module" -- Note: Bulk publishing files in a module is only available when File Copyright is enabled and usage rights are set or disabled in a course.
• For "Unpublish a Module" -- Note: Bulk unpublish is not available for any files within a module.

One thing that you could do is submit an Idea here in the Canvas Community so that it could be evaluated and maybe even implemented in the future.  I did find a similar Idea already submitted, but that idea has since been archived.  So, maybe create a new one to see what kind of feedback you'd get?  Please follow the information in the section "Ideas and Themes" on this page: Community - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com).

I hope this will help to clarify how things currently work in Canvas...based on the provided documentation.

[FabianChalmers]

OK, thanks. 

I do understand how things work. My problem is that they do not work in a way that is useful for me. Especially:

Note: Bulk unpublish is not available for any files within a module.

is the problem. I can phrase my problem in exactly that way "How do I bulk unpublish a set of assignments/files/etc?" The answer is apparently: "Not possible".

The option to "Unpublish module and all items" does not unpublish the items, as shown in my screen cap. This is why I say "not work as advertised", it does not unpublish the items, only the module. When I publish the module again, the items are still published. I find this very strange behavior, and I cannot understand why anyone would want it to work in this way.

Anyway, thanks for trying to help.
// MVHMF

[Chris_Hofer]

@FabianChalmers ...

I completely understand, and your process does make sense.  I would still recommend submitting an Idea here in the Community.  This will give you a chance to describe the current problem, and how you'd like to see things changed/implemented in Canvas.  You can use the blue "Submit an Idea" button on this page to get started:

Canvas Ideas - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

But, please review the documentation using the links I provided earlier before you submit your Idea.  Thanks!

[asmitherscordel]

There is a new feature that seems to have been added recently that allows the instructor to unpublish all modules and assignments at once. It's on the Module page. The unpublish all action will only apply to assignments in modules, not all assignments in the course. Also, if you have already received work for some assignments, you can't unpublish those.