Issuing a different file to each student on a course

[JohnMcKinley]

I want to be able to issue a different file to each individual student on a course, as a starting document for an assignment. Is there a simple way to do this? I appreciate it would be possible to email / message each student one by one, or to use the Groups functionality, but both strike me as rather tedious as I don't know that it is possible to batch that process. In our previous, in-house system, there was a facility where putting the student number at the start of each file and uploading a zip file as fake feedback on a no-submission assignment, distributed the file to the right student.

The reason is I want to issue each student with a file for a piece of coursework with individually unique parameters, and I will be embedding each student's details and individual parameters in to the file.

[Gabriel33]

I use the Canvas API for batch creating questions with different data (e.g., different CSV files created within Python that are uploaded to Canvas), and adding them to a question group: Quiz Questions | Instructure Developer Documentation Portal 
Two (or more) students may get the same file, though, as question groups pick random questions with replacement between students. More files and questions would lower that chance, but I'm not usually trying for uniqueness.

What type of file are you giving the students? If it is an Excel file (or other spreadsheet), and you are giving them the same questions, but different numbers, you could implement a pseudo random number generator (such as Lehmer's) where students add their ID numbers to a given cell, and the other cells would change based on these IDs. Just be careful if you are creating several lists of numbers with the same starting seed, to not make the lists somehow correlated unintentionally.

[JohnMcKinley]

It is indeed an Excel file, with different numbers for different students, but I also want to embed the student number in to a few places on the spreadsheet — some not obvious, e.g. using the Very Hidden function — to catch students who swap completed spreadsheets instead of doing the work themselves. The exercise is to build a spreadsheet tool. As such, CSV files wouldn't work for this purpose. I already have VBA macros to generate and populate the spreadsheets, I just need a way to issue them. Potentially, I can script my email system, which would be outside Canvas, but might trigger our internal spam detection systems.

[Gabriel33]

I see, I'm not aware of a way to have it all inside Canvas. You could use the API to send messages with the files with the students, but that's just an alternative to scripting your email system - it may help with avoiding being flagged as spam, at the cost of more effort.

[JohnMcKinley]

Thanks. I will probably raise this as a Canvas Help Query now.