Open Tabs for Unpublished Modules

[JennLong]

If a student has a tab open for an assignment or quiz, and I then unpublish that assignment, quiz, or entire module, the student is still able to access their assignment or quiz and even submit it. I do not want students to be able to access anything once I unpublish a module. The whole point is for them to only be able to work during work hours. How do we circumvent this so students are not able to continue working outside of work hours?

[NoahBoswell · Accepted solution]

Hi @JennLong ,

If the student doesn't refresh their page, they will still be able to access the content. However, if they go to submit it, the submission will fail.

However, please take note that once students start submitting assignments, you will not be able to unpublish the assignment. However, as long as the assignment is under an unpublished module, the students won't be able to see the details of the assignment (such as the directions), if they go to access the assignment through their to-do list oe grades page (teachers cannot disable the grades page), however they can still access some information such as the title and point values, as well as view any of their existing submissions.

[JennLong]

Great information! Thank you for that. 🙂

Couple of things, I have disabled the grades page for students. When I "view as student," I can only see the three options I have enabled for them (Home, Announcements, & Modules). Also, I had a couple of students who were able to successfully submit their assignments from an open tab after I unpublished the module, thus the premise of my question. Not sure exactly what is happening, so I will continue to research that as well. 

[NoahBoswell]

Happy to help.

The grades page cannot be disabled, the link itself can only be hidden. While students will not see the link if you disabled it, they can still type /grades at the end of the course URL, or utilize the grades menu to access the assignment/grades information for their courses.

What type of submission are you requiring of your students? I just gave a few different submission-types a try and attempted to submit the assignment after I unpublished it, and when I went to click submit I received the access denied message, and checking on the teacher-side, no submission was provided.

[JennLong]

It's a mix of assignments. It could be a quiz, an assignment linked to Microsoft Word, a file upload, etc. I just came in this morning after verifying all modules were unpublished yesterday before I left and noticed an email that a student submitted an assignment last night at 8:11pm. He should not have been able to submit anything if the modules are all unpublished. Unfortunately, this is defeating the purpose of me unpublishing them. I don't know if this is something that can be fixed in Canvas or if it has more to do with computer cache or something. It's frustrating though. Any suggestions on who I can get this in front of?

[dbrace]

Hi @JennLong,

You asked, "Any suggestions on who I can get this in front of". I would recommend that you reach out to your school's Canvas team or (if available to your school, it varies by contract) Canvas Support directly. If you have access to Canvas Support, the contact methods can be found in the "Help" area of Canvas.

-Doug