Ungraded Course for Library

[lbrenier]

So I am a librarian, I have a course in Canvas that is campus-wide. I want to create an ungraded assignment where students can submit work for a creative writing contest. My issue is that there is no grading or speed grader so I can't access the uploads to that assignment. Does anyone have a fix for this? 

[kona]

 @lbrenier , greetings! Something else you didn't think of is that if you choose "not graded" as the assignment type, there also won't be any place for students to actually submit their work. My recommendation is to make it a graded assignment that is set to "complete/incomplete" and worth zero points. This way you could mark it off as "completed" and students would know that you officially received their submission. As a side note, when you are setting up the settings for the assignment, for Submissions, you'd want to go with "Online" and then select the different ways you'd like to allow submissions.

Hope this helps! Kona

[lbrenier]

Hi  @kona ,  

Perhaps I was not clear, the course itself is ungraded, the assignment type is graded, worth zero points and the "online submission" type is chosen. Students would be able to upload files. 

My issue is that the course was created by the admin, I am the designer, and the grading option is disabled for the course so there is no "grades" page or "speedgrader" option to access the uploaded assignments. The reason we did this is so that library assignments would show up on the "To Do" lists for students and they would be able to track their progress. I am wondering if there is another way to access submissions in Canvas besides through the "Grades" portal and "SpeedGrader" 

I am able to create graded assignments with no point values, but how do I access the submissions once they are uploaded? 

[kona]

 @lbrenier , thank you for the extra information. I did some testing and I'm guessing that if you don't have Grades or Speedgrader, then you also don't have the "Download Submissions" option when you click on the assignment (see yellow highlighted below).

If not, and given the information you provided, it sounds like the way your role is set-up you have been (pretty effectively) blocked from accessing any student submissions. To access this information you'd need to contact the Canvas Admins at your school and request that they download the submissions and forward them to you.

Kona

[lbrenier]

Hi  @kona ‌, 

You are correct, the "download submissions" option is not available without the gradebook/speedgrader. I am looking for a workaround solution if there is one. I am an account admin for our campus but this is a default term course created outside of my account (we have multiple campuses)....

I was hoping for a workaround - I hesitate to request that changes be made when the course set up has worked so well up until this point. 

Thank you for your time, 

[Stef_retired]

 @lbrenier , just a thought: have you tested this course with someone who is enrolled in it as a teacher? It's possible that the permissions tied to your particular role don't allow access to grades, yet the course is actually functioning as it should. 

[kona]

stefaniesanders, I think the course is fine, it's 100% tied to the role that the Librarians have been added to the course (and sub-account) as. 

[Stef_retired]

 @kona ‌, that's my thought as well. I was wondering if Leah were to request to be added to this course in the teacher  role in addition to her existing role would solve the problem—or if it might further complicate matters.

[lbrenier]

 @kona ‌, I disagree. I am able to access all courses at my campus at the highest level with admin privilege - it is this course and only this course that has restricted grade functions so the issue must be with the course and not the role. 

[kona]

 @lbrenier , if you believe it's the course that's the problem, then the best thing to do is contact Canvas Support. They will be able to dig into the back end of this and be able to figure out what's going on. 

Kona 

[kona]

Sorry, I forgot to add, that if you're not sure how to do this, click on the Help link in Canvas and "Report a Problem."

Please let us know what you find out! I'm pretty invested now in finding out what the issue is!

[lbrenier · Accepted solution]

Thank you  @kona ‌, it is not a developer issue or Canvas Support issue, the lead admin (access over all campuses) is going to see if the executive team will allow us to conduct this Canvas course as a graded course. I will enable the grade scale then keep the "grades" portal hidden/disabled and all assignments.

Hopefully, they go for that solution, otherwise, I will probably create a linked google form so students can upload submissions and I don't have to mess with petitioning the executives. 

I appreciate your help even though the suggestions didn't work out. 

[lbrenier]

Thank you stefaniesanders‌, great suggestion, but there are no teachers in this course / just a designer.  

I am unable to add people to the course except under the Student, or Observer, role this has been restricted at the uppermost admin role.

Even Teachers are added as students to keep intentional/unintentional changes from being made....