Unpublish ALL assignments without clicking on every single one

[ebonakdarian]

Hi all,

Any time I import a previous Canvas course, I have to manually unpublish every single assignment - this is very tedious and time consuming. It would be nice if there was a single button to click to unpublish everything - or, alternatively,  if by default the course would import with everything unpublished.

I don't see a way to do this as one bulk operation, and I am not using modules FWIW.

I also don't see anything in the Canvas API that I could automate with a Python script or the command line. If anyone knows of a way of doing this, I'd be grateful if you could share. Our semester starts early (Jan 6) so I'm already working on setting up courses etc.

Thanks! 

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi there, @ebonakdarian ...

There's a pretty quick and easy way to unpublish all your assignments in your course, but it does involve using your "Modules" index page.  Here is what I would recommend:

1. Create a brand new module in your course.
2. Click the "+" icon to the right of the module name that you just created.
3. In the window that appears on your screen, make sure "Assignment" is displayed in the drop-down menu.
4. Click on the first assignment name that you want to include within the new module.
5. Scroll down the list, and then Shift + click on the last assignment name you want to include in the module.  This should highlight a bunch of your assignments...from the first one you selected to the last.
   • Alternatively, if you only wanted to select specific assignment names, you can click on the first assignment name.  Then, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard which clicking on each individual assignment name that you want to include.
6. Click the "Add Item" button.  This will add all selected items to your module.
7. Once the assignment names have been added to your module, use the published/unpublished icon on the module name row to "Unpublish module and all items".

This will unpublish all assignments within your module.

Now, there is also another way to do this...using a script that @James Jones developed a while back.  It's one of his "Canvancements" (Canvas Enhancements) called Adjust All Assignment Dates on One Page - Instructure Community - 263117.  In this script, he has a way to use a spreadsheet to unpublish assignments in bulk.

Hopefully one of these options will be helpful to you.  Sing out if you have any questions about this...thanks!

[ebonakdarian]

Hi @Chris_Hofer 

Thanks, I don't really know anything about modules (update - I understand what they do, but haven't seen the need to use them in my courses so far), so I'll definitely have to read up on them.

The steps you outline are clear. Could step 8 be remove everything from module to go back to original state? Or is there a reason to keep them in the module (obviously this would save me from recreating this next time I import the course).

[Update: So I just tested this with a blank course, created 3 fake assignments, 2 published, 1 unpublished, created a module, added everything, unpublished everything and then deleted the module - leaving me with the original assignments, but now all unpublished which is what I wanted. That should be a safe approach for my imported course too, right? No risk of deleting the original assignments with this approach? For that matter I suppose I could keep the module of assignments around just for this purpose]

I think I've seen the spreadsheet hack before, I'll take another look, but it may be more involved than I want/need for just unpublishing my assignments.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello there, @ebonakdarian ...

Thanks for the reply and for also providing the updates as you tested things out on your own.  I'd highly recommend exploring modules more for your course content.  The "Modules" index page is simply a way to organize your content.  For example, you can name your modules like "Module 1", "Module 2", etc.  Or, at our College, we suggest naming our modules "Week 1", "Week 2", etc.  Then, you add any content from your "Pages", "Assignments", "Discussions", and "Quizzes" index pages to the "Modules" page.  You can create as many modules as you need, and then you can put as many items from your "Pages", "Assignments", "Discussions", and "Quizzes" into each module...and organize it based on the order in which you'd like your students to complete work.

Modules are nice because then you can hide your "Pages", "Assignments", "Discussions", and "Quizzes" index pages (so there is a crossed-out eye icon next to them) from students.  If the items from these pages are added to your "Modules" page, students can still get to those items even if you've hidden the index pages.  You can direct your students to always use the "Modules" page instead of having to find things using "Pages", "Discussions", and "Quizzes".

The other thing to notice is the difference between "Remove" and "Delete".  If you look at your "Modules" index page and click the three-dot kebab icon to remove an item within a module, you'll see an option to "Remove" it from the module.  For example, you might want to remove an assignment from an module.  When you do this, it will not completely delete it from your course.  If you go to your "Assignments" index page, you'll still see that assignment listed there.  You've only removed it from the "Modules" index page.  By contrast, if the assignment was still within a module and you went to your "Assignments" index page, if you clicked on the three-dot kebab icon next to the assignment name, you would see the option to "Delete".  If you deleted the assignment from this page, it would also delete it from the "Modules" page.  The same holds true if you delete something from the "Pages", "Discussions", and "Quizzes" index pages...as long as the item has been added to the "Modules" page.

Yup...the steps I've outlined should be a safe approach for your imported content, too.  You're not deleting anything if you use your "Modules" index page...you're just removing it from that page.  And, if you accidentally do delete something from your course, you can try using the somewhat known/unknown "undelete" trick: Undeleting things in Canvas.

I hope this helps to clarify things for you.  Keep us posted here in the Community...thanks!

[ebonakdarian]

Super, thanks @Chris_Hofer and @SusanNiemeyer for inspiring me to consider using modules in the future by providing some good examples, and for helping me solve a current issue what will let me avoid a lot of tedious clicks unpublishing my assignments in bulk.

Happy weekend to all.

[SusanNiemeyer]

Why not use modules? Modules really are the best way to organize course content. You can organize them by weeks or units. And, as noted, it's become very easy to unpublish items once they are in a module. Even if you just had one module, you'd solve this issue.

[ebonakdarian]

I'm looking more into how to use/create modules based on the suggestion made above, though I haven't seen the need for my courses.

I suppose one of the reasons is that I started publishing my own assignments way back on my departmental web pages (before LMS became common) and found ways to organize my material without the need for modules. This has worked well for me over the years, so what's the "best way" may not be universally true for everyone. 

I do agree that modules will solve this particular problem though 🙂

[SusanNiemeyer]

I teach at a community college. I have set up my courses to have weekly modules. You could alternatively set up unit modules.

The advantage of a module is that you can use it to house and organize pages, assignments, discussions, and quizzes. You can use text headers to create a sense of organization within each module.

One great way to use modules is to set up "requirements" for each item. For example, after my students read each page, they check a box that says "mark as done." They must "submit" graded work. This gives the student a green checkmark for each completed item, and I can click on "view progress" to quickly see whether each student is completing the assigned work.

It is even possible to set up these "requirements" as "prerequisites," which require that students complete them in order to access additional items. 

Using modules can bring a lot of functionality to your Canvas course. 

[ebonakdarian]

Thanks @SusanNiemeyer , I appreciate some of these concrete use cases. Definitely will consider them for new future courses, I can see how it may make some of the logistics easier.