Allow waiving a module prerequisite for students or groups

[BrianM_NU]

I am an instructor.

Currently, if you are using prerequisites, there is no way for a student to proceed beyond a point without completing the prereq. This is, of course, the point of prerequisites.

However, there are times when you might want to override the prerequisite. A couple of potential examples... 

• I have a student who did not receive her text books during week 1. This means she cannot complete all the week 1 work. Week 1 is a prerequisite for week 2 module, so she is prevented from working on any week 2 work even though some of the work does not require a text. I would like to give her access to week 2, but would prefer not removing the prerequisite from the module for the whole class.
• A student gets needs-based permission to skip an assignment. However, without completing the submission, the student cannot proceed.

It would be great to be able to waive the prerequisites for a module for chosen students or groups of students. This allows the prerequisites to exist for all, but be waived on a case-by-case basis.

[Allie_Dilts]

Idea opened for conversation.

[akhuebel]

There have been comments asking for this feature for years.  It's time to provide it for instructors.

[CoachShepherd]

This is a necessary feature for teachers (especially those of us with highly transient populations) that is not available. Please Canvas developers help. 

[amclamor]

I routinely want students to complete all assignments before taking the final exam, so I'd like to set those tasks as "prerequisites" -- but Canvas tells me there is no way to waive the prerequisites for the occasional individual student. We all have had students who are reasonably ready to take the final exam but haven't finished an earlier assignment; depending on the circumstances, we often give them an incomplete for the term and then accept the late work when it finally arrives. But, if we've created a barrier to the test for everyone, we can't lift it for one person. I don't understand why this capability isn't already a feature: the "moderate this quiz" tool allows us to extend time and give extra attempts to particular students, and the "edit" feature allows us to set the quiz for a different time and even day on an individual basis. Why can't we use one of those tools to let a particular person past the hurdle of the prerequisites when circumstances warrant it?

[ErikVeach]

To further elaborate on this necessary feature, I would LOVE to see the option to add an "Ending Date" to any module prerequisite I've included, so the system automatically allows all students to move forward after a certain date regardless of whether they completed the required steps for that portion of the course. 

This solves so many issues.  I can set up an assignment path with multiple steps required for it.  If a student doesn't follow through on the necessary steps they can still move on with the course once the due date for later steps of the assignment path have come and gone...basically if they've missed their window of opportunity on one assignment they should still be allowed to continue on with other assignments without me having to go in and manually futz around with the prerequisites to let them through.  If I can set an "end date" on each prerequisite so that it removes the prerequisite once the date is later any subsequent step's active assignment acceptance dates, then that would help it all flow in a proper smooth automated fashion.

[WendyMerriman]

I can see where we would need to waive pre-requisites for individual students. Please make this feature available. Otherwise, we will have to remove pre-requisites. 

[ProductPanda]

Comments from Instructure

As part of the new Ideas & Themes process, all ideas in Idea Conversations were reviewed by the Product Team. Any Idea that was associated with an identified theme was moved to the new Idea & Themes space. Any Idea that was not part of the move is being marked as Archived. This will preserve the history of the conversations while also letting Community members know that Instructure will not explore the request at this time.