[Assignments] Assign to everyone except selected students

There are some assignments that go out to the majority of my students except one or two per class. It would be great to be able to assign to "everyone" and then have a button to select which students are exempt from the assignment.

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166 Comments
Ron_Bowman
Community Champion

Glad I found this thread I about posted a question about the same topic - I was not having any luck searching the question base and this thread came up from somewhere.

I would really like to see the addition of excluding a student from an assignment.  Although James does have a good list of work around information that I can use.  I would just prefer a built in solution.

 

richard_gardner
Community Participant

I have 2 sections of my class. And therefore a different version of the final exam for each section. However, due to issues with student schedules, a few students are going to take the exam with the other section, instead of with their own section. So yes I can assign them along with the other section at the other section's date and time, but I want to remove them from their own section--both for their convenience so they aren't freaked out by seeing 2 final exams on their schedule, but also for test security. Looks like the idea to remove a student from a section has been around for about 6 years now, so is it too much to suggest that it be implemented? (This, BTW, is not a Canvas quiz. I'd like it to be, but this test involves solving math problems and showing work; so I had to create it as an assignment rather than a quiz, because my students will be uploading their work. File upload questions on canvas quizzes are a joke; I want to use speedgrader and file upload questions are not supported by speedgrader.) I may try using one of James' workarounds. 

James
Community Champion

@richard_gardner 

I deliver my math finals as a Canvas quiz that contains one question -- a text-only question that links to a PDF that contains their final. I go ahead and set the timer for the quiz and tell students to use it as a reminder of how much time they have left, but also to say "Alexa, set a timer for 110 minutes" (an amount just short of the time they have to complete and submit the exam).

Then there is a separate non-quiz assignment that has a file submission restricted to PDF (the format their scanned work must be in). Then I get to use SpeedGrader to mark up the document. I also have a rubric criteria for each question to make the grading easier.

There is no direct link between the quiz and the submission, so there is nothing other than the notion that there will be penalties if they go over the time limit and so it is on them to keep track of their time.

As for removing students from their own section, you can excuse them and they won't be able to submit. However, if the exam is available as part of the directions, then you have may have issues. What you could do in this case is assign it to the entire section and then make a differentiated assignment for just the students who are to be excluded. For the excluded students, make it so the that the exam isn't available by setting the available from and available until to the same value (not the end of the day as that will actually give them a 59 second period). Don't put in a due date for the excluded students to keep it off their To Do list (that alone will keep many student from finding it), and be sure to excuse them in the gradebook.

And I agree that's complicated.

For my statistics final, I have 4 different versions that I randomly assigned to students by name rather than by section. Of course, I have 30 students, so it doesn't take that long. Because the students are only assigned one of the exams, they don't see the others. The downside to this is that it doesn't appear to have a due date when the instructor looks at it anywhere other than on the individual assignment page. This is because it's not assigned to everyone, it only has overrides.

nick77
Community Member

Currently, under quizzes options, you can assign quizzes to individual students, it takes a long for large classes to assign quizzes individually to exclude a student or two. I suggest including a check box under moderate this quiz (Can be placed under attempts) to exclude the student from the quiz, Following is a suggested screenshot for classic quizzes which can be done also for  new quizzes 

 

nick77
Community Member

moderate.png

RACHAELMORRIS
Community Member

I am an instructor in canvas. When assigning assignments, I am able to create groups of students to assign. However sometimes, I would like to assign to all students expect a few. I would love a feature that allows us to assign to everyone, then be able to type in names of students we do not want to receive an assignment.

As a special education teacher, I assign the same assignment at different difficultly levels. This would speed up the process and limit the student from seeing multiple copies of the assignment. 

Thank you!

rbehndleman3
Community Member

I have a situation where I have to duplicate a quiz/assignment that needs to be pointed to only 1 student, but that student is still a part of the version that goes to everyone. My classes typically have anywhere from 200-600 students, so removing that one student from the "everyone" section is impossible. it would help tremendously to be able to locate that 1 person in the "everyone" version and click a button the excludes them from the grouping. This option to allow to isolate a small group of users from everyone really would make a big difference in making sure that the right assignment/quiz is seen by the right studnent

sara_samples1
Community Participant

Annual post asking why this is not a thing yet

davidhinrichs
Community Explorer

Yes - I think I'll join in an annual post asking why this has not yet been addressed. 

 

KateSong
Community Member

Yes, please please add an exempt option like google classroom does - you can select all and then DESELECT specific students.  There are cases when students are absent for an exam and I do not want them to get to see the test. This option would save teachers so much time and trouble.