[Assignments] Default date options for items, e.g., if Due & Until are both null, setting Due defaults Until = Due

[TiffanyStull]

When you create an assignment or quiz in Canvas, all dates (available, due, and until dates) are null.  If published in this state, the item has no dates listed anywhere and is always available for students to complete with no deadline.

However, the majority of instructors at our institution prefer all their assignments and quizzes to have a due date set and no late submissions allowed, so the default setting of no dates or deadlines is not very helpful.

Background: Several years ago, in our LMS's quiz tool, when an instructor created a quiz, its default settings were the following:

• Available Date = Now (timestamp of saving quiz settings, or if the available date was nulled out prior to publication, timestamp of publication)
• Due Date = Null (available with no deadline)
• Late submissions allowed
• Accept Until Date = Null (available for late submissions with no deadline)

Frequently, instructors would set a Due Date, but forget to set an Accept Until Date or change the setting to "No late submissions allowed".  Changing the default setting for quizzes to "No late submissions allowed" was a major improvement, and I can't recall any support calls since the change was implemented related to a quiz being inadvertently left open for late submissions beyond when an instructor intended it to be open.

Recommended solution: It would be nice if an institution could set some default dates in their account or sub-account in Canvas to make less work for instructors setting up assignments and quizzes.  For example:

• Null Available Date at publication sets Available Date = Publication Date.
• While editing an assignment, if Until Date = Null and a Due Date is entered, Until Date = Due Date.  If an instructor inputs a Due Date into the field, and the Accept Until Date automatically populates with the same date, they can either edit the Accept Until Date to set the date later or null it out if they wish to have no late deadline.
• When creating or editing an assignment, if all dates are null, Available Date defaults to Now (time of editing) and Due/Until Date defaults to "X days/weeks from now".

I believe the first default date option would resolve the issue mentioned in this thread: Make assignment dates universally accessible to students.  The others could make it easier for instructors to configure assignments and help avoid the issue of instructors inadvertently leaving assignments open with no deadline.