Differentiate between the two different uses of "Assignment"

I wasn't sure how to word the title, but it would make training (and explaining things) a lot easier if "Assignments" (as in the tab where you create your gradebook assignments) and "Assignment" (as in a place to upload/turn in assignments) were named differently. The duplicate use of such commonly used and referred to features is confusing when training and working with faculty and students.

 

Even reading the nicely worded explanation from the What are Assignments for instructors? guide - "Assignments include Quizzes, graded Discussions, and online submissions (i.e. files, images, text, URLs, etc.)" - notice the use of the term "online submissions" instead of "Assignment" in this first sentence in order to avoid confusion?

 

Yet, in the What assignment types are available in Canvas courses? guide it states - "Canvas supports five assignment types: Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes, External Tools, and Not Graded."

 

All of this gets very confusing and could be fixed by calling Assignments (as in the page) "Assignments" and the other something else. Online submissions sounds good, BUT, since this is also the "assignment" type for assignments that don't get uploaded into Canvas, I don't think it would work.

 

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35 Comments
cholling
Community Champion

 @hesspe ‌ -- I agree, and for my faculty, they are confused when a discussion "suddenly" shows up in their assignment list, and I've had them delete the assignment. They don't get that a discussion "becomes" an assignment when assigned a point value.

Cirrus
Community Participant

I would still love to see a term/language change to this. Having trained in two different environments and schools, it is BY FAR the most confusing thing to initially explain and then keep track of in further conversations. My best attempt to keep things straight has been the juvenile descriptor of a "q type assignment" or an "a type assignment" from when those used to be the designators on the modules page =_=
I know this would be a big undertaking with documentation, but it is only going to get worse the longer it's not done Smiley Sad

simone_laughton
Community Participant

I suggest calling the "Assignments" area something like "Assessments" as it includes online assignment submissions, quizzes, etc.  This also could be beneficial in curriculum alignment processes where instructors seek to align learning outcomes, activities, and assessments.

arovner
Community Contributor

 @simone_laughton  Nice Work  You explained it perfectly!  Love the switch to Assessments from Assignments (I always call it the "Big A" Assignments vs. the "Little a"- WAY Less confusing!

Best,
Amy

echeminel
Community Member

I agree that ASSESSMENTS is an accurate term for this "umbrella" of a category: it does encompass all the formative and summative ways in which an instructor may analyze the work students will share on Canvas, on paper or through digital submissions of all types, through individual contributions or collaboration, involving class interaction or not, for "practice" or for formal evaluation, and attached to a score or not.

But then again, I am not a native English speaker, so take my 2 cents with a grain of salt Smiley Happy

cholling
Community Champion

Hi Elisabeth -- I actually think your comment carries more weight because you are not a native English speaker. It gives an idea (from at least you) the term that you find intuitive with the purpose of the functionality. Thanks for posting.

clarkbra
Community Participant

We use the modules page as the location for the students to access assignments.  We hide the assignments the tab from them.   But most of our teachers don't know what they are supposed to do with the assignments page.   I only discovered how to use it two years in to using Canvas and I had to watch a bunch of YouTube videos to figure out how and why I should bother using it.  It is a confusing name.  Name change suggestions: 

Grouping Grades

Assignment Groups

Weighting Grades

rkahn
Community Participant

This seems like the cleanest, simplest solution to this annoying problem.  Rename the page that encompasses all graded activities either Assessments or Graded Activities.

Nancy_Webb_CCSF
Community Champion

 @simone_laughton  and  @curtain , I like the term "Assessments" too. Brilliant! That covers it all.  Then "Assignment" can be used for homework assignments in all their glory; with submissions, without submissions, graded or ungraded, external tool, on paper, .  We would then have a new course menu item Assessments with its Assessment groups for weighted grading or organization.  Assignments would be for ASSIGNMENTS.

Currently on the Assignments index page, if you click + for a new assignment it is an assignment, not a quiz or graded discussion. Leave that on the Assignments page.

If the purpose of the current assignments tab is to have all graded items in one place, then Assessments is a better term.

caryn
Community Member

In general, I like the Assessments idea - but there is an exception. In some cases, the things that would be included are ungraded surveys, or things to do (i.e. pre-course checklist), Ungraded SCORM packages, or other things that don't directly measure learning. Just a thought. 

simone_laughton
Community Participant

Hi Caryn,

Perhaps in addition to "Graded Assessments" there could be a category of "Ungraded Assessments" or "Other"? 

Best,

Simone

sarah-canatsey
Community Participant

I made a similar request that's opening for voting: Change "Assignments" to "Tasks"


Or even to Assessments. I agree that having two things named the same "Assignments" in "Assignments" is only slightly more confusing than using "Groups" for people and assignments. That should be "categories" not "groups." Makes trying to help others learn the LMS very confusing. 

Andrew42
Community Member

When training new staff, I suggest that they think of the Assignments Index Page as if it were named "Assessments" rather than "Assignments".

To have separate index pages for Discussions and Quizzes, but not for Assignments, is confusing and inconsistent. Perhaps not the most desirable situation for both new and seasoned users of Canvas, be they staff or students?

If there were four Index Pages (Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes and Assessments), then you could have the following arrangement:

Assessments screen:
- all assessment activities that are graded

Assignments screen:
- all assignments whether graded or not

Discussions screen:
- all discussions whether graded or not

Quizzes screen:
- all quizzes and surveys whether graded or not

hesspe
Community Champion

Possibly instead of "Assessment,"  to be consistent with usage elsewhere in Canvas, the umbrella term could be "Participations."  There could be an item, "Participations" (or "Assessments)", in the Course navigation menu, that when hovered over, expanded to show a sub menu of Quizzes, Assignments, Discussions.  It doesn't seem to me, though, from what I can infer about Canvas's design approach, that they are likely to entertain a change like that.

KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
Status changed to: Archived

Our Product Team reviewed some of our oldest feature proposals recently, and this thread was identified as one that they would not be able to include in their current or future plans. While we appreciate your proposal, we also want to be transparent about the likelihood of something like this making it to production.

Thank you for collaborating, and we hope that you submit another idea in the future!