[To Do] New Quizzes: show Available from date in students' To-do list rather than Due date

At the moment, in students' to-do list in Canvas, all assignment types, including quizzes, show the due date. This makes sense for most assignment types, but for quizzes, where the due date indicates when students can't take the quiz, rather than when they can, this is misleading.

 

Instead, for quizzes, it would be helpful either to show the Available from date (where this has been set), or at least to make clear that the date shown is a 'complete your quiz before' date rather than a 'do your quiz at' date.

 

Currently the onscreen text reads:

Coming up

 View calendar
  • New Quizzes Assignment

    100 points • 5 Jun at 23:59

which doesn't make clear that the date is an end-point. Even:

Coming up

 View calendar
  • New Quizzes Assignment

    100 points
    Complete before 5 Jun at 23:59

would be more helpful. This latter would be applicable for all assignment types, if it is not possible to disaggregate a quiz assignment from other types and differentially display data.

Added to Theme

9 Comments
Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

 @a_coombs ‌

Our teams are not developing new functionality for Old (Classic) Quizzes, which is slated for deprecation in early 2021.

New Quizzes are based on the Assignment content type. Would you like to broaden the scope of the idea so that it addresses how assignment "available from" dates in general display in students' "Coming up" lists?

Thanks.

a_coombs
Community Member

Thanks Stephanie - the same display is true for New Quizzes and Classic Quizzes - I've updated the example on-screen text so that it clearly refers to a New Quiz. Is there something else you think the idea should contain?

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

 @a_coombs ‌, thanks for adding the new screenshot. We can certainly move it forward on that basis.

ja505
Community Participant

It would also be helpful if the quiz displayed on the students calendar from it's available from date to the due date. This would help to illustrate for the students the period of time when a quiz is available for rather than just the due date. 

Steven_S
Community Champion

I would like to see calendar assignment reminders appear as multi-day events (a long bar that spans the available dates is common in calendar programs) but with also some indication of the due date. 

Perhaps the existing marker at the due date with a simple line extending out to the available times?

Also when editing due dates on the calendar by clicking and dragging, I would want the indicator for the available dates to move with the reminder, changing the availability dates to the same number of days before and after the adjusted reminder.  

SeungLee
Community Member

I wish Canvas showed both begin time and end time for a test.

In a module, Canvas shows the link to a test, date, and max points.

The TO DO list shows only end time, not begin time.

Why not both begin and end time along with date, especially when a test has set the time for avaialability?

MitchellMcIvor
Community Member

It is very confusing for students when the calendar displays due dates for quizzes instead of start times. For assignments, it makes complete sense to have the due dates posted on the calendar. But for a quiz or test, it makes little sense to display on the calendar when it ends. Doing this leads to students seeing the time listed on the calendar and think that's when the quiz begins versus when it ends. For example, if the calendar shows "Midterm, Sept.24, 10am" they will reasonably assume that the midterm starts at 10am, when it actually ends at 10am and started at 9am. It would be very helpful to have an option of what to display in the calendar instead of just defaulting to the time it's due, which makes sense for assignments but not quizzes. 

Can we please have the flexibility to change the display for quizzes in the calendar? I am a professor with a class of 1,500 students so this causes major headaches.

KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
Status changed to: New
 
KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
Status changed to: Added to Theme