How to create a signup sheet for a topic?

[Izabela]

 I want to create a signup sheet where the students pick their term paper topic.  I have a list of about 25 topics to choose from and I want only 1 student to signup for each topic.  Is there a way to do this in Canvas?

[djackson]

Hello, izabelajedruchniewicz‌,

Thank you for submitting your question! I have two suggestions/options to create a sign-up sheet in Canvas:

You could create a Discussion post listing the 25 term paper topics and have each student comment with their choice of paper topic. This would be a good option because you would have time stamps that would show who chose a topic first in case you have multiple students choosing the same topic. Here is a guide that will help you in creating a discussion post: How do I create a discussion as an instructor?

Another option would be to create a Google Docs collaboration, where you would create a Google Doc with the 25 topics and have each student type in their name next to the topic of their choice. Here is a guide that will help you set up a Google Docs collaboration in Canvas: How do I create a Google Docs collaboration as an instructor?

Hope this helps!

Best,

Danielle

[nusjasp]

As if this Teacher didn't think of these options already - Canvas provides so little and such poor functionality that we as Teachers are constantly having to turn to outside resources to make it work. What ends up happening with either of these options is that a) students do not pay attention to what is posted previously and b) they delete previously entered responses in the Google Doc, leaving you as the Teacher to go back and moderate the discussion to point them to the previous posts, or review the editing history to see what was actually written first in the Doc, and by whom. Canvas is hands down the worst instructional platform I have ever seen.