Timezone

[JL16]

My canvas has been set in my timezone since the start of this semester and I've had no problem submitting my assignments on time until today. I submitted my very last assignment at 11:55 am in my timezone thinking the due date was correct according to my timezone. It turned out it wasn't.  

The only possible explanation to this situation is if I had changed my setting back to the uni timezone after I submitted my previous assignment on Dec 1, which I never did. Also if it had been set in the uni timezone throughout the semester I would not have been able to make my previous submissions on time. Also, there was a system outage to my uni canvas system on Dec 5 - I am wondering if it has any relevance to my situation? 

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Good morning, @JL16 ...

There are three areas in Canvas where time zone settings can be configured:

• At the Canvas institution/account level.  This setting is only available to Canvas administrators at your school, and it they would typically set the time zone to where your school is physically located.  How do I set details for an account? - Canvas Community 
• At the Canvas course level.  Typically, this will be the same time zone that is set at the institution/account level, but there could always be the case that an instructor could set the time zone to something different depending on the situation.  How do I set a time zone for a course? 
• At the Canvas user level.  Typically, this is the time zone where you live.  How do I set a time zone in my user account as a student? 

Assuming that these three time zones are set up properly, any due dates for assignments should display the proper time for you so that you know when your instructor has established due dates for assignments.  Canvas factors in the time zone settings so that you don't have to calculate those manually.  You might want to check with your instructor and/or someone from your school's Online Learning/eLearning department (or a local Canvas administrator) to ensure that these time zones are all set properly in Canvas.

I hope this will help a bit.  Sing out if you have any other questions about this...thanks!  Take care, stay safe, and be well.