Is there a way for teachers to test out assignment submissions, for unpublished assignment and unpublished discussions

[tslee]

Problem

If a teacher wants to test out an assignment submission, they should do this in 'Student View' am I correct? But currently, it seems the item must be published first (ie: visible and available to students!).

Suggested change

If so, the canvas documentation needs this clarification, that  'Student View', for test submissions only works with published assignments and discussions.

Follow-Up

• Teachers can already preview and test an unpublished Quiz (see  'Preview Quiz').
• It would nice to have a similar "preview' or 'Test submission' mode for teachers for assignments and discussions too.

[james_whalley · Accepted solution]

Hello @tslee,

I think your idea for an Assignment Preview mode (and maybe a Discussions Preview mode?) would be great additions to Canvas. Have you checked out the Ideas and Themes area of the community? It allows you to share these ideas in a space where they can be grouped with similar ideas and then voted upon to help guide development.

In the meantime, some instructors find that having a sandbox course is useful for testing out assignments and other materials away from student eyes. You might want to reach out to someone at your institution to get a sandbox set up. You could also create your own sandbox in the Free-for-Teacher instance of Canvas.

Good luck with your testing,

James

[james_whalley · Accepted solution]

Hello @tslee,

I think your idea for an Assignment Preview mode (and maybe a Discussions Preview mode?) would be great additions to Canvas. Have you checked out the Ideas and Themes area of the community? It allows you to share these ideas in a space where they can be grouped with similar ideas and then voted upon to help guide development.

In the meantime, some instructors find that having a sandbox course is useful for testing out assignments and other materials away from student eyes. You might want to reach out to someone at your institution to get a sandbox set up. You could also create your own sandbox in the Free-for-Teacher instance of Canvas.

Good luck with your testing,

James

[tslee]

Thanks for pointing me to Ideas and Themes  , I will re-post there. 

I got here because I saw "Ask the Community" button in top right.

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi @tslee ...

In addition to the great advice that you got from @james_whalley, I wanted to let you know that you can make suggestions to the written Guides here in the Community if you feel the documentation is not clear (or even if you find errors that need to be corrected).  For example, in the Guide that you linked to:

How do I view a course as a test student using Student View?

...at the bottom of the Guide, you'll find a blue button for "Leave Feedback".  This will open up a window where you can fill out a form about the Guide you are viewing to provide your suggestions.  The Documentation Team will review your feedback and determine if any changes are necessary.

I hope this extra bit of information will be helpful to you.

[tslee]

Oh, I didn't realize there was a button to leave feedback in documentation, thanks for sharing! I will do that.