Assignments

You can create an assignment in two ways:

• From the Modules page:

1. 1. Select the plus (+) icon that's located to the right of the title of the module to which you'd like to add the assignment.
   2. A dialog box will open up. A drop-down menu is present at the top of the dialog box, enabling you to choose the item you'd like to add to the module. Select Assignment from the drop-down menu.
   3. You will then have the option to create a new assignment or select an assignment that already exists. If you choose to create a new assignment, you will need to enter a name for the assignment.
   4. After making your choices, click Add Item. 

• Click Assignments on the left-side global navigation panel. From the Assignments page, click + Assignment at the top right corner. If you create an assignment from the Assignments page, make sure you add it to the appropriate module on the Modules page to make it easier for students to find and to understand how it fits into the organization and flow of the course.
  

When creating a new assignment in Canvas, you have several options for customizing the assignment, providing flexibility to accommodate different teaching and assessment styles. To edit the assignment details, select the assignment of interest and then click Edit at the top-right corner of the page. You will use the Rich Content Editor to edit the assignment description. If you're not familiar with Canvas' Rich Content Editor, you might find it helpful to take a look at the Creating and Editing Content in Canvas page.

Some of the assignment options are explained below:

Assignment Name: Provide a name for your assignment so that students will easily be able to identify the topic.

Assignment Description: Add instructions and any additional information about the assignment. You can use text, images, videos, and links to provide detailed guidance and resources.

Points: Assign a specific number of points or a grading scale to the assignment, indicating its value towards the overall course grade.

Assignment Group: Assign the assignment to a specific assignment group. Grouping assignments helps organize them based on categories such as quizzes, discussions, projects, or topics.

Display Grade as: Choose the grade display format that's appropriate for the assignment, such as points, percentage, complete/incomplete, etc.

Submission Type: Choose how students will submit their work. Options include online text entry, file upload (e.g., Word documents, PDFs), website URLs, media recordings, or external tools integration.

Submission Attempts: Allow students to submit multiple attempts for the assignment or limit them to a single attempt.

Peer Reviews: Enable peer review functionality to allow students to evaluate and provide feedback on each other's work.

Canvas allows for flexibility in the way you manage student access to an assignment by enabling you to set a due date, and availability dates. Once an assignment is published, the assignment (with its due date) will show up on students' Calendar and Syllabus pages as well as their To-Do list. 

Common scenarios 

Some common scenarios are listed below that you can easily implement using due dates and availability dates in different ways. 

A note about flexible submission dates: Some instructors like to set a due date to help students stay on track but are happy to accept assignments after that date without penalty. Other instructors who accept late work prefer to reward students who submit assignments by the due date by deducting points from assignments that are submitted after the due date. This latter option can be easily accommodated by setting Late Policies, which is explained on the Gradebook page.

Assignment Groups in Canvas enable instructors to organize and categorize assignments within a course by grouping related assignments together. Instructors can then set distinct grading rules and grade weights to each group, if desired.

To create an assignment group:

1. Select Assignments from the left-side course navigation panel.
2. Click + Group at the top right corner of the window, which open a dialog box.
3. Type a name for the new group.
4. Click Save.

Assignment groups can be based on topics, modules, or any other relevant criteria. For example, group names could be Quizzes, Case Studies, Week 1 Lab Work, etc.

Individual assignments can be added to assignment groups by dragging the assignment into the desired group on the Assignments page, or by opening up the assignment of interest, selecting Edit, followed by selecting the name of the appropriate pre-created assignment group from the Assignment Group drop-down menu (below).

Within each assignment group, instructors can create assignment rules such as dropping the highest and/or lowest scores on assignments within that group. To create assignment group rules, select the vertical ellipsis to the right of the assignment group name and then select Edit. A dialog box will open enabling you to drop highest and/or lowest assignment scores for that group.

Additionally, instructors can set up weighted grading for assignment groups, allowing them to assign different weights to each group when calculating overall grades. We discuss group weights in more detail on the Gradebook page.