In Canvas, an "assignment" refers to a task or piece of work that instructors create and assign to students as part of a course. Assignments in Canvas are used for various purposes, such as assessing students' understanding of course material, evaluating their performance, and providing feedback.
There are two ways to add an assignment to your course: Through the "Assignments" section and adding directly to a module.
Creating an assignment in the "Assignments" section
Click on the "Assignments" section in your course navigation:
Click on "+Assignment":
Edit the details of the assignment:
(1) Name the assignment
(2) Include the directions and details of the assignment. You can link internal and external links or drag and drop files within the rich content editor:
Edit the number of points you want the assignment to be worth (1) and place into an assignment group (optional) (2):
Select the type of grade you wish the assignment to be. The default will be points:
If you would like the assignment not to count in the final grade, select the checkbox:
Next, select the submission type through the dropdown box:
If you select "Online Submission", you will check off the file types you are willing to accept. The most common selection will be "File Uploads":
You can also select an External Tool. To look at options, select "Find". The most common external you might use is "Google Assignments" - please learn more about setting up this feature here*
The next selections you need to make are denoting whether the assignment is a "Group Assignment" or "Requires Peer Review":
The last selection that you need to make is the assignment due date. Select from the calendar or type in your due date:
If you need to modify an assignment to adapt the due date for a specific student or a list of students, you can "Add" an override by clicking "+Add":
An additional due date selection box will appear below the original. Fill out the information for one, or more, students that fit the same criteria. Feel free to add more overrides as needed:
Please note, if you add an override, your original due date settings will change from "Everyone" to "Everyone Else" indicating that some students have different criteria:
When your details are complete, click "Save & Publish". If you don't want students to see this assignment yet, click "Save":
You will now see the assignment details saved and see all of the modified due dates (if any):
If you click back to you main "Assignments" section, you will see your new assignment listed:
Please note, the assignment currently only exists in the "Assignments" section. In order for students to access the assignment within the flow of a module, navigate to the "Modules" section:
Go to the module you wish to add the assignment to and click "+":
Confirm that you want to add an "Assignment", select the pre-existing assignment from the list, and click "Add Item":
You will now see the assignment in the module (It will also exist in the "Assignments" section as well):
Creating an Assignment within a Module
To create an assignment within a module, navigate to the "Modules" section:
Locate the module you would like to add the assignment to and click "+":
Select "Assignments" from the drop down box (if it is not already selected) (1), click on "[Create Assignment]" (2), name your assignment (3), then click "Add Item":
At this point, the assignment appears in the module for the instructor, but it is includes not details and is not published for students to see:
To add details, click on the assignment you wish to add details to and then click on "Edit":
Edit the details of the assignment:
(1) Name the assignment
(2) Include the directions and details of the assignment. You can link internal and external links or drag and drop files within the rich content editor:
Edit the number of points you want the assignment to be worth (1) and place into an assignment group (optional) (2):
Select the type of grade you wish the assignment to be. The default will be points:
If you would like the assignment not to count in the final grade, select the checkbox:
Next, select the submission type through the dropdown box:
If you select "Online Submission", you will check off the file types you are willing to accept. The most common selection will be "File Uploads":
You can also select an External Tool. To look at options, select "Find". The most common external you might use is "Google Assignments" - please learn more about setting up this feature here*
The next selections you need to make are denoting whether the assignment is a "Group Assignment" or "Requires Peer Review":
The last selection that you need to make is the assignment due date. Select from the calendar or type in your due date:
If you need to modify an assignment to adapt the due date for a specific student or a list of students, you can "Add" an override by clicking "+Add":
An additional due date selection box will appear below the original. Fill out the information for one, or more, students that fit the same criteria. Feel free to add more overrides as needed:
Please note, if you add an override, your original due date settings will change from "Everyone" to "Everyone Else" indicating that some students have different criteria:
When your details are complete, click "Save & Publish". If you don't want students to see this assignment yet, click "Save":
You will now see the assignment details saved and see all of the modified due dates (if any):
This assignment will now show up in the module you added it to:
It will also show up as an assignment in your assignments section:
Deleting an Assignment
If you no longer wish to have an assignment, you have a few options.
First, you can "unpublish" the assignment by clicking the green checkmark to make it a grey circle with a slash. Students will not be able to see or access the assignment if it is unpublished, but the instructor can still see it. You can do this in both the "Modules" section or the "Assignments" section:
If you no longer want to assignment to exist and be deleted forever, navigate to the "Assignments" section:
Locate the assignment you wish to delete, click on the three vertical dots on the far right, and select "Delete":
This will delete the assignment from BOTH the assignment section and wherever it appears in a module.
Please note, you only have the option to "Remove" and assignment from a module. This will remove the assignment from the Module view, but the assignment will still exist for student view in the "Assignments" section:
It is recommended that if you wish to truly delete an assignment, that you do so by follow the steps above for deleting an assignment to ensure that students can no longer access it.