Latest revision: 2022-01-28

On this page we will show:

Create assignment
Edit assignment
How it looks for the student

An assignment can be used for course participants to be able to submit something to the teachers in the course. On this page, it is described how to create assignments and make settings.

A. Create assignment

An assignment can be created directly in a module or under the course menu's Assignments. An advantage of creating the assignment in a module is that it becomes clear where it is to be seen and used by the course participant.

If you want to create the task in a module, click on the plus in the module header.

Adding an assignment

If you instead choose to create the assignment without putting it in a module, it is done in the course menu's Assignments.

Adding the item

Select Add Assignments
If the assignments is not on the list, select [Create assignment]
Type the name of the new assignment. Really think about the name (see below)!
Add item

Naming the assignment

To help course participants find the course, see the structure and understand what they need to do, it can be good to be informative when the assignment gets its name. Compare these:

Informative assignment names Non-informative assignment names

B. Edit assignment

Click on the assignment name in the module or under the course menu's Assignments to be able to edit and make settings.

Editing assignment

Edit: Select edit to write an instruction and make settings
The three dots: If you click here, you can share the task with a colleague, copy to another of your courses or share to others in Commons
Rubric: If you click here you can create a rubric for the assignment

Edit assignment instruction

Assignment instruction

Describe the assignment and feel free to use the description for all the information the course participant needs to do the assignment. It is an advantage if the course participant does not have to look for information, links, literature or e.g. film elsewhere. Collect everything about the task where they will submit the task!

Settings

Points

Keep in mind that the setting of points can be perceived differently by course participants. Clarify for them whether it is credits or assignment points that are set. But also keep in mind that the final grade is set in Ladok, not in Canvas.

In "Display grade as", different assessment scales can be used, e.g. points if the assignment is complete, or in form of a letter. Even if points are not selected, it can be good to write points in the top field "Points" because Canvas uses it for calculations. This means, for example, that a completed assignment gets 1 and an incomplete gets 0, even if the course participant sees "Completed" or "Incomplete".

Select another scheme

If letter grade is selected, you can select "View grading scheme" and then "Select another scheme" to select one of the assessment schemes that are entered at your university.

Submission types

The setting for submission type is easy to miss! The most common is that assignments are used for digital submissions "online", so if you do not choose that option, the course participant will not have the opportunity to submit assignment in Canvas

If "Text entry" is chosen, the course participant will be able to type directly in a text editor in the assignment
If "Website URL" or "Media recordings" is chosen, they can submit the assignment with a link or film/audio file
If "File Uploads" is chosen, the course participant can upload a file from their computer. You can restrict which type of files to receive, which is important if you are using plagiarism review. In such cases, use file endings, without dots, separated with commas.

Assignment settings

The image above shows examples of other settings that may be present at your university. Some of the settings depend on what is available at your Canvas instance. Here we explain a bit about the functions seen in the picture.

Submission Attempts: By default, the course participant can submit several times which can be good if, for example, they have to fix mistakes. If they should only be able to submit one or a certain number of times, it can be set here.
Plagiarism Review: If plagiarism control with, for example, Ouriginal is available in Canvas at the university, it can be activated here. The course participant's submission is then automatically sent to plagiarism control and the report becomes visible in Grades and SpeedGrader.
Group assignment: If someone in a group is supposed to submit for the whole group, it is activated here. In order to be able to assess someone in the group differently, the underlying choice "Assign grades to each student individually" must be activated, otherwise everyone in the group will receive the same assessment.
Peer Review: If each submission is to receive peer review from other course participants, it is activated here. Peer review does not work between groups.

Assignment availability

Assign to: By default it is set to "Everyone" which means all course participants in the course. Teachers also see the task, regardless of setting. If a certain course participant or section is to be assigned the task, "Everyone" is deleted and the correct recipient is selected instead.
Submission date: Select the date and time when the assignment must be submitted. This can be omitted, but then it is not shown to the student when the assignment is expected to be submitted and it is not shown in the course participant's calendar or the sidebar "To do" on the overview / course start page. If the course participant submits the assignment after the specified time, it is marked as a late submission.
Available from: If date and time is entered here, course participants see / read the assignment until the specified time.
To: If date and time is entered here, course participants cannot submit after specified time.
+Add can be used if you for instance want to give a course participant longer time. If you select one or more to be given a different submission time, the assignment for the others will be changed to "Everyone else" if it was set to "Everyone".

C. How does it look for the student?

Feel free to check what the assignment looks like for the student with the help of the student view. Whether the information is visible also depends on the setting of time for availability.

Outside the box

An assignment can also be used, for example, to register attendance at a seminar.