How to Create Assignments

Canvas Tutorials How to Create Assignments

Instructor Creating Content Module

Assignment Options

 Rich Content Editor Changes Coming Soon

Starting with the January 18, 2020 Canvas release Links to an external site. the new rich content editor will be available as course level feature option. Instructors can choose to turn on the new editor. Please note this change will affect student view as well.

Starting on May 15, 2020 ALL courses will have the new rich content editor enabled!

All of the external tool options (Studio, YouTube, Films on Demand etc) will be in a different location in the new editor toolbar. See Rich Content Editor Update (Coming Soon). 

An important aspect of a Canvas course is how the tools in a course work together. Canvas is designed to reduce the workload for an instructor. The Assignments page drives much of activity of your course and all items created on the Assignments page will also populate the Calendar, Grades and Syllabus tools in your Canvas course. These four tools are tightly integrated with each other and will save you much time and effort when creating and managing your course. Below are some of the assignment options available to for instructors to use when creating assignments. 

Assignment Overview

To view the assignment list click on Assignments on left menu of your course. This is where you will create assignments for your course. The assignment list will list all of the course’s graded assignment activities (including discussions and quizzes) that students must complete in your course. Once you have created graded assignments in a Canvas course, the grades page will populate with the assignment columns. See the following guides for details. 

Review the video tutorial below. 

514 - Assignments Overview Links to an external site. from Canvas LMS Links to an external site. on Vimeo Links to an external site..

Assignment Design Tips

General Assignment Design Guidelines: View following resource from the University of Waterloo's Centre for Teaching Excellence for more general assignment design tips. 

Weighted Grades/Grading Rules Options: Some grading rules that you wish to apply to assignments must be done from the assignment index page. See the following guides. 

Publish Assignments: Make sure all assignments that you wish for students to complete are published. 

Write Clear Directions for Assignments: In the assignment description write clear and concise instructions on how to complete the assignment. Use the following guide for details on how  to add links to course content. 

Online Teaching: If you are teaching an online course, it is important to include an introductory assignment to help students understand how to submit assignments. See following guide for suggestions on how to create a getting started module for students to complete. 

Submission Types: There are several ways to setup an assignment. This will determine how you grade the assignment. 

Differentiated Assignments: Canvas has the ability to set multiple due dates based on sections or individual students or to assign different assignments to individual students as well as setting Mastery Paths. Please review following guide for details on the differences between the due date and availability dates in Canvas Assignments. 

There are three main ways instructors can configure assignments to allow for differentiated instruction. Below is a brief overview of what each option does and how instructors can use differentiated assignments in a course. 

  • Differentiate by Due Date- This option allows the instructor to set differentiate due dates for individual students, section or groups and can be helpful when students miss work and need to makeup work. Students will only see the due date and availability period assign to them. For instructors assignments with multiple due dates will the text multiple dates where the due date displays on the assignment index page.  Note: This option  will  not  work with TurnItIn assignments setup as external tool.
  • Differentiate by Student (or section or group)- This option allows the instructor to assign an assignment to an individual student, section or group. This is particularly useful when an instructor wishes to assign different projects for students. Students will only see the assignments they are assigned and only the assignments that have been assigned to the student will be included in the total calculation for the student. Instructors will see all assignments in the gradebook; however for assignments that have been differentiated by student, instructors will only be able to enter grades for assigned students.  DO NOT use this option with assignment that already has student submissions! Use the Differentiate by due date so all student grades stay in the gradebook.
  • Differentiate by mastery paths- When the mastery paths is turned on in a course the option to assign to the mastery paths becomes available. For more information on mastery paths see the following  guide.

Using Mastery Paths in Assignments: This is course level feature option that can be enabled in the course settings. Once enabled, instructors can create a mastery path in the assignment settings.  This option requires careful planning and is best used with modules. See the following guides for details. 

Setting Up Extra Credit Assignments: You can create extra credit assignments. Review the following guides for details on creating extra credit assignments. 

New Quiz Tool: Creating extra credit quizzes is much easier and similar to creating extra credit assignments with the assignment tool in Canvas. See New Quiz Tool Overview for details.  Note: The new quiz tool is course level feature option that must be enabled in the course settings.  If you enable the new quiz tool in your course, the quizzes can be created from the assignment index page and will have the assignment icon associated with them. After the February 15, 2020 update Links to an external site., if you enable the new quiz tool, all quizzes will created from the quiz index page and will have the rocket icon associated with them. See the following guide for details. 

Peer Review Options 

Instructors can setup assignments as  a peer review assignment. This will allow students to critique other students' work. Review the following guides for details on how to setup peer review assignments. 

To understand how students will complete the peer review assignments, please review the follow student guide. 

Group Assignment Options

In the assignment settings you can make an assignment a group assignment. The default setting will allow you to grade students by the group. Uncheck this option if you wish to grade students individually for the group project. See the following guide for details. 

To understand how students will complete the group assignments, please review the follow student guide. 

Canvas Guides

Note: These guides are maintained by the Canvas Documentation Team and are available on the Canvas Community site Links to an external site.. Some of the information in these guides may not apply to the Lake Land College instance of Canvas. If you have a question about a feature mentioned in these guides, please review Getting Help page for details on who to contact at Lake Land College.