Creating Activities

Activities include Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes, and other tools for assessing your students, collecting work from them, and providing them with grades and feedback. We'll be walking you through creating your first Assignment on this page, but it's worth noting that the same workflow can be used to create a new Discussion or Quiz.

Creating an Assignment

To create a new Assignment, start by clicking the "+" button on a module.

Next, make sure the drop-down menu is set to "Assignment".

Click "Create Assignment" at the top of the list.

Give your assignment a name, then click "Add Item"

Now that the assignment has been created, let's configure the grading, submission, and deadline settings. While viewing the assignment, click the "Edit" button in the top-right.

First, let's add some instructions to our assignment using the Rich Content Editor (RCE). Remember that, just like when editing a Page, you can attach audio, video, or any other files pertinent to the assignment here.

Next, we'll set up how this assignment will be graded. Enter the number of points the assignment should be worth under the "Points" field, and select one of the Assignment Groups we created earlier.

Then, choose how students will submit to this assignment using the "Submission Type" drop down. For the vast majority of assignments, you'll want to select "Online" > "Text Entry" and/or "File Upload".

Finally, let's set up a due date for the assignment. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "Manage Due Dates and Assign To".

You'll see four different options in the subsequent window. For now, we will only worry about the bottom three: Due Date, Available From, and Until.

Due Date: Specifies the deadline for students to submit their work to be considered on-time. Late submissions will be marked as such in Canvas.

Available From and Until: Determines the time window during which students can access the assignment. Students cannot view the assignment before the "Available From" date and will lose access after the "Until" date.

If you are unsure about using Available From or Until, leaving these fields blank is generally recommended.

Once you are done specifying your Due Dates, remember to hit Apply, then click "Save and Publish" at the bottom of the Assignment.

For more information on Assignments, visit the Assignments lesson.

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