canvas student upload assignment

Getting Started with Canvas Assignments

• Last modification date Updated On June 8, 2023
• Categories: Assignments , Canvas , Uncategorized
• Categories: assessment , Getting Started , Grading

Canvas  Assignments  are a way for instructors to provide students opportunities to practice using the knowledge and skills they have gained or to assess student performance related to such knowledge and skills. (Creating an Assignment is the  only  way to create a new column in the Gradebook.)

In Canvas there are four basic  Submission Types  for assignments. The submission types include:

• No Submission : For assignments for which you are not collecting any content from the students.
• Text Entry : For students to enter text directly into a text box on Canvas.
• Website URL : For students to enter a URL (usually to a blog, video, podcast, etc.).
• Media Recordings : For students to upload or record media for submission.
• File Uploads : For students to upload files for submission ( Restrict Upload File Types  will allow you to limit which types of files may be submitted).
• On Paper : For assignments students will submit in person.
• External Tool : For assignments which students will submit through a third-party tool (such as Turnitin, Panopto Video Quiz, and PlayPosit).

Managing an Assignment

Managing assignment groups.

When getting started with Assignments, learn to

• Create an assignment shell with the Canvas guide  How do I create an assignment? 

If you select  Peer Reviews Appear Anonymously , annotation tools in  SpeedGrader  will become unavailable.

If you change the  Assign To  area from  Everyone  to select students after submissions have already begun, and do not have a second set of Assign To dates, submissions from unassigned students will disappear.

• Published assignments are visible as existing outside of availability dates, but students cannot see the details.
• If looking to update the due and/or availability dates on multiple assignments, see   How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• If choosing the option to make an assignment a  Group Assignment : If only assigning to specific groups, make sure to click the  X  on the  Everyone Else  choice under  Assign to .

Media Recording  Assignments are not recommended due to technical reasons. Instead, have students submit media by embedding it in a  Text Entry  assignment through Panopto .

Clearly express expectations and criteria for grading by using a  Rubric .

Be cautious limiting submission attempts, as students often make mistakes loading documents and need multiple attempts to ensure you have the correct submission.

• Delete an assignment with the Canvas guide  How do I delete an assignment?
• This duplication process will not work for Quizzes.
• Attach a rubric to an assignment for grading or to communicate expectations to students with the Canvas guide  How do I add a rubric to an assignment?

Accessibility Tips

• Use descriptive text for links, instead of long URLs or ‘click here’. 
• Make instructions brief and to-the-point. Avoid long paragraphs and sentences.
• Consider allowing multiple submission types to accommodate technical limitations students may face.

Assignment Groups  are a way to categorize different graded items in Canvas. For example, you may have journals, blogs, and essays which your students create in your course. Assignment Groups allow you to label and group different types of assignments separately in order to better organize and for ease when applying weighting (see  How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups? ). When getting started with Assignment Groups, learn to

• Add and delete assignment groups with the Canvas guide  How do I add an assignment group in a course?
• Move or reorder an assignment group with the Canvas guide  How do I move or reorder an assignment group?
• Make rules governing grading expectations within assignment groups with the Canvas guide  How do I create rules for an assignment group?

Additional Resources

• CTI Resource: What is the Assignments Index Page?
• How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?
• Canvas Student Guide

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University Center for Teaching and Learning

New canvas feature: submit assignment on behalf of student.

Scheduled to be released March 18, Instructure is adding another much-requested feature to Canvas: Submit Assignment on Behalf of Student. This will allow a teacher in a course to submit a student upload to an assignment. The teacher can upload a document that their student has given them in some other way while retaining the ability to annotate and retain submission history in Canvas.

This new feature is part of the March 2023 Canvas release. You can read more below, or you can go to the Canvas release notes page .

Feature Video

Submit Assignment on Behalf of Student

Recommended Use

We do recommend, when possible, that the teacher use the existing standard in Canvas for student submissions. That would be to assign missing assignment to the student individually (as one would for an accommodation or extension) and then ask them to submit it through the standard process.

Additionally, a teacher can only submit on behalf of a student for a file upload assignment (not text entry, quizzes, or discussions).

Related directions: How do I assign an assignment to an individual student?

To submit on behalf of a student:

• Go to the grade book
• Find the assignment and student (use the student and assignment search filters above the gradebook to find it quickly!)

• Follow the prompts to select the file and upload from your computer

Details and Limitations

• Canvas will track who submitted on behalf of a student. It will display this in the same sidecar as above, as well as in in SpeedGrader.
• If you use late policies, you can manually set (override) the late from the same part of the gradebook. Directions: How do I apply a Late Submission Policy?
• This is only for assignments in Canvas. This does not work for external tools. Some integrations have their own ability to submit on behalf of a student while others do not.
• If using Canvas assignments in conjunction with Turnitin framework plagiarism detection, you can go to SpeedGrader after the above to ask for a resubmit. Note, however, that doing so bypasses the student’s consent to accept the terms and conditions of the submission and database retention.
• This feature also works with group assignments and peer review assignments, as if the student you selected had submitted. When viewing the submission, other students will see that it was submitted by the teacher on behalf of the student.
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Use Assignments with Canvas

Google Assignments and Canvas expanded Google Docs Editors and Google Drive to be compatible with Canvas for file submissions. With Assignments, you can distribute and grade student work, analyze student submissions for plagiarism detection, and use Google Docs and Drive with Canvas. 

Features and benefits of Assignments

When admins enable Google Assignments in Canvas settings, you can use its features and benefits.

• Grade in Google’s grading interface or in SpeedGrader™.
• File attachments to an assignment so each student gets their own copy to edit and submit.
• Detect missed citation checks and possible plagiarism with the originality reports feature.
• Students can submit Drive files to Canvas assignments, which instructors can grade in SpeedGrader™.
• Embed Drive files with the Canvas rich text editor.
• Add Drive files to Canvas Modules.

Assignments also provides improvements from Google Apps LTI:

• Officially supported by Google and covered by the Google Workspace for Education Terms of Service.
• Provides an option for admins to require students to use their school-issued Google accounts.
• Uses Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) 1.3 for stronger security.
• Create a new Canvas assignment.

Students can submit Drive files that you can grade with SpeedGrader™.

For teachers

Allow students to submit drive files with canvas assignments.

• After you create a new Canvas assignment, next to "Submission Type", select Online .
• Under "Online Entry Options", select File Uploads.

Important: You must select File Uploads or the submission will fail.

For students

Turn in assignments.

• Ensure you're signed into your school account. 
• Next to "File Upload", click  Google Drive.
• To open a Google Drive window, click Select file.
• Select the Drive file.

• Sign in to Canvas.
• Open the course.

• Sign in to your Google Account.
• Click Allow .
• Select the Google Drive file.
• Click Submit.

Open all   |   Close all

From October 2023, Instructure will no longer support the Google Apps LTI. This means:

• No new installs will be allowed.
• No further development will be made on it.
• No customer support will be available.

Google and Instructure makes sure that Google Assignments LTI 1.3 has the Google Apps LTI functions, and includes:

• Improved security
• Flexibility
• Integrations 

Current Google Apps LTI users won’t lose access but should transition over to Google Assignments LTI 1.3.

To use the latest Assignments features, you can install and migrate to Google Assignments LTI 1.3.

No. Currently, you can’t embed a form or select one as a file type for quizzes. To use Forms for quizzes, create a form and share the link with your students. Learn how to create a Google Form.

• Any submitted work for the Google Apps LTI Cloud assignment that you want to migrate will reset. 
• If you want to keep your previous submissions, make a copy of the Canvas assignment .
• Find the Canvas assignment you want to migrate to Google Assignments LTI 1.3.

• Click Find .
• If you can’t find this option, request your Canvas administrator to turn on Google Assignments LTI 1.3 .
• Link your Google Workspace for Education account.
• Click Continue .
• Attach the Drive worksheet files.
• Choose your grading tool, then make sure the due date and points are updated.
• Click Create .

Related topics

• Set up Assignments in Canvas
• Set up Assignments in Schoology or another LMS
• Set up Assignments in Blackboard
• Set up Assignments in D2L/Brightspace
• Set up Assignments in Moodle
• Set up Assignments in Sakai

Google, Google Workspace, and related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. All other company and product names are trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.

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How to Upload Assignments in Canvas

Home » Student Services » Career Services » How to Upload Assignments in Canvas

Canvas provides you with several methods to submit your assignment online: 

• File upload – Upload file(s) directly from your computer or storage device 
• Text Entry – Type or copy-paste your submission into the editor 
• Website URL – Type or copy-paste the URL (web address) of a web page 
• Media – Upload or record (if available on your computer) audio or video content for submission 

Your instructor will decide which types of submissions are appropriate for each assignment, but you can select only one submission type per submission. 

Open/View Assignments

You can find your assignments on the Assignments page or Module page: 

The Assignments detail page will provide key information such as: 

• The assignment’s due date.
• The number of points the assignment is worth.
• The acceptable file types.
• The number of times you can or have attempted to submit an assignment and the number of times you are allowed to submit an assignment 

And lastly, the assignment rubric is the point value allotted to each criterion of the assignment.

Start Assignment

To submit your assignment, start by clicking the Start Assignment button: 

If the Start Assignment button is not visible or grayed out, the assignment might not be available yet or restricted; contact your instructor for assistance. 

After clicking the Start Assignment button, you will see tabs for your instructor’s submission types. The instructor’s options are File Upload, Text Entry, Website URL, or Media . Your instructor may decide to make one or all of these submission options available. 

Submit a File Upload

To submit an assignment by uploading from your device or flash drive, select the File Upload tab, then click on the Upload File button.

Click the Choose File button.

A window will open, displaying files and the system Navigation pane. If the file you want to upload is not visible in the pop-up window, select the file location from the links in the Navigation pane, select the file, then click the Open or Choose button to upload the file: 

To use the Webcam to submit an assignment, select the Use Webcam button.

Click the Take Photo button to capture an image of your submission, then click the Use this Photo button to complete your submission.

To add an additional file, click the + Add Another File link:

You can also add files from your Canvas user files by clicking the Click here to find a file you’ve already uploaded link and selecting a file.

Submit a Text Entry

To submit an assignment as a text entry, select the Text Entry tab and type or copy and paste your assignment into the text box.

Note: the total number of words in the text box is displayed below the text box.

Submit a Website URL

To submit a website URL, select the Website URL tab and enter the web address in the Website URL field:

Submit a Media Recording

To record audio, or submit a media recording as a submission type, select the Media tab.

Click the Record / Upload Media button, then record something new, or upload an existing media file.

Once you are ready to submit your assignment, click the Submit Assignmen t button.

View Submission

Once submitted, you can view and/or verify details about your submission in the sidebar. Details provided will be based upon the settings your instructor selected but may include:

• Date and Time assignment submitted.
• Submission Details link: this enables you to view your original submission, comments from your peers or instructor, and the grading Rubric (if the instructor opted to attach the rubric to the assignment).
• Download Assignment link: this allows you to download the original submission.

If you resubmit an assignment, only the details from the most recent submission will be visible.

Helpful Hints

• Not all assignments may be submitted online; consult your syllabus and/or assignment instructions to learn how your instructor wants you to submit your work.
• Not all file types ( File Upload / Text Entry / Web URL / Media ) may be available for your assignment. The submission types are set by your instructor.
• If you do not see the Submit Assignment button, or it is dimmed (grayed-out), your instructor may want you to submit your assignment in a different way, or the assignment has been closed; consult your instructor for assistance.
• Canvas User Files : include profile pictures, uploaded assignment submissions, and other files uploaded to your personal Canvas file storage area. Your user files are accessed through the Account link in the Global Navigation pane, then by clicking on the Files link.
• An Assignment Rubric is a set of criteria that your instructor will use to grade your assignment. Not all assignments may include a rubric.
• The Global Navigation menu is the pane of links on the left side of the Canvas page and includes the Account , Dashboard , Courses , Calendar , Inbox , History , and Help links.
• The Course Navigation menu is specific to each course and provides links selected by the instructor:

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