Allowing Additional Assignment Attempts in Canvas

Description 

Canvas is designed in such a way that nothing is ever really deleted.  Because of this, they don’t have any functionality that would allow you to delete a previous assignment attempt (what the Clear Attempt functionality does in Blackboard.)  Instead, what you must do is allow an additional attempt. Unfortunately, Canvas does not allow you to give a single student an additional attempt. This article contains all possible ways to allow an additional attempt, and the considerations you should be aware of when deciding on a course of action. 
 

Environment 

Canvas in your web browser 

Solution 

  • Allow additional submissions for all 

    • Edit your Assignment Settings to allow additional submissions 

    • Consideration: this will allow all students to have additional submissions. 

  • Assignment Comment 

    • If it is simple like they submitted the wrong document, the assignments have a comment function that allows a student to comment on the assignment submission.  That comment can include an attachment.  You can ask the student to use that function. 

    • Consideration: You must know to check the comment, and it will not appear in SpeedGrader. 

  • Submit on behalf of student 

    • Instructors can submit an assignment on behalf of a student, and this overrides the submission limits and due dates. 

    • Considerations: 

      • This only works if the assignment type is a File Upload Submission. 

      • The student would have to send you the assignment submission directly. 

  • Assign To 

    • If the assignment due date has passed, you can use the assign to feature to open the assignment to a specific student or students. 

    • Navigate to the assignment and use the three dots menu to select Assign To 

      • Click Add to set a new Assign To selection 

      • Assign to the student(s) in question 

      • Set your due date and time, and availability date and time 

      • Save your changes 

    • Consideration: the original assignment due date needs to be passed, or this will reassign the existing assignment only to the student(s) in question. 

  • Create a new assignment 

    • You can create a new copy of the assignment and using the Assign To function as described above, assign this only to the student(s) in question. 

    • Consideration: The student(s) will now have a different total points value than classmates as they have an additional assignment. 

Get Help from Canvas

  • Live chat with Canvas support (Faculty) 
  • Get 24-hours/7-days a week Canvas support  
    • Dial the Canvas Support Hotline number located under "Get Help" in the Canvas Global Navigation Menu 
    • Contact OIT at 740-593-1222 for questions related to logging in, test courses/manually created courses, or third-party tools (Panopto, VoiceThread, Inclusive Access, etc.) 

Get Help from OIT

Additional Resources