how to view submitted assignments on canvas as a teacher

Getting Started with Canvas Assignments

• Last modification date Updated On July 26, 2024
• 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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How to Use Canvas for Teachers: 8 Tips to get you started and avoid common mistakes

Want (or need?) to know how to use Canvas LMS? I’ve been using Canvas since 2016 and I’ve got you covered. Here are 8 tips on how to use Canvas for teachers (and how to avoid my early mistakes!).

1. Organize Units as Modules

There are different ways to organize materials in Canvas but I prefer to create a module for each unit and use text headers within those modules to organize student materials and links. I’ve gotten positive feedback year after year from students about this approach. 

2. Organize Assignments into Groups

In my assignments page, I create separate groups, broken up by units again. This helps me stay organized and breaks up what could be a very long list of assignments into less overwhelming sections for myself and students. 

Note: I ran into issues with this and grade syncing when we switched to a new version of PowerSchool gradebook in 2019 which was annoying. I’m still working on a fix for this.

3. Create Folders in your Files

I upload lots of files and keep them organized in folders within Canvas. I create a folder for, you guessed it, each unit. That, along with a good file naming system, is key to finding what you want fast when uploading files to assignments or pages.

Pro-Tip: Students will see file names so choose wisely!

4. Copy Your Courses Or Import Individual Content

One thing I love is that I can import an entire Canvas course to a new course. Teachers can also pick individual content to export from one Canvas course to another. This means that I can create ONE page in a course with my school handbooks, schedules, etc and copy that same page to all my other courses. 

Each year I take last year’s course, import it to the new course for the current year, and update the start/end dates which automatically adjusts the assignment dates for me. I do occasionally need to alter dates but for the most part, it saves me a ton of time as a teacher using Canvas. 

Click “Settings” and then use the menu on the right side of the screen.

5. Limit What Students See in Their Navigation Menu on the Left

Not only do I want to tell you how to use Canvas for teachers, but let’s also keep things simple for your students! Remove anything they don’t need and move the most used items to the top of the list. You control all of this by clicking “Settings” in the left navigation bar, then “Navigation” on the top bar. Anything in the bottom portion will be hidden from students.

Example: I don’t use Canvas Discussions, Announcements, or Quizzes much so I hide those from student navigation. 

6. Don’t Let Students See Your Files !

You do NOT want students to be able to see “Files” in their Canvas menu. Why? Let’s say you store quizzes in there or homework. If you don’t remove “Files” from student navigation, your students will be able to see and download ALL of your files without you knowing it. Yeah, I made this mistake starting out *facepalm*.

How to prevent this? Click “Settings” in the left navigation bar > “Navigation” on the top bar > Drag “Files” to the bottom section.

Note: Dragging “Files” to the bottom does NOT mean students can’t see files you share on a page or assignment, it means they don’t have access to your file browser on Canvas with all the files.

7. Rubrics Rock!

I admit that creating rubrics in Canvas is a bit cumbersome but it is worth it! It makes grading a snap! Once you’ve created a rubric you can use it in any course or start with it and make changes. When grading you simply click the rubric squares to grade.

8. How to use Canvas for Remote Teaching

I created a module called “Online Learning” and a new page for each day of class. On that page I linked to the Zoom meeting, wrote the agenda, and inserted any links (internal, like Canvas pages or assignments & external like Quizlet or GoFormative ) students would need so they had one place to access everything for the day. If a student was absent, I uploaded the video of our Zoom class to the same page.  

Bonus Tips on How to Use Canvas for Teachers

-Drag and drop assignments on the Calendar to automatically update/change their due dates.

-Don’t publish assignments until you’re ready for students to start working on them. If you publish ahead of time, students will spend class time trying to work on the assignment instead of being engaged in class.

-Color code your Calendar and view classes one at a time by clicking checkboxes on the right side of the screen. Teach your students this trick too.

-Parents can join classes as “Observers” which means they can see everything but cannot submit assignments or participate in things like Quizzes or Discussions. Handy for parents who like to keep a close eye on their students.

-Keep the most recent content at the top if you’re organizing by modules. This makes it much easier for students.

-Set your Home page as the most used page for students. Based on student feedback, “Modules” is my home page because it is what I use most often.

-Star the courses you want to appear on your dashboard then drag and drop to reorder in “Card View”

There you go! Eight ways (and then some) to use Canvas well based on my 4 years with it. What other questions do you have? Drop a comment below and let me know.

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Canvas @ Tufts

For information about other teaching & learning tools see the Educational Technology User Guides .

• AI and Teaching
• Blue Course Evaluations
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• Kaltura Capture
• Kaltura Video Editor
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• Poll Everywhere
• VoiceThread
• Visual Classrooms
• Student - How do I view instructor feedback on an assignment?

Your instructor may have provided a number of different types of feedback on an assignment.  These might include:

• Annotations added to a submitted paper
• Comments on the assignment
• Grading Rubric feedback

Students can view instructor feedback and respond back to the instructor.

Click Grades

This displays your student gradebook

Click on the name of the Assignment

This displays the Submission Details page with the instructor comments displayed on the right

If your instructor has used a Grading Rubric, you can access the rubric feedback comments by clicking on the "Show Rubric" button on the top right (below the Grade)

To view instructor feedback paper annotations, click on “View Feedback”

This displays your submitted paper with the instructor annotations

You can reply to an instructor annotation by clicking on the Reply button

You can download a copy of the annotated PDF by clicking on the Download button

Note: If you open the downloaded annotated PDF in Adobe Acrobat, you can see the annotation comments in a side window by clicking View / Comments / Annotations

• Prev: How do I include student SIS IDs when I export grades?
• Next: Understanding Canvas Gradebook Totals and Exported Totals
• Spring 2024 Updates to My Media and Media Gallery
• Media storage and Student View button changes
• Course Navigation and Gradebook icon changes
• New Rich Content Editor
• Discussions and Announcements Redesign
• How do I install an external app in my course site?
• How do I add a Non-Tufts account to a Canvas course site?
• How do I associate courses with my Blueprint course?
• How do I create a Student Annotation assignment?
• How do I create an audio or video assignment?
• How do students submit an audio or video assignment?
• How do I send messages to students in my class?
• How do Announcements and Conversations work?
• How do I download a list of my student's email addresses?
• What are the recommended notification preferences for students?
• What are the recommended notification preferences for instructors?
• How do I copy content from one Canvas course site to another Canvas course site?
• How do I organize my Canvas Dashboard?
• How do I nickname my Canvas Dashboard cards?
• How do I record a video and embed it in a Discussion post?
• How do I post (and hide) student grades?
• How do I hide the "Total Grade" from students?
• How do I display a Letter Grade in the Total Grade Column?
• How do I display Total Points in the Total Grade Column?
• How do I hide student names when grading (Anonymous Grading)?
• How do I create gradebook columns from a spreadsheet import?
• How do I include student SIS IDs when I export grades?
• Understanding Canvas Gradebook Totals and Exported Totals
• Canvas Grading Tips and Common Mistakes
• What are Canvas Group Sets and Course Groups?
• How do I create Group Sets and Course Groups?
• How do I assign a graded Assignment to a Group?
• How do I assign a graded Discussion to a Group?
• How do I create a Front Page and use it as the Home page for my Canvas site?
• What is Kaltura Capture?
• How do I install Kaltura Capture on a Mac?
• How do I install Kaltura Capture on a PC?
• How do I record with Kaltura Capture?
• How do I edit my video start and end points?
• How do I add (link) Files, Assignments, Discussions or Quizzes to a Canvas Module?
• How do I add a Canvas Page as a module item?
• How do I embed a video from My Media in a Canvas "Page" and then create a link to the Page in a Module?
• How do I add my course site "Zoom" tool as a module item?
• What are My Media and Media Gallery?
• How do I upload a video to My Media in Canvas?
• How do I record a video directly into My Media with Kaltura Capture?
• How do I edit a video uploaded or recorded with My Media?
• How do I publish a video from My Media to a course site's Media Gallery?
• How do I embed video from My Media in a Canvas text-editing window? (New)
• How do I add a My Media or Media Gallery video to a Canvas Module?
• How do I create a Playlist of Videos in the Media Gallery tool?
• How do I embed a Media Gallery Playlist in a Canvas text-editing window?
• How do users add Comments to a Media Gallery video?
• How do I remove commenting permissions from a Media Gallery video?
• How do I upload iPhone or Android phone videos (and images) to Media Gallery?
• How do I download a My Media video?
• How do I allow downloading of video from the Media Gallery?
• How do I change the ownership of a My Media video?
• How do I allow other users to edit and publish a video in My Media?
• Instructors: How do I create an Assignment allowing students to submit a video from their My Media storage? (New)
• Students: How do I submit a video to an Assignment or a Discussion? (New)
• How do I copy Media Gallery Videos from one Canvas Course site to another Canvas Course site?
• Enabling third-party cookies
• How can I get captions on My Media videos?
• How can I see general and individual viewer statistics for videos in Media Gallery?
• How can I see aggregate video viewing statistics for the Media Gallery in my course?
• How do I remove a video from the Media Gallery?
• How do I edit a pre-existing playlist?
• How do I upload a Youtube video to My Media?
• How can I edit captions on my media videos? (New)
• How to Record Webcam Video with Express Capture
• Updated Kaltura My Media and Media Gallery Player
• How do I Add a Kaltura Video Quiz to Canvas Assignments?
• How to Create a Kaltura Video Quiz
• How do I add a custom link to my course navigation?
• How do I show hidden items in my course site navigation menu?
• Differences between Canvas Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes
• New Quizzes Introductory Videos
• How do I create a quiz using New Quizzes?
• How do I add a question to a quiz in New Quizzes?
• How do I add specific question types to a quiz in New Quizzes?
• How do I manage quiz settings in Canvas New Quizzes?
• How do I view and grade student submissions in New Quizzes?
• How do I Moderate a Quiz in New Quizzes?
• How do I create Item Banks in New Quizzes?
• How do I add questions to an existing Item Bank?
• How do I add a question from an Item Bank to a New Quizzes quiz?
• How do I add multiple questions from an Item Bank to New Quizzes quiz?
• How do I migrate a Classic Canvas quiz to New Quizzes?
• How do I set my Canvas Notification Preferences?
• How do I create a Peer Reviewed Assignment?
• How do I manage a Manual Assigned Peer Review assignment?
• How do I manage an Automatically Assigned Peer Review assignment?
• How do I manage a Group peer review assignment?
• How do I create a Peer Reviewed Graded Discussion?
• How do I manage a Manually Assigned Peer Review Discussion?
• How do I manage an Automatically Assigned Peer Review discussions?
• How do I manage a Group peer review discussions?
• Student: - How do I complete a peer review Assignment?
• Student: - How do I complete a peer review Discussion?
• How do I add pronouns to my Canvas profile?
• How do I publish (or unpublish) my Canvas course site?
• Student - How do I see if one of my Canvas course sites is Published?
• How do I create an Appointment Group (sign-up)?
• Student: - How do I sign-up for an appointment group?
• Instructor: - How do I check student sign-ups?
• How do I embed a course image in a Canvas text box?
• How do I link to a file in a Canvas text box?
• How do auto-open a preview of a linked file on a Canvas text box?
• How do I embed a webcam video in a Canvas text box?
• What are Canvas Rubrics?
• How do I create a Ratings Block Canvas Rubric?
• How Do I create a Free-form Comment Rubric?
• As a Student, How do I create a Study Group?
• Student: How do I use Google Docs to create a collaborative document in a Student Study Group?
• How do I create Canvas course site sections?
• How do I populate Canvas sections with student (and TA) accounts?
• How do I create an announcement for a section?
• How do I email a section?
• How do I post an Assignment for a section?
• How do I post a Discussion for a section?
• How do I post a Quiz or Survey for a section?
• How do I view the SpeedGrader and Gradebook by section?
• How do I limit participation in section to a start and end date?
• How do I make my course site Syllabus open to the public?
• How do I post a course syllabus?
• Instructor - How do I set a Canvas course site time zone?
• Student - How do I set my local time zone in my user account?
• How do I Restore items I have deleted from my Canvas site?
• How do I add MindTap to my course site?
• How do I get support for MindTap?
• How do I Combine (Cross-list) Canvas course sites?
• What is the Competency Checklist?
• Students - How do I navigate the Competency Checklist?
• Students - How do I complete a self-assessment?
• Students - How do I request an assessment from faculty?
• Instructors - How do I assess a student?
• Accessing Competency Check-List on Phone
• What is Tufts University policy on copyright and fair use of posted materials on Canvas?
• What is Tufts University policy on the use of social media?
• Department Administrator - Delegated Access
• How do I access Canvas course sites within my delegated access sub-account?
• How do I add users to a Canvas site within my delegated access subaccount?
• How do I post a sub-account announcement?
• How do I access Canvas course sites using my accreditor access?
• How do I use account calendars?
• What is Echo360?
• How do I add Echo360 to my course site?
• How do I embed an Echo360 video using the Canvas text editor?
• End of the Semester options for Instructors
• Setting course site access for individual students
• How do I create a self-selected timed final exam (Essay Questions)?
• How do I create a self-selected timed final exam (File Upload Questions)?
• How do I review and grade a self-selected timed final exam (Essay Questions)?
• How do I review and grade a self-selected timed final exam (File Upload Questions)?
• Student: How do I take a self-selected timed (Essay Question or File Upload) final exam?
• How do I link (or embed) a Google Document in a Canvas text box?
• Instructor: How do I use Google Docs to create a collaborative document?
• Student: How do I submit a Google Document to an assignment?
• How do I add the Google Maps App to my Canvas course site?
• How do I embed a Google Map in a Canvas text box?
• How do I create an Office 365 Collaboration document (Word / Excel / Powerpoint)?
• How do I link to an Office 365 document in a Canvas Module?
• How do I link to an Office 365 document in a Canvas Rich Text Editor (Announcements / Assignments / Syllabus / Discussions / Quizzes / Pages)?
• Student: How do I submit an Office 365 document to an assignment?
• How do I add the Office 365 tool to my Canvas course site tool list?
• Instructor - How do I create an Office 365 Cloud assignment?
• Student - How do I edit and submit an Office 365 Could Assignment?
• What is the Piazza tool?
• How do I set up a Piazza discussion board for my site?
• How do I set up a Piazza discussion board for my site? (LTI 1.3)
• How do I manage Piazza discussion board enrollments?
• As an instructor, how do I post a question in Piazza?
• How do students respond to a question posted by the instructor?
• As a student how do I post a question in Piazza?
• How do Instructors respond to student questions in Piazza?
• How do instructors and students post a poll?
• How do I edit the student anonymity settings for my Piazza site?
• How do I edit my Piazza email notifications?
• How do I embed an image in a Piazza post?
• How do I deactivate a Piazza site?
• How do I un-enroll (drop) from a Piazza discussion site?
• What is the Progress Report tool?
• How do I access the progress report tool to submit a report?
• How do I submit a progress report for a student?
• What are Canvas Reading Lists?
• How do I create a Reading List?
• How do I structure the list by weeks or topics?
• How do I add items to the reading list?
• How do I add links to electronic articles?
• How do I share the list with students?
• How do I re-use a previous semester's list?
• How can I save favorite resources to use on my lists?
• Can my teaching assistant work on my list?
• Where can I get help and training for using the Reading List tool?
• Students - Reading Lists Help
• What happens to my Canvas content when I leave Tufts?
• How do I record my screen with Kaltura Capture?
• How do I make a screen recording using QuickTime on a Mac?
• How do I edit or trim a QuickTime video on a Mac?
• What is TidyUP?
• How do I activate TidyUP?
• How do I mange my Canvas site content using TidyUP?
• Overview of Tufts Box Integration with Canvas
• Instructor: How do I link to a Tufts.Box.Com document in a Canvas text box?
• Instructor: How do I link to a Tufts.Box.Com document in a Canvas Module?
• Instructor: How do I add a link to Tufts.Box.Com to the course site navigation panel?
• Student: How do I submit a document from my Tufts.Box.Com to a Canvas Assignment?
• Student: How do I link to a document from my Tufts.Box.Com in a Canvas text box?
• Turnitin Plagiarism Detection Service
• How do I use the Turnitin plagiarism service to check the originality of student submitted papers?
• Student: How do I submit a paper to a Canvas Assignment that uses Turnitin?
• How do I view a TurnItIn Originality Report?
• How to add VoiceThread to your Canvas course
• Using VoiceThread in Your Course on Canvas
• Instructor - How do I create a webcam video in a Canvas text box?
• How do I add a webcam comment to a student's grade in the Canvas SpeedGrader?
• Student - How do I create a webcam video in a Canvas Discussion text box?
• How do I embed a YouTube video in a Canvas Page and link it in a Module?

Search Utah State University:

Assignment submission types in canvas.

Canvas lets you decide the way you want students to submit their assignments. You specify the submission type in the Submission Type box when you create the assignment. Assignment settings always remember and display the settings created or edited in the previous assignment in the course.

On This Page

No Submission

External tool.

Choose No Submission when you do not want students to submit an assignment in Canvas. You can use this assignment type to create extra columns in the Gradebook, or when you want to create an assignment that involves multiple scores.

Choose Online when you want students to submit their assignments in Canvas. When you use the online submission type, you can specify online entry options.

Text Entry : Students can submit their assignment directly in the Rich Content Editor .

Website URLs : Students can submit a URL that fulfills the assignment.

Media Recordings : Students can submit an audio or video recording that fulfills the assignment. They can either record new media or upload existing media.

File Uploads : Students can upload a file to fulfill the assignment. Note that if your institution has enbled Google Docs as a submission type, students can connect to Google Docs as a web service to submit an assignment as a Google Doc, Google Sheet, or Google Slide. However, these files will convert to their Microsoft counterpart file type—Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, respectively.

If you want to only allow certain types of files for assignment submissions, click the Restrict Upload File Types check box and manually enter a list of accepted extensions in the Allowed File Extensions box. In the case of an odd or unusual file type, try adding it to your course to confirm the file is accepted before requesting students to submit the file type.

Select On Paper when you want students to submit an assignment to you but not through Canvas. When you choose this assignment type, Canvas creates a column in the Gradebook for grading purposes. However, you must enter the grades manually.

Choose External Tool when you want students to submit their assignments using an external app (LTI) enabled for your course. You must enter a URL for the external tool.

University Center for Teaching and Learning

How to create assignments for your canvas course.

• Quick Start
• Instructor Help
• Student Help

How to Create Assignments

Using assignments in Canvas provides a streamlined process for assigning homework and creating quizzes for students.  Canvas considers an ‘assignment’ to be anything that is graded, whether that be a quiz or homework assignment, and whether it’s delivered entirely online, paper-and-pencil, or is a participatory assignment with no actual deliverable.

This Quick Start guide will cover the creation of assignments where the student submits a file electronically, on paper, using an external tool such as Turnitin or Panopto , or where no submission is expected (e.g. class participation). See How to Create Tests and Quizzes for Your Canvas Course and Create and Manage Discussions for more information about using those tools as assignments.

1. In the Course Navigation menu, click the Assignments link.

2. Click “ +Assignment ” at the top right.

3. Write the assignment title and directions for students.

4. Assign the number of points available for the assignment.

5. Choose an “ Assignment Group” . Assignment groups are, in essence, a category of assignment. For more information about using Assignment Groups, see the Canvas guides regarding Assignments.

6. There are four submission types :

• No Submission: an activity where nothing will be collected from students (e.g. a participation grade)
• For the full details about the online assignment subtypes, (text entry, annotation, file upload, etc.), please see the official documentation .
• We have a recorded mini-webinar on annotation assignments, including assignment ideas, available on the Training Webinars page.
• On Paper: assignments/quizzes/activities that were written on paper and collected by the instructor
• External Tool: assignments submitted through a 3rd party tool that is integrated with Canvas, such as a textbook publisher’s website or Turnitin

7. Submission Attempts: You may allow unlimited submission attempts for Online assignments, or restrict attempts to one or more. When a student submits to an assignment they have already submitted to, the previous submission is retained as well, and the instructor may view both.

8. Group Assignments and Peer Reviews:  Assignments can be created as either a group assignment or peer review assignment.

9. Assign options- You can assign an assignment to your entire class, a specific student, and/or a section of your class. You can also set the due date and the availability dates (when your students can submit their assignment). Each section can have different due dates and availability dates.

10. If you are finished creating the assignment, click on “ Save & Publish “. If you are not finished creating the assignment, click on “ Save ” and you may come back and work on it more later without students having access to it.

Instructor Help for Assignments

Creating assignments.

• How do I create an assignment?
• How do I add a moderated assignment to be graded by multiple reviewers?
• How do I create an online assignment?
• How do I add or edit details in an assignment?
• How do I add or edit points for an assignment?
• What assignment types can I create in a course?
• How do I limit submission attempts for an assignment?
• How do I add an assignment that includes anonymous grading?
• How do I enable anonymous instructor annotations in student submissions?
• How do I import SCORM files as an assignment?
• How do I publish or unpublish an assignment as an instructor?

Managing Assignments

• How do I use the Assignments Index Page?
• Can a student resubmit Canvas assignments?
• How do I assign an assignment to everyone in a course?
• How do I assign an assignment to a course group?
• How do I assign an assignment to a course section?
• How do I assign an assignment to an individual student?
• How do I view differentiated assignments with different due dates in a course?
• How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• How do I delete an assignment?
• How do I duplicate an assignment?
• How do I move or reorder an assignment?
• How do I use Direct Share to copy an assignment to another course?
• How do I use Direct Share to send an assignment to another instructor?

Creating and Managing Peer Review Assignments

• How do I create a peer review assignment?
• How do I use peer review assignments in a course?
• How do I automatically assign peer reviews for an assignment?
• How do I manually assign peer reviews for an assignment?
• How do I view student peer review comments as an instructor?

Creating External Tool Assignments

• How do I add an assignment using an external app?
• How do I create a cloud assignment with a Microsoft Office 365 file?

Using Assignment Groups

• How do I add an assignment group in a course?
• How do I create an assignment shell in an assignment group?
• How do I create rules for an assignment group?
• How do I move or reorder an assignment group?
• How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?

Grading Considerations

• How do I add a grading scheme to an assignment?
• How do I download all student submissions for an assignment?
• How do I upload all student submissions for an assignment?
• How do I exclude an assignment from the course’s final grades?
• How do I give extra credit in a course?

Student Help for Assignments

• How do I view Assignments as a student?
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• How do I submit a text entry assignment?
• How do I enter a URL as an assignment submission?
• How do I submit a media file as an assignment submission?
• How do I upload a file as an assignment submission in Canvas?
• How do I upload a file from Microsoft Office 365 as an assignment submission?
• How do I know when my assignment has been submitted?
• How do I manage celebration animations in Canvas as a student?
• How do I submit a cloud assignment with Microsoft Office 365?
• How do I download assignment submissions from all my courses?
• How do I annotate a file as an assignment submission in Canvas?
• How do I use DocViewer in Canvas assignments as a student?
• How do I submit a PDF assignment with annotations in the Student app on my Android device?
• How do I add annotations to a submission in the Student app on my iOS device?

Groups and Peer

• How do I submit an assignment on behalf of a group?
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• How do I submit a peer review to an assignment?
• Where can I find my peers’ feedback for peer reviewed assignments?
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• How do I view assignment comments from my instructor?
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Canvas @ Yale

• Submitting a File to a Canvas Assignment on a Student's Behalf

Updated on Jun 12, 2023

Instructors can submit a file to a Canvas Assignment set to accept file uploads on behalf of a student in their course's Gradebook. Their submission to the assignment will include the timestamp as well as who submitted the file to the assignment. The instructor can also submit multiple files at a time for a single student, and submit beyond the availability date of a Canvas Assignment.

Currently on users with the role of Instructor or Guest Instructor in a course have the ability to upload a file on a student's behalf for a Canvas Assignment. All other course and system admin roles cannot submit a file on behalf of students.

Note: Submitting a file on behalf of a student to a Canvas Assignment that is also using Turnitin circumnavigates a student's requirement of accepting that they are submitting their work to Turnitin.

• In your Canvas course, navigate to your course Gradebook section.
• You may only upload a file to a Canvas Assignment that has been configured to accept " File Uploads " in the settings.
• Select the Gradebook cell for the student and click the Grade Detail Tray icon .

• From the Grade Detail Tray that opens on the right-hand side for that student, click the " Submit for Student " button.

• In the " Upload File " picker box that opens, drag and drop or search your computer for the student's file that you want to submit on their behalf.
• Click the Trash Can icon to the right of the file name to remove it from being submitted.
• When all files have been selected in the picker box, click the " Submit " button to add the files to the Canvas Assignment on behalf of your student.

• When viewing the documents submitted in the SpeedGrader, the timestamp will specify who submitted the files .

For more information please email [email protected] .

Assessments, Feedback and Grades

• Building Assessments in Canvas
• Creating an Assignment
• Creating a Media Recording Assignment
• Creating an Ungraded, No-Submission Assignment (Reading Assignment)
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• Utilizing Anonymous Grading
• Accessing the SpeedGrader from the Gradebook
• Gradebook Overview and Features
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• Using the Grade Posting Policy
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• Creating Weighted Assignments Groups
• Importing Grades into Gradebook
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TC Technology Knowledge Base

• View instructor annotations in a Canvas assessment

Updated on May 15, 2024

1. Click on Grades on the left menu.

2. Click on the name of the assignment.

3. Click on View Feedback.

4. The annotations will appear to the right of the document.

Canvas for Students

• Find your Canvas course
• Get Canvas help
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• Change your Canvas course card Color & re-arrange your Cards
• Use the Canvas calendar
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• Submit an assignment in Canvas
• Use the Rich Text editor to submit a Canvas assignment
• View comments left on a Canvas assignment
• Listen to Turnitin voice comments in a Canvas assessment
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• Upload a file to an assignment using the Rich Content Editor
• Accept Canvas course invitation without a Teachers College UNI
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Use Assignments LTI™ 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

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