[ARCHIVED] where is the root file?

[mlooney]

Canvas is a great LMS in many ways, but it has this tenaciousness with regard to assignments and files after course content has been imported between two Canvas sites. I might delete an assignment from the module, but it is STILL THERE somewhere, popping up as an assignment that is still due for students. I might go into assignments in order to delete that unwanted thing there, but it will STILL pop up from some nether region of the software. I'm a little tired of playing whack-a-mole, and wish that Canvas would trust that instructor to be confident in deleting something the first time, from anywhere within the course site, and have that deletion carry forward throughout the course site. 

So the question is: where is the root file? Where is the mole's main site of residence? If I can go THERE and delete the thing in question only once, that would save me a lot of duplicate work. 

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello there, @mlooney ...

There is nothing within the user interface of Canvas that I can think of where you could somehow find the "root" location to delete an assignment or other content item in Canvas.  I don't even know if this could be done by other means through some programming.  Many people use their course "Modules" screen to build out the structure of their course...adding in things like content pages, discussion topics, assignments, quizzes, links, etc.  Once you have built one or more modules on your "Modules" page, you may discover that you need to remove an item from a module for one reason or another.  How do I remove module items? - Canvas Community  For example, you may need to remove a discussion topic.  Removing items like pages, discussion topics, assignments, and quizzes from your "Modules" pages does not delete those items from your course.  You can still find them listed in the "Pages", "Discussions", "Assignments", and "Quizzes" pages.  (By the way, lots of people hide these four course navigation buttons from student view so that they are only sending students to the "Modules" page.)  This way, you can still keep those content pages available if you really need them.  But, let's say that instead of removing a discussion topic from the "Modules" screen, this time you go to your "Discussions" page instead and delete the topic from that page.  How do I delete a discussion in a course? - Canvas Community  Once you delete that topic from the "Discussions" page, you will see that it has also been deleted from your "Modules" page as well.

So...to summarize...  the "Modules" page lets you remove content items from that page, but the four pages I've listed above are where you can delete the items completely from your course.

I hope this helps explain thing a bit.  Sing out if you have any other questions about this...thanks!  Take care, stay safe, and be well.