[Assignments] Add option to set due dates by using a standard file format
I teach a multisection lab course using Canvas, where different sections meet at different times and I am constantly having to set due dates (and times) for all the assignments based on when the lab sections meet during the week. It is insanely time consuming, since there no option to copy the section specific due dates from one assignment to another or otherwise reuse a section-specific due date template. There has been an idea proposed to allow this for years now, and it's clear it will never be implemented. The process is slow and time consuming because the interface to select sections in the "assign to" field is terrible: it accepts typing to narrow the options, but always requires a mouse click to select, even if there is only one choice, and the mouse click drops the selection s of accepting it about 25% of the time. The menu is slow to appear, and only ever lists two sections at a time
Given that copying a set of section-specific due dates from one assignment to another will never be implemented, an alternate solution would be to make it easier to automate input using other software tools. For example, if I could just paste a comma or semicolon delimited list of sections into the "the "Assign To" field (the way I can for the due date and available until date fields) and just hit return without having to play "will my mouse click drop the menu," I could cut my time to set due dates down by a factor of 4 or 5. Even better, if I could load well-document, text-based format that sets the informatoin (like a four column csv format with columns: assign to, due date, available from, until) and use a spreadsheet to save this file, I could cut my time to set due dates down by a factor of 50. I'm not exaggerating. 50. Easily. It's that bad right now. Please do something. I'm begging you.
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