[Assignments] Assign to everyone except selected students

There are some assignments that go out to the majority of my students except one or two per class. It would be great to be able to assign to "everyone" and then have a button to select which students are exempt from the assignment.

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167 Comments
richard_gardner
Community Participant

@MVanSlyke And this is not the only thing that Canvas has ignored since 2015. There are plenty more, and they are also no-brainers like this. This and all the others have been ignored for so long (and these shouldn't take a rocket scientist to fix them; they ought to be easy to computer programmers and web designers) that I think Canvas is a lost cause, and we should all convince our institutions to abandon it. 

sara_samples1
Community Participant

It's been 8 years since I first requested this. I cannot believe I'm still having to type in 86 names instead of being able to "except" three students. 

kajsa_nalin
Community Member

@sara_samples1, thank you for requesting this. I too would so love for this to exist, having the exact same problem year after year.

RussellCGPS
Community Explorer

7 years this has been on here and constantly people are requesting it on other ideas, but Canvas ignores it. They clearly do not value the complexity that our classrooms present or how their product could mirror what happens within our classes. Apparently the mass adoption by K-12 due to COVID was just a money grab without any enhancements that benefit K-12. If our school district didn't respond to our community's needs for 7 years, you'd better believe that they'd fire the superintendents and the board would have turned over multiple times. But I guess you can under-deliver when your only competitors are the underwhelming Google Classroom and a Pearson-owned company.

KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
Status changed to: Added to Theme
 
vivat_bangurash
Community Participant
Problem statement:

Currently, assignments, quizzes, etc, default to being assigned to all students. If a student starts the course later in the semester/year, the to-do list makes it appear that they are required to do all past assignments which can be overwhelming. If a teacher wants to exempt or remove the student from the assignment, he or she must go back to the past assignments and enter all the names of the students who must complete the assignment. This is very time-consuming.

Proposed solution:

I propose an option/button by which teachers can de-select or exempt students from an assignment rather than having to list students who must complete the assignment. Currently, if a teacher wants to exempt or remove the student from the assignment, he or she must go back to the past assignments and enter all the names of the students who must complete it. This is very time-consuming. By including a de-select button, teachers will be able to easily remove newly added students from past assignments. Also, it will streamline student to-do lists and, thus, reduce undo stress caused by seeing a large list of past-due work when 1st starting a class.

User role(s):

admin,instructor,designer

KellieSteinmetz
Community Member
Problem statement:

In all of my sections, I have students on IEP (individual ed plans) where they need a modified version of an assignment. In google classroom, you were able to uncheck the names of those few students in each section when it came to posting assignments, so they did not get the original version. For canvas, I can only go and post all 120 of my students, then leave out the 10 across 6 sections who don't get the assignment and go back and post them separately. It's a pain. I don't have the extra time, so make paper copies for those who need them and it always singles them out. I hate it for them. Please make a default button where we can select all students by default and then uncheck those who we don't want to receive it or give an option to type in a box of names to disclude from each assignment post like we can currently do for those we want to include. Ex.) I am posting a note guide. It's too much for those on an IEP, but I don't have the option to not post it for everyone unless I individually type in a ton of names.

Proposed solution:

Make a box for each assignment of names to not include out of a section. Or make an option to show each student individually so we can uncheck their names in each section of who should not get that version of the assignment.

User role(s):

admin,instructor