[Assignments] Submit an assignment on behalf of a student

[CommunityTeam]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

---

As an instructor, I'd like the option to submit assignments on behalf of my students. This feature should enable me to pick a file from my computer and upload it as a submission for a given student. I should then be able to assess the submission just as if the student had submitted it themselves. A note should appear somewhere that indicates I submitted the assignment on behalf of my student. This would help me in cases where, for instance, my students submit an assignment on paper or the submission is a performance (a speech or presentation) that I capture on video.

transferred from the old Community

Originally posted by: Bill Hanna
Special thanks for contributions by: Paul Gibbons, Sydney Cheek-O'Donnell, Kona Jones, Stefanie Sanders

[svonderbruegge]

Please Canvas, post rationale for not including this feature. People are very frustrated to see how long this request has been out there.

I'm of the mindset that most times there are good reasons for things. Would you please let us know what they are?

[bengalbus]

+1 Please add this

[peter_concannon]

This idea, despite the clamor and demonstrable need, appears to have tumbled through a vortex into an alternate Canvas dimension, where the other-dimensional Canvas creators saw this in 2015, slapped their foreheads, exclaimed, "How obvious!  Of course it should work this way!," and immediately incorporated the changes.

[MargaretPurnell]

How is this not already a possibility? I would definitely like to be able to submit things for my students on occasion. 

[Maborn]

Please make an option that allow instructors to upload student files to assignments. Students often share their docs with me via email and it it easier for me to be able to submit them than to track down the student who didn't submit it themselves. 

[bob-mcmurray]

This one's a no brainer.  So many situations in which a student gets overwhelmed by life (or by technology) and just emails you their assignment or hands it in on paper.  It should be trivially easy.  Please implement this.

[benprytherch]

Adding my voice here.  I have a TA who cannot be physically at our school and wants to use SpeedGrader to grade exams that were given on paper.  I have scanned .pdfs of them all.  If I could upload them to Canvas, my TA could use the system that she's familiar with and the feedback would all go straight to students via Canvas.  Instead we'll probably be typing out comments into individual documents for each student and giving them those, instead of a properly graded exam.  Absolutely shocking that this was brought up SEVEN years ago as a feature available in other LMSs but not Canvas, and has had constant support since then, but still hasn't been implemented.  

[patton_272]

Yes, please!

[clpage1]

This is an ADA issue and it needs to be addressed immediately. For instance, visually impaired students who have trouble navigating and using screen readers may need measures to help them until they become fully fluent in the navigation and voiceover features. Also, an assignment submitted via video recording or orally could be recorded by the teacher, parent, or fellow student and submitted for students. Students with limited internet access could still work on a project on their computer, then hand off a thumb drive for the teacher to upload. For these students, submitting a Help Desk ticket would be just as troublesome as submitting the assignment. Unfortunately, in order to do any of that, I have to have students' login information or actually physically get on their computers. 

[mark_swanson]

It's a bit frustrating to see that other instructors have been calling for this simple functionality for years, and Canvas hasn't responded. 

This should be a priority update!