[Discussions] Multiple Due Dates (checkpoints) for Discussions

[chriswhite]

This idea has been developed and is On Canvas Beta •  How do I access the Canvas beta environment?

For more information, please read through the Canvas Release Notes (2025-01-18) 

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With the way that many schools set up forum discussions and require "check-ins" to the forum throughout the week, it would be great if we could include multiple due dates in the discussion activities. For instance, I have classes that require everyone respond to the prompt by Thursday night and respond to at least 2 peers by the following Sunday. Being able to remind students that they have responses due, especially if we could scatter responses over multiple days, would likely increase participation.

[tlahnstein]

we had 2 due dates in our DBs - one for initial post and the 2nd for a response. Cannot make multiple due dates so need to ass this feature. Thanks

[joyhagen]

I would like this for assignments full stop. Often assignments with revisions or steps would benefit from being presented together with step-wise due dates rather than each step being presented as a single assignment.

[jwt01030]

I use multiple due dates in discussion forums. I put the first due date in the forum assignment. I add due dates for response posts directly in the calendar (create new event). Students see this date on their course calendar. It seems to work fine.

~ Joyce Twing

[bdalotto1]

Absolutely!  We need this.  Right now I post the initial post date as the due date, but then all the responses are "late"  Having two dates would allow me to see both when grading as I always use "on time" as part of the criteria.

[michelle_steven]

Matthew, I realize your post is older but if your institution has access to designplus‌, the due_date_modifier component of the Multi-Tool gives you the ability to update all due dates on one page within Canvas like the external tool you posted. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the ability to set multiple due dates for a single piece of content. I really wish it did. We are asked for this function repeatedly.

[marcus1]

Hello Everyone,

In discussions with the Canvas Product team, they recommended we reach out here for some help. My company is working on a better discussion forum for Canvas called Harmonize ( https://www.42lines.net/harmonize/ ) and we are looking for people out in the trenches to help us review what we're planning on building to solve this problem to make sure we get it right. We're looking to allow faculty to set up multiple due dates with participation milestones at each date, give visual progress indicators and notifications to the students about their progress through those milestones, and show the results of those in the speed grader for assessment. We have some ideas on how to address the to-do list in all of this as well. If you're interested in helping us make this better, shoot us an email at feedback@42lines.net

Thanks!
Marcus
CEO/Founder 42 Lines Inc.

[irene_omara]

Just adding my two cents in here! I would love to see a multiple deadline format for discussions - I use reflective journaling across most of my teaching and regular submissions are very much a part of it!!

BRING IT ON!

[jwt01030]

Hello, Everyone --

I can't remember if I already responded to this, so I will respond again. The way I solve multiple due dates on discussion forums is to the go to the class calendar and create a new event for any additional required postings. If the original post is due today, I will put today's day in the forum assignment. If another post is due on Friday, I will create a new event "respond to two colleagues" and date it. You can do this as many times as you want to. The new events show up on the student's to-do list the same way assignment dates show up. It is easy to do.

~ Joyce Twing

Vermont Technical College

[fortunatom]

Good idea! There are many things for students to keep track of and I think this would help them organize. 

[dmurphy1]

Here's an example of why we need the ability to set multiple due dates for assignments. This quarter, an instructor at my school set up weekly discussions with no due dates but each assignment was given a point value. It was in these assignments that the students posted comments and received their scores. To create milestone due dates for each discussion, the instructor setup three additional assignments:

1. Initial post
2. Replies
3. Final thoughts

Each of these three assignments had a due date, but no point value.

When we ran a report that used the Canvas API to identify at-risk students, all of these discussion milestone assignments showed up incomplete which put the entire class on the at-risk list.

I know I'm preaching to the choir in this forum, but I thought this was a particularly interesting case in point.

Dan Murphy

School of Professional Studies

Northwestern University