Add Assignments to a Course via CSV Upload

[garciah]

I had an instructor ask me recently whether it was possible to create an assignment in the Grade Book via an Excel upload. I couldn't find an answer by searching the community, so I tested it out myself. I figured that I should share the results of my testing and the steps for anyone who might be interested.

Note:

This is probably best for an on-ground or hybrid course since the assignment is created in Canvas as a "no submission" assignment by default.

Steps:

1. Export current gradebook
2. Add a column to your file
3. Add a title for the assignment and points possible in the appropriate fields
4. Input student grades for assignment (if you don't have grades available yet, type a space into the field; you'll get an error message if you don't put anything in the field)
5. Save your file as a .CSV
6. Import file into grade book (note: you will be prompted to confirm that you are creating a new assignment)

Good luck!

[kona]

 @garciah , this is definitely a useful feature! I did a quick search and found the Canvas guide that also shows how to do this - How do I upload changes to the Gradebook?. I know the title doesn't sound like it has to do with creating new assignments in Excel, but it actually does cover that as well as how to add grades to assignments via Excel and upload it to the gradebook.

[garciah]

Great, thanks  @kona  I was worried I just overlooked it. On the bright side, having to figure it out gave me an opportunity to test it out for myself.

[JOHN_HOLLOWAY]

I was playing with this a bit today. It would be awesome if the exported spreadsheet of grades included due dates and assignment group. I have a teacher in my building that wants to add a daily assignment for every day in one batch without having to go in and edit each one but I'm not seeing that here. Oh well, thanks for the tip!

[SamOHanlon]

@JOHN_HOLLOWAY Hello! Although you cannot currently add dates when using a spreadsheet to create assignments, you can bulk edit the dates once the assignments are created.

How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?

The teacher will need to date each assignment individually, but bulk update is a lot quicker than having to open and edit each assignment one at a time.