Assignment Due Date Different in Canvas App for Student than Desktop

[KelsiMundell]

We received notification from a student that states their Canvas app showed a different due date for an assignment than the actual deadline posted in the desktop version by the instructor. Upon acting as the student in Canvas their account appeared to be in the correct time zone.  The course settings and assignment due date were also accurate. A similar community post last year suggested this may be a result of the students phone settings being in a different time zone.  Are there any other suggestions for why this may occur?

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @KelsiMundell,

I would concur that time zone seems the most likely issue here.  The teacher screenshot shows 11:59pm on Jan 20 as the due date and the student shows 1:59am on Jan 21.  That would essentially mean the student's time zone is 2 zones further east than the teacher's.  I don't know anything other than time zone settings that would cause a discrepancy like that.

-Chris

[KelsiMundell]

Ok, thank you for the help!

[sgilbert0409]

The students and myself have all changed the course time zones, but this is how it appears because of it.

If I go in and change the time manually the local date and course date stay different and doesn't reflect our current time zone.

[chriscas]

Hi @sgilbert0409,

Have you checked your own user time zone as well as the course (the guide works for anyone, please ignore that is references students)?  That may be what's causing the discrepancy on our screenshot.

-Chris

[sgilbert0409]

No, actually I didn't realize there were two areas to change my course shell. I found it!! I appreciate you so much!!

Thank you!!

[sgilbert0409]

I have a similar question. I have change the time zone in my canvas shell. My students changed theirs as well, but then it changed the due time to 10:59 for them, so they no longer have until 11:59 local time. How can I change that from happening without going to each assignment and changing the due time back to 11:59?

[Chris_Hofer]

@sgilbert0409 ...

There should be no need for you to change the due dates of your assignments.  As long as your students have their own time zone set correctly in their Canvas accounts, and as long as you have your own time zone set correctly in your user account and also the time zone set correctly in your Canvas course "Settings" page, everything should be fine.  Canvas calculates the due dates correctly for your students depending on what time zone they live in.  Here are some Guides for you to look at:

• How do I set a time zone for a course?
• How do I set a time zone in my user account as an instructor?
• How do I set a time zone in my user account as a student? (you can give this one to your students)

I hope this helps to clear up any confusion.  Sing out if you have any other questions about this...thanks!

[chriscas]

Hi @sgilbert0409,

To add on to what @Chris_Hofer said, changing the course time zone does not alter any due dates or times that have already been created (as far as I know).  I think that what might be causing the confusion.  You'd need to reset due times after changing the course time zone if you wanted the students to see something different (realizing that Canvas shows the altered due time for whatever time zone the student has set on their own).

-Chris

[sgilbert0409]

I have attached a screenshot of how my course appears, if I change the due date time, the local and course times are still different. Why can't both be on our local time zone?