Course Copy Adjust Dates Limitation

[s_greathouse]

Ahoy all.

I have a very particular concern over this NOTE on the training page regarding adjusting dates in a course copy: 

• It is recommended to shift due dates of imported content before students are enrolled in the course. If students are enrolled before course content is imported with due dates, students may not be able to submit work to those imported assignments.

When our courses are created via the registrar, the students go in at that moment. Adjust dates is probably the most important time and consistency savers.

• What has been your experience with this?
• Do faculty really have to go in and change something on the assignment?
  • If so, what would they change so students could submit?
• Should I simply tell them to not adjust dates or remove the due dates and then use the CidiLabs Multi-Tool to adjust dates? 

Thank you for any guidance. 

[JeffW · Accepted solution]

Hi @s_greathouse!

I wanted to start by saying that I don't have any experience with the CidiLabs Multi-tool, but the Canvas tool for adjusting dates should be just fine here. 

When new courses are added by your school and students are enrolled, the main thing to be concerned about (in my experience) is going to be whether or not the course uses a late/missing policy. If the grade book is set up to deduct points or apply a grade to assignments with no submissions after the due date, that will inadvertently apply a grade to assignments if they are imported with due dates in the past. 

You can shift the dates or remove the dates to get around that problem. The teachers would want to enter the start and end date for the course they are copying content from and then the new start and end date of the course shell they are copying in to. 

The second biggest concern would be that if the assignments are imported with due dates in the past, the students will see these assignments as missing, even though they were just enrolled in the course. This can be remedied using the shift dates feature as well. 

If nothing else, the until date may lock students out from being able to submit until the teacher goes in and adjusts the availability dates. 

To avoid concern all together, especially if a teacher is not comfortable with attempting to shift their dates, they can just choose the option to remove dates and then manually go in and edit dates. I would advise having them do any of this prior to publishing the course. 

This guide would also be great for teachers to learn how to Shift Events and Due Dates.

[s_greathouse]

Cheers, @JeffW !!

I think this statement is super important: 

---

When new courses are added by your school and students are enrolled, the main thing to be concerned about (in my experience) is going to be whether or not the course uses a late/missing policy. If the grade book is set up to deduct points or apply a grade to assignments with no submissions after the due date, that will inadvertently apply a grade to assignments if they are imported with due dates in the past. 

That gives me something to look for if it does go wrong. I'm trying to acculturate the university to these tools asap along with taking the time to properly review the created copy prior to publishing. I didn't want the fact that students are already enrolled at the moment of course creation to undermine the whole purpose of the adjust dates feature. 😲 Since the tool is supposed to align the due and availability dates, it would be disheartening of the shift triggered those zeros.

I appreciate your insight here!

Thank you.

Stacy