Multiple due dates for a discussion assignment

[cdonahue]

Does anyone know of a way to have multiple due dates under the same discussion. As my faculty members discussed, they desire to split a particular discussion into three parts, part 1 where students summarize their chapter, part 2 where they share what they learned with two misconceptions or misunderstanding in a couple of bullets, and part three address other student misconceptions. 

In their experiences, the majority of students wait a couple of hours before the due date and post where this should be weekly work in progress assignment. We need to have multiple due dates to come over this problem which I hope to be fixed before the coming semester.

All suggestions and recommendations are welcome.

Craig

[Shar]

Hi Craig,

To answer you specific question about having multiple due dates for discussions: No, not currently possible in Canvas.

But for workarounds, most folks have implemented something like:

1. Due date for first post. Make the date early in the week like Wednesday or Thursday night.
2. Close date for last post(s). Make the date at the end of the week like Sunday night or Monday midday (personal preference).

Using the due & close dates makes it easy to grade because those posts marked late means they didn't meet the first posting requirement. And if there is only 1 post at the time of grading it means they didn't meet the second posting requirement. And if you have a late policy in place that will take care of any penalties.
How do I apply a Late Submission policy in the New Gradebook? 

And more specifically regarding your use case, you have 3 points that you want students to post, right?

• Chapter summary
• Personal misconceptions
• Reply to peer misconceptions

Is everyone summarizing the same chapter? If so, then make that summary a submit assignment and not a discussion so that students do not read/see the same summary over and over again (and copy it rather than reading the chapter.)

If folks are each summarizing different chapters, make sure the discussion requires students to post before viewing other posts, again so that students have the opportunity to form their original opinions/summaries without being influenced by others.

https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-13010-415250008 

Hope these tips are helpful,
Cheers - Shar

[venitk]

I second Shar's excellent advice. The only thing we do different is we don't do a close date on the discussions, but we do have a page with a to-do date that has the due date for the response post. 

Reasons for this: 

• Close dates don't appear on the Calendar (and are a pain to update for the following term because of this).
• Calendar Events (how we used to indicate the response date) don't show in the Modules 
• Pages with to-do dates appear in the Calendar and in the Modules

[cdonahue]

Thank you Katie,

I appreciate the information.

Happy holiday season⛄

Craig

Craig Donahue, M.Ed.

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Instructional Support Specialist - BFIC

Library and Learning Resources

Phone: 760.674.7821

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Email: cdonahue@collegeofthedesert.edu<mailto:rcotton@collegeofthedesert.edu>

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[Shar]

Hi Katie,

Ooo! I like that idea of a To-do page with the 2nd date. Will you please provide a screen shot of where you put that page in the Module? And also a screen shot of what text you say on that page? I also like that the to-do page dates can be adjusted automatically on course import like the regular assignment dates.

Cheers - Shar

[venitk]

Sure!

Here's the module view:

Here's what the page looks like. You can put the directions for the replies here, but I like having them all in the discussion for easier reference, and having directions in more than one place makes me twitchy. 

[Shar]

Hi Katie,

Oh those screen shots are really very very helpful! And I agree about pointing the students back to the original discussion since that's where they'll have to do their responses anyway. I like the simple reminder on the page, and seems like an instructor can add little advice if they wanted to encourage better responses.

I also find interesting the way you number the items in the module. So looking at the page breadcrumbs, the user knows how far into the module they are. Is every page in the module numbered in the order they appear?

You mentioned that you do not use close dates. Do your faculty use late policies at all?

Thank-you again for sharing,
Cheers - Shar

[venitk]

 Is every page in the module numbered in the order they appear?

Yes, in the more complicated modules like this, we do tend to have that numbering. It doesn't always make sense--for example, if a page appears in more than one module, it can't have a different name two different places.  And in the simpler courses, it's not necessary. 

You mentioned that you do not use close dates. Do your faculty use late policies at all?

Some faculty use the missing grade policy, but that uses due dates, not availability dates. I don't know of any faculty in my unit that uses the baked in late work policies because most don't accept late discussions, for example, but they're happy to be flexible with auto-graded quizzes or written assignments. I work for an online MBA program, with a lot of working students who have a lot of Life going on between work and family, so the auto-deduction late policies aren't a good fit for us. 

[Gossamersdoom]

Hello, I hope we all are having a good day. I'm only here to vent. I am a champion procrastinator. With that said, I have been turning in my assignments on time, due what whatever day is needed to complete them, they also have another due date in the post two or three days before, thus being late. I only do the assignments the day they are due unless I know they are a major project. It is a discussion post. Please canvas, let my instructors put two due dates, I am on the verge of failing a class because I am a bad student by feeling relaxed thinking I can finish an assignment the day of. The flashing urgent alarm should be on the day, not days later. Once again hope we are having a good day.