Single Assignment

[StevenMorono]

Why can an assignment not be split into two parts or just make two assignments? I had an assignment to write a paper, the paper had a due date. I completed the paper on time and turned it in on time. The assignment had two parts, the first was to write the assignment and the second part was to review another student’s paper. After I submitted my paper, the assignment was marked complete. When my assignment was graded, I received a ZERO because I did not review the other students papers. The instructor posted a note on the assignment that the reviews will be assigned later without any indication of what the date is or how to check it. 

I sent the following to my instructor:

“Please help me understand the difference between: Tasks, Assignments, and the grading Rubric. I am very confused when I use Canvas to determine what my Assignments for that day are due, depending on the class I use different sections. For my English Comp class, I go to the modules section. There I found the following: Step 1 is to write a paper. Step 2 is a peer review sometime in the future.

(Copy of assignment)

From this I understand that the Assignment is to write a paper following these guidelines. Then we move on to step two of the Task. Step two is the peer review. The Task says:

“Canvas will automatically assign you a peer review after the due date, and you have 24 hours after the rough draft due date to complete your peer review.”

I completed step 1 and never received a notification that the reviews were assigned. They show up if I look at the “Completed assignments” and check specifically for that. Is this correct or have I missed something? I completed Step1 and Step 2 I did not complete because I was not aware that I had to specifically check every so often to see if my reviews have been assigned. The assignment does not mention anything about step 2 of the task. They are two separate and distinct assignments, why are they rolled up into a single task? I completed Step 1 (the main component) and still received a zero. The peer review is secondary to the primary task to write the paper. I believe I should receive partial credit since I completed the primary task. Furthermore, the Assignment does not reference the peer review, that is in Step 2 of the task. If the Assignment has two components that cannot be completed at the same time (different due dates) they should be separate assignments with the proper due dates. Is the solution to create a fourth calendar system to keep track of assignments with multiple due dates that are unknown at the time the assignment is created? The issue with the fourth solution is that I do not know the date of Step 2, so how can I assign it?
I believe that I should receive some credit, more than 50% since I completed the primary task.”

She responded: “Canvas only reminds students that the initial 1 and 2 tasks are due on a specific date, and it is students' responsibilities to make a note either on their Canvas Calendar or whatever physical or digital calendar they are using to keep track of all their assignments.”

“There is no way in Canvas at this time to assign 2 due dates to a single assignment, and there is no way to separate the submission of a draft from the assigning of peer reviews to that draft. The due date on canvas is at 11:59pm, and then Canvas assigns the reviews right around 12:01am the next day.”

Is this correct? There is “No way” to split an assignment into two separate assignments with different due dates? Why can an Assignment not be split into two separate assignments since we do not have the details of part two?  Could you please explain what she is talking about?

Thank you for your time.

[ColtonSwapp]

Hello @StevenMorono 

Thanks for posting this in the Canvas Community! 

It sounds like your instructor is using Peer Reviews in Canvas. I will try and provide as much detail as I can for you on this. 

• To answer your initial question, there is not a way to have one assignment be two assignments. This is because instructors will have you submit to a specific assignment in your course and then they will configure peer reviews to be completed for the submissions that took place within it from other students. 
• Peer Review are typically configured one of two ways by the instructor. They will either have Canvas automatically assign peer reviews for you to complete, or they will manually assign the peer reviews for each student. 
• When a Peer review is assigned to you, you should receive a notification to your email address and also see something in the To Do list. You can also navigate to the assignment and look under the submission details to see which peers you have been assigned to review. If you did not receive the notification, you might want to double check your notification preferences, and your junk or spam mail. Speaking from personal experience, I have had notifications such as this go directly to my junk/spam mail folders before. Canvas support can take a closer look into this issue if you are not receiving the notifications for some reason. 
• For notifications, you can configure those on the course level, and on the account level. 
• I am including a few guides for you on the subject of Peer Reviews. 
• THIS guide goes over how to check to see if you have Peer Reviews to complete as a student. 
• THIS guide goes over submit a peer review for an assignment as a student. 
• If your peer review requires you to use the DocViewer to add annotations, THIS guide will show you how to accomplish that. It's worth noting that If your instructor anonymously grades an assignment, annotations in DocViewer will not be available until the assignment is unmuted.
• THIS guide goes over how to locate your peers' Feedback for Peer Reviewed assignments. 

Hopefully this helps a little bit! 

-Colton 

[StevenMorono]

If there is not a way to have one assignment be two assignments then why is the instructor doing so? Using some convoluted work around is not the answer. If the system does not support this capability, then there are only two possible solutions. The first is to use the system as designed and not try do perform a function that does not exist and the second is to add this functionality.