Submitting Multiple File Types in One Assignment

[CharlesVideo]

Is there a way to submit multiple file types in one Canvas Assignment Submission?  For example, if I want a student to turn in a video from STUDIO in addition to a PDF file turn-in sheet, can both be turned in at the same time?  It seems when a video is attached through Canvas Studio, you can't also go back and select another file to be added.  

[James]

@CharlesVideo 

I realize that not everyone's workflow is the same as mine. Here's what I suggest.

Instead of multiple submissions for the same assignment, use multiple assignments where you restrict the type for each one. As a student, it's sometimes easy to miss the directions that there needs to be two files. As an instructor, I always miss when a student uploads multiple files because I'm used to seeing just one (and my directions normally call for them to combine the files together into a single one before uploading).

Having separate assignments lets the student know there are two things that are submitted and it allows you to enforce the right kind of submission. If they upload one, the other assignment is still showing that it's missing. I also get to provide feedback and let them resubmit one part of it (likely the PDF) without having to redo the video.

In your case where it will not allow you to go back and pick something else after a video, then it's even more important that they be separated into different assignments.

Even if allows you to upload the PDF first and then the Studio submission, that's going to be confusing for students who, at least for me, don't follow detailed directions of how to do something. I know it's more work for me to grade two assignments than one, but it can be a better experience for the students when the submission requirements are complicated.

[RecycledElectro]

Turning in multiple files of different file types is easy.

The first 2 pics are how I set up the assignment as the instructor. The 3rd pic is what a student sees.

I'm not sure about Studio.

[paul_fynn]

@CharlesVideo you have some good advice on how to do this from @RecycledElectro , and even better advice from @James as to why you perhaps shouldn't do this.

My rule of thumb is that if what you are asking of students is required at different times, is of different evidence or performance types, or mixes individual and group work, then you really need to have two separate assignments. Depending on your local assessment management arrangements and regulations, this may need to be specified in your unit of delivery documentation, and in your Student Information System

We have regular appeals from students because they didn't upload both files to the assignment at the same time, and either loaded them separately (we can only grade the latest submission and file under our regs). or attempted to load the second file after the submission point had closed. Rightly or wrongly, on a strict reading of our regulations that is the student's problem.

• If you must do this in a single assignment, please make sure that you have clear instructions to the students as to what it is that they are required to submit, when, and in what form eg single combined document, multiple files, zip file (this will impact student quota and size for video and plagiarism checks) etc.

@James whilst we can discourage our own colleagues from having multiple file submissions, this still comes up as a student appeal more frequently than I would like. It would be nice to find a way to 'design the problem out'

Do you feel there might be scope for a Canvas configuration which allows an assignment to be marked as 'students will upload multiple files' such that on submission the student can receive a nudge to the effect that

**your assignment requires that you submit more than one file - these must be submitted in the same attempt - please check that you have submitted the correct number of files before pressing submit**

[James · Accepted solution]

@paul_fynn 

I do not think having an option of forcing a multiple submission within Canvas is a good idea.

I completely agree with communicating any unusual directions to the student, but it falls on the instructor to do that. I still do that on multiple answer questions ("select all correct answers") because students think it's a multiple choice question despite the checkbox vs radio question.

For assignments, I use a content page for the directions about how to complete the assignment. The assignment directions provide a link to that page and then any specific directions about submitting the assignment. This includes whether it is an assignment that it submitted and graded once or one that is complete/incomplete and the students will need to fix and resubmit it.

I will say that this semester is the worst one I've had as far as students reading directions. They all want TLDR, which I don't do, but I get tired of typing the same thing over and over in the comments after they turn it back in. Those are long because the students didn't follow what I wrote in the first place and I want them to have specific feedback about what to fix (other than "this is wrong, you need to fix it"). The comments get ran together because Canvas removes the paragraph breaks in the assignments redesign. I start my comment off with a comment like "Read this message in your email where the line breaks are retained, otherwise it is very difficult to follow and you will miss some items." Students don't do that either.

The point being that if you communicate what is needed up front in a clear way, then you put it on the student and cover yourself in the case of an appeal.

That said, we should not make it overly difficult for the students, either. You want a PDF and a video and Canvas has a problem doing both at the same time. It is unlikely that Canvas will fix that any time soon, so the instructor is forced to modify how they do things. The instructor should either make separate assignments or provide clear directions, perhaps with a video if they can, of how to do that successfully.

Sometimes we do things because it's the way we've always done things. We try to force Canvas to do something the way we do it on paper before we had an LMS or we want it to work the way our previous LMS did things

For example, I students saying their professor wants them to use APA style references in their discussions. The instructor probably has those directions because they've always had those directions (pre-Canvas). Or that that APA is standard for their discipline and they want students to cite their sources. The instructor probably hasn't given any thought to how difficult it is for a student to create a hanging indent. APA style itself allows for deviations, but students don't know that. That's why I have a page about how what I will take for references and link to it from every assignment that requires citations.

When we want something different than the normal, it's important to communicate that to the students.

It's simpler (I purposefully avoid the word "better") for the students if we can accomplish our needs within the standard way of doing things. That way they may be more familiar with it from another course.

That's part of why I don't want Canvas to add an option for requiring multiple submission support. It complicates things. It also breaks a lot on the back-end. With the current system, you specify the type of submissions that are allowed. That is an "any of these" choice right now. Having a checkbox to "require each type of submission" completely changes things. It could work for submissions that require different types (example: a file upload and a text entry) but it wouldn't completely fix the issue for submissions that require two types of file uploads (a docx and xlsx file).

A single submission with multiple file types can be handled by requiring students to ZIP the files together (students in computer science classes have had to do this), but that is more work for students and we want to make it easier for them, not harder. That last statement is not necessarily universally agreed upon -- some argue we should be preparing students for real life where you need to do complex things. Canvas doesn't subscribe to that design philosophy, they want to make it easy for users. They don't want to hide a bunch of things behind options. They just want it to work, which helps minimize support costs.

For me, I've worked two submissions to the advantage of both the student and myself. I require a spreadsheet that contains the data. This is graded as complete/incomplete and the students have to get it right before they can do the other assignments that depend on it, so there are a lot of resubmissions. It's due days before the other assignments that depend on it are due. All of these are open for two weeks in case the student falls behind with getting their data correct. The benefit to the student is that they have the correct data so that they can do the next assignment. If the data is wrong, the student would lose points for the assignments that use it.

It's kind of like the idea of a checkpoint that is sorely needed for discussions. But checkpoints for regular assignments don't exist and Canvas isn't set up to handle them. Well, the Canvas way of handling it is to make them separate assignments. There are different requirements for each phase, so they need different assignments. There's nothing in the Canvas backend for specifying different requirements for completing stages.

In most cases where multiple submission types are required, I would still urge different assignments. From the student perspective, it is the cleanest way to accomplish it. It also allows faculty to provide feedback on each part separately and handles the case when one part is missing or incorrect. It can create more work for faculty, but that should be weighed against the work saved be students submitting both type successfully.

And then, in the directions, be sure to communicate that this is a two-part assignment and provide a link to the other part.

[paul_fynn]

@James 100% agree, particularly

In most cases where multiple submission types are required, I would still urge different assignments. From the student perspective, it is the cleanest way to accomplish it. It also allows faculty to provide feedback on each part separately and handles the case when one part is missing or incorrect. It can create more work for faculty, but that should be weighed against the work saved be students submitting both type successfully.

And then, in the directions, be sure to communicate that this is a two-part assignment and provide a link to the other part.