Why won't an assignment allow you to duplicate it?

[lindsay_henry]

Some assignments do not have the option to duplicate:

Does anyone know if there are any reasons why an assignment wouldn't have the "duplicate" option?  It is NOT an assignment with an external tool. 

Thanks!

[ns3320 · Accepted solution]

Hi  @lindsay_henry ,

You cannot duplicate an assignment if it was created using the quiz tool or if it makes use of an LTI tool (TurnItIn, Proctorio).

But there is a workaround to this detailed pretty well in this article: Copying items in a course 

It just uses the course import tool, but you just import from the same course you're currently in. How do I select specific content as part of a course import? 

Let me know if I can explain any of this a little more in-depth!

Best,
Nick

[catherine_carne]

@Lindsay Henry, I know that if I have differentiated an assignment with different due dates it does not duplicate. I don't know if that helps or not.

duplicate assignments

[lindsay_henry]

Thanks for the feedback.  I have some assignments with differentiated due dates that do allow me to duplicate and others that do not.  I can't seem to find the commonality.

[ns3320 · Accepted solution]

Hi  @lindsay_henry ,

You cannot duplicate an assignment if it was created using the quiz tool or if it makes use of an LTI tool (TurnItIn, Proctorio).

But there is a workaround to this detailed pretty well in this article: Copying items in a course 

It just uses the course import tool, but you just import from the same course you're currently in. How do I select specific content as part of a course import? 

Let me know if I can explain any of this a little more in-depth!

Best,
Nick

[lglen]

Well that's a pain in the tuchus...

Why can't we just duplicate it if that's what we want to do? 
Canvas is a good example of the "Nanny state". Let ME decide how I want to build my classes!

For the record, I very carefully created a template for the assignment I want to duplicate. It is NOT a quiz, and it is NOT using an LTI (the one I wanted to duplicate is).

So I create a new assignment with NO LTI link, and it STILL doesn't give me the option to duplicate it...

[vaughant]

This duplicate problem has cause me untold wasted time. It is one of the reasons why I hate Canvas. Instructure does not care about these kinds of time wasting problems because they have their very lucurative contract with the California Community College Chancellor's Office, which why I am forced to used this crappy LMS rather than one that responds to users needs like Moodle.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello  @lindsay_henry ...

I have marked  @ns3320 's response as "Correct" because he has provided you the best solution for your needs.  I also wanted to provide you with a link to https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-13697-4152811835 because it describes in the blue boxed area what items in your "Modules" screen can and cannot be duplicated at this time.  I hope this additional information will be helpful to you, Lindsay.

[lindsay_henry]

Hi - The assignment does not use an LTI Tool, so I don't consider this question answered.  

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi  @lindsay_henry ...

I cannot determine, based on your screen shot, what kind of an assignment you have in your course, but I am assuming that it *might* be a quiz (with a rocket ship icon)?  I'm not referring to the new Quizzes.Next LTI that Canvas recently released.  I'm referring to the current "legacy" version of quizzes.  If you take a look at the blue box area in the linked Guide I had provided yesterday, the last line says, "Additionally, quizzes created using the classic Canvas quiz tool cannot be duplicated."  So, this is my best educated guess as to why you are not able to duplicate those particular items.  If you could double-check your course to see if those items are indeed "legacy" quizzes, that may help to answer your question.  Hope this helps, Lindsay.

[lindsay_henry]

Thank you, but it's not a quiz.  So far support hasn't been able to figure it out, so they're escalating the issue. 

Thanks again for your reply.

[vaughant]

This duplicate problem has cause me untold wasted time. It is one of the reasons why I hate Canvas. Instructure does not care about these kinds of time wasting problems because they have their very lucurative contract with the California Community College Chancellor's Office, which why I am forced to used this crappy LMS rather than one that responds to users needs like Moodle.

[mogden · Accepted solution]

I am surprised that more people have not brought this to the attention of Canvas.

It is exasperating to see that the  "duplicate" button is missing from particular assignments, and yet other assignments that were created in the same manner will have the "duplicate" button as an option.

Canvas, please advise.

[annespinoza]

This is stupid. Why can't I simply duplicate a quiz? This is a big need!! I have to fix/update quizzes all the time so it will be fixed for the next semester and now I have to reimport? 

[BrandonTries]

Hi Lindsay,

A little after the fact but hopefully someone finds this useful in the future. I was trying to figure this out tonight and stumbled upon a solution. You can copy the assignment - even a quiz - and it will just show up in the Imported Assignments folder. Just ignore the warning about the content getting overwritten - this would only happen if you somehow forced the copy to be in the same folder as the original, or didn't remove a copy from the Imported folder before copying a second time. 

Hopefully this helps someone,
-Brandon

[BrandonTries]

An update - you can do it but it doesn't work as I expected. Just don't copy the same assignment twice - even if you copy it and change the name, it will overwrite the second copy. Very counterintuitive...

Something like the following process can produce additional copies: 

1. Copy the assignment.

2. Change the name of the copy.

3. Copy the copy and change the name.

A bit convoluted but it seems to work!