Feature Q&A: Canvas Release Notes (2023-03-18)

[InstContentTeam]

Looking to discuss these features from the 2023-03-18 Release Notes? Post a reply and start a conversation!

New Features

• Assignments: Submit Assignment on Behalf of Student
• Canvas Data 2: Application Programming Interface (API) and Command-Line Interface (CLI) Enhancement [Added 2023-02-27}

ADD FEEDBACK FOR THESE FEATURES IN Q&A TOPIC

• This topic is for feature discussion only—Please share use cases, best practices, questions, clarifications, etc. regarding this feature.
• Please thread replies as possible to keep posts organized. This will help everyone to track discussions and to participate.

ADDITIONAL FEEDBACK—WHERE TO POST IDEA SUGGESTIONS AND SUBMIT BUG REPORTS

• Idea requests for the Product Team to consider should be submitted in ideas.canvaslms.com . This is the best way to ask for additional or alternative functionality than what is included in the release. Linking to the related idea here so others can find it is encouraged!
• Bug reports should be submitted to Canvas Support. This way, cases can be connected and uniform updates can be provided to those involved. Bugs will not be triaged in this thread

[IanGoh]

Assignments: Submit Assignment on Behalf of Student

Just to clarify, this would only apply to Submission Type: Online where you also check "File Uploads" box?

That is, it would not be available for Submission Type: External Tool.

Finally, would this work with Turnitin if you have implemented the Plagiarism Framework?

[jsailor]

Hi, @IanGoh,

That is correct. The assignment must be set to include "file upload" as an option for this feature. 

As for TII, it will not automatically run as the student will not have the opportunity to check the box to confirm that the work is theirs and that they agree to the user terms.  

[audra_agnelly]

Will the submit on behalf of student permission default to ON for teachers or will admins need to update this setting after the release? Any plans to incorporate this functionality into Speedgrader where teachers do much of their grading and review file upload submissions?

[jsailor]

Hi, @audra_agnelly,

Given feedback that we've heard from admins, we did default this permission to OFF for all users. Admins will need to update permissions for teachers (and any other roles) to see the capability.

We are not currently planning to incorporate this into Speedgrader. 

[phanley]

Please update the release notes to point this out -- we were getting reports this morning that admins couldn't masquerade as faculty members, and needed to open a support chat to figure out what was going on.

Once support told us it was that no account roles had the 'submit on behalf of' permission it was easy enough to fix, but any documentation about new features that will inhibit the functioning of other features unless action is taken should specifically point out what action has to be taken.

Also, side note -- do the Outcomes Service and/or Quizzes.Next Service accounts need the "Submission - Submit on behalf of student" permission?

[MPathkiller]

The ability to submit for a student will be super appreciated by our teachers as it has been a regular request since we started using Canvas. Thank you for this!

---

Just wanted to ask about something I find strange in Assignment Enhancements when an Instructor has submitted for a student.
When an assignment has been submitted for a student, the student will see which instructor submitted the file - which is great. On the assignment page the student will see:

SUBMITTED on 15 Mar 2023 10:15 by Instructor's Name

However, once the student receives feedback/grades, the instructor's name remains. This makes it seem like the instructor is the one who submitted the grade, which isn't always the case. 

REVIEW FEEDBACK by Instructor's Name

Is this unintended behavior? If it is intended, what is the purpose of showing "by Instructor's Name" when grades have been posted.? Let me know if this should be reported as a bug or be highlighted on the Assignment Enhancements page instead.

---

Again, this is a very appreciated release, so thank you for bringing this functionality.

[christopher_ma5]

This is a welcomed feature; however, I wish the ability to submit on behalf the student was available for all assignment types and quizzes. We have submit requirements on all our graded assignments and exams, which poses a challenge when students transfer into our program (and this happens quite often). Using the "EX" function doesn't work because once we remove the EX to enter a transfer grade, the submit requirement is reactivated and the student loses access to subsequent modules. Thus, we have to ask our students to just submit blank assignments and exams in order to catch up to where they should be in the course. Being able to modify/remove module pre-reqs and requirements for individual students would also be a helpful feature. 

[toms]

"In Permissions, enable Submission- Submit on behalf of student permission"

Where is "Permissions"?  How does one access them??  These sorts of things need to be clearly identified, so instructors don't have to guess...

Thanks!

[audra_agnelly]

@toms  permissions are settings that your Canvas admin controls for the different enrollment roles in your institution's Canvas account. If you have not seen that this feature has been enabled, you would want to reach out to that person at your institution.

[toms]

It would be very easy to have this stated in the section that describes how to set it up. Since both instructors and administrators are reading these posts, it is important to be clear so instructors don't waste time looking for something that doesn't exist.

[IoannisMichalol]

New Features

• Assignments: Submit Assignment on Behalf of Student

Thank you for implementing this!

Is there an API endpoint for this functionality? The Submissions API "Submit an Assignment" section still says "You must be enrolled as a student in the course/section to do this.".