Overview of the "Assign To" Issue
What Happened
At the start of this semester, a problem with the "Assign To" functionality impacted Assignments (including quizzes) and SpeedGrader, preventing some students from accessing certain assignments. Canvas (Instructure) resolved the issue for newly created assignments, however, assignments with past due dates remained affected, meaning some students may not have seen them on their "To-Do" list or may have been unable to access them.
How Can I Tell If My Students Were Impacted
Once you've navigated to your course you will see a link titled "Important Message" at the top of your course navigation. Click on the link. Then click the link "view affected assignments", if students in your course were affected, you will see a list of students along with the assignments they were not able to complete due to this issue.
What We Did
Once we became aware of the issue, we notified you through a Canvas announcement. Our team then identified a list of impacted students and resolved the issue for most affected assignments using a combination of scripts and manual intervention. For assignments we could not address because they had already passed, we contacted the respective faculty members directly via email on February 25-26 so they could determine the best course of action for their students.
We also worked with the vendor to implement a permanent fix during this time. This fix resolved the issue for all affected assignments, including past ones.
What's happening next?
As of Monday, March 17th, Canvas (Instructure) has implemented a fix for Webcourses@UCF to address the remaining " Assign-To" issues that could impact you and your students. This may cause your students' grades to appear lower or change, as no submissions, zeros, or your late grade policy may be assigned to missed assignments that were impacted by the issue.
- It is important to note that students affected by this issue may be unaware that an assignment was due and might contact you when they see a zero grade for it.
How Can I Enable These Students to Complete the Assignment
There are two different options you can take.
- Reopen the assignment and extend the due dates and the available from dates so the students affected can complete the assignment. **Note: This will reopen the assignment for all students.
- Or, create a new “Assign To” group for the students who were impacted. To do this, navigate to the edit page for the intended assignment, click the "+ Assign To" button, in the new panel, list all students that were impacted, add new due dates, and click save. ** Note: Do Not remove the original assign to dates.
Faculty may also need to re-open your Academic Engagement Activity.
Once these steps are completed all students missing the assignment will then see it on their "To Do" list.
Please contact Webcourses@UCF Support if you have questions or need assistance