The main purpose of creating an assignment is to provide an area within your Canvas course where students can submit their work online. Assignments in Canvas can also be used to track grades, view student submissions online, and provide student feedback or comments.

There are two main ways to create an assignment in Canvas.

Creating an assignment from a module

1. Navigate to your course in Canvas.
2. On the left course navigation menu, select the Modules link.
3. Create a new module by selecting the +Module button in the top right corner or find an existing module where you would like to add the new assignment.
4. Once you have a module, select the + icon directly to the right of the module's name.
5. In the pop-up, make sure that the top drop-down menu has Assignment selected.
6. In the box below the drop-down menu, select [ Create Assignment ].
7. Enter a name for this new assignment.
8. Select the purple Add Item button.

The assignment will then appear within the module you added it to. You can edit the settings for that assignment by clicking directly on the name of the assignment, then selecting the edit button in the top right corner.

 

 

Creating an assignment from the Assignments area

1. Navigate to your course in Canvas.
2. On the left course navigation menu, select the Assignments link.
3. On the top right corner, select the purple + Assignment button.
4. On the following page, enter an Assignment Name.
5. In the Text Box below the assignment name, you can enter or type any instructions for this specific assignment.
6. Review all additional settings. If you would like students to upload external documents to this assignment, set the Submission Type to Online and check the box next to File Uploads.
7. Once you have reviewed all of the assignment settings, select the grey Save & Publish button at the bottom right corner of the page.

Once the assignment has been saved and published, students will have immediate access unless you set an available from and until date.