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Making assignments available to students

If one or more students are unable to view or access an assignment, here are a few steps you can take to ensure that everything is configured correctly. 

Note: External tools have additional restrictions determined by the provider of the tool. Review with external app documentation, or contact the provider support for information on that functionality.

Confirm Existing Assignment

Course Navigation with the Assignments link highlighted and the Assignments page open.

In Course Navigation, click the Assignments link [1]. Then verify that the assignment is listed on the Assignments page [2].

Confirm Assignment Status

Assignments page with the Published and Unpublished status icons highlighted.

Check the assignment’s publish status icons. A circle with a checkmark icon indicates that the assignment is Published [1]. A circle-backslash icon indicates that the assignment is Unpublished [2]. Students can only view published assignments.

To publish an assignment, click the Unpublished icon.

Review Assignment Details

Assignment details page with the assignment name and the Edit button highlighted.

Click the assignment name [1] and then click the Edit button [2].

Manage Due Dates and Assign To dialog with the Available from and Until fields highlighted.

View the assignment availability dates in the Available from/Until section.

Availability dates determine when students can view and submit an assignment. If the date is before or past the assignment availability date range, students cannot submit the assignment.

Review Assign to Fields

Assignment edit page with the Assign to field highlighted.

By default, Canvas assigns new assignments to all students enrolled in your course. 

If you specified a group or section in the Assign to field, you may need to verify that students are properly enrolled in a section or assigned in a group.

Confirm Module Status

Course Navigation menu with the Modules link highlighted.

If you use modules in your course, in Course Navigation, click the Modules link.

Modules page with the overall module published status and the module item published status highlighted.

Check the published and unpublished icons.

Confirm both the overall module [1] and its module items [2] are published. If only one of the two is published, the students will not be able to see all of the content.

Module with the publishing drop-down menu, Publish module and all items option, and Publish module only option highlighted.

To publish a module, click the module’s publishing drop-down menu [1]. To bulk publish the entire module and all its items, click the Publish module and all items option [2]. To only publish the module and not the module items, click the Publish module only option [3].

Note: Bulk publishing files in a module is only available when File Copyright is enabled and usage rights are set or disabled in a course.

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