Technology

Accessing Assignments in Canvas

Last modified 7/10/2024

As a student, your instructor manages access to assignments. If you cannot access an assignment, first contact your instructor and ask them to confirm that the assignment is assigned to you, published, and/or located somewhere in the course that you can access, such as Assignments located in Modules. 

Depending on how your instructor configured your course, you may be able to access assignments from a few locations. 

Note:

Your Instructor might have made your assignment accessible through an External Tool or a Learning Tool Integration (such as Macmillan). If your assignment uses an external tool, it may restrict access until your instructor has set parameters for it to be available (i.e., assignment access dates set within the tool). Check with your instructor or contact the support for that specific LTI/tool  

Steps to Access Assignments 

In Course Navigation, click the Assignments link. If this link does not display, it is disabled in your course, or you might not have it Favorited. 

If the Assignments link is unavailable in Course Navigation, you can access course assignments through the Modules page.

By default, assignments are grouped by overdue, upcoming, undated, and past assignments.

  • Overdue Assignments: Assignments and discussions past the due date are still available, have not been submitted, and have not been graded.
  • Upcoming Assignments: Assignments, discussions, and quizzes that have an upcoming due date.
  • Undated Assignments: Assignments, discussions, and quizzes that do not have a due date.
  • Past Assignments: Assignments and discussions that are past the due date and either are not available, have been submitted, or have received a grade; quizzes that are past the due date.

The first dates you may see are called availability dates. Sometimes, your instructor only wants you to submit an assignment during a specified date range, so the available dates are the range of time that the assignment is accessible to you.

  1. If the assignment does not have a date listed, the assignment is open; you can submit the assignment at any time during your course.  
  2. If the assignment says Available until [date], you can submit the assignment until the specified date.
  3. If the assignment says Not Available Until [date], the assignment is locked until the specified date.
  4. If the assignment says Closed, the assignment cannot accept submissions.  

How to Get Help

Instructional assistance and knowledge for Canvas are available through the Illinois State University Center for Integrated Professional Development:

Technical assistance is available through the Illinois State University Technology Support Center at:

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