What are Assignments in Canvas?

Assignments include Quizzes, graded Discussions, and online submissions (i.e. files, images, text, URLs, etc.). Assignments in Canvas can be used to challenge students' understanding and help assess competency by using a variety of media. Assignments can be assigned to everyone in the course or to individual students.

Any assignment created and published in the Assignments page will automatically show up in the Grades and Calendar so students can view them. Additionally, any assignments created in the Calendar will automatically show up in the Grades.

Assignments can also be organized in Modules.

Assignments can be used to:

Assess how well students are achieving course Outcomes
Set up online submissions that can be quickly graded in the SpeedGrader
Grade online as well as student work submitted "on-paper"
Set up peer reviews
Grade Discussions, either by the whole class or student groups
Open Quizzes for a limited amount of time
Record attendance
Create ungraded activities that align with course Outcomes

Assignments

An Assignment is a Canvas assignment that can be submitted online through text entry, file uploads, media recordings, external tools, URLs, or Canvas pages.

Not Graded assignments may include a due date, however points or grades are not given for completing the assignment.

Screenshot of the Assignment Icon

Throughout Canvas, users can recognize assignments with the Assignment icon.

Assignment Details

The Assignment details area. provides the fields for the name of the assignment and instructions. Additionally, recall you can edit points and the assignment group here. Note: Points possible must be set to a number greater than zero for assignments with percentage, points, letter grade, or GPA grading types.

Screenshot of the Display Grade section

In the Display Grade as drop-down menu, select the method you want to use for grading. You can grade your assignment by percentage, complete/incomplete, points, letter grade, GPA scale, or set as not graded.

Note: The grading type is how the assignment score will display in the Gradebook. For example, an assignment worth 10 points is set to display as a percentage. A student who receives 8/10 points on the assignment will show as 80 in the Gradebook.

Submission Type

Screenshot of the submission types options

In the Submission Type drop-down menu, select the type of submission you want to accept for the assignment. By default, the submission type will be set to Online.

Note: To avoid confusion, it is best to make a note in the description about the assignment so students will know whether or not a submission is required and if so, how they are supposed to submit it.

Create Group Assignment

Screenshot of the Group assignment options

As part of an assignment submission, Canvas lets you set up an assignment as a group assignment. You can also choose to grade students individually in group assignments.

Require Peer Reviews

Screenshot of the peer review options

If you want to require students review each other's work, you can create a peer review assignment. When requiring peer reviews, you can select whether to manually assign peer reviews or automatically assign peer reviews.

Discussions

A Discussion is a Canvas assignment that will grade student response to discussion topics.

Screenshot of Discussion Icon

Throughout Canvas, users can recognize discussions with the Discussion icon.

What are Discussions?

Canvas provides an integrated system for class discussions, allowing both instructors and students to start and contribute to as many discussion topics as desired. Discussions allows for interactive communication between two or more people; users can participate in a conversation with an entire class or group.

Discussions can also be created as an assignment for grading purposes (and seamlessly integrated with the Canvas Gradebook), or simply serve as a forum for topical and current events. Discussions can also be created within student groups.

Discussion topics can be organized as focused or threaded discussions. Focused discussions only allow for two levels of nesting, the original post and subsequent replies. Threaded discussions allow for infinite levels of nesting. Focused discussions are relatively short-lived interactions, while threaded discussions allow replies within replies and may last for a longer period of time.

Focused Discussion

Focused discussions are relatively short-lived interactions that tend to disappear as the course progresses, such as a weekly forum for questions related to that week's activities.

Use a focused discussion for single posts and related comments. One discussion leader typically posts a message and multiple learners comment on it. Participants may leave a side comment to a reply, but cannot develop the conversation beyond two layers of nesting.

Focused discussions might also be used to:

answer a single question
share resources amongst peers
collect results from a simple research activity
share solutions to a single problem
correct misconceptions
clarify course policies
get feedback on a work in progress
share insights about a single reading

Threaded Discussions

Threaded discussions include infinite layers of response nesting, allowing commenters to continue responding on a single nested thread. Threaded discussions lend themselves to the refining of complex ideas. Responses and different lines of inquiry that can be quickly navigated due to its hierarchical structure. Threaded discussions may be long-standing spaces for thoughts that persist throughout an entire course.

Use a threaded discussion for multiple posts and related comments. One or more discussion leaders post a message and multiple learners comment on it with the freedom to create any number of related discussion topics and comments.

Threaded Discussions might also be used to:

post and answer multiple related or unrelated questions
organize results from a complex research activity
share and iterate upon ideas shared by each student in the course
debate the pros and cons of a single issue or multiple issues
ask multiple questions of a single discussion leader
refine ideas between multiple discussion leaders and multiple learners
facilitate group discussions around multiple topics
facilitate discussions around a discussion (fishbowl conversations)
explore at length the feasibility of different solutions to a complex problem

Canvas Guides: How do I use Discussions as an Instructor?

Quizzes

A Quiz is a Canvas assignment that can be used to conduct a survey or assess a student's comprehension of course content.

Classic Quiz

Screenshot of the Classic Quiz Icon

New Quiz

Screenshot of New Quiz Icon

Throughout Canvas, users can recognize quizzes with the Quiz icons.

Classic Quizzes

The quiz tool is used to create and administer online quizzes and surveys. You can also use quizzes to conduct and moderate exams and assessments, both graded and ungraded.

Graded quiz types display in the Gradebook, Calendar, and To Do Lists.

Note: Practice quizzes and ungraded surveys do not display in the Calendar.

Graded Quiz

A graded quiz is the most common quiz, and Canvas automatically creates a column in the grade book for any graded quizzes you build. After a student takes a graded quiz, certain question types will be automatically graded. You can also view quiz results for graded quizzes in SpeedGrader or from the quiz results page.

Practice Quiz

A practice quiz can be used as a learning tool to help students see how well they understand the course material. Practice quizzes are not a graded quiz type. Students do not receive a grade for practice quizzes, even though the quiz results display the number of points earned in the quiz. Practice quiz results do not display on the student grades page and must be viewed from the submission details page. You can also view quiz results for practice quizzes.

Graded Survey

A graded survey allows the instructor to give students points for completing the survey, but it does not allow the survey to be graded for right or wrong answers. Graded surveys have the option to be anonymous. You can also view survey results for graded surveys from the quiz details page or in SpeedGrader.

Ungraded Survey

An ungraded survey allows you to get opinions or other information from your students, but students do not receive a grade for their responses. With ungraded surveys, you can make responses anonymous. Ungraded surveys are not a graded quiz type. You can also view survey results for ungraded surveys.

More About Classic Quiz Surveys

You can use surveys to receive feedback from your students or give them some extra points by responding to a survey. Graded surveys appear in the Syllabus, Gradebook, Calendar, and To Do Lists.

Notes:

Student Analysis for surveys must be downloaded as a CSV file. Item Analysis is not available for surveys.
The anonymous option can be enabled or disabled before or after a survey has received submissions, allowing a user with sufficient permissions to see a student's identity and responses. To collect fully anonymous survey responses, you may want to use a third-party survey tool.

Canvas Guides: How do I create a survey in my course?

Canvas Guides: How do I create Likert scale quiz questions?

New Quizzes

New Quizzes is a quiz engine that integrates with Canvas as an LTI tool and replaces the classic quizzes functionality currently existing in Canvas.

Instructors can use New Quizzes to build quizzes with several item types that measure student competency in a variety of subjects. Quizzes can be modified using various quiz settings and aligned to outcomes at the quiz or question level.

New Quizzes - Various Question Type Examples

Stimulus Question

When creating a quiz, you can insert stimulus content in New Quizzes. Stimulus content gives students a piece of content with associated questions.

Note: You can add stimulus content to an item bank. However, questions created manually in a quiz and attached to the stimulus content are not automatically added to the item bank and must be added manually. Generally, it is a good practice to maintain a separate Item Bank for the Stimulus Question components. Remember to use the Item Bank Naming Conventions that will help identify the course and quiz they belong to.

Canvas Guides: How do I insert stimulus content in New Quizzes?