Assign to All But 1 Student

Question

I have a student who gets modified assignments (fewer questions, for example).  I want to assign the regular assignment to everyone BUT this one student.  Is there a way to do this that does not involved typing / clicking every student's name except his?  Right now I am assigning it to everyone and just marking it as EXCUSED for him but it's causing him some confusion because he can still open and complete the assignment even if it's marked Excused.

James · Accepted Answer

@MisterTay

Two questions come to mind. The first is what type of assignment is this? The second is are you sure you're getting the student properly marked as excused for that assignment?

I ask because the Canvas Instructor Guide says (and this has been my experience) this in the notes at the top of How do I change the status of a submission in the Gradebook?

When an assignment is excused, the assignment page and the student grade page will show the student that he or she has been excused from the assignment. Students cannot submit excused assignments.

The fastest way is to assign it to everyone and excuse it for the student.

There is no way to assign to all but one student.

You need to have a chat with the student so they understand better. Perhaps you could add a submission comment for just that student that says "You should not complete this assignment, but complete assignment xxx instead."

TrishaMeyer1 · Accepted Answer

Hi @MisterTay ,

Try assigning it to that one student FIRST, then use the +Add feature and select "Everyone" for that option. When I did this, the text changed to "Everyone else" in the upper box. Since the assignment had already been assigned with different settings to the individual student, he was removed from the next set.

To prevent the student from completing the assignment, set the Available date to some time far in the future (or the last day of the term if you have to stay within a grading period) for that student.

If your institution allows you to create sections, you also could make a section with just the one student and another section with everyone else. Then assign based on section. This method may cause issues with syncing to an SIS, so be aware of any limitations with your Canvas/SIS integration.

Kristin Lundstrum · Accepted Answer

To add to this thread, there is a long-standing idea that is aligned to a Theme. Anyone who is interested can subscribe to the thread to automatically receive updates if the Product Team includes it in a future project.

[Assignments] Assign to everyone except selected students