Clarification Needed on Due date Time Zones in Canvas

KyutaePark

I'm taking an online master's program abroad, and the due dates on Canvas are unclear about the time zone.

It would be helpful if the time zone was shown next to the due date.

ex)  As-Is : Monday, June 23 / 10 PTS / DUE:11:59 PM

       To-Be : Monday, June 23 / 10 PTS / DUE:11:59 PM (EST)

Chris_Hofer

Hi there, @KyutaePark ...

Hopefully your instructor has set the due date correctly for that specific assignment.  However, there are really three areas within Canvas that time zones can be configured.  Thankfully, since you are a student, you only need to be concerned about one of these three areas.

• The first area to set a time zone is for Canvas administrators.  Canvas administrators can set a default time zone for the entire Canvas account.  For example, if you were taking classes at a school/university in Minnesota, that is in the Central Time Zone, so Canvas admins at that school would set the time zone for that time zone.
• The second area to set a time zone is for instructors.  Instructors can set a time zone for a specific course.  Usually, this would be the same as where the school is physically located, but there may be instances where this is not the case.
• Finally, all users (admins, instructors, students, etc.) can set their own time zone in their Canvas user settings.  Canvas then calculates everything for you based on the time zone you set.  So, this is where you'll want to check to make sure that you have your proper time zone set in your own Canvas account.  How do I set a time zone in my user account?  For example, if you lived on the east coast of the United States, you would set your Canvas account time zone settings for Eastern Standard Time...even though you were taking courses at a school that was in a different time zone than you.

If your due dates are still not showing as correct after checking your own time zone setting, you'd want to reach out to your instructor to have him/her ensure that the course time zone has been set correctly.

Hopefully this will be of help to you.  Sing out if you have any questions...thanks!