It would be helpful if you could bulk add assignments with assignment details not just due dates

Many of my teachers currently create their syllabus on a Google Sheet with the date assigned, due date, and then all of the details of each assignment. I'm trying to get more of them to post their assignments as assignments that populate the student calendar. I was hoping they could simply upload their .csv to Canvas that could then create individual assignments for them. Currently, they can only bulk add the due dates and then have to go back into each individual assignment to edit the details. Then, from the assignment view, the details are not visible. If it were possible to do this from a spreadsheet, it would be very helpful.

DateAssigned	Duedate	Classwork/Homework	Assignmentdetails
3/2	3/6	Homework	Please read this article and then create 4 index cards with sketches showing your understanding of each chapter
3/4	3/8	Homework	Annotate the following reading and be prepared to discuss your thoughts in class.

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ChristensiaAsong_77

I am currently a Master of Social Work student at Chamberlain University and I am learning more about Canvas tools through this community. I appreciate discussions like this because they help educators and students think about ways to improve course organization and assignment management. Tools that allow instructors to organize assignments more efficiently can help students stay on track and better understand expectations.

Thank you for sharing this suggestion and for the helpful discussion.

adam_c_voyton

Technically it's possible using the Canvas API.

ChristaLakey

Could you share instructions showing how to do it?

ChristaLakey

Although it is technically possible, this solution is much too complicated for busy teachers.

Chris

Hi @ChristaLakey,

The Canvas API is basically a programmatic way to interact with Canvas. It's one of the main tools software developers write custom interactions or automations for Canvas. With that being said, these things are usually done by someone with at least a bit of programming background. For a task like this I'd use the Python programming language, but there are a lot of other options out there. You'd need the code to read in the CSV file, then for each row, use the assignment endpoint of the Canvas API to create an assignment with the appropriate details in the appropriate course.

You may be able to use some AI tools to assist with the script creation if you're not an expert coder, but I personally feel that some basic knowledge is needed to ensure AI is actually creating things in the right way. The Developers Group in the community may be able to provide some pointers as well.

I hope this info helps!

-Chris

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