Did you just import or restore a course from a semester ago, or a year ago? Need to be able to quickly set all the due dates for the various course activities from one page? The Dates report in AsULearn provides a listing of all activities and can be very helpful for reviewing and adjusting dates for the semester. It is important to note that this feature reports dates not only for assignments, but for all dated activities in the course.
Tip!
Those of us who have used this process to set all our activity dates like to approach it like this:
- Get our syllabus or course calendar in front of us
- Work by type of activity - Filter to assignments, expand all, set all those open/close dates; Filter to quizzes, expand all, set all those open/close dates, etc
Saves a lot of time! See below for all the details.
Step-by-step guide
- From the course page, click Reports from the Course menu.
- Click Dates.
- The view will default to All activities. Use the Activity View Filter by clicking the drop down menu for Activity type to filter by the selected type. Do this before making changes or after you have saved any changes already made.
- Click a section title to expand it or click the Expand all link (top right) to expand all sections and display all the activities (that match the filter setting) along with the current date settings for each.
NOTE: If you don't see an activity you expect to, be sure the filter setting is not excluding it from view and that you have opened the section it is in. - Adjust the dates and times as necessary. Some of these may be disabled or may show the default date based on the activity settings. Click the checkbox to Enable setting a deadline by date and time.
Dates that can be set include:
• Allow submissions from (assignments cannot be submitted until after this date and time)
• Due date (assignments must be submitted before this date and time to not be considered late)
• Cut-off date (no submissions can be made after this date and time without an extension)
• Remind me to grade by (used to prioritize dashboard notifications for Teachers)
• Expect completed on (date and time set for Activity Completion)
A time of 00:00 is midnight at the beginning of the date specified, which will be shown to students as 12:00 AM. Be sure to make this clear to your students: if you set a Due date for 1 September 2023 at 12:00 AM, then the assignment must be submitted by 31 August 2023 at 11:59:59 PM to be on time. The latest time you can set for the end of the day is 23:59 (11:59 PM). Perhaps best to avoid student confusion (and excuses) with midnight due dates; many of us prefer to choose 11:59pm instead.
The Add restricted access link opens the Settings page for the activity in another browser tab or window. Because this opens all the settings for the Activity, we recommend you don't use this shortcut to change settings, since changes in one tab may cancel out changes made in the other. Finish adjusting the activity dates, Save changes, then return to the main course page and Turn editing on to edit settings for an activity.
6. Click Save changes at the top or bottom of the screen. Scroll down to check if there are any error messages in red text (typically when a date precedes one it should follow). If the course section headings are all collapsed, then there are no errors. If there is an error, the sections will remain open to display it. Correct any errors, then click Save changes again.
7. To return to the main course page:
• Click Course in the menu at the top of the page
• Click the Cancel button — AFTER YOU'VE CHECKED FOR ERRORS! If you click Cancel when an error message is displayed, your changes will not be saved.