At the end of a course, students may be given the opportunity to resubmit assignments to improve their course scores. This document explains the process of getting your course set up for retakes, and features of Canvas that could be useful to you when running them.

Requesting the reopening of your course for retakes

Often, retakes happen after a course has concluded. Concluded courses assume a read-only state for students and facilitators, so the course must be reopened to enable users involved in retakes to engage in the course. To get your course reopened, please fill out the "Course Reopening Request" form on the Canvas staff support page. You will be required to enter the names and emails of students and facilitators engaged in retakes as part of completing the form.

Tip: You can access the Canvas staff support page from Canvas by visiting the "Help" menu in your global navigation bar to the left of any Canvas page and clicking on "Make a request".

What changes are made to your course?

When we receive a request for reopening a course for retakes, a new section named "Retakes" is created in your course. All students involved in the retake are added to the newly created section to enable us to open the course for them while keeping it closed for other students. It also enables facilitators to administer assignments only to students involved in the retakes. The "Retakes" section is set to conclude at the date specified by the requester, after which the course returns to the read-only state for students and facilitators involved in retakes.

Once your course has been prepped for retakes, you will receive a response letting you know that the users indicated in the request have received access to engage in the course.

Helpful Canvas features for organizing retakes

There are variations in how retakes are organized across programmes and courses. This makes it challenging to write a step-by-step process for successfully conducting retakes for your course. However, keeping the following features in mind while planning and executing retakes for your course will help you to be successful:

Excusing original assignments to be replaced by a retake
Assigning retake deliverables only to relevant students
Determining retake assignment weighting
Applying grade penalties for retakes

Excusing the original assignment

For most courses, retakes are organized by setting up an assignment to replace a summative assignment that was completed during the regular running of the course. In this case, it is important to let Canvas know to discount the original assignment grade in the student's final grade calculation, for any student involved in the retake. Excused assignments are not calculated as part of a student's total grade. Visit this page to learn how to excuse assignments for students: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-change-the-status-of-a-submission-in-the-Gradebook/ta-p/678

Assigning retake deliverables to relevant students

Canvas allows you to assign deliverables to individual students, sections, or to every student involved in your course. When conducting retakes, it is important to assign retake assignments only to the "Retakes" section of your course if all students involved in retakes are to complete the same assignment, or to individual students if there are different retake assignments for subgroups or individuals involved in the retake. This will ensure that final grades for students uninvolved in the retake are not affected by an unsubmitted retake assignment that was assigned to them after the course was concluded. Visit this link to learn how to assign deliverables to select groups or individual students: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-assign-an-assignment-to-a-course-section/ta-p/914

Determining retake assignment weighting

If your course makes use of assignment groups and weights, it is important to ensure that any retake assignments are set up with the correct weighting. As an example, if the retake assignment carries the same weight as the assignment it replaces, the retake assignment can be placed in the same assignment group as the original assignment, given the same number of total achievable points, and the original assignment excused for the student. This will give the retake assignment the same weight as the original assignment in the calculation of the student's final grade. Visit this link to learn more about assignment groups and weighting: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-weight-the-final-course-grade-based-on-assignment/ta-p/746

Applying grade penalties for retakes

For some courses, there are grade penalties applied to retake assignments. Canvas does not have the ability to apply a penalty to a graded assignment, so facilitators must first work out the student's final grade after applying the penalty, and then enter it manually in Speedgrader or in the Gradebook.