You open Canvas, the To Do list looks short, and then you find out something was due yesterday. It happens a lot. Here are the usual reasons the To Do list leaves things out.
Common reasons assignments are missing
It doesn't look far ahead
The To Do list on the Dashboard focuses on the next several days. A project due in two weeks may not appear until it's close.
The work has no due date
If a teacher posts a reading or worksheet without setting a due date, Canvas has nothing to put on the list.
It isn't a Canvas assignment
Some teachers post tasks inside a Page, a Module, a PDF, or an outside tool. Those usually don't create To Do items.
You dismissed it, or it counts as submitted
Clicking the X removes an item from the list. And once something is submitted, it drops off even if you meant to revise it.
The course is hidden or not published
Courses you've hidden from your Dashboard, or that a teacher hasn't published yet, may not feed the list.
A Canvas glitch
It's rare, but schools have reported times when the To Do list showed wrong items for everyone until Canvas fixed it. If your list looks very wrong, check the course page and your Calendar.
How to stop relying on it
- Check the Calendar weekly. It shows every course's dated work, further ahead than the To Do list.
- Read each syllabus once at the start of the semester and add anything without a Canvas due date to your own list.
- Use your Calendar Feed in a list app. lum9a reads your Canvas feed and keeps everything with a date in one checklist. Add the undated stuff yourself in plain words, like "read ch 4 by Thursday".