Original Article: https://clt.champlain.edu/kb/canvas-time-zone-faqs-for-faculty/ This article is written for faculty, but the information is useful for students with Time Zone questions too. |
In Canvas, you can set your own time zone as a user; this means that Canvas dates are localized to display to you in your local time zone.
For instance, an instructor sets a due date for 11:59pm Eastern Time. A student in the course on the West coast, who set their time zone preferences, will see the assignment as due at 8:59pm. (In temporary situations like flex-hybrid, students may need a reminder to set their time zone.)
Pro Tip: Set your time zone preferences to match that of the school’s. |
There are a few potential problems with time zones in a course:
A student in a different time zone has to turn in the assignment at a different time for them to avoid the assignment being late; this may be confusing if the instructor refers to an assignment being due at a specific time in announcements or other communications.
An assignment or activity uses the availability features of Canvas, so a student could be locked out of an activity at an earlier time in their time zone.
Avoid setting “available until” dates/times. As long as an availability date isn’t set, an assignment can be turned in late. If an assignment is turned in after the due date in Canvas, Canvas will make a note in SpeedGrader that it was late.
In this example the assignment due date is 11:59pm (EST). If a student on the West coast turns in an assignment at 11:59PM (PST), Canvas will show it as being turned in at 2:59AM (EST) the next day. SpeedGrader will inform the instructor that the assignment was turned in late.
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