Due Date Tracker Widget
The Due Date Tracker helps students keep track of their upcoming due dates across multiple courses. It displays all quizzes, assignments, checklists, discussions, etc., with assigned due dates in one place on their homepage. When a student completes or submits an item on the list, that work is removed from the widget.
The Due Date Tracker can appear in two places for students: on their main dashboard and (if enabled by the instructor) within an individual course. On the main dashboard, students will see due dates from all their courses, providing a full view of their workload. When viewed within an individual course (and if enabled by the instructor), the widget will only display due dates for that specific course.
Any overdue work that a student has not yet completed will appear at the top of the list. Once they complete their overdue work, the task will be automatically removed from their Due Date Tracker. Tasks will also “expire” from their view of the Due Date Tracker if they are more than 4 weeks overdue.
- What's a widget?
- What content does the Due Date Tracker track?
- What’s the difference between a “due date” and an “end date”?
- How do I add the Due Date Tracker to my course homepage, showcasing individual course due dates?
- What are students saying about the Due Date Tracker?
What's a widget?
A widget is a customizable content block that allows you to add various types of information and tools to your eLC course homepage. Widgets can display items like announcements, calendars, and course updates for easy access by both instructors and students. By customizing your course homepage, you are able to modify the widgets on your homepage.
What content does the Due Date Tracker track?
The Due Date Tracker automatically displays any course content that has a due date attached to it. This means that it can keep track of assignments, quizzes, checklists, discussions, and even modules and course content – provided you assign a due date for that item in eLC. The widget also works automatically: it will pick up anything in your course that has a due date assigned to it. As a result, you don’t need to change how you use eLC for students to be able to take advantage of this widget. However, students may still need to check individual courses and syllabi to be aware of all possible due dates and tasks for their courses.
What’s the difference between a “due date” and an “end date”?
eLC allows instructors to give course items both due dates and end dates. These have similar, but different meanings and purposes.
Due Dates:
- Determine when students should complete a specific activity.
- Display in your course calendar and in the Due Date Tracker.
- Students can still access and complete activities after the due date, but their submission will be labeled as “overdue.”
- Help students understand when they should be completing tasks and how they should pace their work.
- Allow the Due Date Tracker to automatically track the item.
End Dates:
- Determine the window of access for a specific activity.
- Once an end date passes, students cannot access or submit to the relevant activity.
- Will no longer appear on the Due Date Tracker after its end date passes.
- Useful if your course does not allow for late submissions of certain tasks or assignments.
You do not have to set both a due date and an end date for your course activities, but you are free to do so.
How do I add the Due Date Tracker to my course homepage, showcasing individual course due dates?
The Due Date Tracker widget automatically appears for all students on their eLC dashboard and is populated with upcoming due dates from all of their active courses. Instructors can also add the Due Date Tracker widget to an individual course homepage, giving students a view of upcoming and overdue tasks specific to your course.
To do this you can either:
- Change the active course homepage: Navigate to Course Admin then Homepages. Use the drop-down under “Active Homepage” to select " Default Course Homepage with Due Date Tracker”. Click the Apply button to complete.
- Manually insert the Due Date Tracker widget onto your existing course homepage.
What are students saying about the Due Date Tracker?
During Summer 2024 classes, we asked students to tell us what they think of the new Due Date Tracker. Here are some of the things they said!
- “It is a great addition that will help me stay organized. I hope this new widget will encourage faculty to add due dates to make students' lives easier (plus teachers won’t have to waste time emailing students back who ask about due dates/where assignments are located).”
- “I think this is an excellent idea and I've been saying to my friends that eLC should implement something like this for a long time.”
- “It is a lot easier to understand when things are due and to stay organized.”
- “The number of times I have almost missed assignments because different things are due in different places in ELC is crazy! It is not that I am lazy or procrastinating, it just felt like assignments were hidden in different tabs in ELC and there was not a centralized way for each class to see 'here is what is due and when.' This solves that problem!”