How do I allow a student to finish an Incomplete in a course?

You will learn how to arrange your course which has already finished to allow one particular student who has an Incomplete to complete the needed assignments or activities.

Options for you to choose from:

Add the student to a current term course.

If you have a section of the course running in the current term, you can manually enroll the student and they can take the exams or assignments on the same dates as the current students.

Follow this guide to manually enroll a student in your course.

Change the end date of the original course.

Follow these steps to change your course end date. Changing the end date will allow all of your students to access the course.

1. Enter your course.

course main page

2. Click on Settings in the Course Navigation.

Settings link

3. Scroll down to the Participation section.

Participation section

4. Adjust the End date as desired.

Alert: If your course's Participation field is set for "Term" instead of "Course", you will need to change it to "Course" before you can change the course end date.

End date being adjusted

5. Scroll down and click on Update Course Details.

Update Course Details button

You have now adjusted the course End Date. This should allow all of your students to access the course. However, you may still need to adjust due dates for any assignments or quizzes which the student with the incomplete needs to submit.

Add a new section to the original course.

Adding a new section, adding the student with the Incomplete to the new section, and then changing the assignment/quiz availability/due dates for that section will allow only that one student to take the needed quizzes or assignments. Other students would not be allowed to submit those assignments or quizzes.

Warning: You will only be allowed to add the student to a new section if the original course is still open. So, you may need to change the course end date first.

1. Enter your course.

course main page

2. Click on Settings in the Course Navigation.

Settings link

3. Click on the Settings tab.

Setting tab selected

4. Type a name for the new section.

Tip: you can make the name reflect the purpose of the section as a reminder for you as to why you have a second section in your course.

Add a New Section field

5. Click on + Section.

+ Section button

The new section has now been created. Now, it is time to add the student to that new section.

People link selected

7. Click on the + People button.

+ People button

8. Type the student's email address.

Email address field

9. Select the new section you just created from the Section dropdown menu.

For Incomplete course is selected

10. Click on the Next button.

Next button

11. Click on the Add Users button.

Add Users button

12. That one student is now listed in both sections.

People list showing student in both sections

You now have a second section for the course with the desired student. The next step is to add an "Assign to" for that new section for each Assignment or Quiz or other dated activity.

Follow these steps to learn how to Assign an Assignment or Quiz to a specific section.

1. Click on the Assignment or Quiz.

Final Exam link

2. Click on Edit.

Edit button

3. Scroll down to the Assign section and click on +Add.

+Add button

4. Select the new section in the Assign to dropdown menu.

For Incomplete section selected

If you want to add the Due date or availability dates, you can do that now before clicking on the Save button.

5. Click on Save.

Save button

You have now set up a second section, enrolled the student, and set the assignment or quiz, so that only that one student can submit.

Create a new course.

Follow these steps to create a new course, copy your assignment or activities from the original course, and enroll the desired student into that new course.

1. Create a new course.

Follow this guide to create a new course.

2. Import your exam or assignment into the new course.

Follow this guide to import content into your new course. Then, set due dates if desired.

3. Enroll the desired student into your new course.

You have now created a new course, imported selected content, and enrolled a student.

Article Summary

You have now learned how to set up your course or create a new one, so that your student who has an Incomplete can submit the required missing Assignments or Quizzes.