Last Updated July 2, 2025

Video Guide: How to Enable Discussion Checkpoints in Canvas

To enable Discussion Checkpoints, please follow the steps below.

  1. Navigate to your desired Canvas course. Select Discussions from the course navigation (yellow circle below).

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You can either edit a current discussion or add a new discussion to apply this feature.

  1. Next, select Add Discussion (yellow circle below).

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  1. Scroll down towards the bottom of the page. Beneath Options, select Graded (yellow circle below).

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  1. Once Graded has been selected, “Assign graded checkpoints” will become visible. Select Assign graded checkpoints (yellow circle below).

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  1. You may now assign points to the discussion under Checkpoint Settings.

    • Points Possible: Reply to Topic - This is the student’s first response to your discussion board

    • Additional Replies Required - This is the number of times that a student should respond to their peers

    • Points Possible: Additional Replies - Select how many points TOTAL the replies are worth

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  1. Next, set assign due dates within Assignment Settings. Students will see these due dates in Modules and in their To Do list, but we strongly recommend also advertising these dates in the Discussion Board instructions.

    • Reply to Topic Due Date: this is the date that the initial response is due. Will indicate if the initial response is on time or late, for grading purposes, but will not stop the student from responding

    • Required Replies Due Date: this is the date that all additional replies are due. Will indicate if the additional replies are on time or late, for grading purposes, but will not stop the student from responding

    • Available from: this is the date that students first have access to the discussion board. Any day before this date, students will not be able to read or reply to the discussion board

    • Until: this is the last date that a student can access the discussion board. After this date, students will not be able to reply to the discussion board itself, or to other students

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  1. When your Discussion Board appears as you wish, select ‘Save,’ or ‘Save and Publish’ if you are ready to make your content available for your students (yellow circle below).

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  • If copying course content from a previous semester, you must adjust the discussion due dates and save the changes before copying a discussion.