This article describes how instructors can add google assignments to Canvas allowing students to work and submit from Google Workspace and for instructors to then grade assignments there. The key differences between using a regular Canvas assignment are:

• Students can create and submit their assignment entirely in Google Workspace and have its full suite of tools at hand;
• Instructors can markup, grade, and return assignments within the Google Workspace environment or with the Canvas Speedgrader;
• Google assignments originality reports can optionally check for missing citations and plagiarism against publicly available web pages (see notes below.)
  
  

Adding a Google Assignment

From the Assignments section, click the Add Assignment button:

Enter the assignment details -- name, points, assignment group, etc-- then set the submission type to "External Tool", then click the "find" button. Select Google Assignments (LTI 1.3) from the list.

A window will prompt you to link the assignment to your Google Account. Make sure your ualberta.ca account is the one listed here, not any personal Google account that your browser might also be signed into (click "switch account" if an incorrect one is listed) then click Continue:

The next screen will prompt you to select whether to check plagiarism, attach template files for submission if applicable, and you can select whether to grade in Google assignments or the Canvas Speedgrader. Choosing the speedgrader is effectively the same as grading a submitted pdf file in Canvas, the file is read-only but markups can be added on top. If you plan to use a Canvas rubric you must select the speedgrader option; alternatively Google has its own rubric system with a rubric editor, but these remain within the Google Assignments ecosystem. You can add a canvas rubric to an already-created Google assignment, but unless you have already specified grading via the Speedgrader,  it will be effectively nonfunctional as the assignments won't show up in the speedgrader. 

Once the details are entered, you will be returned to the configure external tool menu where you should click the Select button. 

You can complete any additional assignment details, then click Save or Save and Publish.

Grading submissions

Google assignments have their  own grading interface, accessible by clicking a submission shown in a submitted assignment. If the student submits a Google document, the submission will open in a google docs interface, set by default edit mode to "suggesting" so that instructors can add comments directly into document.

In both PDF submissions and Google doc files, there is an inline comment button but pdf submissions aren't otherwise editable:

Additional notes

• Submissions will appear in both students' and instructors' Google Drive, in a folder called Assignments>>[Coursename]>>[assignmentname]
• Both the student and instructor will own separate copies of the submission until it's returned
• Students aren't able to view comments or edits made in the grading interface until the assignment is returned
• Originality reports within Google Assignments provide students with the opportunity to improve their writing by checking for missed citations or poor paraphrasing against billions of publicly available web pages and books. These tools are provided by google and should be used at instructor's discretion.
  • Originality reports do not detect all accounts of unintentional plagiarism or uncited content and should not be relied upon as the sole method for ensuring the academic integrity of written work.
  • Additional vendor documentation is available at https://support.google.com/edu/assignments/answer/9369242
  • Originality report update December 2020: https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2020/12/originality-reports-improvements-education.html.