Why does a submission on Teams Assignment say student can edit for one student but not another?

Hi @Phoebe-N thanks for your reply that's really helpful. Can i just ask additionally, as when i look at the View History for Student A it's not showing anything other than Assigned, Viewed and Turned In. Should it not show here that she's undone Turn In and Re submitted in the View History?

The View History does not reflect that the student has changed/edited the submission - the Turned in Date is 30/9/2025 see below:

However, the versions stored in submitted files for this student in SharePoint indicate that versions have been saved up until 1/10/2025. There are an additional 28 versions included in the SharePoint Submitted Work folder for this student.

It's just concerning that given that students are able to make changes up until the assignment is either graded or returned, does this present the possibility that students have a period between submission deadline date and when the teacher actually grades it (this could include a 2 week period) to alter their work and potentially this is not shown on the View History? Given the View History screenshot above, the changes have been made and stored in SharePoint aren't showing, how would the teacher know that the student has changed the work without also having to check SharePoint Submitted files?

Thanks again for your help.

Mel

Hi @Mel Newell

Thank you for your detailed observation. 

Regarding your concern, View History in Teams only logs assignment status updates such as Assigned, Viewed, Turned In, and Returned. If a student modifies their file after turning it in, those changes won’t appear in View History. Instead, they are captured in SharePoint Version History. 

Additionally, the 28 additional versions you see in SharePoint confirm that the student continued editing after the initial Turn In date. 

Until the teacher grades or returns the assignment, students retain edit access to their submitted files. This means changes can be made between the due date and grading, without being reflected in Teams’ View History.  

To review changes made to a student’s assignment, teachers can: 

1. Navigate to the Class Team > Files > Submitted Work folder in SharePoint. 
2. Find the student’s file, click the ellipsis (…), then select Version History. 

This will display a detailed log of all edits, including timestamps and the name of the editor. 

The ability for students to continue editing assignments after submission is a known behavior in Microsoft Teams for Education and has been reported by other users. A 

Please understand that as a forum moderator, I can't make any direct changes to Microsoft products. 

If you'd like Microsoft to consider changing this functionality, such as allowing teachers to control whether students can edit after submitting, I recommend submitting feedback through the Microsoft Teams Feedback Portal. Your valuable feedback is crucial for future improvements which are based on user needs. 

Once you've submitted your post, please share the link with me. I’ll be sure to give it an upvote to help amplify your voice.

Thank you for your great questions and understanding. If there are any other concerns, please reach out to me. 

Hi @Mel Newell

Good day! I hope you're doing well! 

It has been a while and i am writing to see how things are going with this issue. Have you had a chance to check the reply provided?

Please feel free to let me know if there are any updates or if you need any further support. 

Thank you so much for your time and kindness. 

Hi @Phoebe-N apologies for the delay. Thanks for your detailed response it's really helpful. I will raise this as feedback through the Microsoft Portal as this makes no sense from an education point of view - awarding bodies and teachers would require submitted work be safeguarded against changes once works has been submitted for grading (irrespective if this is submitted prior to the deadline) this calls into question the authenticity of submitted work on Teams.

Can I just check, would the editing capability apply to any Teams Assignment created. For example, if a teacher creates an assignment activity, but does not attach any documents, or if they do these are set to read only, would the student be able to edit the document they submit after they have turned it in?

Thanks again for you help and support.

Mel

Hi @Mel Newell

Thank you for your inquiry regarding assignment submission behavior in Microsoft Teams for Education. We appreciate your attention to safeguarding the integrity of student work, particularly in contexts involving formal assessment and grading. 

In Microsoft Teams for Education, students are permitted to edit their submitted work after clicking Turn in, provided the assignment has not yet been graded or returned by the educator.

Referring to the official article Assignments and grades in your class team, the read-only setting applies exclusively to teacher-provided materials and does not restrict the student’s ability to modify their own uploaded or created files. As a result, any document submitted by the student remains editable until the assignment is formally graded or returned. 

Microsoft’s current design supports flexibility in learning workflows, allowing students to revise submissions prior to grading. However, we recognize that this may present challenges in scenarios where submission authenticity is critical. 

To mitigate this, educators may consider the following best practices: 

• Promptly grade or return assignments to lock submissions. 
• Encourage students to submit work in non-editable formats such as PDF. 
• Utilize version history in SharePoint or OneDrive to monitor changes. 
• Clearly communicate expectations regarding submission deadlines and post-submission edits. 

We acknowledge the importance of this issue and encourage you to share feedback directly with Microsoft via the Feedback Portal to support ongoing improvements to the platform. 

Should you require assistance configuring assignment settings or implementing safeguarding measures, please do not hesitate to contact us.