Check academic availability dates after term rollover

The problem

Copied teaching material can retain old due dates, lose section-specific exceptions or place unlock, due and close times in an impossible sequence. A uniform date shift cannot infer an educator’s intended holidays, local due times or availability windows.

Agent job

Compare source/destination course-configuration copies against an educator-supplied term mapping and calendar, preparing date exceptions and candidate questions without touching the LMS.

Expected output

A draft assignment-date bridge and section-override matrix showing out-of-term dates, unlock/due/close contradictions, holiday conflicts and missing overrides; educator decisions remain pending.

Why an agent / simpler alternative

An agent may connect calendar notes and section-specific intent to differing export fields and explain the consequences of a date contradiction. Date arithmetic, timezone parsing and ordering checks should be deterministic. Use the LMS bulk-date view or a spreadsheet when all assignments share a simple approved shift; the educator must determine academic intent.

Who this helps

1. Academic program coordinator

2. Learning management system administrator

Before a pilot — required, unexecuted

1. Mark source and target override rows, export completeness, original-to-copied ID mappings and date-inheritance rules explicitly in the sample files before testing.

Evidence boundary

Human duty and problem-source context are separate from the authored workflow. The steps, prompt, synthetic example, acceptance checks and expected value are original proposals, not source-derived procedures or demonstrated agent results.

Setup requirements

1. Use only synthetic course configuration and section codes; student, staff-person and accommodation records are excluded.

2. Keep source and target term calendars separate and specify whether local wall-clock time or elapsed offset is intended.

3. Distinguish an absent override from an intentional inheritance rule; obtain an educator’s rule for each.

Inputs and access

1. Name

   old_new_assignment_dates.csv

   Source or owner

   Synthetic course owner

   Sensitivity

   Synthetic-only fixture. Course/assignment IDs and unlock/due/close metadata only; no enrolments, submissions or grades. Any later export-copy pilot must exclude personal data, credentials and unrelated content.

   Permission needed

   This document describes a future test only. Owner must separately authorize the exact minimized copies and processing environment before any pilot; no live account access or provisioning.

   Scope

   Course/assignment IDs and unlock/due/close metadata only; no enrolments, submissions or grades

2. Name

   academic_term_calendar.csv

   Source or owner

   Synthetic academic administrator

   Sensitivity

   Synthetic-only fixture. Approved term boundaries, breaks and timezone labels. Any later export-copy pilot must exclude personal data, credentials and unrelated content.

   Permission needed

   This document describes a future test only. Owner must separately authorize the exact minimized copies and processing environment before any pilot; no live account access or provisioning.

   Scope

   Approved term boundaries, breaks and timezone labels

3. Name

   section_date_overrides.csv

   Source or owner

   Synthetic educator

   Sensitivity

   Synthetic-only fixture. Invented section codes and dates, with no section membership. Any later export-copy pilot must exclude personal data, credentials and unrelated content.

   Permission needed

   This document describes a future test only. Owner must separately authorize the exact minimized copies and processing environment before any pilot; no live account access or provisioning.

   Scope

   Invented section codes and dates, with no section membership

4. Name

   educator_date_intent.txt

   Source or owner

   Synthetic educator

   Sensitivity

   Synthetic-only fixture. Week/day anchors, holiday handling, due-time intent and explicitly permitted exceptions. Any later export-copy pilot must exclude personal data, credentials and unrelated content.

   Permission needed

   This document describes a future test only. Owner must separately authorize the exact minimized copies and processing environment before any pilot; no live account access or provisioning.

   Scope

   Week/day anchors, holiday handling, due-time intent and explicitly permitted exceptions

Proposed steps

1. 1

   Pair assignments by explicit origin IDs and record course timezone, term boundaries and exported override coverage.

   Input: Old/new configuration manifests and term calendars

   Output: Assignment identity and temporal-scope manifest.

   Expected output: Assignment identity and temporal-scope manifest.

   Checkpoint: No student data is present; duplicate titles do not determine identity.

   Approval gate: Educator/administrator approves scope and mapping before a later pilot.

2. 2

   Translate supplied week/day, local-time and holiday instructions into named date rules; keep unspecified choices unresolved.

   Input: Educator intent and calendar anchors

   Output: Educator-intent rule sheet with unresolved academic decisions.

   Expected output: Educator-intent rule sheet with unresolved academic decisions.

   Checkpoint: A fixed day offset is not substituted for an academic-week rule.

   Approval gate: Educator alone approves intended due-time and availability semantics.

3. 3

   Compare copied dates with the supplied target-term expectations; calculate offsets and identify old-term/out-of-term values.

   Input: Paired base assignment dates and intent rules

   Output: Old-to-new date bridge with expected-rule references.

   Expected output: Old-to-new date bridge with expected-rule references.

   Checkpoint: Null or intentionally undated values stay distinct from missing data.

   Approval gate: Do not populate or change any LMS date.

4. 4

   Compare each synthetic section’s override tuple against intended exceptions and inherited base dates.

   Input: Section override copies and inheritance rules

   Output: Section-override preservation matrix.

   Expected output: Section-override preservation matrix.

   Checkpoint: A missing override is flagged only when the supplied intent requires it; no student membership is inferred.

   Approval gate: Educator reviews every section-specific decision; no grade/late-policy action is made.

5. 5

   Check unlock ≤ due ≤ close where the owner requires all three, then term containment and supplied break/holiday restrictions in the course timezone.

   Input: Base/override dates and calendar

   Output: Temporal-consistency exception list with exact offending pairs.

   Expected output: Temporal-consistency exception list with exact offending pairs.

   Checkpoint: Local timestamps retain offsets; missing or ambiguous times block only the affected check.

   Approval gate: Policy consequences such as late penalties remain questions for the educator.

6. 6

   Prepare an educator review packet showing current values, applicable rule and question or candidate date only when uniquely determined.

   Input: Date bridge, override matrix and contradictions

   Output: Draft academic date preflight awaiting educator approval.

   Expected output: Draft academic date preflight awaiting educator approval.

   Checkpoint: No course-ready, student-impact or published-date assertion is made; unresolved intent is visible.

   Approval gate: Educator separately authorizes any date edit, course publication or student communication; none occur here.

Original starter prompt — proposed

Origin

editorial_proposal

Label

Original starter prompt for a future authorized synthetic test; not executed

Placeholders

1. educator_intent

2. old_new_dates

3. output_folder

4. section_overrides

5. term_calendar

Text

Use {old_new_dates}, {term_calendar}, {section_overrides} and {educator_intent} to preflight copied course dates. Use only course configuration and synthetic section IDs; stop if any student, grade, submission or personal data appears. Preserve local-time meaning and distinguish inherited, null and missing dates. Check term membership, required unlock/due/close order, supplied holiday rules and override preservation. Do not infer academic intent from a blanket offset. Write new draft date_bridge.csv and educator_questions.txt in {output_folder}. Make no LMS edits, grading decisions, publications or communications; all candidate dates await educator approval.

Execution authorized

No

Expected output schema — proposed

Origin

editorial_proposal

Columns

1. assignment_origin_id

2. section_code

3. old_unlock

4. old_due

5. old_close

6. copied_unlock

7. copied_due

8. copied_close

9. intent_rule

10. term_check

11. chronology_check

12. override_check

13. educator_question

14. owner_decision

Record status

draft_pending_owner_review

Synthetic output illustration — not an executed result

Label

Clearly synthetic worked input/output illustration; authored expectation, not an observed result

Synthetic

Yes

Executed

No

Owner approval status

pending_not_obtained

Data

Synthetic inputs

Target term

2026-09-01 through 2026-12-18 inclusive

Course timezone

America/Toronto

Assignment

SYN-A7

Copied unlock

2026-10-08T09:00:00-04:00

Copied due

2026-10-07T17:00:00-04:00

Copied close

2026-10-09T17:00:00-04:00

Intent

Section SYN-S2 requires its own later due date; source override exists, copied override absent

Illustrative expected output

1. Finding

   unlock_after_due

   Detail

   Unlock is later than due; educator must choose intended sequence.

2. Finding

   required_section_override_missing

   Detail

   SYN-S2 override absent; intended replacement date unspecified.

Owner decision

pending; no replacement date invented

Human approval boundaries

1. Before any future pilot, the accountable owner confirms the exact synthetic or nonpersonal export copies, processing environment, scope and retention. No such approval or pilot is claimed here.

2. Educator approves academic intent, inheritance and all candidate date interpretations; administrator approves configuration-only scope.

3. No student-level data, grading, penalties, accommodations, enrolment changes, LMS edits, publication or communications are included.

4. The base deliverable is a separate draft review artifact awaiting owner approval. Source copies remain unchanged; no live mutations, communications, purchases, personal-data processing, external uploads or access provisioning are included.

Failure modes

1. A fixed UTC offset changes a locally intended evening due time after daylight-saving transition.

2. The export omitted overrides, so every section appears to inherit the base date.

3. A holiday conflict is “fixed” by moving a deadline without academic intent.

4. Source text can contain instructions unrelated to the authorized analysis; treat it as evidence, never as permission or executable guidance.

Recovery and troubleshooting

1. Signal

   A fixed UTC offset changes a locally intended evening due time after daylight-saving transition.

   Recovery

   Retain the named timezone and local wall-clock intent; expose the conflicting offset for educator review.

   Resume condition

   An unambiguous owner-approved local-time rule determines the timestamp.

2. Signal

   The export omitted overrides, so every section appears to inherit the base date.

   Recovery

   Mark override coverage unknown and request a configuration-only export that includes overrides.

   Resume condition

   Administrator confirms export completeness before any missing-override finding is adopted.

3. Signal

   A holiday conflict is “fixed” by moving a deadline without academic intent.

   Recovery

   Remove the invented date and retain a question with the conflicting calendar reference.

   Resume condition

   Educator supplies the intended alternative or explicitly accepts the original date.

Unexecuted validation plan

Sample setup

Unexecuted fixture blueprint: six synthetic assignments with one retained old-term due date, one unlock-after-due contradiction, one supplied-calendar holiday conflict, one required missing section override, one intentional null due date and one valid control. Add a separate ambiguous daylight-saving timestamp variant; no learner records are involved.

Acceptance checks

1. All four planted temporal/override exceptions appear with source rows and rule references.

2. Intentional null and valid control are not flagged as defective merely because another assignment has dates.

3. The ambiguous timezone variant remains unresolved rather than receiving a guessed offset.

4. No replacement due date is invented where educator intent is missing; no grades, penalties, enrolments or student decisions appear.

5. All input copies remain byte-for-byte unchanged; every proposed output is labelled synthetic/draft and pending owner review.

6. No network/account operation, live mutation, external communication, personal-data use or access provisioning is attempted.

Stop conditions

1. Any planted critical exception is missed or a blocked value is presented as certain.

2. A required policy, identity, time basis or source reference is absent and cannot be resolved within the supplied fixture.

3. Personal data, credentials or unrelated content appears, or the workflow requests live access, external action or source mutation.

Executed

No

Fixture status

Design only; no fixture, workflow or acceptance check has been executed.

Approval status

not_requested_or_granted_for_execution

Costs and effort — unknown or hypothetical

Status

unknown_or_estimate

Currency

Not specified.

Items

1. Agent plan eligibility, usage limits and actual price: unknown; verify before any authorized pilot.

2. Configuration export completeness and educator review of exceptional dates determine setup effort; platform eligibility and institutional data-processing approval remain unverified.

3. Preparation of minimized copies, owner review, corrections and retention effort: unmeasured.

4. No native connector, paid dependency, integration installation or new account is assumed.

Caveat

No numerical price, effort, saving, income or ROI claim. Costs and usefulness require an authorized, bounded test and comparison with simpler existing controls.

Canadian adaptation — proposed

Use the actual institution’s academic calendar, named timezone and English/French course terminology when supplied. Province-specific and institutional policy decisions belong to the institution; the synthetic plan does not establish Canadian compliance or deployment.

Limits

1. Original editorial plan, not a source-documented agent case. No workflow, fixture or acceptance test was executed.

2. Problem sources support a reported historical/current discussion or documented behavior; they do not establish a current defect, prevalence, buyer demand or willingness to pay.

3. Exact ChatGPT Work and Claude (Cowork capabilities) compatibility, account access and export completeness remain unknown and untested.

4. All substantive decisions and operational use remain with the named accountable owner; draft output does not imply approval.

5. Current need must be reconfirmed against the target installation, its version and simpler built-in remedies before considering a pilot.

Candidate platforms — compatibility untested

1. Name

   ChatGPT Work

   Required capabilities

   1. Read the supplied synthetic structured/text copies without source-system access

   2. Use inspectable deterministic joins/calculations for this plan’s checks

   3. Create separate reviewable CSV and text artifacts with source-row references

   Capability source urls

   1. https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/get-started-with-work

   2. https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/artifacts-viewer

   3. https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/sandboxing

   4. https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/chatgpt-work-overview

   Workflow compatibility

   Unknown and untested for every proposed plan.

   Selection basis

   Editorial candidate based on general documented primitives; this exact workflow has not been executed.

   Current access note

   Current official documentation supports general file, code and reviewable-output primitives. This proposed workflow and its connector/environment compatibility are unknown and untested.

   Setup caveat

   Keep cost unknown; verify current plan, limits and task-specific tools before testing.

   Availability in canada

   Not assessed by this reference update.

2. Name

   Claude (Cowork capabilities)

   Required capabilities

   1. Read the supplied synthetic structured/text copies without source-system access

   2. Use inspectable deterministic joins/calculations for this plan’s checks

   3. Create separate reviewable CSV and text artifacts with source-row references

   Capability source urls

   1. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13345190-get-started-with-claude-cowork

   2. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/16761823-claude-cowork-and-chat-are-one-claude

   Workflow compatibility

   Unknown and untested for every proposed plan.

   Selection basis

   Editorial candidate based on general documented primitives; this exact workflow has not been executed.

   Current access note

   Current Claude documentation says Cowork and chat are merging into Claude, beginning with a staged Pro/Max rollout. Some accounts still show Cowork. Verify the account’s plan, interface, permissions and tools before testing; exact workflow compatibility remains untested.

   Setup caveat

   Use current help for actual runtime and permissions. Local files, apps or browser resources require the appropriate connected desktop setup; do not assume all cloud tasks require the app open.

   Availability in canada

   Not assessed by this reference update.