Key Concepts for Grading in Canvas
This guide provides an overview of how grading works in Canvas. Specific how -to information on the sections below may be found in the Canvas Instructor Guide.
The Grades function within Canvas allows you to maintain all of your grades online. It provides a robust tool for tasks typically done in a spreadsheet application, making it possible to keep all grading online.
Steps to organize your Gradebook
To enter your grade book, click on the Grades link on your course menu (left of your screen). A list of your students appears on the left side, once you enroll your students, with columns to the right for any learning activity you have set-up to be assessed within Canvas.
Note: The only column created by default in your Gradebook is the Total column. It serves the purpose of calculating the total value of graded assignments in your course. The Total column can be weighted based on the way your graded assignments are grouped. The Total column can be used with the course’s letter grade scheme in order to calculate student final letter grades in your course.
1. Start by creating “Assignment Groups”
2. Correlate your grading scheme for the letter grades
In Canvas, you create a grading scheme instead of typing letters into your Gradebook or the SpeedGrader. The grading scheme correlates percentage ranges or scores to specific letter grades. You can enable the default grading Canvas scheme or create your own grading scheme in your Canvas course, then enable your custom grading scheme.
Use the following:
- Enter and edit grades in the Gradebook guide
- Add a grading scheme in a course
- Watch the grading scheme video (2m 37s) on Vimeo
3. Manage unique calculations (e.g., drop lowest score) in assignment groups
4. To add a Gradebook column, create an Assignment first
The gradebook in Canvas is a blank slate until you create the assignments (see the difference between assignments and learning in Canvas).
You add columns to the gradebook by adding assignments. The easiest way to remember is that Assignments = Gradebook Columns. Once you create an Assignment, Canvas automatically includes it in the Gradebook, Calendar, Assignments, and Syllabus pages.
Assignments can be:
- Both graded (published assignments, graded discussions, graded quizzes, and surveys) and ungraded assignments (practice quizzes, ungraded surveys, and not graded assignments).
- As simple as just a name, due date, and point score; or, it can include instructions, open and close dates.
Submissions for assignments can be:
- online (through Canvas),
- on-paper (in-person),
- or no-submission (to create extra columns in the Gradebook, or when you want to create an assignment that involves multiple scores).
Tip: No Submission and On Paper assignments still appear to students on their Assignments page. To avoid confusion, you should note it in the assignment description, so students will know whether a submission is required and how they are supposed to submit it.
5. Assign either a point value or percentage to the graded assignments
- An assignment is only calculated into the grade after it is graded, so you should grade it or input a 0. (if the instructor does not input a 0, then the final grade will not reflect how poorly the student is doing).
- Treat Ungraded as 0s” will NOT affect the grade for the student. It is only a display change for the gradebook.
6. Discover what the colors and icons in the gradebook mean
The most common color you will notice is pink, which denotes late assignment submissions. Icons appearing in the gradebook indicate both that the submission has been made by the student, as well as what the submission type is. For an explanation of the icons and colors in the Gradebook, view the How do I use the icons and colors in the Gradebook? web guide.
7. Offer extra credit
There are several easy ways to offer extra credit: Create a no-submission assignment with 0 total points and add points to it, add extra points to an existing assignment, as well as the following:
- Add extra points to a quiz using Fudge points within SpeedGrader™, view the How do I use quiz fudge points in SpeedGrader? web guide
- Create an extra credit category on a rubric, view the How do I create a rubric in a course? web guide
- Create extra credit assignment inside an Assignment Group
For additional assistance, read through the How to give an extra credit in a course? web guide.
8. Calculate the Course Final Grade (in Canvas)
- Use the Assignment Groups
- Use Weighting Grades
- Use Grading Rules
- Enable the Grading Scheme (Table 2), read through the following web guides:
9. Calculate the Course Final Grade in a spreadsheet (out-of-Canvas)
For your customized grade calculations outside of canvas, you can download the gradebook calculate the grades and upload your calculated grades back into the Canvas gradebook. To use this out-of-Canvas system, do the following steps
- Create at least two assignment groups and check the option to weight the final grade by assignment group.
- Set the weight for one group at 0% and the other at 100%
- Place all of your assignments in the group that is weighted at 0%
- Create a no-submission assignment for the custom final grade in the group weighted at 100%
- Download the gradebook as a CSV file and use Excel to calculate your own unique grading scenario with the final grade appearing in a column that will match with the custom final grade column you created in Canvas.
- Import the spreadsheet into Canvas to populate the custom column.
Note: For steps 5 and 6 you can also use some other method to calculate grades and either import a spreadsheet or type the grades in by hand. Either way, because the custom final grade column is all by itself in an assignment group weighted at 100% of the grade, Canvas’s final score column will pull its score directly from it as an exact match. All you need to do now is customize your grading scheme in your course settings to reflect your own letter-grade breakdown, and you have successfully posted grades calculated by your own algorithm.
10. End of Semester: Don't Forget to Download the Gradebook
Learner-Centered gradebook practices
1. Hide Assignments in the Gradebook before doing any grading
By default, students can see results in their Grades tab as soon as their submission is graded. If you want all students to see grades at the same time, rather than live as you enter them, use the three dots on individual assignments in the gradebook to alter the Grade Posting Policy and then select to Manually release grades. After all the grading for that assignment is done, return to the three-dot menu and select Post Grades. View the following web guides:
- How do I select a grade posting policy for an assignment in the Gradebook?
- How do I post grades for an assignment in the Gradebook?
- How do I hide grades for an assignment in the Gradebook?
- How do I select a grade posting policy for a course in the Gradebook?
2. Hide the total column (it is visible to students by default)
3. Excuse a student from an assignment
If needed, a student may be excused from assignments, discussions, or quizzes. Excused items are not calculated as part of the student’s total grade. To use this feature in the gradebook, find the cell for the appropriate student and assignment, type “EX” in that cell, and then press the Enter key. Read through this via the How do I excuse an assignment for a student in the Gradebook? web guide.
4. Make a note about student progress
You can use the notes column to keep track of information in your course that is important to student assessment or growth such as student effort, student challenges, SIS (Student Information Service) IDs, or any other general notes. Students are not able to see notes column. You may toggle between the show/hide notes column link without losing your notes. View the How do I use the Notes column in the Gradebook? web guide.
Tip: Students can view their grades based on “What-If” scores so that they know how grades will be affected by upcoming or resubmitted assignments. They can test scores for an assignment that already includes a score, or an assignment that has yet to be graded. To learn more about this feature, visit How do I approximate my assignment scores using the What-If Grades feature? Web guide.
Self-Paced Canvas Videos
To become more acquainted with the Gradebook:
- Read the How do I use the New Gradebook web guide and
- View the Canvas Gradebook Overview video (7m 55s)
To learn more about Assignments:
- View the What are Assignments? web guide
- View the Canvas Assignment Overview video (5m 29s)
Canvas-led Training Workshop at Iowa State:
In September 2017, CELT hosted Erin Wasson, Canvas Trainer, to facilitate key workshop topics; view the Canvas-lead Grading and Assignments training video (1h 14m).