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This week’s Weekly Canvas Tip will cover some important techniques to consider when doing your end-of-semester grading in Canvas.
Note that some of these same tips will apply when setting up your grading system at the beginning of the semester.
1. Set a policy for late and missing submissions
It is easy to set policies for automatically grading missing and late submissions in the Canvas Gradebook. There are multiple options for grading a missing or a late assignment. You can
- exclude the assessment from grading,
- Count it as zero, or
- Automatically apply a minimum score.
For more on the process of setting late and missing submissions, visit the following Canvas resources:
2. Use Speedgrader to grade quickly and efficiently
Speedgrader is a browser-based tool that allows you to mark directly on a student’s submission. In Speedgrader, you can annotate, assign a grade, use a rubric, and comment on students’ work.
For more on the topic of Speedgrader, visit the following resource:
3. Use assignment groups to organize and weight your final grades
In Canvas, you can add Assignments to different categories called Assignment Groups. If you choose the Weight Final Grades Based on Assignment Groups option, you can allocate a specific percentage of the final grades for the course to each group. For instance, writing assignments can account for 20% of students’ final grade, the Final exam for 30% , etc.
For more information on using the “Assignment Groups” feature, visit the following resource:
4. Set your course grading scheme so Canvas can calculate letter grades.
Canvas can calculate a cumulative or course letter grade for each student that maps to a numbered scale. For this feature, you have to set a grading scheme. For example, you may say that 90-93 is an A- and > 94 is an A.
The grading scheme defined in your Canvas course must match what is in your syllabus. There is a default grading scheme in Canvas, so you must check and modify it if needed.
There are also premade Ithaca College grading schemes for undergraduate and graduate courses that are available for you to choose.
How do I enable the course grading scheme?
In your left navigation click Settings. Click the Course Details tab and check the Enable course grading scheme box. Then select View Grading Scheme to view the default grading scheme.
If this does not match your syllabus, you may Select Another Scheme. There you will see the Ithaca College grading scheme options. If you would like to create your own, click Manage Grading Schemes.
IMPORTANT NOTE: To avoid confusion, when first testing out your grading scheme, make sure that Total grades are hidden from students until you check to see if the course grades generated look correct.
To hide Total grades from students, click on Settings in the left-hand navigation. Click Course Details, scroll to the bottom and click more options. Check the box marked Hide Totals in Student Grades Summary.
For more information on enabling and setting a grading scheme for your course, visit the following resource:
5. Add grades for assignments outside of Canvas
You may need to add grades for assignments not submitted in Canvas, such as if you delivered assignments to students in-class or assigned them via an External Tool such as VoiceThread.
These assignment settings include On-paper, No Submission, and External Tool.
For more on the topic of creating assignment columns for non-submission assignments, visit the following resource:
6. Override grades if necessary
You may need to override grades calculated by Canvas to adjust a students’ final grades.
NOTE: You may need to adjust your Settings in Gradebook to see the override column, as overriding grades is an opt-in course feature. Go to the Gradebook and click Settings, then Advanced, and check the Enable Final Grade Override box.
The override column displays at the far right and can be adjusted manually.
For more information on overriding student final grades, visit the following resource:
In this Weekly Tip, we covered some time-saving options to consider when grading and setting up your grading system in Canvas.
For a more general overview on the Gradebook in Canvas, visit the following resources:
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