This Article Breaks Up the Canvas Gradebook into Manageable Sections. For a more exhaustive coverage of the Canvas Gradebook, please see the Canvas article "How do I use the Gradebook" linked below this box.
Managing Gradebook Categories and Totals Columns
Many professors compose a student's total grade by combining different categories such as quizzes, homework, participation, and the like. To review these categories in Canvas, simply navigate to the "Assignments" tab. Once there, any bolded and grey bar that you see is a category in your students' overall grade. Any assignments nested under one of these headers will be calculated as part of that category.
Step 1: Many unnecessary and duplicate categories came over from Blackboard during the transition. Instead of hiding these, we highly recommend deleting them. To do this, navigate to the three buttons to the right on the header. Once you click on those three dots, you will see a "Delete" button. Click it.
Step 2: If you have assignments in the category when you delete it, Canvas will ask you what you want to do with those assignments. Either you can delete those assignments along with the category, or you can move the assignments to a different category while still deleting the category.
This is a really good way to delete lots of extra assignments. Instead of clicking on each assignment and deleting them, create a temporary category (you can title it "Delete"), then move all of your unwanted assignments to it, then delete the whole category!
Step 3: To create a new category, simply click on the "+ Group" button in the upper left-hand corner. It will ask you for the name of the group, and if it's a weighted gradebook, how much of the percentage of the total grade you want it to be.
It is very important that your categories match your syllabus. In Canvas, every category that you have in the assignments tab is visible to the students in their syllabus tab. In order to avoid confusion for them, only have the categories you actually use.
Step 4: If you desire to have a weighted gradebook, where each category is weighted to certain percentage regardless of the point total inside that category, then you need to click on the three dots in the upper right hand corner next to "+ Assignments." Then, click on "Assignment Groups Weight."
Step 5: Click the box to confirm that you do want to weight your final grade. When you click it, all the categories you have made will appear. You must type in what percentage each category is worth, then click "Save."
Step 6: If you desire to drop a certain number of lowest / highest grades in a particular category, click on the three dots next to the far right of a category. Then, click "Edit." You will see a pop-up window where you can decide how many lowest / highest scores you want to drop, and in addition, you can exclude certain assignments that you never want dropped in a particular category.
Now that you have your categories correct and updated, you can now head to your gradebook to manage their visibility and functionality.
Step 1: Click on "Grades" in your course menu, then scroll all the way over to the right. You will see your categories there.
Step 2: If you hover over a column, three dots will appear. Click on them.
Step 3: Either sort your students by grades in this category, message students who meet certain criteria (like having below a 50% in this category), or apply a specific score to all ungraded assignments in this category.
Step 4: If you do not want your students to see the totals for these columns, then click on thee gear icon in the upper right hand corner of the gradebook.
Step 5: Click on "View Options," then select the box next to "Hide Assignment Group Totals," then select "Apply Settings."
Managing Late Policies
Step 1: To manage your late policies from the Canvas gradebook, begin by clicking on the Gear Icon in the upper right hand corner of the gradebook.
Step 2: Select "Late Policies" from the tab at the top of the pop-up window.
- If you desire to give an automatic grade for missing submissions, check the box next to "Automatically apply grade for missing submissions," then put in the desired grade.
You need to enable this setting in order for Dropout Detective - the intervention tool used by Student Success - to track how a student is doing in real time. If due dates pass without student receiving a zero, Student Success does not know if a student might be struggling.
- If you desire to automatically deduct a certain percentage per day to a late submission, select "Automatically apply deduction to late submissions" box, then fill in the details.
Managing Grade Posting Policy (Automatic / Manual)
The two basic modes for posting grades are "Automatic" and "Manual." Automatic means that grades will post to students the second you finish grading their work. Manual means that you will have to manually select "Post Grades" in order to release the grades to the students. You can manage these policies at the gradebook level and the individual column level.
Step 1 (Gradebook Level): Click on the Gear Icon in the upper right hand corner of the gradebook.
Step 2: Select "Grade Posting Policy" from the tabs. Then select your preferred setting as they are explained on the page itself.
Please note that you can have a general grade posting policy for your gradebook, but you can still override these general settings at the individual column level. You may want most of your grades to post automatically, but a few to post manually. Next, we will show how to manage this at the individual column level.
Step 1 (Individual Column Level): Navigate to the individual column you want to edit in the gradebook, select the three dots to the right of the title, then select "Grade Posting Policy."
Step 2: Select the desired grade posting policy.
If you select "manual," then you will need to manually release the grades for the column whenever you are ready. If you have selected "manual" and you have not released the grades to students yet, you will see an eye icon with a line through it, as well as the word "MANUAL" at the top of the column.
Step 3: In order to release the grades, simply hover over the title of the quiz and select the three dots that appear next to it. Select "Post grades," and this particular column's scores and feedback will be released to students.
How to Override a Student's Final Grade
Step 1: Click on the gear icon in the upper right hand corner of the gradebook.
Step 2: From the popup menu select "Advanced." Check the box next to "Allow final grade override," and then select "Apply Settings." You are now enabled to override a student's total overall grade.
Ordering Your Gradebook and View Options, Including the Application of Filters
Many professors like to organize their gradebook in a specific way, as well as filtering the gradebook according to specific students, specific categories, or specific sections. The following steps show how to do both.
Step 1 (Organizing the layout of the Gradebook): Click on the gear icon in the upper right hand corner of the gradebook:
Step 2: Click on "View Options" on the tab menu. You'll notice that there is a dropdown menu labelled "Arrange by."
Step 3: Select the overarching organization method you prefer. Many professors enjoy the "Module First to Last" option, as it organizes the gradebook in exactly the same way that students progress through the course.
Step 4: Once you've selected the right ordering scheme, select "Apply Settings."
Step 5: If for any reason you want to manually move a column to another place in your gradebook, you can simply click on the column header and drag it where you want it to be. Some professors like to move the "Total" column all the way to the left of the gradebook so they do not have to scroll all the way over to the right every time they enter the gradebook.
In terms of what you want to show to yourself or to your students, you will notice a list of settings under "Show." Many of these are self-explanatory, however, professors often enjoy de-selecting "Unpublished Assignments." If de-selected, then your gradebook won't be cluttered with a bunch of assignments that students cannot see nor complete.
Step 1 (Filtering your gradebook views by students, assignments, sections, etc.): Search in the "Student Names" or "Assignment Names" fields in order to isolate a particular student or assignment:
Step 2: Click on "Apply Filters" in order to filter your gradebook by Modules, Assignment Group Categories, Status, Submissions, and Start & End Date:
For "Status" you can filter by Late, Missing, Resubmitted, Dropped or Excused. For "Submission" you can filter by Has Ungraded, Has Submissions, Has No Submissions, and Has Unposted Grades. And finally, if your course has multiple sections, you will see a "Section" button in the menu.
Managing Grading on Re-Submissions and Discussion Boards
Sometimes professors are confused when they already graded an assignment or a discussion board, and yet the "ungraded" icon appears as if it were ungraded.
Even more confusing is when you click on the icon and it shows the original grade that was given.
What is happening in this case is that the student has either resubmitted an assignment or posted discussion board replies after the initial grade was given. If you do not want to allow resubmissions or posts after your due date, you need to go into the settings on your assignment / discussion board and fix that.
Step 1 (how to grade a re-submission): Click on the arrow button next to the initial grade:
Step 2: Click on "SpeedGrader."
Step 3: In upper right hand corner of the SpeedGrader screen you will see "Submission to View" with a dropdown menu. If you click on the dropdown menu, you will see the different submissions along with their timestamps and grades. When you click on the submission you want to grade, it will appear in the SpeedGrader.
Step 1 (Grading discussion board replies after initial grade): Just like the resubmitted assignment, you'll see a "needs grading" icon in the gradebook. Click on the box and the arrow and click "SpeedGrader" as shown above.
Step 2: When SpeedGrader pulls up, you'll notice that in the right hand menu the due date for this discussion board was September 21st at 8am. The professor graded this missing assignment on September 21st at 1:09pm. The student likely received notification of the "zero" grade, when back to the assignment, and posted three discussion replies at 3:13pm, 3:15pm, and 3:16pm.
Step 3: Either give the student their new grade, or you can simply click "Use the same grade for the resubmission" button.
Managing Your Individual Columns in the Gradebook, Including How to Easily Message Students about a Particular Assignment
Step 1: Navigate to an individual column in your gradebook, hover over the header block, then select the three dots next to the title.
- You'll notice a bunch of options listed in the popup box.
- Select "Sort by" if you want to visually organize the column according to the following schema:
- Select "SpeedGrader" if you want to grade this column of submissions.
- Select "Message Students Who" if you want to send a message to students about this particular assignment. Once you click on it, a new popup window will appear on your page.
If you click on the dropdown menu under "For Students Who..." you can select a variety of options.
If you select "Scored more than" or "Scored less than," then you will need to input a value:
This is a really easy and quick way to message all students who need the same information on a particular assignment. It sends these messages BCC, so you don't need to worry about students seeing others on the email thread.
- "Curve Grades" is self-explanatory, and "Set-Default Grade" allows one to set the same grade for all the students. However, you can exempt students who already have been graded. This is an easy way to give zeroes to all students who haven't submitted:
- "Hide Grades" hides the grades and feedback from students. "Enter Grades As" allows you to change between points and percentage. And, "Grade Posting Policy" is covered in a previous section on this article, alternating between automatic and manual.
Managing Gradebook History
You can review the history of particular grades in the Canvas gradebook. This is sometimes helpful in disputes or if you accidentally changed a grade but don't remember what the original was.
Step 1: Click on "Gradebook" then "Gradebook History" while in your Canvas gradebook.
Step 2: Filter by student, Assignment Title and other options. Canvas shows you what the grade was before the last grade was entered, after it was entered, and the current grade.
Uploading a CSV to Update Your Gradebook
For this, it is easiest to follow the Canvas article written about the subject - Importing Grades into Gradebook
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