Before/Start of the Semester: Gradebook Setup
Set up the Grading Scheme in the Canvas Course Site
(Optional) Create Assignment Groups and/or Weighted Grading Assignment Groups
Pro Tip! You can designate individual assignments as exceptions to the drop rule if needed. For example, if there is an additional extra credit assignment in your pop-quiz assignment group, you will need to make sure the extra credit assignment is listed as an exception for the drop rule to work correctly or else students who do not complete the extra credit assignment will be penalized.
Set up the Missing Submission Policy
You can use a missing submission policy to automatically assign a grade of 0 once the due date has passed to students who have not submitted an assignment (keep in mind: this won't impact "no submission" or "on paper" assignments, so you will have to manually assign zeroes to those items).
(Optional) Change the default Grade Posting Policy
Create all of your Assignments/Quizzes/Discussions/etc. (and assign them to the Assignment Group/Weighted Grading Assignment Group if you using this feature)
Pro Tip! These Assignments can be "assignment shells" right now, meaning that they simply state the assignment title, due date, and how many points they are worth. You can come back and edit each assignment at any time to include more detailed information.
How to Create a Grade Center Column for Manual Grading in Canvas
For any graded items for which students will not submit work online, e.g., an in-class exam, create an on-paper assignment. For any graded items for which students do not submit anything tangible, e.g., participation, create a non-submission assignment.
How to Drop the Lowest grade for an Assignment Group in Canvas
Pro Tip! You can organize and rearrange the columns in your gradebook by clicking-and-dragging them into your desired display order. For more information, see our How can I organize my Gradebook in Canvas?
During the Semester: Using the Gradebook
Grades can be “Excused” by typing EX into the grade book.
Excusing a grade allows an assignment to be ignored while determining the final grade.
Don't like working in Canvas? You can complete your edits in Excel!
You can export your Canvas gradebook to excel and make changes to student grades, and then use the Import a CSV file option to upload your grade changes to Canvas.
End of Semester: Grading Wrap-up
Make sure everything has a grade
Keep in mind 1) If you want to drop the lowest score from an assignment group, in order for Canvas to correctly drop the lowest score, all items within that assignment group must be graded items. At the end of the semester, you will need to ensure that all assignments in this group have a grade value entered in the Gradebook.
Keep in mind 2) Leaving any cells ungraded (with a "-" in them) will cause the drop rule to be applied incorrectly for the students who have ungraded cells.
Set up your course Grading Scheme
if you did not do so at the start of the semester.You will need to enable and accurately implement a Grading Scheme according to the information provided in your course syllabus. You can access your course's Grading Scheme from the Settings link on your course navigation menu.
Ensure that there are no "hidden" assignments and all grades have been posted for all students.Hidden assignments are not visible to your students, so they give your students an inaccurate view of their overall grade in Canvas. Any grades that have not been posted will not be factored into the final grade in Canvas, so if you have not posted all grades for all students then you may end up with inaccurate final grades. Please refer to this guide for more information about hidden grades and using the grade posting policy feature.
Make sure that all grade cells have a value entered in them, including entering in zeroes for unsubmitted assignments.The final grade column will not be accurate if any cells are left ungraded. When grade cells are left ungraded (containing a dash) students with ungraded work see their final grade without any unsubmitted assignments factored in, which gives students an inaccurate view of their grades. Students can uncheck the "calculate based only on graded assignments" box on their grades page to see what their real grade will be. However, to prevent confusion and misunderstandings, we strongly recommend that you enter zeroes for all unsubmitted assignments. This way, students will see an accurate view of their grades without having to uncheck anything on their grades page.
The most efficient way to assign zeroes to unsubmitted assignments is to use the Set Default Grade feature to set the default grade for each assignment to zero at the end of the term. It will allow you to automatically insert zeros for all students that haven't yet received a grade for a specific assignment.
If you are using the missing submission policy to automatically assign zeroes to missing assignments: Review each column in your gradebook to ensure that the missing submission policy did not skip over any assignments. Remember, this automated tool will not apply zeroes to missing "on paper" and "no submission" assignments. You must manually add zeroes to these items. We recommend using the Set Default Grade feature described above for any columns that need zeroes assigned.
Grades can be excused by typing EX into the grade book.Excusing a grade allows an assignment to be ignored while determining the final grade.
Make sure the extra credit you want to give students is factored in correctly.For clarification about adding extra credit to your course, please consult our Managing Extra Credit in Canvas article to find out the best option for your particular course's grading structure.
Don't like working in Canvas? You can complete your edits in Excel!If you would like to adjust your students' grades offline, you can export your Canvas gradebook to excel and make changes to student grades, and then use the Import a CSV file option to upload your grade changes to Canvas.
Optional: Hide the total column from student view.If you don't want your students to see the total column value when they check their grades in Canvas, follow the steps in our tutorial. Please note, this will only hide the total column from students - it will not hide the assignment group columns from students.
Relevant Information
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