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Grades in Canvas

Last Updated: Thursday, 3/12/20 at 2:39pm

The following guides will show you how to complete common grading and gradebook-related tasks in Canvas. If you need to complete a task that is not covered here, please email canvas@ucsd.edu for support.

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When you create an assignment, graded quiz, or graded discussion in Canvas, a column for that grade is automatically created in the gradebook. If you need to create a column in the gradebook for an assignment that will not be submitted through Canvas, you can follow the step by step guide here:  How do I create assignment columns for non-submission assignments in the Gradebook?

During the course of instruction, you can hide the Total grade column from students, temporarily disabling students’ access to their final grade. You can find step by step instructions for setting a manual grade posting policy in our Course Start Checklist.

If you want to hide grades for any assignment so that you can release them at a time that you choose, you'll need to set the grade posting policy to "manual." You can find step by step instructions for setting a manual grade posting policy in our Course Start Checklist.

To weight grades in Canvas, you'll create assignment groups and tell Canvas what percentage of the total grade each group should count toward. For example, if in your course homework counts for 30% of the total grade, midterms count for 30%, and the final exam counts for 40%, you'll create three Assignment Groups: Homework (30% of total grade), Midterms (30% of total grade), and Final(40% of total grade). You can find step by step instructions for setting up grade weights in our Course Start Checklist.

Once you've created your assignment groups, you can click and drag existing assignments into their correct groups on the assignments page. If you have not yet created your assignments in Canvas, you can create new assignments in each assignment group. 

Once these steps are complete, your gradebook will display a column for each assignment and a column for each assignment group, with the weight that you indicated. Within the column for each assignment group, a percentage is calculated by dividing the total points a student has earned by the total points possible for all assignments in that group. To calculate the total grade, this percentage is multiplied by the group weight and each assignment group calculation is added together.

Note that you can change your weights at any time, and students will be notified when any changes are made.

SpeedGrader allows an instructor to view and grade student assignment submissions in one place using a point scale or rubric. Speedgrader can be used to grade and provide feedback on assignments, quizzes, and graded discussions.

The following guides walk you through how to access and use Speedgrader:

If you want to drop the lowest grade in an assignment group, you'll create a rule for that group. Canvas considers how the rule most negatively or positively affects the student's overall score. A rule to drop the lowest score will remove the assignment score(s) from a student's group percentage calculation that will result in the best possible score for that group.

To excuse a student from an assignment, you'll change the status of their submission for that assignment in the gradebook. Excused assignments are not calculated as part of a student's total grade.

You can extend a deadline on Canvas for a whole class, section, or individual student. You can find a step by step guide to granting an extension in Canvas here: How do I grant an extension to a class, section, or individual student?

Extra credit is currently not a default option in Canvas. However, you can give students extra credit using a variety of options. This guide describes the options for giving extra credit and a step by step guide for each: How do I give extra credit in a course?

If you would like to use the Canvas grade calculations for eGrades submission: 

  1. Review and set a grading scheme
  2. Export your grades to a CSV
  3. Upload the CSV to eGrades
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