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Weighting Grades, Giving Extra Credit, and Other Tips on Managing Assignments and Grades in Canvas

by Cecilia Lo | Aug 20, 2018 | Canvas , Canvas Features/Functions , How-tos

Canvas provides a fully functional gradebook that can help both instructors and students to keep track of their progress in a course. Once you figure out its few quirks, you will be able to manage grades with ease.

I. Some Terminology: Assignment Groups vs. Assignments, & How They Relate to Gradebook Columns II. Weighting Grades III. Muting Grade Notifications IV. Grade History – Who Changed The Grade When? V. Using Grading Schemes VI. Curving Grades VII. Giving Extra Credit VIII. Tools and Course Setup for Multiple TAs IX. Excluding an Assignment from the Course’s Final Grades X. Filtering by Modules, Automatic Late Policies, & Other New, Helpful Functions in the New Gradebook XI. Resources

I. Some Terminology: Assignment Groups vs. Assignments, & How They Relate to Gradebook Columns

There are two common sources of confusion in understanding and using Canvas assignments and gradebooks. One is the distinction between Assignment Groups and Assignments. Assignment Groups are categories of assignments, such as problem sets, papers, quizzes, exams, presentations, and participation. They are important for organizational purposes and particularly important if you want to weight grades. Assignments are individual assessment items that receive grades, as, for example, first paper, second paper, or final paper. Assignment Groups and assignments are created separately. You can move assignments into different Assignment Groups by dragging them on the Assignment Index page or editing the Assignment.

Assignment groups vs Assignments

A second common source of confusion is how to create gradebook columns. In Canvas, assignments are tightly integrated with the Gradebook and the only way to create a gradebook column is to create and publish an assignment . This may seem unintuitive at first glance, as not all assignments require online submissions (e.g. attendance and participation or assignments done on paper). However, instructors can choose different submission types when they create an assignment— No Submission, Online, or On Paper . The one-to-one correspondence between the number of assignment items and the number of gradebook columns ensures that grading policy is transparent to the students and that both instructors and students always see the same number of assessment items.

II. Weighting Grades

You can have Canvas automatically calculate weighted grades in just a few clicks: on the Assignment Index page, click Options , select Assignment Group Weight , then enter the percentages for each Assignment Group. For example, in a course where the grades are determined as follows:

The process for weighting grades is:

To weight grades, go the the Assignments page, click on the Options button, select Assignment Groups Weight , select the Weight final grades based on assignment groups check box, enter the weights, and click Save .

How Canvas Calculates Weighted Grades for an Assignment Group

Canvas determines weighted grades by calculating:

• the grade (in percentage) of individual Assignment Groups (sum of points scored divided by total possible points);
• the total grade (sum of Assignment Group grades multiplied by their respective weights).

In the example for “Paper Assignments” Group above, there are 4 assignments, each worth 20 points; together they add up to 80 points. The Assignment group counts 30% towards the total grade. If a student scores 18, 16, 10, and 15 respectively, then

The subtotal grade for “Paper Assignment” is: (18 + 16 + 10 + 15)/80*100% = 73.75% The contribution of “Paper Assignment” to the Total grade is: 73.75% * 0.3 = 22.13%

Weighted Grades within an Assignment Group

In the above example, because each assignment has the same maximum points (20 points), each assignment contributes equally within the Assignment Group. If you wish a particular assignment to weigh more, just make sure it has a higher number of total points, or assign it to a separate Assignment Group.

Tips : If you have many assignments (about 10 or more) in one Assignment Group, and the total points for each assignment vary by one or two points, then by arithmetic the assignments contribute essentially equally to the Assignment Group grades, as the difference between each assignment after multiplying by the weighted percentage would be relatively small. (e.g. 1 point in an Assignment Group with a total of 100 points and which counts as 30% of the total grade is 0.3 points of the total grade.)

How Weighted Grades Appear in the Gradebook

In the Canvas Gradebook, each gradebook column (with linked heading) shows the raw points for an assignment (unless you have applied grade curving to it); the Assignment Group column (with black heading) shows the percentage a student scored for that Assignment Group; and the Total column shows the final, weighted grade.

In the example above, the Assignment Group column for “Paper Assignment (30.00% of grade)” is 73.75%.

NB : If a student didn’t submit a particular assignment, be sure to give it zero points. If you leave the score blank ( – ), Canvas will treat it as excused and ignore it in its calculation of the Assignment Group subtotal and Total scores.

For more about weighting grades, see: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10059-415267002

III. Muting Grade Notifications

When instructors enter grades into Canvas’ gradebook, a notification is sent to the student automatically . Some students are prone to panic if they find that their peers have received their grades but they have not. You can release grades to all students simultaneously if you select Mute Assignment and stop notifications from going out until you “unmute” the assignment. Muting assignments allows you time to review and make grade adjustments without sending students multiple notifications.

To mute an assignment, go to Grades, click on the options dropdown for the assignment, and select Mute Assignment:

Mute Assignment link in Canvas Gradebook

NB : Canvas does not include muted assignments in the Assignment Group and Total grade calculations—if it did, students would be able to calculate backwards and figure out what their grades are. Be sure to unmute assignments when you have finished grading them so that the gradebook calculations are correct.

For more about muting assignments, see: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12961-4152724339

IV. Grade History – Who Changed The Grade When?

From time to time you may wish to track how a student’s grade for a particular assignment changes over time, especially when there are multiple instructors or TAs giving grades in a course. Canvas’ Grade History tool can be helpful in such cases.

To access Grade History, click on the Options (gear) icon in Grades and select View Gradebook History . (In the New Gradebook, select the Gradebook dropdown, then “Gradebook History…”.)

To view grade history in the old Gradebook, select View Gradebook History from the gear icon on the Grades page, enter filter parameters and click the Filter button.

How to read Gradebook History

• The Before column shows the grade before the change at a particular date and time (row).
• The After column shows the grade after the change at a particular date and time (row).
• The Current column always shows the latest grade; it is the grade a student has now.

Example of Grade History

In the example above, on Jun 27, 2018 at 4:25pm, the Before column is empty because it is the first time a grade (0/20) is entered. On Aug 16, 2018, this grade is changed from 0/20 to 20/20. The Current grade for all rows is 16/20 because on Aug 17, 2018, the last time this grade was edited, the grade has been changed from 20/20 to 16/20.

NB : The dropdown selection can take a few seconds to display, especially if there are many students in a course. Be sure to click the maroon Filter button at the end to filter the results. You can filter for more than one category; for example, you can filter for student name and assignment name simultaneously.

V. Using Grading Schemes

You can apply a specific grading scheme to your assignment and/or overall course grade so that each letter or performance grade corresponds to a specific numeric grade range (e.g. A/Excellent = 91% to 100%; A-/Good = 88%-90%; etc). Once you have created a grading scheme, it can be reused in other courses you teach with just a few clicks.

Select Grading Scheme for an Assignment

To display letter grade for an assignment, edit the assignment, choose Letter Grade under the Display Grade as dropdown menu.

• Choose the appropriate grading scheme (see “Choose/Create New Grading Schemes” below).

Choose/Create New Grading Schemes

Click on the View Grading Scheme link under Display Grade as to choose the appropriate grading scheme.

Click on the Select Another Scheme link at the top right to select another grading scheme.

• To create a new grading scheme, click manage grading schemes link at the bottom right, then click the Add grading scheme button on the right.

Use Grading Scheme for the Total Grade in Your Course

You can display the Total grade of your course as a letter/performance grade by going to Settings > Course Details > Select the check box for Enable course grading scheme > Choose the appropriate grading scheme > Click the Update Course Details button at the bottom of the page.

To enable grading scheme for the course total grade, go to course Settings , check the Enable course grading scheme box, click the Select grading scheme link, then select the appropriate grading scheme, click Done , then click the maroon Update Course Details button.

For more information, see:

• [Overview] How do I use grading schemes in a course? https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-13067-4152206341
• How do I add a grading scheme to an assignment? https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10216-415282270
• How do I enable a grading scheme for a course? https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12906-415257089
• How do I add a grading scheme in a course? https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10313-415257090

VI. Curving Grades

You can use the Canvas Gradebook to curve grades for individual assignments. When you enter a desired average grade, Canvas will automatically adjust the scores as a bell curve 66% around the average curve.

Grade curving is available for assignments only ; if you wish to curve the total grade of a course, you will need to do so manually. Grade curving cannot be undone (although you can use Gradebook History to view pre-curved grades) and is advisable in courses where only a certain number of students can pass, or when you require a fixed distribution of grades distributed throughout the class.

Step-by-step instructions on curving grades are available at: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12832-415255003

VII. Giving Extra Credit

Do you want to give extra credit to students but are unsure how get Canvas Gradebook to recognize it? There are a few ways to do this:

Method 1: Add Extra Points to an Existing Assignment/Quiz

You can give extra credit to a particular assignment by adding the extra points to the total points a student scored, even if the student received a perfect score. Canvas allows you to give points greater than the highest possible points.

For example, If an assignment is worth a total of 100 points, a student earned a perfect score of 100, and you want to reward them with 5 extra credit points, you can enter 105 as the grade for the assignment.

If you use Canvas’ SpeedGrader for grading, you can enter the extra points in SpeedGrader. If you use rubrics in conjunction with SpeedGrader, you can add the extra points either to an existing rubric criterion or to an “Extra Credit” criterion. If you decide to add an “Extra Credit” criterion, make sure that the assignment point total excludes the total maximum extra credit points (i.e. the rubric is worth more points than the assignment) so that the actual assignment points are not affected by whether a student receives extra credit or not.

For example, if your rubric has four criteria with 4 maximum points each, and an “extra credit” criterion with 2 points each, then the maximum point total for your rubric is 4×4 + 2 = 18 points. But your assignment point total should be 16 points.

You can give extra credit in Quizzes as well. To adjust the point value for an entire quiz, use fudge points .

Method 2: Grant Extra Points in a Stand-alone “Extra Credit” Assignment and Gradebook Column

If you want to keep track of extra credit for the course as a whole, you can create a stand-alone extra credit assignment and gradebook column and adjust a student’s points as needed.

If you don’t weight your grades , you can create a separate assignment with 0 points. Any extra points given in this gradebook column will be added to the total points for the course.

If you weight your grades with assignment groups, you will need to create an extra credit assignment group with a weight greater than 0% and an assignment with greater than 0 points in order for Canvas Gradebook to calculate the total score correctly. All the assignment groups in your course plus the extra credit assignment group should weigh more than 100% in total.

One example of a correct setup for assignment groups with a maximum of 10% (or 10 points) extra credit for the course is:

Notice that the first 4 assignment groups, containing assignments that all students are assessed on, total to 100%. This ensures that any assignment placed within the Extra Credit assignment group will have either a positive or neutral effect on your students’ overall grade.

• If you are weighting your assignment groups, please pay attention to how weighted groups can affect the Gradebook if assignments are worth zero points.
• If you have drop rules set in an assignment group, adding extra points may affect your students’ scores.

For a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to give extra credit within Canvas, see: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-9940-415278195

VIII. Tools and Course Setup for Multiple TAs

If you have multiple TAs working from the same Canvas course site and they are each assigned to a specific group of students, Academic Technology Solutions can help you set up your course site so that they only see the grades of the students they are responsible for. To get started, email the URL of your course site and a brief description of your needs to [email protected] .

IX. Excluding an Assignment from the Course’s Final Grades

If you wish to provide feedback for assignments without the assignment counting toward Gradebook calculations, you can exclude the assignment in the final grade calculation. (Note: this excludes the grade for all students. If you want to assign an assignment to a specific group of students, you should specifically assign course sections , assign individual students , or assign course groups to the assignment.)

For step-by-step instructions, see: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10120-4152618765

Alternatively, you can have Canvas automatically drop the lowest (or highest) grade in an assignment group. See https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-9880-4152232976 for step-by-step instructions.

X. Filtering by Modules, Automatic Late Policies, & Other New, Helpful Functions in the New Gradebook

In January 2018, Canvas released the New Gradebook, which offers a number of enhanced features, such as filtering by modules, automatic late policies, and customizable coloring. The current gradebook is expected to be deprecated and replaced by the New Gradebook sometime in the second half of 2018. For more information on how to opt-in and use the new features, see ATS’ “ Introducing the New Gradebook ” blog post.

XI. Resources

You can see the complete Instructor Guides for the topics discussed above at:

• Assignments
• Discussion Forums
• Online Quizzes
• Speedgrader

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Getting Started with the Semester

Setting up your assignments and gradebook

your gradebook is created by your assignments.

The term “assignments” here also includes graded Canvas quizzes, discussions, and activities using Canvas-linked tools such as Top Hat or Quick Check. The act of creating an assignment is what makes the column appear in the Canvas Grades tool.

The Grades tool does not have an option to add columns independent of an assignment.

Since assignments create your gradebook, it is to your advantage to only create assignments that you will actually grade. If you will not grade “reading a chapter,” then while you are assigning the reading to students, you would not create a Canvas assignment for it. If you want to give students reminders about reading deadlines, Canvas Calendar Events will put those deadlines in students’ Canvas To-Do list. For more on using the Canvas Calendar tool, visit the Canvas Guide “ How do I use the Calendar as an instructor? ” (You can also add reminders for class sessions by adding an event for the class meeting and duplicating to the end of the semester .)

Set up your assignments

There are several different types of graded assignments you can use in your course. The three main ones are Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions and they each have their own tool in Canvas. You can create each type of assignment in its own Canvas tool or in a Module. Every graded quiz and discussion will appear in both their own tool and the Canvas Assignment tool.

Select each item below to learn about the different types.

If you would like to include extra credit in, or in addition to, any of your assignments, review the Canvas Guide “ How do I give extra credit in a course? “

Set up assignment groups – optional

If you want to weight grades without worrying about calculating proportional points for each assignment, you’ll want to set up Assignment Groups in the Assignments tool. They are especially important if you prefer to grade with percentages only (every assignment is worth 100%) or a combination of percent and points. Even if you’re not weighting grades, if you have a larger number of assignments, assignment groups can help you organize assignments and make them easier to find in the gradebook using filters.

The following Canvas Guides explain setting up assignment groups and weighting them.

• How do I add an assignment group in a course?
• How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?
• How do I create rules for an assignment group? (i.e. dropping the lowest grade in an assignment group)
• select the + button to the right of the name of the group to add a new assignment,
• drag an existing assignment, quiz, or discussion into the group by clicking or touching and holding the set of 8 dots to the left of the assignment name, or
• select the three vertical dots (the options menu), choosing Move To, and selecting the group where the assignment should go.

Questions? Talk to your campus teaching and learning center !

Select “Next” below at the bottom right to continue.

A Canvas Semester Checklist Copyright © by Trustees of Indiana University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

The Overlake School Knowledge

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Using canvas to differentiate assignments

Written By Mollie Page ()

Updated at June 15th, 2020

Canvas allows you to customize assignments by allowing assignments to be posted for individual students, a select group of students or class sections.

NOTE – Events can only be assigned by class or by section, but Assignments can be customized down to individual students.

To assign an assignment to an individual or select group of students:

On the Calendar page for your course, click on the day you want the assignment to be due

Click on the Assignment Tab.

Be sure you have selected the appropriate calendar– this cannot be changed once you click more options.

Click the More Options button to further customize the assignment

Customize the assignment by filling in the assignment title, a description of what you want students to do and any links they will need.

Fill out the points, group, submission type and other options as desired

When you get to the “Assign to” section, you can customize to whom it is assigned and the due date.

In the “Assign to” section, click the x after Everyone to clear the field

Then type the first letter of the student you wish to assign this assignment to and select that student.

Continue selecting students to build a list of students who should complete this assignment.

Note – all students selected at this time will have the same due date.

If you want to have different due dates, set the first group and their due date here and see instructions below for multiple due dates.

When you have selected all the students, select the appropriate due date for the group.

When you have finished customizing the assignment, click on Save or Save & Publish

Save will save your work, but the assignment will NOT be visible to students yet. You will need to go back into the assignment and publish when you are ready.

Save& Publish will save your work AND publish the assignment to students. Students will be able to see the assignment and may receive a notification depending on their Canvas settings.

To create a different assignment for another set of students, start the process over again with a new assignment.

Assigning the same assignment with different due dates.

At the bottom of the Assign box, click on +Add to create another set of assignment options.

Select the other set of students as described in steps 5-7 above.

Select the appropriate due date.

Add additional groups and due dates as necessary by clicking +Add.

When you have finished customizing the assignment, click on Save or Save& Publish

Save will save your work, but the assignment will NOT be visible to students yet. You will have to go back to the assignment and publish when you are ready.

Resources for differentiated content and process

If you prefer to create your own differentiated assignments :

Within Canvas

Create differentiated modules and link different students to different modules

Create quizzes and practice quizzes at different levels and link students appropriately

Create different assignments and create a custom assignment by group

Type or copy your own differentiated questions, textbook questions or web links in the assignment description box

Create your own assignments in the program of your choice (word, ppt, notepad, etc). Upload files to your canvas page and link to the appropriate file in the assignment description box

Provide scaffolds to support differentiated processes:

Interactive graphic organizers: https://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm

Downloadable graphic organizers in word: http://www.thinkport.org/graphic-organizers.html

Build differentiated assessments in DigiExam and provide each student with the appropriate Exam ID code. DigiExam can be added to your Canvas pages.

With DigiExam, you can create custom assessments and rubrics that can be taken online.

Options include spell check and computer lock down for more secure online testing

See separate guide on using DigiExam

Use Quizlet to build different review options for students

Quizlet has free teacher accounts for up to 8 classes of students: https://quizlet.com/teachers

Paid account offers upgrades like allowing images, voice recording, unlimited classes and additional customization

Quizlet can be integrated into Canvas: http://wise.overlake.org/canvas/how-to-embed-a-quizlet-in-a-canvas-page

If you prefer to use pre-designed differentiated practice sets:

CK-12 Adaptive Practice: https://www.ck12.org/assessment/ui/browse/practice/

Adaptive practice – students keep answering questions until they answer 10 correctly

Practice questions for: Math, Science, Spelling

Teacher accounts allow teachers to create classes and track student progress (requires account registration and login for teacher and students)

You can also create your own customized non-adaptive quizzes.

SAS Curriculum Pathways: https://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/

Note: Curriculum Pathways will no longer be available  after  the 2020-2021 school year.

Repository of 1500+ FREE web and app based products for education.

Subjects include English, Math, Social Studies, Science and Spanish

Explore a list of tools: https://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/#/pd/ataglance

Highlights:

Writing Navigator – supports students through the writing process with online tools for planning, drafting, revising and publishing final drafts. https://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/#info/1759

Explore Primary Sources  – database of primary source documents ranging from excerpts to full text, includes historical context and suggested questions. Some primary sources are available adjusted by grade level. https://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/Launch?id=2600

Spanish Language Builders – provides interactive online practice listening and writing in Spanish. Includes practice and quizzes and students can save, print or email results. https://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/#info/1764

Quill:   https://www.quill.org/  

Interactive writing and grammar activities designed to improve writing quality

Teacher can create class rosters and generate usernames and passwords

Diagnostic assessment is used to create personalized learning plan

Assignments can be given to the whole class or selected students.

Newsela: https://newsela.com/

Repository of articles that can be adjusted to different reading levels.

Includes articles for science, social studies, current events, issues, and primary sources

Some articles are available in Spanish, which can also be adjusted to different reading levels.

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