This post summarizes the August 2024 Canvas Gradebook Set-up session facilitated by Academic Technology Support Services (ATSS). During the session, ATSS consultants presented an overview of getting started with the Canvas Gradebook and its settings, discussed streamlining grading throughout the semester, and shared resources for advanced tips and tricks.
Key Takeaways
The role of the Canvas Gradebook in addressing access and inclusion
- Challenges facing students: academic stress, student mental health, transparency, anxiety about grades and class performance
- Challenges facing instructors: burnout, grading and time commitments, transparency in grading practices and assessments, ungrading
- We do not intend to imply that simply using the Canvas Gradebook will single-handedly eliminate the previously mentioned issues. However, we bring them to think about a small change that could be taken to set yourself and your students up for a semester with more ease.
Canvas Gradebook settings
- Assignments differ from modules and both can help you organize your course site and your Gradebook
- Align your Canvas site to match your syllabus: such as assignment categories and points or percentages
- Options to set the Grade Posting, Missing Submission, and/or Late Submission policies can support ease of grading and consistency with students
Rubrics and Speedgrader
- Creating and using rubrics for assessments can help speed up the grading process for instructors and maintain clear expectations and consistency for students
- Providing feedback to students via submission comments and annotation on submitted work is essential for their learning
- Help students find their feedback so they can use it to do better on future assignments
Streamline grading throughout the semester
- “Message student who” is a key feature to communicate with students who have missed or done poorly on an assignment
- Excuse a grade for a student is essential for assignments that aren’t required for everyone or in case a student has a legitimate reason to forgo an assignment
- Speedgrader Comment Library can help speed up the grading process for instructors
- Reassign a Canvas Assignment to a student/s can give them a second chance to revise their work
- Student-facing What-If grades feature can be confusing for students (at first) and can also help them decide how much effort to put into upcoming assignments
Accessibility: Remove unused content
- Removing an item from a module does not mean it’s deleted from the course
- Delete an item (assignment, discussion, quiz, file, or page) from the course navigation menu
Advanced tips and tricks
- Rules for assignments (aka drop lowest or highest scores)
- Weighted Grades
- Curve Grades
- Late Submission Policy (applies to ALL graded assignments)
- Extra Credit Canvas Guide
- Anonymous Grading
- Group Grades (at the individual level)
Resources
- Canvas Gradebook: Set up - August 2024 slides
- Use Canvas Gradebook to increase access and inclusion
- Canvas Essentials: self-paced, asynchronous micro-course
- What's new in UMN learning technologies for Fall 2024
- Subscribe to the Teaching with Technology Google group to receive the monthly newsletter.
Contributors
Sara Schoen and Jennifer Englund co-authored this post.
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