auto grade assignments in canvas

How to Set Up Assignments in Canvas for Auto Grade

AutoGrade allows you to set the grades from Canvas to automatically update Unit Enrolment Fields such as Outcome, Result and End Dates in Wisenet LRM. This feature works for both Australia and New Zealand and can update 1 or more Wisenet Unit Enrolments based on grading of 1 or more Canvas assignments.

You can choose whether the Wisenet Unit Enrolment grade comes from a n Assignment Group Grade Total OR t he Course Grade Total.

The diagrams below give you an overview of the AutoGrade options.

Understanding Grade Total and Assignment Groups in Canvas Gradebook

In Canvas, the Grade Total is a single grade for the entire course. Each course will have a Grade Total whether or not you have Assignment Groups.

The purpose of Assignment Groups is to organise graded items in your Elearning course. Grades are viewed and entered in Gradebook. Depending on the Grade display type, grades for each assignment can be viewed in Gradebook as either:

• Complete or Incomplete
• Letter grade

Regardless of the assignment grade type, the total grade that is aggregated under an Assignment Group will be in percentage. The Grade Total will also be in percentage. Therefore, it is required to set Auto Grade Rules in Wisenet prior to setting up Assignment Groups in Canvas. This will help avoid unwanted grades to sync to Wisenet.

Assignment Groups is an optional feature in Gradebook, however a mandatory one if you are planning to use the Assignment Group Grade Total option for Auto Grade.

Before we begin, it is important to understand that:

• Only graded items such as graded assignments, graded discussion, graded quizzes, and graded surveys are published in Gradebook, and the graded items have to have been published for them to display in the Gradebook.
• Assignment items that are set to be ‘Not Marked’ will not appear in Gradebook. Therefore such items will not be counted towards Learner grades in Canvas.
• Grade items that are marked as “Excused” are considered as graded.
• An Assignment Group called ‘Assignment’ is created by default in Gradebook when you create a course in Canvas.
• You need to rename the Assignment Group Name to be identical to the Unit Code where the grades are to be synced in Wisenet.
• A weight is assigned to each Assignment Group, not to the assignments themselves.
• The percentage in the Group Assignment column for each Learner is the value that is sync’d to Wisenet and is used in the Auto Grade Activity processing.
• The Canvas Course Code must be identical to the Wisenet Unit Code. (Please refer to the diagrams above.)

The diagram below gives you an example of how Graded Assignment Items, Assignment Groups, and Grade Total are displayed, and calculated in Gradebook.

We highly recommend reading more about Canvas Gradebook if this is all new to you.

IMPORTANT NOTE: No final grade will be synced to Wisenet, unless all graded items for a user has a grade in the Canvas Gradebook.

The following steps are based on our understanding of the best grade structure required in Canvas for seamless integration.

Connected app and auto grade rules.

• Set Up Canvas Connect App for Auto Grade AND Choose your Grade Total Source
• Set Up Auto Grade Rules in Wisenet
• Link Auto Grade Rules to Unit Offers in Wisenet

IMPORTANT: THE FOLLOWING STEPS ARE TO BE FOLLOWED ONLY IF YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO SET UP YOUR AUTO-GRADE TO SYNC OUTCOMES FROM THE ASSIGNMENT GROUP TOTAL.

Create an assignment group.

Navigate to your Canvas Site

For every Unit in Wisenet that needs to get updated, create an Assignment Group in your Canvas Course(s).

PLEASE NOTE: By default, when creating a Course in Canvas, an Assignment Group is created and displayed in Gradebook, called ‘Assignment’. You are more than welcome to edit the default Assignment Group OR/AND create new Assignment Groups by following the steps below:

• Open the relevant Canvas Course and in Course Navigation , click on Assignments
• Click the + Group button to add an Assignment Group
• BSB30506 (if linked to a single Unit Code in Wisenet)
• BSB30506,BSB30507,BSB30508 (if linked to multiple Unit Codes in Wisenet – simply add a comma or a semicolon to separate the Unit Codes)
• NOTE: You must create Assignment Groups before you can assign percentages to each group.

The Assignment Group Name must be the same as (identical to) the Unit Code of the Unit that should be updated.

Adding/Linking Assignments to an Assignment Group

NOTE : This step is optional if you have chosen “Course Grade Total” in Pre-Step #2.

There are two ways to add assignments to an Assignment Group.

Option 1: In the relevant Assignment Group Header

• Click the + icon to add an assignment
• Type: Assignment or Discussion or Quiz or External Tool. Learn More about Assignment Types in Canvas
• Name: This will be the assignment title that will be easily identified by both Learners and Instructors/Assessors etc
• Due: If applicable enter a due date for the assignment which will also be visible to Learners.
• Points: Enter the number of points for the assignment, i.e. 100
• DO NOT tick the Sync to SIS checkbox
• If you would like to add more details to the newly created assignment item, simply click on More Options and edit as required
• Otherwise click Save to exit and you can still edit and add more details later

Option 2: Create an assignment with all assignment details at the same time

• In Course Navigation , Click the Assignments link
• Click + Assignment to add assignment
• An Assignment Name
• Insert more information in the box provided such as text, images etc (optional)
• Enter Points
• IMPORTANT: Select which Assignment Group you would like to attach/link this assignment to
• Choose how you would like to Display Mark as. i.e. Points or Percentage or Letter etc
• Fill in the remainder details as relevant to your organisation
• Either, Click Save if you are not ready to publish this assignment or Save & Publish

Mark Grades

When you are ready to start marking grades, simply follow the instructions on either How to enter and edit grades in the Gradebook or How to use SpeedGrader from the Gradebook . The grade for each assignment item will automatically be updated in the Gradebook. If you are using Assignment Groups, the percentage in the Assignment Group column will get updated. The Total Grade will also get updated.

Grades will only automatically sync to Wisenet when:

Using Assignment Group Grade Total

• All assignment items linked to an Assignment Group have been graded;
• The Assignment Group percentage matches the Auto Grade Rules set up in Wisenet;
• Canvas Connected App for Auto Grade is set up.

Using Course Grade Total

• The Canvas Course has a final total grade
• The Course grade percentage matches the Auto Grade Rules set up in Wisenet;

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• No final grade will be synced to Wisenet, unless all graded items for a user have a grade in the Canvas Gradebook. Grade items that are marked as “Excused” are considered as graded.
• Marking a Canvas assignment as “hidden” also hides the Canvas Course Grade Total. When a Canvas Course Grade Total is hidden, it does not sync to Wisenet. In order to sync the Canvas Course Grade Total to Wisenet, all Canvas assignments must be unhidden.

Learn More:

• How to use the Gradebook
• How to weight the final course grade based on assignment groups

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Elearning Integration

Getting Started

How Elearning Integration works

Getting started with Elearning Integration

How to Set Up Canvas Connected App

How to Set Up Moodle Connected App

How to Set Up Elearning Enrolment Rules in Wisenet

How to Link Elearning Courses to Wisenet Course Offers

How to Set Up Auto Grade Moodle Plugin

How to Sync Elearning Courses to Wisenet

How to Add, Edit, Delete Elearning Enrolments

How to perform Bulk Actions for Elearning Enrolments

How to Manage Moodle Access for Learners

How to Customise User Invite in Moodle

How to Set Up Auto Grade Rules

How to link Auto Grade Rules to Unit Offers

How to Set Up Grade Categories in Moodle for Auto Grade

How to Monitor and Process Grade Activities

Related Articles

Transition to New Elearning

Active Elearning Learners and Metering

Elearning Integration FAQ

University Center for Teaching and Learning

How to grade assessment in canvas using speedgrader.

• Quick Start
• Instructor Help
• Student Help

Grading Assignment Submissions

Speedgrader.

Canvas calls its tool that is used to grade assessments (such as assignments or quizzes) “SpeedGrader”. At its most basic, this is simply the page you go to to see assignment submissions and to assign grades. There are additional features available. There are two main ways to access SpeedGrader:

• From the an assignment.
• From the gradebook.

Accessing SpeedGrader via Assignments

This is generally the more intuitive way to access SpeedGrader to grade an assignment.

• Go to the Assignments page in your course.
• The assignment must be published for Related Items to appear.
• Depending on the size of your screen, the Related Items area may be below your page rather than on the right. Just scroll down and it will be there instead.

This will take you to SpeedGrader, open the first student in your roster for chosen assignment.

Accessing SpeedGrader from Grades

Accessing SpeedGrader this way is best if you need to target specific submissions by specific students. Note: The Grades page is covered in more detail later in this document.

• Go to the Grades page.
• Navigate to the row and column of the assignment submission you would like to grade.
• Click in that “cell”.
• Click on the “arrow door” that appears to open the detail tray on the right.
• Click on SpeedGrader in the detail tray. It is often the third item in the the panel.

This will take you to SpeedGrader, open to the specific submission (assignment and student) you selected.

Grading Assignments with SpeedGrader

The general process for grading once you are in SpeedGrader for the assignment to grade is as follows:

• Navigate to the student you wish to grade ( D in image below).
• View the student’s submission ( E ) or download for offline grading ( I ).
• [Optionally] Mark up the assignment ( F ) and/or leave comments ( H ).
• Enter grade in ( G ).
• Continue to next student.

Refer to this image to see the details of SpeedGrader and additional features not included above.

• (A) To leave SpeedGrader and return to the grades, click on this icon.
• (B) The icons at here control settings. The left one lets you show or post grades (this is functionality is also part of the gradebook). An important setting under the gear is options, hide student names in the SpeedGrader . This will let you grade assignments pseudo-anonymously.
• (C) These quick statistics show your progress through grading all the submissions for this assignment, and the current average of those you have graded.
• (D) is where you navigate between students . Use the left or right arrows to go one at a time, or click the drop-down arrow to select from a list. Icons in the drop-down list will tell you whether students have been graded (green checkmark), have an ungraded submission (orange dot), or do not have a submission (grayed out).
• Known issues: If you only see one page of the document, try another browser or download the submission. Sometimes different browsers render this kind of documents differently. Firefox is the most reliable for this, but Chrome should be good, too, for most documents. If  you do not see the file as a preview, you may need to download it. Canvas might not have a preview for a non-standard file type, such as a Pages document.
• Known issues: Certain devices, like Wacom tablets and Microsoft Surface tablets may not work with these tools, depending on your hardware’s setting and how it interacts with the browser. Canvas developers are aware of this and are in communication with web browser developers to try to fix or work around this limitation. If your tablet has a “mouse mode” setting, this may improve compatibility.
• Important note : Remember the assignment may have been created with “display grade as” Points, Percentage, Letter Grade, or other. Canvas reminds you of this right above the box. For numeric types, if it displays as (/#), that means you should enter the grade as a percentage. If it says “out of #”, you should enter the grade as points out of the maximum that is listed.
• If you are using a rubric , click the button under G and refer to the subsection below.
• (H) In the comment box, you can type overall feedback to the student. Using the buttons below, you can attach a file, or record audio or video feedback to present to the student. Click submit after typing feedback.
• (I) Clicking the file name here will download this submission.
• If you see a colored icon and a percentage here next to the download link, this indicates the TurnItIn originality report as generated by the TurnItIn framework. clicking on the color swatch will take you to the full originality report. The number is a percent matched in the database. This will open in a new browser tab that you can close to return to Canvas.
• (J) After grading, entering comments, and using the mark-up tools, you can use this link to download a PDF of the final graded version, including the added contents, should you need an archival copy .

View the full documentation for grading assignments with SpeedGrader.

Using Rubrics in SpeedGrader

If you have a rubric attached to this assignment, open it by clicking the Rubric button under the grade box ( G in the image above).

• (A) If using a rubric, we recommend you resize the frames SpeedGrader by clicking on the divider line between them and dragging it to the left. This will widen the rubric area and allow you to see it better.
• (B) The rubric is displayed as a grid. Click on an performance descriptor to select it.
• (C) You can override the grade from the selected performance descriptor, such as awarding 12 out of 20 points, but having Proficient selected as the feedback to the student.
• (D) If the rubric has free-form commenting enabled, click this bubble to give feedback for each dimension.
• (E) The total points selected in the rubric is shown here. Depending on the settings selected when you made the rubric, this may be saved automatically to the grade box when you save the rubric, or you may need to type it yourself.
• (F) Click Save to save the rubric , or cancel to lose all the change since the last time you saved.

View the full documentation for grading with SpeedGrader using rubrics.

Grading Quizzes with SpeedGrader

There are a few differences in SpeedGrader if you are grading a quiz rather than an assignment. Please first familiarize yourself with SpeedGrader for assignments above, and then refer to this image for some quiz-specific differences.

• (A) The row of numbers at the top are quick links to take you to that question number in the quiz.
• (B) Each question is displayed in a frame, along with the student’s response. If it was a pre-scored question (such as a multiple choice question), Canvas will indicate whether it was correct or not.
• (C) Each question shows its point value in the top right corner, and you enter the earned score in the box. You can change the score given for pre-scored questions. You must enter the score here for manually graded question types, like essay questions. You can give scores higher than the point value of the question, resulting in extra credit.
• (D) You can provide feedback commentary to the student on a question-to-question basis in this box.
• (E) In the fudge points box, you can add or subtract points to the quiz overall, not related to any one question.
• (F) Once you are done grading the quiz, click Update Scores. It is possible to grade the quiz partially, use Update Scores, and return later to finish.

View the full documentation for grading quizzes with SpeedGrader. Note that New Quizzes is a bit different; that documentation is also available.

Downloading Submissions for Offline Grading

If you prefer to grade offline or using other mark-up tools, you can bulk download submissions for some types of assignments, primarily those with submission type: online. To bulk download submissions:

After a few moments of processing (longer depending on the size and quantity of student submissions), your browser will download a .zip file with all the student submissions.

Note: Do not rename the files from the .zip file if you plan to re-upload marked-up student submissions to return to students.

Re-Upload Submissions

If you have externally marked-up downloaded student submissions, and you have preserved their original file names, you can re-upload them to Canvas.

• Create a .zip file of the marked-up submissions. ( Wikihow directions ; an external website).
• Find the Related Items for the assignment, as for downloading (above).
• Click Re-Upload Submissions.
• Click Browse… to select the .zip file you created.
• Click Upload Files and wait for the upload to complete.
• Once you have uploaded the .zip file, Canvas will take time to process it. You can continue to work elsewhere while it does this.
• After time time, return to the Related Items area.
• Click View Uploads Status.

This page will tell you which files it was able to match to the recipient, and which files it ignored. Most should match if you did not rename the downloaded submissions.

Note: If you need to return only a couple submissions this way, you can use SpeedGrader and use Assignment Comments to attach it, discussed above.

Downloading Archives of Submissions

SpeedGrader has three download buttons: download annotated copy at the top left, download original submission in the top right, and download comment log in the bottom right. This is illustrated in the screenshot below. Canvas unfortunately does not allow you to download the annotated copy and comments at the same time in one file, nor does it allow you to bulk download either from all students at once. If having an after-marking-up offline record is especially important to you, consider using the bulk download-bulk upload (above) and doing your markup in Word.

Canvas Quizzes does not have an option to download the per-question comment boxes. You can print the page to PDF. It does have the ability to download the comment log in the bottom right.

Grading Help for Instructors

Video overviews.

• SpeedGrader Overview
• Rubrics Overview

Getting Started

• How do I get to SpeedGrader from an assignment, quiz, or graded discussion?
• How do I get to SpeedGrader from the Gradebook?
• How do I use SpeedGrader?

Feature Details

• How do I use the student list to view student submissions in SpeedGrader?
• How do I view the details of a submission for a student in SpeedGrader?
• How do I enter and edit grades in SpeedGrader?
• How do I leave feedback comments for student submissions in SpeedGrader?
• How do I add annotated comments in student submissions using DocViewer in SpeedGrader?
• How do I download submission comments as a PDF in SpeedGrader?
• How do I view plagiarism assignments in SpeedGrader?
• How do I use a non-scoring rubric to assess submissions in SpeedGrader?
• How do I use a rubric to grade submissions in SpeedGrader?
• How do I use free-form comments instead of ratings in a rubric in SpeedGrader?

Assignment Type Specifics

• How do I grade quiz questions in SpeedGrader?
• How do I adjust the point value for an entire quiz using fudge points in SpeedGrader?
• How do I grade one quiz question at a time in SpeedGrader?
• How do I grade group assignments in SpeedGrader?
• How do I grade a file upload submission in SpeedGrader?
• How do I grade a graded discussion in SpeedGrader?
• How do I grade a media recording submission in SpeedGrader?
• How do I grade a text entry submission in SpeedGrader?
• How do I grade a website URL submission in SpeedGrader?

Available Settings

• How do I hide student names in SpeedGrader?
• How do I hide or post assignment grades in SpeedGrader?
• How do I sort the student list in SpeedGrader?
• How do I enable SpeedGrader to launch filtered by student group?

Related Features

• How do I give extra credit in a course?
• What options can I use to regrade a quiz in a course?
• How do I regrade an assessment question in New Quizzes?
• Once I publish a quiz, what kinds of quiz statistics are available?
• How do I view reports for an assessment in New Quizzes?

Grading Help for Students

• Feedback Overview (completing Peer Reviews)
• Grades (seeing feedback provided by SpeedGrader)

Viewing Results

• How do I use DocViewer in Canvas assignments as a student?
• How do I view annotation feedback comments from my instructor directly in my assignment submission?
• How do I view rubric results for my assignment?

Peer Evaluation

• How do I submit a peer review to an assignment?
• Where can I find my peers’ feedback for peer reviewed assignments?
• How do I submit a peer review to a discussion?
• Where can I find my peers’ feedback for peer reviewed discussions?
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• Featuring good practices of using Canvas

Marking and grading assignments efficiently in Canvas

Marking and grading assignments are made easier in Canvas with its own marking tool, the Speedgrader. It offers a flexible range of options for marking assignments and giving feedback. For any assignments submitted via the “Online” submission option in Canvas, we recommend that you use the Speedgrader to mark.

Here are some tips to efficiently set grading policy, mark and grade your assignments in Canvas:

Set the “Grade Posting Policy” to “Manual”.

The first step before you set up your assignments is to set the Grade Posting policy in Canvas to Manual. When a manual grade posting policy is applied to an assignment, it will stop all notifications to students until you are ready to post and release grades. This is important as you do not want to release the grades to individual students as you enter the marks until you have marked all student submissions for that assignment. Choose ‘Grade Posting Policy’ from the Cogwheel in Grades to select the option to ‘Manually Post Grades.’ For automatically graded quizzes (e.g., MCQ quizzes), the posting policy can be set to automatic.

Make sure all markers have appropriate access to mark and grade.

The second step is to ensure that appropriate staff roles (e.g., Teacher, TA, Tutor) are added to all markers who are involved in marking the assignments.

Mark student submissions using SpeedGrader.

SpeedGrader is a powerful one-stop grading tool in Canvas where instructors can leave inline comments, add grades, and provide qualitative feedback for student submissions. It can be used with assignments, quizzes, and graded discussions; and allows you to access and grade individual assignments student by student. Instructors can also provide personalised feedback to students using text comments, file attachments, or media comments. The speech recognition feature is another useful option within Canvas’ feedback mechanism as it writes out the feedback as you speak it out. Even for assignments that are not counted towards the final grade, you can provide grades and feedback to students using SpeedGrader. You can access SpeedGrader directly from the Assignment itself or from the Grades section for every assignment.

Add annotations to student submissions.

In addition to adding marks and providing feedback comments, you can also mark up or annotate directly on the submissions. This annotation feature is available within SpeedGrader, and allows you to highlight, strike out, and insert text, write free-form comments, and draw free-form shapes on a document.

Manage grading with multiple markers.

Some assignments require multiple markers and require clear communication between these markers on the grading process. The Gradebook history function in Grades allows markers to see who changed a student’s grade and when the change was made. Multiple markers for specific sections: For multiple markers grading specific sections of students in your course, use SpeedGrader to filter students by specific sections. Markers can then grade and provide feedback for student submissions by sections. Multiple markers for same set of students: For multiple markers grading the same set of students, make use of moderated grading function in Canvas assignments to manage grading. With multiple graders, you might sometimes need to track grade changes.

Use Rubrics to grade consistently.

Rubrics is not always needed when grading assignments. But, when you have an especially large class and multiple graders, then grading consistently becomes especially difficult. For such cases, attach a rubric to an assignment to help you with grading. This will enable you to choose the rating for each student submission via SpeedGrader such that the total score is automatically calculated.

Release grades/feedback in Gradebook.

Only when you have graded all student submissions for an assignment and ready to release the grades and feedback to students, post your grades. Once grades are posted for an assignment via the Canvas Grades section, the crossed eye icon for that assignment column will disappear to indicate that students can view the grades and feedback.

• Select a grade posting policy for a course  
• Canvas user roles and permissions at NUS  
• Use SpeedGrader  
• Add annotated comments in student submissions  
• Filter columns and rows in the Gradebook
• Add a moderated assignment to be graded by multiple markers  
• Review moderated assignments in SpeedGrader  
• Add a rubric in a course  
• Use a rubric to grade submissions in SpeedGrader  
• Post grades for an assignment in the Gradebook  

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• Assignments

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• Canvas Tutorials
• How Do I…
• Appointments
• Who To Go To
• Faculty Central
• About the CLT

Setting Automatic Grades for Missing Assignments in Canvas

If a student has not submitted an assignment and the due date has passed, you can either enter a zero in the Canvas Gradebook manually or you can have Canvas automatically assign a zero using a Missing Submission Policy.

It is important that every item in the Canvas Gradebook has a number or a value. If you do not enter a grade for an assignment, Canvas will ignore the assignment in their final grade calculation, resulting in an inaccurate, possibly inflated score. It is also important to enter any zeros immediately after the due date passes rather than at the end of the semester so that students’ grades are an accurate reflection of their current standing.

To use the Missing Submission Policy feature :

• Open your Canvas course and select Grades in the left-hand navigation.
• Click on the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Gradebook. The Late Policies tab will now appear.
• Select “Automatically apply grade for missing submissions” and enter 0 in the field below.

Canvas will now automatically insert a zero into any missing assignment cell after a due date has passed. You can always override this score if you choose to accept a student’s assignment after the due date.

Setting a Missing Submission policy affects all assignments in a course, including assignments with due dates in the past. To exclude a specific assignment, mark the submission as something other than Missing in the Grade Detail Tray. Applying a missing submission policy will not affect previously graded missing submissions. See  How do I apply a Missing Submission policy in the Gradebook?  for more information.

Note that you can also use this feature to automatically apply deductions to late submissions.  See  How do I apply a Late Submission policy in the Gradebook?  for more information.

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Grading assignments in canvas.

On This Page

Enter Score on Grades Page

View online submission and submit a score in speedgrader, sort and name display options, annotation tools, grade entry, use a rubric, additional feedback, moving to next student, more resources.

If students aren't submitting anything, like for an in-class activity or participation points, you will need to create a "no submission" assignment on the Assignments page. Then, you can go right to the Grades page and enter a grade for each student, just as you would in spreadsheet software.

Enter "EX" (excused) for students who do not need to complete the assignment so that the score won't count as a "0" when it comes time to calculate a final grade.

When students submit artifacts online (text, document, picture, etc.) you will use the SpeedGrader to grade the assignment. The SpeedGrader will show a preview of the student submission and give you a box to enter the score and a comments field.

You can access the SpeedGrader in a couple of ways:

On the Canvas Dashboard, click on the assignment title in the To Do list

In the course, click on the assignment title in the To Do list on the home page

In the course, click on the Assignment page, then the title of the assignment, and click SpeedGrader

In the course, click on Grades , then the three dots, and SpeedGrader

Once you are in the SpeedGrader, you can sort the submissions alphabetically, by the date of submission, or by submission status and hide the student names.

If students submitted documents for the assignment, you have the option to use a pointer, highlighter, text entry, text strikethrough, or box outline to provide feedback. When using these tools, be sure to add a comment for students to view the feedback. Here is sample verbiage you might use:

Please be sure to view the comments on the body of your paper by clicking on the "View Feedback" link from the assignment page.

If you prefer to use annotation tools using an application on your computer, you can download the file and upload the edited version. For example, you could download the submitted file and open it into a word processing software like Microsoft Word and use the Track Changes feature. There, you can save your document with the annotations and upload them to SpeedGrader by using the File Attachment button underneath the comment box on the right-hand panel of the Speedgrader.

Enter the score in the grade field on the right panel.

You can use a rubric to grade the assignment. See Rubrics for more details.

You can provide additional feedback to students in the form of comments, an uploaded file, video, or audio recording.

You can move to the next student by clicking on the left arrow at the top of the page, or use the dropdown menu to select a specific student.

• Canvas guide: How do I use SpeedGrader?
• Canvas guide: How do I post grades for an assignment in the Gradebook?  

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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Digital Grading Assignments Made Easy

Digital grading 101: how to use a digital worksheet maker to create easy-to-use auto-graded assignments and assessments.

Are you feeling weighed down by the stack of grading you have? Free up nights and weekends by automating your grading in your classroom. We’ve come up with a guide to jumpstart your digital grading journey. 

What is Digital Grading?

A digital-graded, or auto-graded assignment, is an assignment that is instantaneously graded. Often teachers use tools that automate the grading process. They create an assignment and then put in a key that the app uses to grade submissions. Self-graded assessments and worksheets can be partially or fully graded by auto-grading software. TeacherMade converts all of your assignments to digital worksheets and gives you the option to auto-grade interactive digital activities. 

What types of assignments and assessments can be Digital graded?

Most assignments can be auto-graded using TeacherMade . Here are a few ideas: 

• Homework : Teachers use homework for practice. So why not automate it? You can even set up your assignment options so that students can get instant feedback, so they know how they are doing at the moment.
• Worksheets : Are worksheets dominating your grading time? Much like homework, teachers spend a lot of time grading worksheets. Free up your time grading and focus on things that matter more: instruction, meaningful feedback , and relationships. 
• Formative Assessment : Do a quick check with your students and get instant feedback on their learning journey.
• Quizzes : Most quizzes can be automated. Just put in your key with TeacherMade . 
• Tests and Assessment : Multiple-choice tests are perfect for self-grading. But you can also grade portions of tests and use self-grade for the rest.
• Bellringers : Start your day off in the right way with auto-graded bell work. It’s easy to have students log in to their digital bell work, and then you can quickly receive the feedback.

Benefits of Digital graded Assignments

Once you implement auto-scoring in your classroom, you will be amazed at all of the benefits you will experience. 

Save time with self-graded assignments and assessments

Many teachers are reluctant to start using digital assignments that self-grade because of the learning curve. It can be frustrating to learn a new app or software only to realize it’s not the right fit in your classroom. And each time you use it, there is time spent getting it set up just right. But here’s the thing, you’re already spending time typing and editing assignments that you use all the time. You’re also spending time copying the assignment, handing it out, and grading it. Why not cut this time out with some setup time?

With TeacherMade , our app makes it easy to set up auto-grading on all of your assignments. If you can set up a PowerPoint, you can set up a self-graded assignment. Try TeacherMade today . 

Digital worksheets are the key to implementing auto-graded Assignments in your classroom today

If you want to simplify grading with auto-grading, the best way to do this is to regularly use digital worksheets in your classroom. It’s easy to create a TeacherMade assignment. 

• Step 1: Upload your worksheet or assessment file. ( We accept these file types. )
• Step 2: Add fields for student responses.
• Step 3: Include answers to questions that work for self-scoring.
• Step 4: Send links to assignments to complete.
• Step 5: Allow our auto-grade feature to do all of the work from there!

Get immediate data that informs instruction

Your results show up instantly on TeacherMade. Take these results and immediately modify your lesson for an impact that will reach your students. With traditional grading, you may have to wait over a week before getting a clear picture of your students’ knowledge. It can feel too late to correct your course of action by then. 

Intervene faster with faster results

Connect with students that need intervention faster with TeacherMade . You will instantly know which concepts students struggle with while using our self-grading feature. Stop wasting time grading, and connect with students when the material is still fresh on their minds. 

Why use TeacherMade as a digital worksheet maker over Google Forms or Slides?

You may want to use Google Forms or Google Google Slides because it is already connected to Google Classroom. But TeacherMade syncs up with Google Classroom and provides an intuitive and feature-rich app for creating digital worksheets. 

• Stop limiting students with basic online worksheets from Google Forms. With TeacherMade, your online activities will look and feel like traditional paper assignments and tests. 
• Add multimedia like your voice or a video clip to your traditional PDF assignments.
• Grade assignments instantly. TeacherMade allows you the flexibility to edit your answer key as you grade– just like when you grade paper assignments and tests. 
• Our app connects to all of the major LMS platforms: Google Classroom, Canvas, and Schoology.

Use TeacherMade as a Digital grading worksheet and assignment resource

Regain your nights and weekends with TeacherMade. When you digitize your assignments, you gain the advantages of self-grading. This leads to seeing results faster and adjusting your instruction in the moment. Become a more organized and informed teacher with our auto-grading features today. 

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Getting Started with Canvas Assignments

• Last modification date Updated On June 8, 2023
• Categories: Assignments , Canvas , Uncategorized
• Categories: assessment , Getting Started , Grading

Canvas  Assignments  are a way for instructors to provide students opportunities to practice using the knowledge and skills they have gained or to assess student performance related to such knowledge and skills. (Creating an Assignment is the  only  way to create a new column in the Gradebook.)

In Canvas there are four basic  Submission Types  for assignments. The submission types include:

• No Submission : For assignments for which you are not collecting any content from the students.
• Text Entry : For students to enter text directly into a text box on Canvas.
• Website URL : For students to enter a URL (usually to a blog, video, podcast, etc.).
• Media Recordings : For students to upload or record media for submission.
• File Uploads : For students to upload files for submission ( Restrict Upload File Types  will allow you to limit which types of files may be submitted).
• On Paper : For assignments students will submit in person.
• External Tool : For assignments which students will submit through a third-party tool (such as Turnitin, Panopto Video Quiz, and PlayPosit).

Managing an Assignment

Managing assignment groups.

When getting started with Assignments, learn to

• Create an assignment shell with the Canvas guide  How do I create an assignment? 

If you select  Peer Reviews Appear Anonymously , annotation tools in  SpeedGrader  will become unavailable.

If you change the  Assign To  area from  Everyone  to select students after submissions have already begun, and do not have a second set of Assign To dates, submissions from unassigned students will disappear.

• Published assignments are visible as existing outside of availability dates, but students cannot see the details.
• If looking to update the due and/or availability dates on multiple assignments, see   How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• If choosing the option to make an assignment a  Group Assignment : If only assigning to specific groups, make sure to click the  X  on the  Everyone Else  choice under  Assign to .

Media Recording  Assignments are not recommended due to technical reasons. Instead, have students submit media by embedding it in a  Text Entry  assignment through Panopto .

Clearly express expectations and criteria for grading by using a  Rubric .

Be cautious limiting submission attempts, as students often make mistakes loading documents and need multiple attempts to ensure you have the correct submission.

• Delete an assignment with the Canvas guide  How do I delete an assignment?
• This duplication process will not work for Quizzes.
• Attach a rubric to an assignment for grading or to communicate expectations to students with the Canvas guide  How do I add a rubric to an assignment?

Accessibility Tips

• Use descriptive text for links, instead of long URLs or ‘click here’. 
• Make instructions brief and to-the-point. Avoid long paragraphs and sentences.
• Consider allowing multiple submission types to accommodate technical limitations students may face.

Assignment Groups  are a way to categorize different graded items in Canvas. For example, you may have journals, blogs, and essays which your students create in your course. Assignment Groups allow you to label and group different types of assignments separately in order to better organize and for ease when applying weighting (see  How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups? ). When getting started with Assignment Groups, learn to

• Add and delete assignment groups with the Canvas guide  How do I add an assignment group in a course?
• Move or reorder an assignment group with the Canvas guide  How do I move or reorder an assignment group?
• Make rules governing grading expectations within assignment groups with the Canvas guide  How do I create rules for an assignment group?

Additional Resources

• CTI Resource: What is the Assignments Index Page?
• How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?
• Canvas Student Guide

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Below are commonly asked questions about UNT's online learning management system, Canvas.

If your question can't be answered here, please contact the Faculty Helpdesk at (940) 369-7394,   [email protected] , or come and see us during our   normal hours   in the Support and Services Building 162K. 

Instructors have the ability to access Canvas's "undelete" page, where they can restore assignments, discussions, quizzes, and other items that were accidentally deleted. To access this page, instructors should go to their course, and then insert "undelete" in the last portion of the URL at the top of their page. An example of this URL is https://unt.instructure.com/courses/12345/undelete.

Instructure performs maintenance on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month between 1:05am and 3:05am if necessary. Even though the maintenance window is scheduled for 2 hours, users are not likely to experience downtime for more than a few minutes, however users should plan to schedule their activities accordingly.

Personal pronouns display after your name in various areas in Canvas, including:

• Comment Fields

Discussions

• User Navigation Menu
• User Profile Page
• User Settings Page

You can select your personal pronouns by using the following steps:

• In the Global Navigation, click the Account button (above the Dashboard button), then click the Settings link.
• Click the Edit Settings button.
• Enter the name you would like to display in discussions, messages and comments in the Display Name field.
• In the Pronouns drop-down menu, select your personal pronouns.
• Click the Update Settings button

There could be several different reasons why students cannot see a course or a course's content:

• Either the course or the course content is unpublished. To ensure your course is published, check that the "Published" button on your course's home page in the right Sidebar is green. To ensure your course's content is published, check that the modules, assignments, quizzes, etc. have a green checkmark next to them ( Image 1 ).
• The semester hasn't started yet. Although students are populated one week before the semester start date, students can only access the course content on the first class day unless the course settings have been adjusted to allow them to access it earlier.
• The course is not displaying on the student's Dashboard. For the student to ensure a course can be easily found, they can navigate to All Courses from the Global Navigation bar and click the star to the left of a course to pin it to the Dashboard.

• From the Course Navigation Bar, click Settings .
• Click the Course Details tab.
• Scroll down and enter the desired "Starts" and "Ends" dates ( Image 2 ).
• Click to checkmark the "Users can only participate in the course between these dates" box.
• Go to the home page and Publish the course.
• Navigate to the course.
• From the Course Navigation Bar, click People .
• Click the green +People button at the top right. A window called "Add People" will appear.
• Under "Add user(s) by," select "Login ID."
• In the text box of the same window, enter the TA's (or TF's, instructor's, etc.) EUID. If you do not know their EUID, select "SIS ID" and enter the person's eight-digit UNT ID number.
• Under "Role," select the role you want the new user to have.
• Click the green Next button at the bottom right of the window.
• The pop-window in Canvas will close, and the user will show in the People page as "Pending."
• This new user will need to log in to Canvas and accept their invitation to the course in order to see it.

You will no longer have the ability to add users to your course after the end date has been reached. If you would like to add another instructor to your concluded course, you may email the Faculty Helpdesk with the following information:

• Course name and section (ABCD 1234.001)
• Semester (ex. Spring 2019)
• EUID or SIS ID of instructor you would like to add

Note : The request must come from the instructor of note of the course .

Once the end date of a course has been reached, students will no longer have access to a course's content. In order to give a student who needs access to a course's content to finish an incomplete in the course, email the Faculty Helpdesk with the following information:

• EUID or SIS ID of the student you would like to extend course access for
• Date and time of when they can have access until

While there isn't a log of submissions for each student, you can view a record of pages a student has accessed in a student's Access Report :

• Locate the student.
• Click on the three bullet icon to the right of the student's name.
• Select User Details .
• Click Access Report on the far right.

Accessibility

Canvas offers several options for ensuring accessibility, like the  Accessibility Checker ; this tool analyzes whether written content can be understood by students with visual and auditory impairments.

You may also schedule a consultation with an accessibility specialist by completing a form . Make sure you check the box next to "Accessibility" under the Consultation Categories box.

The CLEAR website is also a knowledgeable resource for anyone seeking to design an accessible course according to UNT's standards . 

According to the Canvas Community , Canvas officially supports the following screen reader and browser combinations:

• Windows:  JAWS  and  NVDA  (latest version for Firefox)
• Macintosh:  VoiceOver  (latest version for Safari)
• There is no screen reader support for Canvas in Chrome, IE11, or Edge browsers.

Mobile Apps

• Android:  Talkback  (latest OS version)
• iOS:  VoiceOver  (latest OS version)

Official browser support means that these browsers are actively tested against Canvas code. Canvas may be able to be used in any other browser or screen reader not listed, but official support is not provided.

Assignments

If a student (or several students) miss a due date or needs an extension, you can allow the student(s) to access an item with a new due date by following the steps below.

• Go to the page of any graded assignment and click on Edit .
• Scroll down to the "Assign" section of this page. At the base of the "Assign to" box (pictured right), click on +Add ; a second "Assign to" box will appear ( Image 3 ).
• In the "Assign to" section of this second box, choose the student(s) or sections who you want to give a different due date. Give them a due date, and choose when you want them to see the assignment by choosing an "Available from," and "Until" date.
• Do not change the first box. The due dates will not conflict. 
• You can create as many exceptions as you need by clicking on +Add and repeating the steps above.
• Remember to Save !

By default, when Canvas embeds a video in the Rich Text Editor of an assignment (or other content), an inline preview of a video is added. If the video you would like to embed does not have a preview image already set or misrepresents the video, you have the option to remove this preview image. To disable inline previews for videos, follow these instructions:

• From the Course Navigation Bar, click   Assignments .
• Open the relevant assignment.
• Click the   Edit   button on the top right of the page.
• Make sure the cursor is on the relevant link.

• Check the box next to "Disable inline previews for this link."
• Click   the   Update Link   button.
• Scroll to the bottom of the assignment and click the green   Save   button.

Communication

That depends! Every Canvas user is responsible for setting up their Notification preferences. If a user does not go into their Canvas account and choose how they want notifications to be sent to their UNT e-mail (or any other contact method they list in Canvas), there are no guarantees for how they will be notified of changes or messages in Canvas. Faculty cannot view or change a student's method for receiving notifications, but they can advise their students to set up notifications early in the semester. Visit the Canvas Guides website for instructions on  how to set up student notifications  and similar instructions on  how to set up instructor notifications . 

Canvas has a video explaining notifications . Graphics within Canvas have changed since the video was made, but the video's instructions still apply. Skip to the 2 minute, 30 seconds mark within the video for a Notifications tutorial. 

Note: When your students log in to Canvas for the first time, they will be reminded by the system to update their Notifications.

• Navigate to your course.
• Under the "Course Details" tab, scroll down and click on "more options" at the bottom of the page.
• Check the "Show recent announcements on Course home page" box ( Image 4 ).
• Select the number of announcements shown on the home page.
• Click Update Course Details to save.

To obtain a list of emails of students enrolled in your course, please follow the steps below:

• Go to “New Analytics” in your course
• Click “Reports”
• Next to “Class Roster,” select “Run Report”
• Select “Run Report” in the pop up windo

You will be prompted to download a CSV file which includes a column for students’ emails.

Course Management

Once your Canvas course has been created, in the Sidebar of the course's home page, click the Publish button ( Image 5 ).

Note: You cannot unpublish a course after students submit assignments in the course.

To copy content from one of your courses into another, follow the steps below:

• Navigate to the course you would like to copy content into.
• If this is a new, blank course, click on "Add existing content" on the homepage. If this course already contains content, click Settings at the bottom of the Course Navigation Bar and then Import Course Content on the right side of the page. 
• For “Content Type,” select “Copy A Canvas Course.”
• Select the course you want to copy content from in the “Search for a course” field.
• In the “Content” section, you can copy all content or specified content from the selected course.
• Canvas also gives you the option to shift the dates on the assignments and quizzes in your previous course to accommodate the dates of the course you are copying the content to. If you would like details on how to do this, see the Canvas Community’s  guide on date adjustments .
• When you have made your desired selections, click Import .
• If you chose to copy over only “Specific Content” you will now have the option to select the content you would like to copy over by clicking “Select Content.”
• Once the Course Copy is complete, the Course Copy status will show as “Completed."

The default setting in Canvas will not allow students to attach files in new discussion topics, discussion replies, and discussions within course groups. There are two places you can enable this setting: either through the "Course Details" tab in Settings or through the Discussions page.

Through Settings :

• From the Course Navigation Bar, click Settings.
• Scroll down to the bottom of the "Course Details" tab.
• Click on "More options."
• Check the box next to "Let students attach files to discussions."

Through Discussions :

• From the Course Navigation Bar, click Discussions .

• Check the box next to "Attach files to discussions."

​Instructors often assign a graded discussion based on student groups. When they grade these discussions in the SpeedGrader, the instructors expect to be able to view the specific posts made by individual students in the group. However, depending on how they set this option up, SpeedGrader will not accommodate this and instead will prompt instructors to view the entire discussion which makes grading very tedious. To ensure the graded discussion is set up correctly, follow these instructions:

Create Groups

​​First, you will need to establish groups in your course so you can assign discussions to those groups:

• ​Navigate to your course.
• Click the  People  tab in the left-hand Course Navigation menu.
• In the top right-hand corner, click the green  +Group Set  button.
• Give the group set a name like "Project Groups" or Discussion Groups."
• Allow students to sign-up themselves by check-marking the box next to "Allow self sign-up," allow Canvas to automatically split students into groups for you by selecting the first option under "Group Structure" and entering the number of groups, or manually create the groups.
• Click the green  Save  button at the bottom of the window.
• Depending on the method, the groups will now be created under the "Group Set" tab you just created at the top of the  People ​ page.

Note:  It is important that you create groups inside of the group set in Canvas. If you do not create groups within a group set, when you assign a discussion or assignment to a group, it will be assigned to students in the group set if they are not assigned to a group - which usually means all student. This will make it difficult to grade individual students.

Now that you have created your groups, you can assign a group discussion:

• Click the  Discussions  tab in the left-hand Course Navigation menu.
• ​In the top right-hand corner, click the green  +Discussion  button.
• Enter a topic title for the discussion as well as instructions.
• Select the various options based on your preferences.
• Checkmark the "Graded" option.
• A "Group Discussion" box will appear once the "Graded" option is check-marked. Checkmark the box next to "This is a Group Discussion."
• Under the "Group Set" dropdown, select the name of the group set you created earlier.
• Assign the number of points possible and select whether to display the grade as points, percentage, etc. and choose which assignment group this discussion should be in.
• Click the gray  Save & Publish ​ button if you are ready to publish.

Once students start to engage with the discussion, you can view each individual student's posts and comments when you access their name in SpeedGrader.

A student may not be able to view a file you have uploaded to an assignment or module because the assignment or module are not published, the file itself is not published in the Files link, the folder the file is in is not published, or it is possible that you have set the file to not be visible in student files. Check to make sure the green arrow appears next to the assignment or module, the file, and the file folder.

There are a couple of different ways to upload a file in a course and include it in an assignment. The recommended way utilizes the following instructions:

• Create a new assignment by clicking the green   +Assignment   button or edit an assignment you have already created by selecting the assignment name and then clicking the gray   Edit   button.
• On the right-hand side, click the "Files" tab.
• Upload a new file by clicking on "+Upload a new file" or selecting a file you have already uploaded.
• If you uploaded a new file, make sure to select a folder to upload the file into then click   Upload .
• The file will be added in the Rich Text Editor of the assignment as a link.
• Click the green   Save   button.

This method is recommended as opposed to uploading a file and copying and pasting the file's URL in an assignment. When this method is used, if the course is then copied for a later semester, the file will not be able to be accessed since the file is not located in the new semester's Canvas course. Files can also be uploaded from the   Files   link in Canvas and then selected from the "Files" tab of the Rich Content Editor when editing an assignment, quiz, etc.

Note: Always make sure that the file and file folder you upload is published if you would like students to view it.

Similar to Blackboard’s capability to weigh grades within the Grade Center, Canvas offers instructors a simple way to assign values to different assignment types within a course. To take advantage of this feature, follow the Canvas Community’s  guide on weighting grades

Weighted grades in Canvas do not occupy a second column; it modifies the total column. These weights can be removed at any time, and added back just as easily.

Canvas Guides provides information on using Canvas's SpeedGrader and how to use SpeedGrader's markup features .

By default, students can see a high, low, and median score grade distribution for graded assignments with 5 or more submissions (pictured below).

You can hide this feature from students by following these steps:

• Go to the "Course Details" tab.
• Scroll to the bottom and select "more options."

• Click Update Course Details at the bottom of the page.

Note: Instructors will still be able to view the grade distribution graphs after this option is disabled.

You have the ability to hide the "Total" column from students. To do this, follow the steps below:

• From the Course Navigation Bar, click   Settings .
• Click on "Course Details" tab at the top of the page.
• Scroll down to the bottom of this page. Click "more options."
• Check the box for "Hide totals in student grades summary" ( Image 8 ).
• Scroll to the bottom of the page again, and click the green   Update Course Details   button.

Note:  If you hide this column, students will not be able to use the "What If" feature on their "Grades" page. This option allows students to explore what grades they need to earn in upcoming assignments and assessments in order to receive the total course grade they desire.

To export and import grades from a course in Canvas, see the Canvas Community's guide on how to download grades and how to upload grades.

"Treat Ungraded as 0" is a visual change and does not affect any grades. This setting shows the change in Gradebook calculations if ungraded assignments were given scores of zero. Enabling this setting has no effect outside of the Gradebook;   students cannot see any difference in their grade pages. When the "Treat Ungraded as 0" setting is enabled, assignments that do not have a grade will be treated as if a student received a score of zero. You can disable this setting in the Gradebook at any time. 

Even when this setting is enabled, Canvas will not populate zeros in the Gradebook. Dashes will still display for each student submission. This feature affects the configuration of the Total Column in the Gradebook, which also applies to CSV Exports. The CSV file displays columns for the Current and Final scores: the Current score reflects the total while ignoring unsubmitted assignments (option disabled), and the Final score counts unsubmitted assignments as zero (option enabled).

On the students' end, if an instructor chooses to "Treat ungraded assignments as zero" in a courses gradebook, students have to manually uncheck a box to not "Calculate only based on graded assignments" ( Image 9 ) to see the same grade total in the course that the instructor sees (to be on the same page as the instructor concerning the grade they are earning in a course). The default on the student side is a check in the box regardless of the setting chosen by the instructor.

If you are using a rubric to grade an assignment and you would like the points assigned to be calculated in the Gradebook, you will need to checkmark the option in the rubric when you are adding it to the assignment. To do this:

• From the Course Navigation Bar, click  Assignments .
• Click on the assignment you would like to add the rubric to.
• Click the gray +Rubric  button.
• Create or find the appropriate rubric.
• Checkmark the box next to "Use this rubric for assignment grading" to ensure that whatever grade is calculated from the points in the rubric in SpeedGrader will automatically be inputted into the Gradebook.
• Click the green  Create Rubric  button.

If you have already created or added the rubric to an assignment or discussion, you can edit the rubric by clicking the pencil icon that can be found in the top right of the rubric. 

Note: To add, view, and make changes to the rubric for discussion assignments, you will need to open the discussion assignment and click on the three vertical dots on the top right. In the dropdown, click "Add Rubric" if you have not already or "Show Rubric" if you already added one.

When creating a page within Canvas, instructors have the option to open a page to be edited by students (see the Canvas Community's guide on how to create a page under "Edit Page Settings"). Students can then treat the page like a Wiki, and any changes can be undone by an instructor through the page history .

To view the previous version of a page and/or revert the page back to the way it was in the past, follow instructions on  how to manage page history .

Third-Party Integrations

To set up a quiz in Canvas that requires students to use LockDown Browser, follow these steps:

• Make sure the quiz has been deployed in the Canvas course.
• From the Course Navigation Bar, select LockDown Browser .
• A list of quizzes in the course will be displayed. Quizzes labeled with “Required” require students to use LockDown Browser. Quizzes labeled with “Not Required” do not require students to use LockDown Browser.
• To change the settings, click the arrow to the left of the quiz title and select the first option, Settings . From here you can either require or no longer require Lockdown Browser for your quiz.
• You may additionally require that LockDown Browser be used to view quiz feedback and results. Other options include creating an access code that students must enter to start the quiz. LockDown Browser will prompt students to enter the instructor-provided code before proceeding with the quiz.

No, this capability is not available within Canvas.

When the Plagiarism Framework is enabled on an assignment and after a student has submitted the assignment, either a gray or colored icon will appear in the relevant box in the Gradebook ( Image 10 ). The distinctions are as follows:

• Gray icon   [1]: Similarity Report has not been generated yet.
• If the colored square for your Similarity Report is   Red , 75% - 100% of the text in your paper matches something already in the Turnitin database.
• If the colored square is   Orange , 50% - 74% of the text in your paper matches something already in the Turnitin database.
• If the colored square is   Yellow , 25% - 49% of your paper or assignment matches something already in the Turnitin database.
• If the colored square is  Green  it means that 0% - 24% of your paper or assignment matches something already in the Turnitin database.
• And a   Blue   colored square means that less than 20 words in your paper or assignment matches something already in the Turnitin database.

LockDown Browser does not cache image or media files and, as a result, Canvas may have difficulty loading the quiz. This issue can be fixed by changing a setting in the Canvas quiz following these instructions:

• From the Course Navigation Bar, click Quizzes .
• Open the relevant quiz.
• Click the Edit button at the top right of the page.
• Make sure you are under the Details tab.
• In the middle of the page, check-mark the box next to "Show one question at a time."
• Click the green Save button.

This fix will make it easier for Canvas to load the quiz since questions will display one at a time. The problem can worsen if WiFi is being used due to limited bandwidth. If the issue persists, please contact the Faculty Helpdesk through email or 940-369-7394.

•  DSI CLEAR
• Approved & Supported Tech
• Canvas Start-of-Semester Tasks
• Canvas End-of-Semester Tasks
• Canvas App and Browser Compatibility
• Canvas Studio
• LinkedIn Learning
• Respondus LockDown Browser
• Using Turnitin to check for plagiarized/AI-generated content
• Microsoft Teams in Canvas
• Zoom Web Conferencing Tool

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