Assessment checklist: How to prevent common issues in assignments and grading
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Each semester it is important that your Canvas assignments are set up correctly from the start. Here we describe how to prevent most of the common issues by checking the assignment and Gradebook settings in your course.
1. Assignments are organised by weighted assignment groups
This will prevent students’ grades not tallying up the way you expect at the end of the semester.
Why?
When you use assignment groups, Canvas calculates a percentage for each assignment group by dividing the total points earned by the total points possible across all assignments in that group. The group totals are then added up to make the final grade. If weighting has been applied to the groups, this is factored into the calculation. We recommend that you check your assignment and assignment group weightings at the start of the semester and again, before grading. The earlier students understand how their assignment grades impact their final grade the more likely they are to pay attention to the grades they are achieving in different assignments and perform better overall in the course.
How to use assignment groups
Visit the Instructure Guide called: How do I add an assignment group in a course?
How to apply weighting
See: How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?
Applying special rules such as dropping the highest or lowest scores?
2. Assignments have been assigned to the correct course sections
This will prevent students being marked in assignments that they shouldn’t be or not being marked in assignments that they should be.
Why?
If you’re wanting to assign an assignment to a cohort within your course rather than the whole course, you need to assign it to a course section. If this is not done correctly, it can result in issues such as students getting 0 due to non-submission, even if the assignment was not required of them. We recommend that you check who your assignments have been assigned to at the start of the semester and again before grading.
How to assign assignments
3. Assignments have the correct due dates, and available from/to dates
This will prevent students being unable/able to submit their online and Turnitin assignments before/after the due date.
Why?
The assignment due date is the indicative deadline when the assignment is due. Availability dates affect student submissions, in that they set the specific date range when students can submit the assignment. These dates are optional but they are useful for implementing if there are late submission policies for assignments – e.g., work submitted more than X days past the due date are not accepted. Note, Canvas allows resubmissions by default.
How to set the assignment due date and availability dates
See What is the difference between assignment due dates and availability dates?
4. Assignments are published
This will prevent teachers from being unable to enter marks for an assignment in the Gradebook.
Why?
In Canvas, an assignment is an assessment task that students need to complete and that you intend to grade. When you create and publish an assignment, a column where you can enter the grade for the assignment is automatically added to the Gradebook.
How to publish an assignment
See How do I publish or unpublish an assignment?
Still can’t enter grades in the gradebook?
If so, make sure the assignments are assigned to the students.
5. Assignments are muted in the Gradebook
This prevents students from viewing their grades as you enter their marks into the Gradebook or SpeedGrader.
Why?
By default, Canvas’ grade posting policy is set to manual. Please confirm this is so as you don’t want individual students seeing their grades as soon as assignments are marked. Instead, you should withhold grades until all works have been graded for the assignment, and release them to all the students at the same time. A muted assignment will not send out grade change notifications. Students will also be unable to view any grade changes and submission comments until the assignment is unmuted.
How to mute assignment grades via the grade posting policy
See How do I use posting policies in a course?
How to unmute and post assignment grades
See How do I post grades for an assignment in the Gradebook?
6. Check whether the ‘View ungraded as 0’ feature is enabled in the Gradebook
This has the benefit of altering the visual appearance, for teachers, of the Gradebook’s assignment groups and total columns, without affecting the underlying scores.
Why?
The ‘View ungraded as 0’ feature allows you to view student grades as if all ungraded (or unsubmitted and ungraded) assignments are given scores of zero points in the Gradebook. This means the total grade is calculated by adding both graded and ungraded assignments. If enabled, this is a visual change and does not affect the actual grades. Only the user who enables the option will see the change. Students have the same feature.
How to enable ‘View ungraded as 0’
See How do I view ungraded assignments as zero in the Gradebook?