Marking and grading

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Assessment design

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Marking and grading

Guidance for teachers and markers on the use of Canvas rubrics, SpeedGrader, Gradebook, and Grader in Inspera.

Tips for marking and grading

Important: The Grade Posting policy in the Canvas Gradebook for your assessments should be set to ‘Manually’ so the grades are not visible to students until they are ready to be released. See our FAQ below on hiding grades.

Teachers can create a fair and effective system for marking and grading student work, which helps to ensure that students receive accurate and actionable feedback to improve their learning.

Message students who have not yet submitted their assignment. Use your discretion whether this is a timely reminder in advance and/or after the deadline.
Develop clear and consistent criteria: Create a grading rubric that clearly outlines the expectations and criteria for each assignment or assessment. This will help ensure that grading is fair and consistent across the class.
Provide timely and meaningful feedback: Give students feedback on their work as soon as possible, and make sure it is specific and actionable. This will help students understand how they can improve and motivate them to do better.
Communicate feedback clearly and how it relates to the grade, either through the Gradebook or through individual feedback on assignments.
Use a variety of assessment methods such as quizzes, tests, essays, group work, projects, presentations to evaluate different aspects of student learning.
Utilise learning technologies available such as SpeedGrader, Grader in Inspera, Turnitin External Tool (LTI) to streamline the grading process and save time.
Be flexible: Adjustment to grading and procedures as needed to better meet the needs of students.

Group work and peer review

Group and peer review assignment features in Canvas provide a way to support group projects in the context of collaborative learning.

Video series - Canvas marking and grading

Video: Our in-house digital learning specialist, Karl McGuirk, steps us through the Canvas must know’s. This video is presented in Panopto. Sign in to watch the video with your University of Auckland credentials.

FAQs

Is there a difference between a teaching assistant (TA) compared to a teacher for the purposes of marking?

If a TA has been added to the course, then the TA and the teachers have the same access for marking purposes. However, if the TA is added to a specific section of the course (e.g., a cross-listed course), then the TA will only have marking access to that section.

Can students still access their grades if Grades is hidden from the course navigation?

Even though they won’t be able to access grades via the Grades menu in navigation, they can still see their overall grade so far for each course by clicking the View Grades button on their Dashboard. Use the Manually Post Grades policy in Canvas to properly hide grades from students before they are finalised.

How do I prevent students from seeing their quiz and assignment grades until I'm ready to release them?

From your Canvas course, go to Grades, locate the assessment. Click the three dots beside the name of the assessment.

Click Grade Posting Policy and choose Manual, scroll to the bottom and click Save.

Watch a video demonstration of setting the Gradebook’s Grade Posting Policy to ‘manually’.

How do I suppress quiz responses when students submit the quiz in Canvas?

When setting up the Canvas Quiz, untick the box called “Let students see their quiz responses.” You can change this option later when you’re ready for the students to see the responses.

See the Canvas Instructor Guides for more details on quiz settings.