Canvas Gradebook
Did you know that Canvas has a new gradebook that will become the default on January 18, 2020?
In the process of finalizing your Fall 2019 grades in Canvas, you have likely seen this Banner across the top of the page.
While faculty have had the option to enable the new gradebook for many months now (and some have), most of us have continued to use the old gradebook. On January 18, 2020 you will no longer have the option to use the old gradebook!
So what is this new gradebook?
The new gradebook gives instructors new capabilities to hide/post (formerly mute/unmute) grades for a course, set a late policy for a course, arrange and filter elements in new ways, and more.
Posting grades
With New Gradebook, you can automatically hide or post (formerly mute or unmute) all feedback and grades.
Previously, the default setting allowed students to see feedback and grades as soon as they were entered; in the new gradebook, students cannot see feedback and grades until they are entered and manually posted.
When you are ready to manually release grades to students, go to Grades, click the Options icon next to the Assignment title, and select Post grades
You’ll then see options for which grades to become visible:
- Everyone: shows grades for all students. (NOTE: Students will see only their own grades.) Newly entered grades will be visible immediately to all students.
- Graded: shows grades that have already been entered. Newly entered grades will be hidden and will need to be posted later.
- Specific Sections: shows grades to one or more sections in the course.
A gray Visibility icon (the “eye” symbol) appears when hidden grades are ready to be released to students. “MANUAL” indicates that a manual posting policy is currently in place and future grades are hidden from student view or that a manual posting policy was previously used to hide grades in an assignment.
For more, see the Canvas Instructor Guide on how to post grades for an assignment.
Changing the posting policy for a course
If you would prefer that your grades and feedback appear automatically, as they did previously, you can change the posting policy.
To set the posting policy for a course, go to Grades, click the Settings (gear) icon, and select the Grade Posting Policy tab.:
Here, you can choose to Automatically Post Grades or Manually Post Grades. Click Update when finished.
If you choose to automatically post grades, you can still hide and post individual assignments. Find out how to hide grades for an assignment and how to post grades for an assignment.
For more, see the Canvas Instructor Guide on how to select a grade posting policy for a course.
Exporting and importing
The ability to export and import the new gradebook is now found under a new “Actions” menu.
To export or import your gradebook, click the Actions menu and select an option:
For more, see the Canvas Instructor Guide on exporting grades or importing grades.
Setting a late policy
You can now apply automatic grading rules to missing and late submissions.
To set the late policy for a course, go to Grades, click the Settings (gear) icon, and select the Late Policies tab.:
Here, you can set a default grade for missing submissions or apply grading rules for late submissions. Click “Update” when finished.
For more, see the Canvas Instructor Guide on how to apply a missing submission policy or apply a late submission policy.
Arranging, sorting, and filtering
You now have the ability to arrange, sort, and filter your gradebook in new ways.
With new gradebook, you can now:
- Arrange columns by module or assignment name, or manually sort them.
- Filter assignments so that you only see certain assignment groups or modules, or filter so that you only see students from certain sections or student groups.
- Sort student names by either first or last name, and display students’ sections.
- Sort an assignment column by grade or assignment status.
To learn more about changes to the Canvas gradebook, you can view the complete release notes here.
If you have questions, feel free to contact Jim O’Connor or myself.
As a reminder, you can access TUC and TUN specific resources at the Center for Innovative Learning and Teaching website at:
https://western.touro.edu/cilt/canvas/
Michael K. Barbour, Ph.D.
Fellow