Instructor Guide Important Settings in Assignments and Grades

There are important settings within Canvas Grades and Assignments that instructors need to know about. Below are a few important basics to get you started.

What Instructors Need to Know: Assignment Settings

Always start by setting up your Assignments! Once created, assignments can be moved around, edited and adjusted, so they don't need to start in sequence. When you select a [Template] (copy) key information is at the bottom of the assignment. There are a few things to know and do here, before you Edit.

Before getting into the details of building assignments and understanding how the Grades works in Canvas, it is important to understand how Canvas tools are integrated and how when you do work in one part of Canvas, Canvas makes adjustments to other parts of Canvas automatically:

At the Bottom of an Assignment

Students will see the assignment settings and any rubrics attached to the assignment

Points and Dates at Bottom

Rubrics

Rubrics can be created or found, attached, and even edited here. Rubrics can only be edited when attached to no more than one assignment. The rubric can be re-attached to other assignments after editing the rubric.

Rubrics are useful to provide clear criteria students are expected to include in the assignment. It also helps you maintain consistent focus on the same criteria, across multiple students, whether you are grading 5, or 50, or supervising delivery of multiple lab sections for a total of 500. Rubrics can make it easier for you and your students!

Select +Rubric
Give the rubric a title (e.g., identifiable & descriptive helps when searching available rubrics)
Define expected criterion
Set point values
Select any useful rubric settings
Select Create Rubric

Useful Rubric Settings

Rubric Settings

I'll write free-form comments: Ability to write and save comments within rubric, to re-use across students. Very helpful to streamline grading and feedback. (e.g., save the criteria description or common feedback phrases, so individualized comments can be short and specific, with reduced time)

Complete Rubric Reuse Comments

Saving Comments

Remove points from Rubric: Focus on feedback for revisions. Great for peer revisions. (e.g., submit draft for peer feedback, then revise & re-submit for grade)

Use this rubric for assignment grading: Rubric score (total of all criteria), is applied as assignment grade, but can still be edited, if needed. This eliminates manual entry of the assignment grade, after completing the scored rubric.

Create Rubric: When done with rubric settings

Create Rubric and Edit Assignment are mutually exclusive! Rubrics are attached to Assignments, not settings within Assignments. Rubrics are a separate tool that can be linked or created within an assignment, where rubrics are most often needed. Rubrics can also be attached to multiple assignments, or attached to assignments in multiple courses ("Find a Rubric" in an Assignment page)

If editable, Rubric edits can be made in the Rubrics section, or with the in the +Rubric attached at the bottom of the Assignment. Rubrics are not visible within Assignment Edit mode, but can be attached to most content that can be assigned in Canvas. Once attached, rubric settings will be available for use within that assignment.

Edit an Assignment

After creating the assignment content students will engage, review the settings beneath the prompt in Edit mode.

General Settings

Points: Value of assignment

Assignment Group: Where credit will be applied to contribute to the course grade (e.g., participation or projects; review & adjust Assignment Groups in the Assignments section)

Display Grade As: Ungraded Assignments are not visible in Grades (i.e., Gradebook)

Graded Assignments appear in Grades automatically, even with 0 point value, or set-up as "do not count toward grades" (e.g., this makes it easy for instructor monitoring & review in Grades; if not, assignment will only be visible in Assignments and wherever added in Modules, if any)

Groupwork Settings

Group Assignment: Designate assignment to class Groups - Review & adjust Groups in the People section; cannot be changed after any student submissions

Assign Grades Individually - Group = 1 submission & grade appears for all group members; Individually = 1 submission & grade for 1 student. Members can submit separately

You can record individual, or grade and comments for 1 submission can be copied, pasted and then adjusted as appropriate for other group members (i.e., SpeedGrader or Gradebook adjustments among group members, e.g., student needs to submit separately from original group)

Group Set - category of groups that will engage the assignment.
Group Homepage - a mini Canvas site that is available to all members of the group and that can be used for collaboration.

(review & adjust Group Sets & Set Names/Categories in the People section)

Peer Reviews: If required for the assignment, determine if you will assign reviewers manually, or if Canvas should randomize for you at a set date. Designate if reviews and feedback will be anonymous for peer review of assignments.

Assign To Settings

Assign To: Everyone in class, by default; Students working on this assignment but not students working on an alternative to this assignment; specific students or groups while others work on a different assignment.

Due: Date after which submissions are late, any late work settings are applied (see more in Grade Settings below)

Available From: Date visible to students

Until: Date students lose access to the assignment. (no submissions, revisions or peer reviews)

- Peer Reviews- If Peer Reviews are assigned or accepted after Due date, Until date must be set later than Due date.

Note- No Available date set defaults to start of term/ No Until date set defaults to end of term.

+Add: Multiple Due/Available/Until dates for different students or groups (e.g., Presentations due different weeks; exception for emergent circumstance or coordinated accommodation)

Before You Save

If you edit an assignment significantly, after it is available to students, make sure to select "Notify users that content has changed."

Then Save!

A Few Notes:

Peer Reviews under Speed Grader in Assignment page

Peer Reviews - If required, these can now be set up in the Peer Review section of the assignment, bellow the SpeedGrader (see image)
Automatically Assign Peer Reviews - By default, Canvas will assign reviews to peers who have submitted, after the assignment due date *Please share with students*
Manually - Peer Review date can be designated earlier. Specific peer reviewers can be assigned (e.g., partners).
Available Until date - If set, allow enough time after the due date, for peers to complete reviews, as appropriate.

Assignments Index Page Settings

There are also important settings associated with the Assignments Index Page, which is where you land when you select Assignments from the course menu. From the index page you can:

Organize and adjust assignments
Batch change assignments dates (Due, Available From, Until)
Weight assignment groups

Organize and Adjust Assignments

On the index page, organize and adjust your assignments to match your course syllabus.

Click and hold the 8-dot handle icon to the left of each assignment title to drag and drop assignments Assignment Groups

Select the 3-dot options icon to the right of each assignment row to Duplicate an Assignment or Edit it's Title, Due date & Point value

Assignments Section Categories

Batch Edit Assignment Dates

Assignment Index Page options menu Select the 3-dot options icon at the top right corner of the assignments index page and then select Edit Assignment Dates. Adjust dates across all assignments within the course. This makes it easy to adjust all important assignment dates in one place. Update due dates to reuse the class for a new semester, or make syllabus adjustment. Add Available From and Until dates to assignments that need more structured access (e.g., Exit tickets available at 3:05 pm until 3:15pm)

Set Assignment Group Weights

Adjust the value of assignment groups, within the course grade, regardless of specific point values of assignments. This makes it easy for instructors, without calculating grades and weights by hand. Canvas can calculate the weights for you!

For Example:

Semester Project = 40% for 1 project with 3 assignments
In-Class Presentations = 35% for 3 presentations
Participation = 25% for Engaged Participation & Exit Tickets

What Instructors Need to Know: Gradebook Settings

There are general settings for the Gradebook and specific settings for each assignment. Consider which you want to consider as assignment-specific settings versus what will be helpful as a general setting for all graded assignments.

Gradebook dropdown - view gradebook for the class or a specific student

View dropdown - change what is visible within the Gradebook and how it is sorted

Action dropdown - import or export grades (e.g., spreadsheets)

NOTE- Publish Final Grades: Canvas can publish final grades in URSA for you! This is in the course Settings section (bottom left menu). A Grading Scheme must be selected in Course Details before Canvas can sync with URSA.

General Gradebook Settings

Canvas will apply these settings automatically to all graded assignments. This can be helpful if you have consistent policies for all assignments within a course.

Late Policies

General Late Policies can be particularly useful in large classes, to save time entering grades for missing assignments, or calculating deductions for late submissions.

Grade Posting Policy

Gradebook Settings - Grade Posting Policy This can be particularly useful in small to medium size classes, with assignments that require subjective review in the SpeedGrader. Especially when applying a new rubric, or reviewing an assignments from multiple students at the same time.

Automatically Post = Grades are posted to students as soon as you enter them. Students can see all changes after this, if needed to make adjustments in how a rubric is applied.

Manually Post = Grades are hidden until you post them within the Gradebook Assignment. Multiple students' submissions can be reviewed, and adjustments can be made across subjective analyses to increase consistency, before grades are posted to students. Students cannot see any changes made to grades, until grades are posted for the assignment.

Gradebook Assignment Settings

Gradebook Assignment Options Menu Within Gradebook, each assignment column has a settings menu. Here, you can manage grades for each assignment.

SpeedGrader = can be accessed here, or within the assignment itself

Message Students = send reminders to students (e.g., Due date reminder, peer reviews assigned and available)

Assignments that Do Not Follow General Grade Settings:

Default Grade = how Gradebook will handle grading the assignment, if not graded by Canvas (e.g., quiz) or manually (e.g., SpeedGrader or directly in Gradebook column), or set for No Submission. This may not be the same as the General Missing Submissions setting. (e.g., credit for engaging a specific activity in class, nothing to submit in Canvas but not missing or late) A

Grade Posting Policy + Post/Hide = Set Policy and re-hide or post grades, independent of General Grade Posting setting. This can be helpful if you want grades for an assignment to be auto-posted. (e.g., Canvas auto-grades a quiz, so Grade Policy can allow Automatically Post for the assignment, even though General Grade Policy requires Manual posting for course assignments). If adjustments are needed after posting, here grades can be hidden or posted for the specific assignment.

Additional Resources

Get a wide variety of support and training resources for how to build a Canvas greadebook, how to grade using Canvas tools, and how to manage Canvas' gradebook from UNC's Instructional Design and Development team (IDD). Visit ID On Demand and enter the keyword Gradebook in the search field.