Grades

How do I use the Gradebook?

View of the Canvas Gradebook layout
The Gradebook includes global sorting options and settings you can use to organize your gradebook [1], student data [2] and assignment data [3].

The Gradebook supports keyboard shortcuts. To view the Keyboard Shortcuts menu, click the Keyboard icon [4] or press the Shift+Question Mark keys simultaneously.

See the Canvas Gradebook Instructor guide for a complete list of features and options.

Unpublished graded items appear in the Gradebook

By default, unpublished assignments, quizzes, and graded discussions will now be displayed in the Gradebook. This setting can be turned off at any time.

Change the Status of a Grade

Change the status of an individual student assignment submission in the Grade Detail Tray. Status labels include: None, Late, Missing, Excused. 

Enter Grades as a Letter Grade

This feature allows you to enter and view grades by points, percentage or letter grade. Note: To enter and display letter or GPA grades, a grading scheme must first be set for the assignment.

Grade Detail Tray

This new feature makes it fast and easy to view and enter grades, submission status, and comments, both by individual assignment or student. In addition, the Grade Detail Tray provides a place to access Speedgrader for an assignment, or view an individual student’s grade page. 

Hide Grades

Students will not receive grade change, instructor comment and annotation notifications when grades are hidden. It’s possible to set all grade columns to hide automatically; hide specific assignment grade columns; or hide grades that were  previously posted in the Gradebook.

Late Policies

We recommend setting Late Policies before publishing graded activities in your course, as these settings are not retroactive and will only apply to graded activities that do not yet have submissions.

Use these features to automatically apply a grade or deduct points for missing or late submissions. For example, in the event that a student did not submit a quiz or an assignment, use the Missing Submission Policy feature to automatically deduct points or apply a grade to any late or missing submissions in your course; or use the Default Grade option to do this for an individual quiz or assignment submissions. 

Post Grades

Grades can be posted to everyone or only to students with graded submissions. When grades are only posted to students with graded submissions, students with ungraded submissions will view an icon on their grades page that indicates grades are still being worked on. Grades can be posted for specific sections.

Filter and Arrange Grade Columns in the Gradebook

You can filter and arrange any column in the Gradebook according to your preference. For example, you can use Gradebook filters to display graded activities by module, assignment group, status, submission and start/end dates. You can also arrange and view your Gradebook by assignment name, due date, points or module. Additionally, you can manually move Gradebook columns and increase or decrease the width of any column in the Gradebook.

Sort and Display Students in the Gradebook

Sort students alphabetically or by first or last name; or choose to display student GUIDs and show or hide NetIDs. 

How do I hide grades from students?

By default, Canvas courses use an automatic course posting policy, which means all grades are visible to students as soon as they are entered in the gradebook. Grades for anonymous and moderated assignments do not post automatically.

If you select a manual course posting policy, all grades remain hidden from student view by default until you manually post grades. Additionally, when grades are hidden, students cannot see their assignment grade, instructor comments, or grade change notifications.

View the interactive Student Grade Visibility Flowchart for more details.

Hide Grades

Students will not receive grade change, instructor comment and annotation notifications when grades are hidden. It’s possible to:

Post Grades

Grades can be posted to everyone or only to students with graded submissions. When grades are only posted to students with graded submissions, students with ungraded submissions will view an icon on their grades page that indicates grades are still being worked on. Grades can be posted for specific sections.

How do I assign letter grades?

We recommend you first read the following guides to setup a letter grade schemes in your Canvas course: 

Can I control when students are notified about their grades in Canvas?

Yes. Using grade posting policies (e.g. hide grades) in the Gradebook will prevent grade notifications from being sent to students. When grades are hidden, students cannot see their assignment grade, instructor comments, or grade change notifications. View the interactive Student Grade Visibility Flowchart for more information.

How do I hide grades from students?

How do I upload an Excel (CSV) file into the Gradebook?

You can use a CSV file to upload changes to the Gradebook. You can upload information for existing assignments, or you can also use a CSV file to create new assignments in the Gradebook. New assignments will automatically be published in your course. Learn how to upload an Excel (CSV) file into the Gradebook.

If you don’t want to create a new CSV file, you can always download the CSV from Canvas, change it, and re-upload the same file and the changes you made will appear in Canvas once you re-upload the CSV file.

How do I create grading rubrics in my course?

Instructors in Canvas can create grading rubrics and add them to any gradable item in Canvas. Once you create a rubric, the rubric is saved in your course for future use, and can be used in other Canvas courses you are teaching. Learn how to create rubrics, add them to assignments, and manage them for future use.

NEW: Rubrics can now have point ranges instead of just an individual point values. Learn how to use point ranges in Canvas rubrics.

How do I use Course Analytics?

Course Analytics are available to all Instructors, TAs, and other course roles with gradebook access in a Canvas course. Course Analytics gives users the ability to evaluate student performance in published courses, track and analyze participation, identify at-risk students, and determine the effectiveness of various teaching strategies.

Course Analytics will show you:

  • Student Activity: allows the instructor to see when students view a page or participate in the course.
  • Student Submissions: allows the instructor to view if students submit the assignment on-time, late, or not at all.
  • Student Grades: use a box and whisker plot to show the distribution of grades in the course.
  • Student Specific: shows page view, participations, assignments, and current score for every student in the course.

The Course Analytics button only appears once students have been enrolled and they have started to participate in the course.

How do I view Course Analytics?

The New Analytics tool is coming soon by default to all courses in Canvas.

How do I access New Analytics?

New Analytics is available to all Instructors, TAs, and other course roles with gradebook access in a Canvas course. The data used for the New Analytics is refreshed every 24 hours. This means that any changes to students’ participation within last 24 hours would not be reflected in the data.

Currently, New Analytics will require instructors to enable the feature “New Course and User Analytics” on a course-by-course basis via the Feature Preview tab in course Settings. Learn how to enable and manage new features in a course.

Once the New Analytics feature has been enabled, click the ‘New Analytics’ button either on the course menu or on the course Home Page.

new analytics button on course menu or home page

How do I revert back to using the “old” version of Course Analytics? Learn how to disable and manage new features in a course. You will be disabling the feature “New Course and User Analytics.”

What can I see in New Analytics?

View the average course grade:

View average weekly online participation analytics:

View course grade and participation analytics for an individual student:

Compare the score distributions of graded assignments:

Compare the average weekly online participation:

Send a messages to students based on specific criteria:

View and download reports on missing assignments, late assignments, excused assignments, the class roster, and course activity:

Is Canvas integrated with MyAccess?

Currently, there is no automated upload/feed of course grades from Canvas to MyAccess. Instructors must manually input grades into MyAccess.

Where do I enter final course grades for students?

Final grades are submitted in MyAccess and not in Canvas.

If you cannot login to MyAccess, or do not see the course or your enrollment in MyAccess, please contact your department (or program) course scheduler.

For additional help with MyAccess please contact:

How do I see student GUIDs in the Gradebook?

In Canvas, the “Integration ID” displays a user’s GUID. By default, GUIDs always appear in downloaded (exported) Gradebooks. 

The online Gradebook cannot show student NetIDs and GUIDs at the same time. It can only show one or the other. To see a student NetIDs and GUIDs at the same time download (export) the Canvas Gradebook.

Teachers can customize the Gradebook to display student GUIDs. Viewing student GUIDs may be helpful for instructors who work with Scantron or need to reference GUIDs during the semester.

  1. From the course menu, click on Grades to open the Gradebook.
  2. Mouse over the Student Name column in the Gradebook.
  3. Click on the three-dot menu that appears in the Student Name column.
  4. Mouse over the Secondary info and click Integration ID.

GUIDs will now appear below each student’s name in the online Gradebook. 

Note: Student GUIDs will remain displayed in the online Gradebook until another Secondary info option is selected (e.g. NetID, SIS ID, or None).

Don’t see what you are looking for?

Check out the Get Help and Training & Support pages for more resources.

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