Using the Gradebook and Speedgrader

The Gradebook helps instructors easily view and enter grades for students. Depending on the Grade display type, grades for each assignment can be viewed as points, percentage, complete or incomplete, GPA scale, or letter grade.

Only graded assignments, graded discussions, graded quizzes, and graded surveys that have been published display in the Gradebook. Not Graded assignments are not included.

To learn more about the gradebook check out Canvas Guides: What are Grades and the Gradebook? Links to an external site..

View: Overview video about the Gradebook Links to an external site.

Need help setting up the gradebook?  Refer to Gradebook Setup Instructions

View Options in the Gradebook

The default view in the Gradebook is to view all students at a time, but you can also view students individually in the Gradebook Individual View. However, Individual View currently does not support all settings and options from the Gradebook. The Gradebook includes global sorting options and settings you can use to organize your gradebook, student data and assignment data.

The Gradebook supports keyboard shortcuts. To view the Keyboard Shortcuts menu, click the Keyboard icon in the top right hand corner of the page or press the Shift+Question Mark keys simultaneously.

Canvas Guides: How do I use the Gradebook? Links to an external site.

Grading

Most likely you will access SpeedGrader Links to an external site. to enter grades. The grades will appear in the Gradebook when you are done. However, you can manually enter and edit grades in the Gradebook.

Assignments in the Gradebook are always shown with the assignment's point value. However, you can change the assignment to display grades for a specific grading type. Links to an external site.

You can also use a CSV file to import grades Links to an external site..

Canvas Guides: How do I enter and edit grades in the Gradebook? Links to an external site.

Need to Reassign an assignment to specific Students?

As an instructor, you can reassign an assignment in SpeedGrader. The Reassign Assignment button is available for graded assignment submissions once a comment has been added by an instructor.

Notes:

  • The Reassign Assignment button is not available for quizzes or graded discussions.
  • The Reassign Assignment button is not available for External Tools (LTI), on paper, and no submission assignments.
  • The Reassign Assignment button is only available for assignments with due dates.
  • If the assignment's settings do not allow students to make an additional attempt, the Reassign Assignment shows that the assignment is not able to be reassigned.

Canvas Guides: How do I reassign an assignment in SpeedGrader? Links to an external site.

Discussions

You can grade and provide feedback on graded discussion submissions and graded group discussion submissions in SpeedGrader. Discussion replies will display individually, but the replies can also be viewed in the context of the full discussion in SpeedGrader.

Note: You will not be notified in the Gradebook of additional posts to discussions after a grade has been entered.

Canvas Guides: How do I grade a graded discussion in SpeedGrader? Links to an external site.

Quizzes

There may be situations when you see icons instead of student scores for quizzes in the Gradebook. 

In-Class or Offline Quizzes

If you create a quiz for an offline or in-class quiz or for a quiz taken outside of Canvas and see icons in the Gradebook instead of scores, a student may have inadvertently submitted the quiz in Canvas. To display the student's score in the Gradebook in this case, you must review the quiz in SpeedGrader Links to an external site. and manually update the student's score. However, we recommended that you create an assignment with the No Submission submission type Links to an external site. for offline or in-class quizzes to avoid issues with submissions and grading.

Ungraded Quiz Questions

An icon the grade cell in Gradebook may also indicate ungraded questions. Some question types, such as essay questions, require you to manually grade the question. A student's score will not display in the Gradebook until these questions have been manually graded in SpeedGrader Links to an external site..

Classic Quizzes

If your quiz was created using the Classic Quizzes tool, you can choose to manually grade the same quiz question for each student before viewing student submissions for a different quiz question. Essay and file upload questions always require manual grading, but any quiz question type may be manually graded in SpeedGrader.

Notes:

  • Grading one question at a time is only available for quizzes created using Classic Quizzes.
  • Quizzes that pull questions from a question bank will shuffle the order of questions for each student. Question order for each submission may vary within SpeedGrader.

Canvas Guides: Learn more about grading questions manually for Classic Quizzes in Canvas. Links to an external site.

New Quizzes

You can grade New Quizzes quizzes using SpeedGrader. Most quiz items are graded automatically after a student submits the quiz. However, essay and file upload questions must be graded manually.

Canvas Guides: Learn more about grading New Quizzes in Canvas. Links to an external site.

You can also go into the Moderate page for the quiz, in the attempt for individual students.

Canvas Guides: Learn more about Moderating a New Quiz in Canvas. Links to an external site.

Group Assignments

Before you can evaluate group work, you will need to create a group assignment Links to an external site.. Students can submit Google documents, pages, and other group work as an assignment.

Note: Students should be assigned to groups before group assignments are published. Grades and submissions may be affected for students who were not in a group at the time of assignment submission but who were later added to a group or students who were removed from a group.

Canvas Guides: Learn more about grading group assignments in the Speedgrader in Canvas. Links to an external site.

Weighting Final Course Grade

You can weight final grades based on assignment groups Links to an external site.. Selecting this option assigns a weight to each assignment group, not the assignments themselves. Within each assignment group, a percentage is calculated by dividing the total points a student has earned by the total points possible for all assignments in that group. 

Canvas Guides: More information and instructions from Canvas. Links to an external site.

Grade Posting Policies

In the Gradebook, you can select an automatic or manual grade posting policy for an individual assignment. Posting policies determine grade visibility for students. You should select an assignment posting policy before entering grades.

If you select an automatic posting policy, students can see assignment grades as soon as they are entered in the gradebook. Anonymous and moderated assignments cannot be set to post grades automatically.

If you select a manual posting policy, assignment grades remain hidden from student view by default until you post grades for the assignment. If you select a manual course posting policy after assignment grades have already been entered, the policy will not apply retroactively and any posted grades will remain visible. You can hide posted grades from the assignment's Options menu Links to an external site.. Additionally, when assignment grades are hidden, students cannot see their assignment grade, instructor comments, or grade change notifications. However, instructors can post comments to students before grades are entered.

You can also set a grade posting policy for a course Links to an external site.. Assignment-level posting policies override course-level policies for that assignment. Learn more about using posting policies in your course Links to an external site. and view the interactive Student Grade Visibility Flowchart Links to an external site..

Learn more about Grade Posting Policies in Canvas Links to an external site.

Export grades in the Gradebook

You can export scores from the Gradebook and download them to your computer as a CSV file. The Gradebook CSV assignment columns display in the same order as shown in the Gradebook for an individual user.

Notes about CSV files:

  • The Total Score displayed in the Gradebook reflects each student's score at the time of viewing, taking into account whether the instructor has hidden assignment scores, assignment due dates, etc. The CSV download includes read-only columns for current and final scores. Current score reflects the total while ignoring unsubmitted assignments, and the final score counts unsubmitted assignments as zero. Assignments with hidden scores are unposted grades and shown in separate columns for unposted current score and unposted final score, respectively.
  • If a student has submitted an assignment multiple times, the CSV file only accounts for the most recent submission.
  • Concluded and inactive enrollments are not included in the CSV file unless their respective option, Show Concluded Enrollments or Show Inactive Enrollments Links to an external site., is enabled in the Gradebook Settings menu.
  • Complete/incomplete assignments are shown as full or no credit (e.g. for a 10-point assignment, 10 or 0).
  • If you have the Final Grade Override option enabled in your course, the Gradebook export will include the override grade. Changes to the Final Grade Override display in the import confirmation page.
  • Gradebook export files automatically save to your user files in an Unfiled folder.
  • If you have set manual grade posting policies for specific assignments, those assignments will display the posting policy in the CSV file. However, the grade posting policy cannot be modified via the CSV file.

Learn more about Exporting Grades in Canvas Links to an external site.

Gradebook History

You can view the history of all Gradebook changes in your course using the Gradebook History page. Gradebook History is a read-only log that allows you to see who graded each artifact. Options are available to filter grading history by student, grader, artifact, and date.

For quizzes, you can view historical data for any regraded quizzes.

Notes:

  • Gradebook history displays changes made within the last 365 days.
  • Gradebook history will reflect any grade changes made to assignments with a manual posting policy, even if grades are not yet visible to students.
  • If you have enabled the Final Grade Override feature preview, you can filter by the Final Grade Overrides Only option.
  • Dropped/withdrawn student grade history is available in the Gradebook history.

Canvas Guides: How do I view the history of all grading changes in the Gradebook? Links to an external site.

What are What-if-Grades?

What-If Grades allow students to calculate their total grade by entering hypothetical grades for assignments. Only students can enter and view What-If scores. Learn how students use What-If Scores. What-If Grades allow students to calculate their total grade by entering hypothetical grades for assignments. Only students can enter and view What-If scores. Learn how students use What-If Scores. 

Canvas Guides: More information from Canvas Links to an external site.