To save time and headaches at the end of the semester, we recommend following the steps below to make your gradebook easier to use during the semester.

  1. Hide assignments while grading so your students cannot see their grades until you have finished grading everyone's assignments. We recommend applying the manual posting policy to the individual gradebook column before you start grading it if you have not done so already. If you have already begun grading your students' assignments, you will need to use the "hide grades"  for an assignment feature instead. Hidden assignments and assignments with a manual posting policy are not visible to your students and will only become visible once you post grades to unhide the assignment column. When you post the grades for the assignment, remember to select "everyone" to ensure no grades remain hidden.
  2. Use SpeedGrader to grade student submissions. You can mark up students' papers without downloading your students' submissions and quickly leave feedback. This tool is also helpful in grading discussion posts and adjusting the points a student earned for a quiz question if you find an error in a quiz question.
  3. Grades can be excused by typing EX into the grade book. Excusing a grade allows an assignment to be ignored while determining the final grade.
  4. Automated Gradebook Conversions. You can opt to display and enter grades as a point value or percentages interchangeably depending upon your needs as the instructor and your student's needs.
  5. Don't like working in Canvas? You can complete your edits in Excel! If you would like to adjust your students' grades offline, export your Canvas gradebook to Excel and make changes to student grades, and then use the Import a CSV file option to upload your grade changes to Canvas.
  6. Remember: Your students may not be seeing the same information as you. You may wish to guide your students to the Canvas support article: How do I view my grades in a current course? so that they view accurate grading information, particularly towards the end of the semester. We also strongly recommend assigning a 0 for any graded item the student has not submitted to avoid confusion at the end of the semester.
  7. The default view of the Gradebook is a table comprised of rows containing your students' names and columns representing your graded activities/categories. The Gradebook supports a wide variety of functions to arrange, filter, and sort your students and assignments. 


If you have opted to use the Gradebook's missing submission policy tool to assign zeroes to missing submissions automatically, keep in mind that this does not apply to "no submission" and "on paper" assignments. You will have to assign zeroes to those items manually.

For more information about using your Canvas Gradebook, see how I navigate/use Canvas's Gradebook. 

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