Assignments - how to grade them

The tool for grading in Canvas is called SpeedGrader. You can reach SpeedGrader in several ways - directly from the assignment itself, from links that are showing that there are assignments to grade or from the overview in Grades.

 

Are there any assignments to grade? A quick overview

  

Upon entering Canvas you will see if there are assignment that can be graded in any of the courses that you are teaching. If you enter a course the same information will be there, but now it's only for that specific course.

 

Who has handed in? A detailed overview with nice functions.

Click on Grades in the course menu to get to the overview of a grades. You will see a list of all students in the course and next to their names you can see who has handed in which assignment.

 

1. You may filter the Gradebook by module or student group, for instance. Click on "View" and choose "Filters".
2. You can change the policy for grading for the whole course by clicking on the settings wheel. The change affects all assignments created after the setting has been done.
3. You can see who has handed in their assignment but haven't been graded yet. It may also be a Quiz where some of the answers are yet to be graded.
4. If your university has a tool for plagiarism review (Ouriginal or similar) the report may be shown by differently coloured flags. A blue flag indicates low percentages of similarity with other works. A red flag indicates high percentages.
5. A graded assignment shows the grade according to the scale that has been used for the assignment. If you have an assignment where no document or similar is handed in (for instance attendance to a seminar) you may click here to place a grade directly in the Gradebook.
6. Hover the mouse over the title of the column and you will see three dots. Click on these for several useful functions:
7. SpeedGrader is the grading and feedback tool where you may read, comment and grade the handed in assignment.
8. "Message students who" allows you to message student according to different criteria. For example students that haven't handed in their assignment, haven't been graded yet or that have received a certain grade.
9. If everyone is graded you will see that here. If someone isn't graded you will also see that here. Have a look at the article on how to prevent the grading from being shown while you are working with setting the grades.
10. Under "Grade Posting Policy" you may for instance set your assignment so that the grade is posted automatically. By using manual posting you are instead in control of when the grade is being posted and visible for your students.

SpeedGrader – the grading tool in Canvas

  

1. Here are tools for marking and commenting in the text. The tools are only available if the student has uploaded a document.
2. Here you may download the file with your comments. Only available if a file has been uploaded.
3. Here you may download the original work - that is, without your comments.
4. Here is where you set the grade. The box can look different depending on what scale you have used for the assignment. In this case it's a letter based assessment with U/G that has been chosen and therefore you can either write the letters or the equivalent numbers (0 for U, 1 for G).
5. Write a comment to the student here. Students can only see comments written to them. Click on Submit to send in your comment.
6. You may record a sound commentary, a video commentary or attach a file with your comments. Click on Submit to send in your comment.
7. Use the arrows to switch between students or simply choose a student from the list.
8. The symbol to the utmost left will take you back to the Gradebook overview. 
   
   

Points and letters are connected

The points for an assignment tell Canvas whether a student has achieved the highest grade or not. If you aren't going to count the Total points shown at the very last column in the Gradebook, it doesn't matter what point value an assignment has. Since it might look strange for the students if an assignment is worth "zero points" we suggest that you at least set the a minimum value of 1.

If you choose to show the grade as letter assessments you will soon realize it's practical to use points that correspond to a grade. Then you can type a numerical value in the box for Assessment, click somewhere outside of the box et voilà: Canvas will turn that number into a letter. See the table below.

Some examples of how points and letter assessments works practically

Assignment has one level of approval (pass/not pass or G/U)	Assignment has two levels of approval (VG/G/U)	Assignment is being graded in several levels
Set point to 1 1 = pass / G 0 = not pass / U	Set point to 2 2 = VG 1 = G 0 = U	Set point that responds with something else, for instance högskolepoäng
Choose to show grade either as Complete/Incomplete or letter assessment U/G.	Choose to show grade as letter assessment U/G/VG.	Choose to show grade either as points or percentages.

Remember you can always clarify the grade commenting the assignment as the student will be able to see this feedback.

Reassign Assignment

There is an option for reassigning the assignment to students. Be aware that you should write in the comments what it is the student need to do. After reassigning you also need to make sure that the due date for the Assignment still is open. 

How does it appear for the student?

  

As soon as the student logs in to Canvas, they will see that feedback is now available. The student may:

1. Click on the link to see more details about the feedback for this assignment.
2. Click on View Grades to get an overview of all the assessments.

  

In the detailed view the student sees:

1. The teachers's comments.
2. By clicking on View feedback the student can view the annotated comments inside the document.

    

If the student chooses to click on View Grades, the following is shown:

1. The points for the assignment. If the assessment is done by letters the grade will appear within brackets.
2. If the teacher has written comments the student may click on the small dialogue icon to view the comments. Nota bene: Only comments done in the box will be shown, to see the annotated comments inside the document the student needs to go to the detailed view.