This page should answer some questions you may have while grading.
Control Visibility
Review UBC’s guide on controlling the visibility of grades: https://keepteaching.ubc.ca/grades/#visibility
Hide your grades for entire grade centre (Do this prior to entering any grades)
If you do not want the grades you enter to be immediately visible to students, we recommend changing your course’s grade posting policy to Manually Post Grades. You can change the grade posting policy for your course by following these steps:
- In Course Navigation, click the Grades link.
- Click the Settings (gear) icon.
- Click the Grade Posting Policy tab.
- Choose a grade posting policy for your course (Manually Post Grades or Automatically Post Grades).
- To apply your changes, click the Update button.
* Note that once you changed the Grade Posting Policy this way, all of the columns in your gradebook will switch to Manually Post Grades. If you have quizzes in which you want students to be able to see their responses or correct answers right after each attempt, then you will need to remain the Grade Posting Policy automatically for those assignments. You can do so by clicking on the three dots next to the column name.
Marking Assignments Using Rubrics
Student will have the opportunity to see the rubric marks in their grades page for the assignment. They can see this by clicking the “View Rubric” button for the assignment on the Grades page..
Marking assignments using Rubrics must be done in SpeedGrader.
- To do so, open SpeedGrader for the relevant assignment and you will see a “View Rubric” button.
- The rubric will open in the grading pane, however, most often the rubric will not fit in the space provided.
Tip: You can drag the divider (highlighted in green below) between the submission and the grading pane to fit.
- To mark, click in appropriate box. If you wish, you can leave a criteria-specific comment by clicking the speech box icon (circled in purple below).
Remember: You must click the “Save” button below the rubric to save the rubric marks. If you mark the rubric, then click “Submit” the rubric marks will be lost.
Reusing Comments in Rubrics
If you are using a free-form rubric, you can save comments for re-use on other students assignments. This can come in handy if you will be providing similar feedback over and over.
- When marking the first student, type in your comments and scores. For any comments you believe you will reuse, check the box for “Save this comment for reuse.”
For more information on the Rubrics visit https://blogs.ubc.ca/sauderteachingplaybook/rubrics/
Marking and Grading with TAs
Before marking with TAs it is worth taking a few minutes to explicitly state the aims of the assignment and the importance of the TAs role in the process.
Consider! Is what you are asking appropriate for an undergraduate student to mark?
- Multiple choice, or basic quantitative problem sets are appropriate.
- Essay questions and case analyses, generally are not appropriate for TAs to mark.
It is critical to communicate and calibrate expectations if a TA is marking an assignment.
- One way to calibrate is to mark the same assignments together on a video call. (Zoom or otherwise.)
- There are two ways to proceed: You can pick random assignments, or vetted to provide the TA with an example of a range of work (i.e., an exceptional piece, an acceptable piece, and an unacceptable piece.)
- Another method is to provide marking guidelines and a sample assignment ask the TA(s) to mark a few assignments and submit them for review, then have a discussion.
- If you have multiple TAs marking, the discussion is best had over zoom or a conference call to ensure that all of the TAs are aligned.
- Using rubrics can help keep TAs on track marking with little deviation. In these cases, providing detail in each square is helpful.
- Another strategy is to utilize a canvas feature called Moderated Grading. This allows marks to be entered into SpeedGrader, then be reviewed by a moderator, generally the instructor. More information is available in 9.1.5 Moderated Grading.
Tip: If you don’t want to provide this level of detail to students, give your TA a “marking copy” to work from that contains the details.
Anonymous Grading
Overview
Anonymous grading is a feature that, when enabled, removes any information from Canvas Assignment submissions that could identify a student. This can help mitigate bias while TAs and/or instructors are grading. Anonymous grading also hides the name of the marker from student view, so students don’t know if the marker is a TA or an instructor.
When anonymous grading is enabled in a course, content creators can create assignments with the option to hide student names from graders.
Be Aware! Anonymous Grading removes identifiable information from the gradebook and Speedgrader, but not from the assignment itself. If a student includes their name in the assignment then anonymous grading will not help.
Anonymous Grading can be enabled two ways: in the SpeedGrader (see “A” below) and at assignment creation (see “B“).
A. Enabling Anonymous Grading in SpeedGrader
To enable anonymous grading:
- Open SpeedGrader from the assignment you would like to grade anonymously
2. Click the gear icon near the top left of the browser and choose “Options”.
3. From the pop-up, check the box “Hide student names in the SpeedGrader” and click “Save Settings”.
Note: This setting will turn on anonymous grading for all assignments even after leaving SpeedGrader. To turn it off, uncheck the box and save the settings.
You can check to see that the student names are hidden by clicking the student drop-down menu. You will see the names of students are now listed as Student 1, Student 2, etc.
When you are ready to post grades to students, skip to section B, step 7 below
B. Enabling Anonymous Grading at Assignment Creation
1.Click on “Settings” from your course navigation.
2. Select the “Feature Options” tab.
3. Turn on the “Anonymous Grading” option. Clicking the switch automatically saves your selection.
4. Turning this option will show a new “Anonymous Grading” option when creating an assignment.
5.When viewing the anonymous grading assignment in the GradeBook, the column is blanked out.
6. If the grader tries to open an individual student’s assignment in SpeedGrader, a warning appears telling the grader that they cannot access a specific student. Opening SpeedGrader from this warning will take the grader to SpeedGrader with an anonymous view. This feature cannot be turned off in the options and is only on for the specific assignment.
7. Once assignments have been graded, and you are ready to view an individual student’s grade for the assignment, you can click on the three-dot icon next to the name of the assignment and click “Post Grades”.
8. A message will alert you that anonymity will be removed. Click “Post” to post grades and remove anonymity.
Sources
- https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-14924-canvas-release-anonymous-moderated-grading-2018-07-14#jive_content_id_Anonymous_Grading_100505
- http://help.canvas.yale.edu/m/55452/l/914647-anonymous-grading
Moderated Grading
Overview
Moderated grading is a feature where assignment grades are entered, but then reviewed by a moderator (generally the instructor) before being released to students.
This can be useful in courses with multiple instructors or in courses where marking is performed by a TA or TAs.
Once the assignment is created, only the moderator and admins will be able to change the assigned final grader. For each moderated assignment, the user set as the moderator is the only person who can specify the final grade for each assignment.
Note: the moderator does not have to personally grade the assignment.
Enabling Moderated Grading
- In course navigation, click the Settings link.
- Click “Feature Options,” then Toggle the “Moderated Grading” option on.
- Create a new assignment or go on an existing assignment.
Moderated Options
When moderated grading is enabled in a course, content creators can create assignments with moderated options:
- Number of Graders—the number of graders who should grade the submission (e.g., entering 2 in this box will prompt 2 graders to mark each assignment). This number does not have a limit. However, the page displays a message if there are not enough course users with grading permissions to fulfill the desired number of graders.
- A moderator does not have to specify which graders can grade submissions. If a course includes a surplus of graders higher than the desired number of graders, any grader can assess an assignment submission until the specified number of grades has been achieved. When an assignment has reached the specified number of graders, remaining graders will not be able to access the assignment.
- The moderator is never included in the number of available graders since the moderator does not traditionally grade individual submissions but may provide a custom grade.
- Grader comment visibility—the option that allows graders to view each other’s comments. This option is selected by default.
- Final grader—the moderator, or the grader who determines the final grade. The Select Grader menu displays the names of course graders who have been given permission to determine the final grade. This permission is assigned to one or more roles at the account level.
Moderated assignments cannot be edited by any grader except the moderator. Any edits made to the assignment will be tracked.
Note: Moderated grading cannot be enabled when peer review is turned on.
Be Aware: Moderated grading is not available for group assignments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Who can be a moderator?
A. Any individual in the course with assignment creation privileges can be designated as a moderator.
Consult LT Hub’s guide to Canvas roles for more information
Q. Is the moderator restricted to selecting a final grade from those given by the graders of the submission?
A. No. In the final grade column, the moderator can select a grade from the menu from any grader or open the menu and type their own grade for the final grade.
Source
Final Grade Override
The Final Grade Override allows you to enter a final grade for students that is different from the grade automatically calculated by Canvas in the Gradebook. You can enter a letter grade or a percentage. (A letter grade results in the lower bound of the grading scheme; a percentage is retained as the override score.)
Students can view the overridden grade in their Grades page. However, students will not know the score has been overridden.
Notes:
- The override column is included in Gradebook exports and can be changed with a Gradebook import.
- Final grade override actions are not recorded in the Grading History page, which only records changes for individual assignments.
Steps:
- In Course Navigation, click the Grades link then click the Settings icon (on the left).
- In the new window that opens, click the Advanced tab [2] and then click the Allow final grade override checkbox [3]. Click the Update button at the bottom [4].
- The override column displays at the far right of the Gradebook. Locate the student whose grade you want to override and enter a percentage or a letter grade in the Override column.To delete an overridden grade, click the grade cell and click the Delete key.
Source
How do I import grades in 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. If you do not know how to save a file in a CSV format, please check the documentation for the program you are using to create your Gradebook changes (e.g., Excel).
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.
If you create a column for a new assignment, Canvas will ask how you want to import the assignment. New assignments upload with the following settings:
- Assignment Group: Assignments
- Submission Type: No submission
- Due date for: Everyone
Required columns and order
- Student Name
- Student ID
- SIS User ID (only required if you use SIS)
- SIS Login ID (only required if you use SIS)
- Section
- Assignment (this can be for an existing assignment or a new assignment; retain IDs for existing assignments)
More information on how to import grades into the Gradebook is available here:
https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-import-grades-in-the-Gradebook/ta-p/807
References
References for content