Check Your Assignment Settings

• If you are using assignment groups ( with or without weights), review your settings and confirm they are set up the way you intended.
• If you are dropping the lowest score, make sure assignments are in the right assignment group.
• No cell in the Canvas gradebook should be left blank. You should do one of the following:
  • Enter EX to excuse a particular student from a particular assignment.
  • Manually enter a zero into the cell.
  • For courses with larger enrollment, you may wish to enter a zero using the Set Default Grade feature. 
• Ensure any hidden grades have been posted.

In an earlier version of Canvas, the commands were called Mute and Unmute. Now, that feature has been absorbed into a larger feature called Grade Posting Policy.

Adjusting the Calculated Grade

Canvas does not have an adjusted grades column. Your calculated grade is always available.

The following strategies offer methods to give extra credit in a course:

• Use Fudge points in a quiz.
• Add extra points to an existing assignment.
• Exclude an assignment from the course's final grade.
• Create a Bonus Assignment.

Setting Default Grade (formerly "Treat Ungraded as Zero")

Canvas provides a tool to help you quickly insert a 0 (zero) into any cell where a student has failed to complete the assignment. That tool is called Set Default Grade, and is described in this document: How do I set a default grade for an assignment?. This task will need to be performed for each assignment independently. It is highly recommended that you save a backup of your Canvas gradebook before making this type of bulk change.

This task must be performed on all assignments which has blank values in the gradebook (where students didn’t make a submission)

See the note in the Faculty Center Grade Prep Tool document under "Verify Students' Final Grades in Canvas" for information about how the final grade and ungraded assignments look to students.

Drop the Lowest Score

If you have implemented the ‘Drop Lowest/Highest Score’ feature for any of your Assignment Groups, cells cannot be left blank for this feature to function properly. 

Similar to above, zeroes must be added to the gradebook wherever a student has failed to submit the assignment. For instruction, refer to this document: How do I set a default grade for an assignment?.

Transferring Final Grades

The Faculty Center Grade Prep tool is intended to simplify the transfer of your grades from Canvas into the Faculty Center. Click here for explanation and instructions. Due to the steps involved, we have found that the time-savings of this tool is realized only when course enrollment exceeds 50 students.”

See Canvas - Faculty Center Grade Prep Tool and Final Grade Preparation [UW-Madison] for directions on how to transfer final grades from Canvas to the Faculty Center.