Canvas grades submission process

To complete the Grades process, you need to make sure you’ve set up assignments correctly at the start of session, and run through a few checks at the end before grades are approved and transferred.

Assignment groups and assignments

The Gradebook Total in Canvas automatically calculates a student’s total. This is done via ‘Assignment Groups’ and ‘Assignments’. 

• Assignment Groups specify the overall weightings as a percentage of the Total. 
• Assignments sit under Assignment Groups, and specify the individual marks and points possible when marking. Think of them as component tasks.

Important!

Generally, an Assignment should sit under an Assignment Group, and every Assignment Group should have a weighting.

Example 1: An essay marked out of 100 and worth 20% of the overall grade would look like this:

When you set up assessment tasks in Canvas, you will generally need to create an Assignment and Assignment Group for each task specified in your subject outline. 

Example 1 shows one Assignment under one Assignment Group, which is a common set-up. Examples 2 and 3 below show some more complex ways to set up Assignments under Groups. As you can see, you can mark out of any total you like – the percentage value is calculated separately.

Example 2: Two quizzes, both marked out of 15 and cumulatively worth 25% of the overall mark: 

Example 3: An essay with three components – a proposal (5%), the main essay (20%), and a reflective piece (5%). 

Note: Examples 2 & 3 work because each component is marked proportionally within the Assignment Group. If this weren’t the case (eg. If Essay 2 was marked out of 100), then each component would need to have its own weighted Assignment Group.  

Enable weighting in Assignment Groups

You use Assignment Groups to specify an assessment weighting towards the student’s overall total. Every assessment task sits under an assignment group. 

If you’re running a subject this session for the first time in Canvas:

• You need to set up your Assignment Groups (overall weightings). Assignment Groups generally correspond with entries in your subject outlines. 
• If you have run the subject before with Canvas, this information will be copied over from the last session. Double check that the information is still correct, and make any adjustments where necessary. 
• You only need to set this up once per subject.

To enable weighting, select ‘Assignments’. If the menu is hidden, click on the three-lined icon in the top-left corner:

From the Assignments page click on the three dot icon [1], and select ‘Assignment Groups Weight’ [2]:

Select ‘Weight final mark based on assignment groups’ [1], and ‘Save’ [2]:

You can find more detailed instructions for setting this up in this guide to enable weightings to assignment groups.

Set up Assignment Groups

When new subjects are created in Canvas, they automatically have two Assignment Groups: a generic ‘Assignments’ Group and an Assignment Group called ‘STAFF_ADMIN’ with a task ‘SYS_EXCEPTION_GRADE’.

You can delete the “Assignments” group if you prefer, but leave the “STAFF_ADMIN” – this is explained later.

To add a weighted assessment, click on the ‘+Group’ button on the Assignments page: 

Name your Assignment Group. Add the assessment’s weighting as a percentage of the overall mark (eg. 40%):

Repeat the previous two steps for each assessment listed in your subject outline. Each assessment entry should have a corresponding assignment group.  

If you have assignments that don’t count towards the final mark you can create an Assignment Group with a name like ‘Non-Assessed’ using the steps above, and setting the % of total mark to 0. This might be used to contain formative tasks, columns automatically created from submission points (eg. a REVIEW assignment submission point), or any other activity or column that should not be counted towards the final grade. 

Set up assessment tasks

In Canvas, any assessment task is called an ‘Assignment’, whether it’s an essay, presentation, exam, creative work and so on. When an Assignment is created it appears under the generic ‘Assignments’ Assignment Group and a column is created in the Gradebook. Some tools such as Quizzes and Turnitin automatically create Assignments/columns. 

On the Assignments page, click on the “+” button from within the Assignment Group:

As you are creating assessment tasks, you will see a drop-down option. Select the corresponding Assignment Group you set up in the previous steps. 

It’s a good idea to have the Assignment task and Assignment Group names relate to each other: 

Note: You can drag and drop Assignment components between Assignment Groups, and rearrange the order of either. Click the dotted icon next to each entry in the ‘Assignments’ section, hold, drag to reorder or regroup, and release.

UTS recommends least one assessment mark should be muted (hidden) from student view (typically a final exam or assignment) at all times, in case you need to adjust the overall result.

You can read more guidance from the LX team on setting up individual tasks such as Assignments in Canvas and Quizzes in Canvas.

Set up REVIEW assignments (optional)

REVIEW is our optional rubric-based grading tool. If you use it in your subject, you can now send marks directly from REVIEW to Canvas, without the need to import/export.

When using REVIEW in Canvas for marking electronic submissions, you’ll need to first set up an Assignment in Canvas for students to submit to. When you create the corresponding task in REVIEW, the REVIEW integration will create a new results column back in Canvas, where it can synch marks to. This means that for each review assignment, you’ll have two columns in Canvas: a submissions column, and a results column. 

Once set up, each time you publish results to students in REVIEW it will also push those results to Canvas.  

More information is available in our Grades Submission and REVIEW resource.

Check Gradebook is calculating correctly

To avoid major headaches later, check everything’s set up correctly!

First, check your Assignment Groups Weight option to ensure all Assignment Groups add up to 100%.

Next, we’ll check that we’re calculating correctly. If you haven’t already, enrol a test student via the Student View feature.

Give your test student zero (0) points for each task. You should see the TOTAL column unchanged on 0%.  

Finally, change each 0 to full marks. You should see the results go up step by step until they reach 100%.  

Congratulations, setup is complete! 

Adjust override and exception grades [end of session]

You can manually adjust a final mark and associated grade. Faculties have different criteria for adjusting marks, so it’s a good idea to check with your faculty admin about the process before you do so. 

To adjust the final mark, enter the number (out of 100) into the Override column. The associated grade will be reflected automatically: 

Note that the column will change display to the letter grade: however, the new underlying mark will be saved.

Exception Grades are used in situations where special circumstances require the student’s original Mark and Grade be ignored. There are limited Exception Grades that can be accepted, and these are governed by a subject’s Grading Scheme. 

If you need to use any exception grades (eg. with a ‘Q’, ‘W’ or ‘X’), do this in the SYS_EXCEPTION_GRADE column. This column will only accept the limited override grades, as specified by your grading schema.

Useful tip

If a large number of your students need override grades (e.g. they’re still out on prac by the due date and all need a ‘Q’), you can use the Offline/Online feature to enter grades into a CSV file, upload and adjust them all in one go.

You can see instructions for importing grades in this Canvas guide.

Grades approval and transfer (end of session)

Once you have finalised the grades in Canvas, you need to approve the transfer of grades to Curriculum and Student Systems (CASS). This is done using the Canvas Admin Tool (CAT). 

Only someone with a Course Coordinator level or higher can Approve and Transfer grades. 

You can access Canvas Admin Tools at https://cat.uts.edu.au. From CAT, select the Grades Submission menu item and click on the “Grade approve & transfer” for the relevant course.

Important!

Teaching an OPM subject? The process is a little different – check this resource for guidance on submitting grades and AVRs using Grades Plus

Grades should be submitted by the Results Due Date – your faculty administrator will provide details of this date. 

There’s more guidance from the LX team on setting up individual tasks such as Assignments in Canvas and Quizzes in Canvas.

Find out more…

Additional instructions for managing your assignments are available from these Canvas resources:

• Create an assignment in Canvas
• Add/Edit points possible for assignments
• Set up a grading scheme for an assignment
• Set up a non-submission assignment

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