Calculating Grades in Canvas:

There are many ways to measure student learning. The one central ideas is that Assignments are configured in alignment with how the syllabus indicates assignments will be measured. When I build the assignments, Canvas will automatically make sure Gradebook mirrors my Assignments. Thankfully with Canvas, I don’t need to spend time managing the Gradebook. The Gradebook will automatically organize itself and calcuate based on how I set up the assignments.

There are two options for calculating grades in Canvas: points or percent/weighted. The Assignment page default is points, but it is easy to switch this to a percentage/weight based Gradebook.

Points Based Gradebook:

Point-based grade calculation is the default setting for the Assignment page. If I’m using a points-based Gradebook, then I do not need to make any changes to the Assignment page before I start adding my Assignments. For a points-based course, the course grade will be calculated based on the total number of points available. It is a good to put Assignments in a specific order to help me and my students keep track of what’s going on in the course.

How do I place assignment into groups?

Points Gradebook Example: 

If my points breakdown looks like this on my syllabus, then my Assignment page should look like this in Canvas:

Percent/Weighted Gradebook:

The way I set up percent/weighted grading for my course grade in Canvas is to use groups on the Assignments page. Assignment Groups are used to show how the different assignments in your course are weighted differently. The best way to create assignment groups is to look at my course syllabus and make sure my Assignment Groups match how I show that grades will be calculated on the syllabus. Information on how to switch my Gradebook to percentages/weights can be found on this guide – How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?

Percentage/Weighted Gradebook Example:

If my percent breakdown looks like this on my syllabus, then my Assignment page should look like this in Canvas: