T2MTU: Specify your “Default Assignment Group” in Canvas
by Amanda Dills
September 20, 2022
In today’s continuation of our “clean up your gradebook” series, I’m going to show you a simple step that takes about 30 seconds but could ultimately save you hours of gradebook cleanup.
Watch the video for more details, or keep scrolling for a written out version.
HACK: Put Your Most Commonly-Used Gradebook Category on Top of Your Assignments Page
Step 1: Decide which of your Assignment Groups (gradebook categories) you are mostly likely to be creating additional assignments for throughout the year/semester. For a lot of people, this might be an “Assignments” or “Daily Work” category. (If you are just getting started with Assignment Groups in Canvas, see this previous T2MTU for more information.)
Step 2: Make sure this Assignment Group is at the very TOP of your Assignments page.
- Why is this important? Because when you are creating new Assignments, Canvas will automatically put them into whatever Assignment Group is on the top your Assignments page. If you are creating new Assignments from the Assignments page, it will be easy to update this to whichever group is relevant, but if you are creating your new Assignment from the Modules page, it will not be obvious where you can make this change, so carefully choosing your Default Assignment Group and putting it at the top of your list can save you a ton of time resorting and organizing your Gradebook.
- How do you do this? There are a few ways to do this. One option is clicking in the 8-dot area on the left hand side of your Assignment Group title (as shown with the green arrows) and dragging the group to the top of your list. The other option is to click on the 3-dot button on the right hand side of your Assignment Group title (as shown with the red arrows), selecting MOVE GROUP, and then selecing “At the Top.”
If you do not have an actual “default group,” you may want to create a 0% “Assignment Inbox” group where new Assignments will appear as they are created until you manually sort them.
If you have specific questions or need help with ensuring your gradebook is calculating the way you want it to, please contact ID3. As I’ve said in previous posts, the Canvas Gradebook is sometimes unhelpful in the way it organizes things, but there are steps we can help you with to make your grading as friction-free as possible!
Today’s Action Step:
- Make your “default Assignment Group” the first one listed on your Assignments page.
Like this Tutorial? Click HERE to view all the Tuesday 2-Minute Tune Up articles!
Got Questions? ID3 is here to help!
Contact: Tami | Carlos | Amanda | Whitley
