T2MTU: Using Grading Schemes
by Amanda Dills
Sept 26, 2022
Today’s final installment in our “clean up your gradebook” series gives you a way to add custom text or labels to your gradebook. By using a specific “Grading Scheme” for an individual assignment, you can make an assignment Pass-Fall, Complete-Incomplete, Excellent-Satisfactory-Unsatisfactory, or any other custom set of grading results or tracking you would like to include in your gradebook. You can also use this same process to utilize letter grades or percentages in your Gradebook instead of the standard Points setting.
Click on the video below to learn more, or keep scrolling for typed out directions.
Selecting a Canvas Grading Scheme for an Individual Assignment
*Note: These steps will help you specify the grading scheme for a SINGLE assignment in your gradebook – not the overall course average.
STEP 1: Decide what kind of grading scheme you want to add to your course.
Some of the default options in Canvas include Percentages, Letter Grades, and Complete/Incomplete, but you can also create a custom grading scheme that will allow you to create specific grading labels for specific assignments.
- If you want to change your course grading scheme to Percentages or Complete/Incomplete, skip ahead to STEP 3.
- If you are interested in setting up a letter-based or custom grading scheme, go on to STEP 2.
- For more detailed information about what grading schemes are and what options are possible, view this article.
STEP 2: See what Grading Schemes are available in your course.
In the URL (web address) of your course, replace all the text in the address bar at the top of your browser window after the course ID# with “grading_standards” as shown in the image below. Then click on the Grading Schemes tab. This will bring up a list of all the grading schemes you currently have available in your course.
- If one of these listed schemes will meet your needs, make a note of its name, and move on to STEP 3.
- If you do NOT see a grading scheme that will work for your Assignment, know that additional schemes can be created. CONTACT ID3 to get a custom grading scheme added to your course (rather than attempting to create a new grading scheme yourself).
STEP 3: Go to the Edit page for the assignment you want to attach to this Grading Scheme.
Then scroll down to the “Display Grade as” drop down menu.
- If you are setting up a Percentage or Complete/Incomplete select that option from the “Display Grade as” menu, and skip ahead to STEP 5
- If you are setting up a Letter Grade or other Custom scheme, select “Letter Grade” from the drop down menu, and move on to STEP 4.
STEP 4: Click on the newly-visible “View Grading Scheme” link that appeared below the drop down menu when you selected “Letter Grade.”
- Click “Select Another Scheme.”
- Find the grading scheme that you would like to select for this Assignment on the left hand side of the pop up window.
- Click the “Use This Grading Standard” button once that scheme is selected.
- Then click “Done.”
- Move on to STEP 5.
STEP 5: Make sure the option you want is selected from the drop down; make any other edits necessary to your Assignment settings; then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Save.”
To Use a Grading Scheme when Grading:
There are several ways to grade your students using a grading scheme, but this is the EASIEST (if you are using letter grades or another custom scheme):
- Go to the Gradebook.
- Find a cell where you need to add a scheme grade, and hover your mouse over the cell that needs a grade.
- Select the appropriate grade from the drop down menu.
- Your grade seldction will auto-save.
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