New Gradebook FAQ

How do I make sure students don’t see grades until I want them to?
How do I check the course grade posting policy?
How do I check an assignment’s grade posting policy?
How do I release grades for students?
How do I release feedback to students?
Is “Hide Grades” the same as the legacy “Mute Assignment” feature?
What are the colors and icons in the gradebook?
Why isn’t the math working in the gradebook?
How do I weight assignments?
How do I see other student information in the gradebook?
Other questions?

How do I make sure students don’t see grades until I want them to?

To ensure that students don’t see grades and feedback as soon as they are entered, set a course-wide Grade Posting Policy or an assignment-specific Grade Posting Policy in New Gradebook.

Grade Posting Policies control visibility and release of grades and feedback to students. These replace the legacy Mute/Unmute feature in Canvas’s New Gradebook. Grade Posting Policies can be set to “Automatic” or “Manual.”

Automatic Grade Posting: Grades and feedback are visible to students as soon as they are entered. “Hiding” grades will hide already-entered grades and feedback, but anything else entered will be visible.
Manual Grade Posting: Grades and feedback are hidden by default, and they must be posted before students can see them.

To ensure that your students do not see grades before you are ready for them to do so, check to see if the assignment is set to a Manual grade posting policy. To set an assignment-level Grade Posting Policy, open the Assignment Options Menu (three dots) at the top of the Gradebook column and select Grade Posting Policy. When set to Manual, the word “MANUAL” appears in the assignment column header in the Gradebook.

How do I check the course grade posting policy?

To check the course-level Grade Posting Policy, go to Grades, click on the Settings (gear) icon, and select the Grade Posting Policy tab. This will indicate whether the default course-level policy is “Automatic” or “Manual.” When set to Manual, the word “MANUAL” appears in the assignment column header in the Gradebook.

Note: Individual assignments may have an assignment-level grade posting policy that overrides the course-level policy.

How do I check an assignment’s grade posting policy?

To check an assignment-level Grade Posting Policy, open the Assignment Options Menu (three dots) at the top of the Gradebook column and select Grade Posting Policy. This will open a slider that controls the assignment’s grade posting policy. When set to Manual, the word “MANUAL” appears in the assignment column header in the Gradebook.

Note: Individual assignments may have an assignment-level grade posting policy that overrides the course-level policy.

How do I release grades to students?

Assignments with a “Manual” grade posting policy need to be released. A gray visibility icon appears when there are grades hidden from students.

Release grades to students by selecting Post Grades from the Assignment Options menu, which will open the Post Grades Tray. An orange dot appears next to hidden grades in the gradebook column.

Everyone releases all grades and feedback for all students. NOTE: Students only see their own grades.
Graded releases grades that have been entered, but keeps any newly entered grades hidden.
Specific Sections will release grades for one or more sections.

How do I release feedback to students?

Releasing grades to students will also release feedback to students. If you prefer to provide feedback only without grades, follow the same process as for grades.

You may need refresh the page in SpeedGrader or the Gradebook before Post Grades is available.

Is “Hide Grades” the same as the legacy “Mute Assignment” feature?

No, it is not.

Selecting “Hide Grades” after grades have been posted is NOT the same as “Muting” as assignment in the previous version of the gradebook.

The Hide Grades option will hide any already-released grades, which can be helpful if grades and feedback have been released to students sooner than intended, or if an assignment incorrectly had an “Automatic” grade posting policy set. Selecting Hide Grades will make any already-entered grades inaccessible to students.

The visibility of newly entered grades will depend on the grade posting policy for that assignment:

Automatic Grade Posting immediately releases grades and feedback to students.
Manual Grade Posting hides grades and feedback until it is posted.

Use Hide Grades with caution. If you Hide Grades, consider setting the assignment’s grade posting policy to “Manual” before adding any additional grades or feedback.

What are the colors and icons in the gradebook?

The New Gradebook introduces several icons and colors that appear within assignment columns, gradebook cells, or the Grade Detail Tray. Some of the most common icons include:

A document icon appears in a gradebook cell when there is a submission that needs to be graded.
A visibility icon appears in the column header when there are grades that are hidden from students.
“MANUAL” appears in the column header if the assignment has a manual grade posting policy.
Status colors in gradebook cells indicate assignment status (late, missing, resubmission, dropped grade, or excused assignment). The default colors are:
- Blue indicates a late submission.
- Red indicates a missing submission.
- Green indicates a resubmitted assignment that might need regrading.
- Orange indicates a dropped grade.
- Yellow indicates an excused assignment.
A disabled column appears grayed out, indicating that you cannot enter grades or interact with the assignment column. These appear for unpublished and anonymous assignments.
Turnitin icons convey information about the originality scores based on their color.

Why isn’t the math working in the Gradebook?

There are many reasons why the gradebook assignment group and final grade calculations may not be correct. Here are some common issues to check:

Are points set for all assignments? Check to see if you have set the point value for each assignment. If the default setting of 0 points in still set for an assignment, the gradebook may not calculate grades correctly. Edit the assignment to set the maximum point value.
Are assignment groups weighted? Check to see if you have enabled weighting the final course grade based on assignment groups.
Are there assignment group rules for dropping grades? Check to see if you have enabled rules to ignore scores within an assignment group. Canvas can drop a specified number of the lowest or highest scores in a specific group, and you can designate assignments that should not be dropped. For more information about how these rules work, see “How do I create rules for an assignment group?”
Are grades entered for all assignments? For rules, weighted assignments, and other gradebook calculations to work correctly, grades need to be entered for all assignments.
Are grades posted for all assignments? If you have grades hidden Canvas and you export the gradebook as a CSV file, be sure to look at the “Unposted Current Score” and “Unposted Final Score” columns.

How do I weight assignments?

To weight a final course grade based on assignment groups:

Create assignment groups for each category or type of assignment that will be weighted separately.
Create or place assignments within each of the assignment groups.
Specify how grades should be weighted in your Canvas site by going to Assignments > Options, and selecting the “Weight final grade based on assignment groups” option.
Enter the desired percentage weighting for each assignment group, and then save the settings.

How do I see other student information in the gradebook?

The New Gradebook allows you to see additional “secondary” information about students underneath the students’ names. Options for secondary information include enrolled sections, groups, and PennKey username.