End of Semester: Grading Wrap-up

Set up your course Grading Scheme if you did not do so at the start of the semester. Double-check to make sure that the grading scheme on your syllabus matches the grading scheme in Canvas.  A standard Chapman University grading scheme is automatically enabled in your course site, so it is best that you compare the default grading scheme with your syllabus.

default grading scheme

You can access and edit your course’s Grading Scheme from the Settings link on your course navigation menu.

Check your syllabus and confirm your gradebook matches your syllabus. Are your grades weighted? Or do you have a straight point total? If you need to set up weighted grades, review the instructions for setting up weighted grades.

Ensure that there are no “hidden” assignments and all grades have been posted for all students.
Hidden assignments are not visible to your students, so they give your students an inaccurate view of their overall grade in Canvas. Any grades that have not been posted will not be factored into the final grade in Canvas, so if you have not posted all grades for all students then you may end up with inaccurate final grades.

Make sure that all grade cells have a value entered in them, including entering in zeroes for unsubmitted assignments.

  • The final grade column will not be accurate if any cells are left ungraded.
  • When grade cells are left ungraded (containing a dash) students with ungraded work see their final grade without any unsubmitted assignments factored in, which gives students an inaccurate view of their grades.
  • Students can uncheck the “calculate based only on graded assignments” box on their grades page to see what their real grade will be. However, to prevent confusion and misunderstandings, we strongly recommend that you enter zeroes for all unsubmitted assignments. This way, students will see an accurate view of their grades without having to uncheck anything on their grades page.
  • The most efficient way to assign zeroes to unsubmitted assignments is to use the Set Default Grade feature to set the default grade for each assignment to zero at the end of the term. It will allow you to automatically insert zeros for all students that haven’t yet received a grade for a specific assignment.
  • If you are using the missing submission policy to automatically assign zeroes to missing assignments: Review each column in your gradebook to ensure that the missing submission policy did not skip over any assignments. Remember, this automated tool will not apply zeroes to missing “on paper” and “no submission” assignments. You must manually add zeroes to these items. We recommend using the Set Default Grade feature described above for any columns that need zeroes assigned.

Grades can be excused by typing EX into the grade book.
Excusing a grade allows an assignment to be ignored while determining the final grade.

Make sure the extra credit you want to give students is factored in correctly.
There are different strategies for adding extra credit depending on whether or not your grades are weighted or if they are a straight point total. Make sure you understand what you are trying to accomplish. This video does a good job of explaining the different options:

 

Don’t like working in Canvas? You can complete your edits in Excel!
If you would like to adjust your students’ grades offline, you can export your Canvas gradebook to Excel and make changes to student grades, and then use the Import a CSV file option to upload your grade changes to Canvas.

Optional: Hide (or unhide) the total column from student view.
If you don’t want your students to see the total column value when they check their grades in Canvas, follow the steps in the Canvas Guide to hide the total column. Please note, this will only hide the total column from students – it will not hide the assignment group columns from students.

Submit your final “official” grades to my.chapman.edu.  Follow these instructions.

Need 1-on-1 help? Create a new support ticket by emailing servicedesk@chapman.edu, call us at (714) 997-6600 or come to drop-in support. We are here to help!