By default, Canvas courses have an Automatic grade posting policy.  This means that grades, comments, and annotations are visible to students as soon as grades are entered in the Gradebook or submitted in SpeedGrader.

If you do not want students to receive notifications for grades and comments while you are grading, you can change the grade posting policy to Manual.  You can do this for individual assignments/quizzes/discussions or for your entire Gradebook.

Changing the Grade Posting Policy for an Individual Assignment/Quiz/Discussion

To change the grade posting policy for an individual assignment/quiz/discussion, hover over the column for the assignment/quiz/discussion in the Gradebook.  Click on the three dots in the top right of the column, then select Grade Posting Policy.

Grade Posting Policy

Select Manually, then Save.


Selecting a manual grade posting policy in Canvas

Changing the Grade Posting Policy for the Entire Gradebook

To change the grade posting policy for your entire Gradebook, click on the Settings icon in the top right of the Gradebook.

Gradebook Settings

Select the Grade Posting Policy tab, then select Manually Post Grades.

Grade Posting Policy tab in Gradebook Settings

This means that you will need to post grades manually for each column in your Gradebook.

Posting Grades

When an assignment/quiz/discussion has a manual posting policy, students will not be able to see grades and feedback or review their quiz attempt until you post the grades.

To post the grades, hover over the column for the assignment/quiz/discussion in the Gradebook.  Click on the three dots in the top right of the column, then select Post grades.

Post Grades

What is the Difference Between Grade Posting Policy and Hide Grades?

You may have noticed that there is an option to Hide grades when you click on the three dots in the top right of a Gradebook column.

Hide grades

This is not the same as a manual grade posting policy and only hides previously entered grades and comments.  Students will still receive notifications for newly-entered grades and comments.

“The Hide Grades feature only affects previously posted grades for an assignment. Best practice suggests that instructors should use this feature sparingly (i.e. to hide grades posted in error). To hide all grades upon entry until you are ready to post them for student view, please set a manual posting policy for your assignment.”

How do I hide grades that were previously posted in the Gradebook?

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