Quick Tip: Grade Posting Policy
This week, we will discuss the Canvas Grade Posting Policy and explore the options for controlling when and how grades are released to students.
The Grade Posting Policy allows instructors to control when assignment grades are made visible to students. Posted grades are visible to students, whereas hidden grades are only visible to instructors and cannot be viewed by students.
Canvas offers instructors two Grade Posting Policy options: Automatic and Manual. When the posting policy is set to Automatically Post Grades, grades are immediately visible to students as soon as they are entered. When a posting policy is set to Manually Post Grades, the instructor must click the Post Grades button to manually release the grades to students.
By default, Canvas courses use the Automatically Post Grades policy, and all assignment, discussion, and quiz grades, grading comments, and submission annotations are posted and visible to students as soon as grades are entered in the Gradebook or submitted in SpeedGrader.
Instructors may alternatively select the Manually Post Grades policy, which keeps assignment, discussion, and quiz grades, grading comments, and submission annotations hidden from student view until manually posted by the instructor.
Grade Posting Policies can be set for an entire course and/or for individual assignments. Individual assignment-level grade posting policies will override the course-level grade posting policy for that specific assignment.
Adjust Grade Posting Policy (Course-Level)
To change the course-level grade posting policy, follow these steps:
Click on Grades in the course navigation menu.
Click the Gradebook Settings (gear icon) in the top right corner of the Gradebook.
Click on the Grade Posting Policy tab.
Click on the radio button located to the left of Grade Posting Policy you would like to use (Automatically Post Grades, where grades will be visible to students immediately, or Manually Post Grades, where grades will be hidden until they are manually released.)
Click the Apply Settings button in the lower right corner to save your changes.
If a manual posting policy has been applied in a course, all assignment headers will display the “Manual” label. This label indicates that a manual posting policy is currently in place and future grades are hidden from student view. Any columns with hidden grades will display the “Visibility” icon in the column heading.
Adjust Grade Posting Policy (Assignment-Level)
To change the grade posting policy at the assignment level, follow these steps:
Click on Grades in the course navigation menu.
In the Gradebook, locate the column for the specific assignment you want to adjust and then click the three vertical dots (ellipsis) in the assignment column header.
From the drop-down menu, choose the Grade Posting Policy option.
Click on the radio button for either Automatically Post Grades or Manually Post Grades to assign a Grade Posting Policy for that individual assignment. Click the Save button to apply the changes.
When instructors are ready to make grades visible to students, they can post grades and/or submission comments for a specific assignment. Instructors can post grades for everyone in the course, or they can post only grades for graded submissions.
Manually Post Grades
To manually post grades, follow these steps:
Click on Grades in the course navigation menu.
In the Gradebook, locate the column for the specific assignment you want to adjust and then click the three vertical dots (ellipsis) in the assignment column header.
From the dropdown menu, choose the Post Grades option.
The Post Grades tray will display the number of hidden grades in a red numbered circle. Click on the radio button to select either “Everyone” (to post grades for all students) or “Graded” (to post grades only for students who have received a grade). Click the Save button to apply the changes. Click the Post button to finalize and display the grades to students.
Important Note: By default, students can view all scores on Canvas New Quizzes. To prevent students from seeing New Quiz score results, the New Quiz score must be hidden in the gradebook. Additionally, in the Quiz settings, “Hide results from students” must be enabled, and both “Show Points Possible” and “Show Points Awarded” options must be disabled.
Hide Posted Grades
Posted grades can also be hidden using the Hide grades option. The Hide grades option only hides grades that are currently visible to students.
To Hide Grades that have already been posted, follow these steps:
Click on Grades in the course navigation menu.
In the Gradebook, locate the column for the assignment grades you want to hide and then click the three vertical dots (ellipsis) in the assignment column header.
From the drop-down menu, choose the Hide Grades option.
The Hide Grades tray will display the number of hidden grades in a red numbered circle. Click on the Hide button to hide the grades.
Confirm the “Visibility” icon is displayed in the column, indicating the grades are hidden from students.
Thank you for tuning in to this week's Canvas Quick Tip. Next week, we'll be revealing the secrets of the Canvas Search feature, a tool that will have you saying, 'Wait, you can do that?' Don't miss our next episode!