[ARCHIVED] Overwrite final grade

[kmahaffy]

We would like to incorporate into the Grade book the ability to overwrite an "F" (0%) with an "FN" which indicates a student failed to do any or very minimal coursework and never officially withdrew from the course. We use the "FN" grade for Title IV financial aid purposes to be able to calculate how much of a course a student did before disengaging--as they are entitled to financial aid for that portion of course engagement. By assigning an "F" grade means the student simply failed the course, but is entitled to full financial aid benefits. The "FN" is a flag that allows our financial aid office to determine how much aid is due based on when they last engaged.

Can the Final Grade Override be configured to allow for a manual override without running up against the grading schema used?  I try to add "FN" to the schema and it won't allow a >0% to 0% since our "F" grade goes from >60% to 0%. In TEST I changed the "F" from >60% to 1% and the "FN" from >1% to 0%, but I'm not sure that would work in all cases since some "FN" grades are assigned to students who did a little work at the beginning then dropped off the face of the earth for the bulk of the online class.

At the moment we manually enter final grades into our system, but at some point we desire to link Canvas to our system to automate the process. This will eventually prove problematic if we cannot assign the "FN" or other letter designations (e.g., "W," "WF," "WP," etc.)

Any suggestions?

It would be convenient if we could "add" some additional non-calculated override lines to a grading schema.

[kmeeusen · Accepted solution]

Hi @kmahaffy 

Final grades can already be overwritten by instructors. See, How do I override a student's final grade in the Gradebook?

However, I believe you can only write points or percentages then Canvas recalculates the letter grade based on the scheme entered for the course. You idea of adjusting the grading scheme is still likely your best bet. In our state, these students are managed using our SIS with faculty entering a last-date-attended for these cases.

Good luck,

Kelley

[kmahaffy]

Thanks. I would still like Canvas to just add a line where the overwrite would be a letter or number or other designation that does NOT have to be tied to the grade schema.  Would be a nice feature.  The problem with my "fixing" the grade schema to that 1% or less would be if a student does more than 1%, but still drops out of the class without officially withdrawing. The manual grade overwrite of an FN grade (or W, WP, WF) would not work out. Adjusting to a single line that is an input under the Overwrite column that does not utilize the grade schema would be the solution, I would think.  

[kmeeusen]

Hi again, @kmahaffy 

That would only work if your SIS is able to read and appropriately respond to the info in the field in the Canvas Gradebook. This is where it all gets very tricksie - to disparate systems talking to each other.

Kelley