[ARCHIVED] When can grading periods be added?

[sembry]

Wondering if there would be any issues with current grades if we were to add grading periods now? Grading periods were not set-up at the beginning of the year. Thank you.

[bradon_lewis]

Without knowing how your institution and courses are set-up...There is a chance that it could negatively affect the courses. As you could prevent some faculty/teachers from entering grades. 

At my institution we do not use grading periods.  This is not needed as faculty enter grades manually into the SIS after the semester is complete. So the grades in Canvas, show the progress but do not reflect the final grade.  

[sembry]

Thank you for your input. We only have a few teachers using Canvas with grading and SIS, but I do not want to cause them any issues, however, they are the ones requesting to see grading periods.

[joseph_allen]

Stephanie, we use grading periods extensively.   We set them up at the beginning of the year, however there is no reason why you couldn't set them up now.   The couple things to watch out for:  the start and end dates of a grading period will dictate which grading period an assignment grade is calculated and counted.  If you have that pretty well marked off, there wouldn't be an issue.  Also, Brandon Lewis mentioned being 'locked out'.  This used to be a major issue that teachers could not change grades after a grading period ended, however if you set the "close date" to sometime much later, then its not an issue.  For example, I might start Quarter 1 Sept 1 and end it on October 15.  However the close date, might not be set to July 1 which lets teachers edit grades as needed before, during, or after the grading period, but before that close date.  These are also very flexible in that we run quarter courses and semester courses at the same time, but in different, concurrent grading periods.  It works very well. 

[john_williamson]

Stephanie,

There shouldn't be any issues with setting up grading periods now.  I would just watch your due dates and available until dates of the assignments.  I believe if a instructor must specify a due dates in order for it to appear in the correct grading period.  

[braker]

I added them late and had one teacher experience trouble because she didn't have Due Dates on her assignments. She had to go back and add them so that the assignments would show up in their respective marking periods. AND definitely do what a few other people mentioned. Make the Available Until dates sometime after school is out. 

[jenna_townsend]

To add on to what Beth said, if an assignment has no due date, it is only viewable under "All Grading Periods" from the grading period dropdown menu in the gradebook. Definitely caused some mini heart attacks when we added grading periods after the beginning of the year, but they recovered after we told them to look in "All Grading Periods."

The inability for teachers to edit grades after the grading period is due to the "Close" date for the grading period. Teachers can edit grades for a grading period between the end date and the close date for the grading period, so my district made the close date for all grading periods after school gets out for the year (see image below).

Here's more on grading periods: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-8298-close-dates-for-grading-periods-phase-1?sr=search&sear...

[jenna_townsend]

To add on to what braker said, if an assignment has no due date, it is only viewable under "All Grading Periods" from the grading period dropdown menu in the gradebook. Definitely caused some mini heart attacks when we added grading periods after the beginning of the year, but they recovered after we told them to look in "All Grading Periods."

The inability for teachers to edit grades after the grading period is due to the "Close" date for the grading period. Teachers can edit grades for a grading period between the end date and the close date for the grading period, so my district made the close date for all grading periods after school gets out for the year (see image below).

Here's more on grading periods: Canvas Release: Close Dates for Grading Periods