[Gradebook] A better way to give individual grades in Group Assignments

[elliott]

USE CASE: I do a lot of small “group” exercises in the classroom.  I need the ability to grade the submissions as a group (which is there), but I also need the ability to provide individual grades (to students who were absent, etc.)  That functionality is also kind of there.  But as it stands now, I have to grade, then edit the Assignment to allow for individual grades. 

If I try to override a single student's grade in the Gradebook, it assigns that grade to everyone on the team.  There's no way that I have found to give an individual score to a student without editing the Assignment.

But then the Assignment has to stay that way for the rest of the semester.  The problem is that when I copy one course into another, I have to go into each individual assignment and make sure the Individual Grade option is turned off.

Also: when I separate it out into individual scores I THINK it removes the non-submitting team members’ ability to view the submission.  (I haven't found a way to really test this other than having a student show me their interface.  I cannot add "Test Student" into a Group.)

IDEA: It would be great if the SpeedGrader or Gradebook interface could allow me to enter a default grade for the team, but then show a list of team members who I can assign an individual grade to while in SpeedGrader.  That way the assignment stays the same (no editing) but I can assign different grades to individuals (overriding their team grade) in real time.  Or something like that.

[NeilKerby]

We are just switching to Canvas, and I am very surprised that this feature is not available even though there have been calls since 2018. It was a standard feature in BB for years. I can even do it in MS Teams classes, so I don't see why it hasn't been added here.

Canvas, please add the feature to choose individual mark or group in process within speed grader. You should be able to select an entire group or change individual marks as overrides within the speed grader. It is standard in other platforms.

[garrett_95]

I agree this is frustrating for several reasons. I have created 2 assignments for groups: 1) so that one person can upload their PPT presentation, the rest can view it, and they will all get the same presentation grade; 2) to give them the opportunity to grade each other and give the non-participators a low grade. The problem is, I can't do the second part as a group assignment or they will be able to see who gives which grades--they can't be submitted anonymously. The only way around this is to create one as a group assignment and make the other an individual assignment (so they can't see each others' submissions). That means giving different due dates for each person instead of each group. Canvas makes teaching so difficult.

[YasushiIshida]

Just bumping the thread that this gets resolved but cannot help being pessimistic about it given that this seemingly basic feature was suggested in 2018 and still doesn't exist.

[nenke]

I would like to suggest a change in SpeedGrader when it comes to grading group work.

Right now we have two options: grading each group as one and giving the same grade to all of them or individual grading where the group work is shown for each student but they are graded individually.

Switching back and forth between these is possible, but very annoying.  I like to do group work as one grade, but sometimes find myself grading based on participation or am forced to lower a grade due to limited or no participation from one member of a group.

I would like to propose that groupwork on SpeedGrader be graded in one place and the option for individual or group grading is possible.  For instance, when on SpeedGrader, the groups are still the only submissions seen in the upper right drop down box, but when a group is selected, the grading bar has all of the members listed.  The option could be here to give one grade to all or to individually grade each one as needed.

While this is a lot, it would greatly increase the ability to grade groups based on individual participation and prevent the back and forth switching on the assignment creation page that is currently done.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

[DeirdreWay]

Allow individual marks in groups to allow for different contributions

[NeilKerby]

Yes, Please allow us to override the group mark in Speedgrader and select individual marks instantly rather than having to go back into the assignment and switching it to individual grading. This feature is in Blackboard and Microsoft Teams Classroom assignments, so it should not be a big ask. 

[mmarty]

Bumping this as well, for lack of a better term, because our institution switched to Canvas over the Summer, and this is a question that I've received from multiple faculty members I work with (and is something that's frustrated me as an instructor). It shouldn't be a requirement to either jump out of SpeedGrader to edit the assignment every time folks need to add individual grades for a member of a group or to set the grade column to a manual grade posting policy, write down notes in a separate document while I'm grading groups, edit the assignment to assign individual grades, and then unhide the grade column (not to mention needing to go back to the assignment to turn the individual grading option off so that I don't forget to do so when copying the course for future semesters). Even typing that out indicates the level of tedium involved in the process, and I think the proposed solutions here would really improve the overall process and experience for those grading in Canvas.

[theriaultl]

Joining the group in advocating for this idea as well. I'm a Canvas admin and this rigid system for group grading is counterproductive. Faculty who teach large courses (70+) and use group assignments are frustrated by the inflexibility of the grading options. The technical gymnastics which must be performed to fairly assess the occasional non-performing member of a group is too burdensome. Instructure, you did NOT stick the landing on this routine!

[Padden]

Hey folks,

I am in the same situation. But I found an easy solution for me. I keep an assignment open that is for extra credit points. I grade on a cumulative point system. The extra credit column therefore does not count for the aggregate total, but does increase the points earned by the student. On a lark, I posted a NEGATIVE value for the extra credit, negating the points earned from the group assignment. Aside from a notification that I entered a negative value, it seemed to work. The absent student still gets to see the work and comments, but doesn't get the score.

Canvas - get this fixed ASAP