[Gradebook] Can't a letter grade just be a letter grade?

[mwitte]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

---

I gave a tough exam where a score of 73/100 was an A-. In Canvas's grading section, I report to students what score they got (like a 73) and what grade that translates into. Then this appears to the students as a score of "73", and as "93 (A-)", with both of these numbers seemingly going into the aggregate score average reported at the bottom. Needless to say, this causes a great deal of confusion.

Is there a way that I can get Canvas to simply report a grade of A- as a grade of A-, rather than as some fictitious number that I won't be using in computing their cumulative course grade? Thanks for any insights on this.

[tim_osullivan]

Still waiting for a reply from Canvas...

[ken_i_mayer]

It is imperative that instructors have the ability to choose how grades are communicated to students. Give us the freedom to offer either letter grades, numerical grades, or both. It makes sense that Canvas's underlying algorithms require each grade to have a numerical value, but there's no reason that that value needs to be shared with students.

Instructure, please! This fix should not be that difficult and would win so much good will among faculties and teachers everywhere.

Hiding stuff on a webpage is not rocket science, people.

[tim_osullivan]

Heading into the start of a new academic year, and still no response from Canvas. Quelle surprise!

[jrowan1]

When grading students in the lower grades, it is important to encourage mastery which may not be depicted with a traditional letter grade. It is for that reason, the grades O, S, N, and U are used in our school district. Traditionally, these letters do not have a percentage attached to their meaning; however, your gradebook does not allow us to have the option of taking away the view of the percentage which does not align with our practice nor our values. We need a way to conceal the percentage to observers and students as it is not relevant to them in grades K-2. The solutions offered to us suggested hiding the overall grade for the students and observers, but then they don't know their overall grade. This does not solve our problem, but it does add to confusion for parents learning the program. Could you please create a way for this to happen?

[PAMELASHEARER]

When grading students in the lower grades, it is important to encourage mastery which may not be depicted with a traditional letter grade. It is for that reason, the grades O, S, N, and U are used in our school district. Traditionally, these letters do not have a percentage attached to their meaning; however, your gradebook does not allow us to have the option of taking away the view of the percentage which does not align with our practice nor our values. We need a way to conceal the percentage to observers and students as it is not relevant to them in grades K-2. The solutions offered to us suggested hiding the overall grade for the students and observers, but then they don't know their overall grade. This does not solve our problem, but it does add to confusion for parents learning the program. Could you please create a way for this to happen?

[AnnaMiaFennell]

When grading students in the lower grades, it is important to encourage mastery which may not be depicted with a traditional letter grade. It is for that reason, the grades O, S, N, and U are used in our school district. Traditionally, these letters do not have a percentage attached to their meaning; however, your gradebook does not allow us to have the option of taking away the view of the percentage which does not align with our practice nor our values. We need a way to conceal the percentage to observers and students as it is not relevant to them in grades K-2. The solutions offered to us suggested hiding the overall grade for the students and observers, but then they don't know their overall grade. This does not solve our problem, but it does add to confusion for parents learning the program. Could you please create a way for this to happen?

[AMANDAGROFF]

When grading students in the lower grades, it is important to encourage mastery which may not be depicted with a traditional letter grade. It is for that reason, the grades O, S, N, and U are used in our school district. Traditionally, these letters do not have a percentage attached to their meaning; however, your gradebook does not allow us to have the option of taking away the view of the percentage which does not align with our practice nor our values. We need a way to conceal the percentage to observers and students as it is not relevant to them in grades K-2. The solutions offered to us suggested hiding the overall grade for the students and observers, but then they don't know their overall grade. This does not solve our problem, but it does add to confusion for parents learning the program. Could you please create a way for this to happen?

[ken_i_mayer]

I thought that the request for just letter grades were coming from universities and higher education, but now I see that basically ALL of INSTRUCTURE's clients are clamoring for it.

Can you PLEASE make this little fix in the gradebook?

This is not rocket science.

[pointlessletter]

Is there a way to provide students with letter grades for an assignment that either (1) do not have an equivalent value in points or (2) are configured so the students cannot see the points associated with the letter grade?

For example, final grades calculated outside Canvas and inputted as letters are getting converted to numeric values (top of range for some rubric) that are not representative of an actual score, and this can lead to students being confused about their grade.

[ken_i_mayer]

@pointlessletter There isn't a way to do that simple task (either 1 or 2) in Canvas. The closest that you can do is set up a special grading scheme with each letter as worth 1 (A=4, B=3,C=2,D=1, F=0), but Canvas insists on displaying numbers and percentages, especially in any sum of assignments (such as "All quizzes" or "Final Grade").