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

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.

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61 Comments
Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

Great reply  @ewakeman ​

Reading your thoughts above you may be interested in

ewakeman
Community Novice

That would be helpful. It would still be good if the student view of the grade book just showed letter grades.

barinear
Community Member

I too would like to be able to show students a final course letter grade that does not appear with a number.  My students have been confused by the number.  As of now, because of the confusion, I will include the following instructions to students when I announce the posting of their final course grades.

"Your final course average will appear under the “Grades” tab as your “Total.”  Your final course grade will be the letter, not the number, that appears across from “Final Course Grade.”  Ignore the number associated with “Final Course Grade.” Unfortunately, Canvas shows all letters with numerical equivalents that do not reflect your course average."

a_gardiner
Community Novice

I agree with al mentioned above, but I would also like this to work for when I export my grades.

Currently I see my letter grades for the assignments, then I export them, and all I get is my irrelevant points values.

Why can I do this in reverse for the final grade but not my assignment grades?

This would be a great help for my SIS integration.

scottdennis
Instructure
Instructure

If you voted for, or were interested in this idea, you might also want to check out ​, which will go live for vote on Jan. 6th.

sthomas41
Community Novice

I want to be able to make a column that is letters only.  Not connected to any grading scheme.  Blackboard and other Learning Management Systems permit this.  It is incredibly frustrating to have to set a grading scheme, because we the teachers need the flexibility to change it when necessary without all the hassle that the Canvas grading scheme insists on.  I am forced to sent out emails with grades, which I feel incredibly uncomfortable about doing.  Please, just give us the flexibility of a letter column.  

RobDitto
Community Champion

 @sthomas41 ‌ and others interested, there's an idea open for voting, currently in Product Radar status, which encompasses the need you articulated:

A related idea just about final grades, https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/4220" modifiedtitle="true" title="Allow final grade to be lett..., is now Archived, with suggestions that people vote for the "Display As" options idea instead (and/or comment on that newer idea).

lalesi
Community Novice

One of our school uses letter grades and it would be nice if the grade book actually let a letter grade be just that

gabrielle_orsi
Community Novice

Those links to the old forum no longer work. 😕

All I see when I click on each of them is this same page: 2017-11-07_1536 

scottdennis
Instructure
Instructure

Hi Gabrielle,

That is the standard 'content not found' landing page.  I am going to guess that the links you are referring to predate when we reorganized the ideas space, taking out one layer in the process.  If you want to access these ideas they are likely still available by search or by navigating to the first level of the Studio space and then browsing via the Content link.

Regards,

SD