[Gradebook] Grades without points

[jhurley]

I don't know why Canvas insists upon points for grading. Many of us are moving towards grading systems without points or letter grades (standards-based grading or specifications grading). Linda Nilson's book Specifications Grading has popularized a way of grading that does not use cumulative points, but bases the letter grade on the number and type of assignments completed successfully. Please, Canvas, give us a way to record student grades in a non-point format. I use High Pass, Pass, Low Pass, and Not Yet Passing as the grading scheme for my essays, but there is no way to indicate this in my students' gradebook, aside from in the comments section. I have to use an elaborate work-around to give my students a grade update.

[jhurley]

Great idea, Rob. The issue I have with some of the workarounds Canvas suggested is the students still see points. They immediately focus on the points, and that’s exactly what I’m trying to avoid with my grading system.

Jennifer Hurley

Associate Professor of English

Ohlone College - Newark Campus

[kengelma]

I think this is a great idea.

I also have courses where the grades is based on the number of completed assignments, not the scores on those assignments. I also have courses which require students to complete some minimum number of tasks to be able to pass. The current grade book doesn't even export complete/incomplete grades, making the gradebook all but useless for these courses.

Thanks for proposing this.

[jhurley]

Thanks, Kathleen. I have similar problems and thus cannot get any use out of the Canvas gradebook. Please spread the word about this idea.

Jennifer Hurley

Associate Professor of English

Ohlone College - Newark Campus

[biray]

We appreciate you, and the submission of your idea. Your dialogue helps our product teams prioritize feature development. Unfortunately, this idea has been archived because it did not meet the 100-vote threshold within the 3-month voting period. Learn more at: How does the voting process work for feature ideas?

Can archived ideas still become a feature?  Potentially, yes. Archived ideas can be resubmitted by Community members. As people’s needs change, previously submitted ideas may gain additional traction. Feature ideas are evaluated as a whole and influence product direction.

[apenn8]

Please reopen! We really need to explore progressive grading scales that allow for text-based grading.

[jhurley]

Alex, I totally agree! Many schools are moving towards narrative or standards-based grading, but Canvas is not supporting this.

Jennifer Hurley

Associate Professor of English

Ohlone College – Newark Campus

[laurakgibbs]

I'm glad I saw this feature request pop up for voting again; I voted up! I also am not a fan of Gradebooks that are all about numbers and percentages. I don't mind the points per se because my students do their own grading, and points are just a proxy for work completed, but what really bothers me is that the final grade has to be based on "percentage out of" which totally does NOT fit my grading philosophy. My students always have 100% because they are choosing what assignments they want to complete, designing their own workflow. If they choose not to do an assignment, it's that simple: they are choosing not to do it;. That's just a blank in the Gradebook. Their final grade is based on their total points... not points "out of" in the form of a percentage.

Because Canvas allows only "points-out-of" percentage-based grading schemes (at least, that was the case last time I tried to bend the Gradebook to my will...), I cannot record the students' final grades in the Gradebook. In some ways, it really doesn't matter; the students do their own grading, and they know what their grade is. But it seems kind of absurd that I cannot also record that grade in Canvas.

I've written about un-grading here with resources for thinking about alternatives to traditional grading, and the #TTOG stream at Twitter is always full of ideas and inspiration too of course!

http://Grading.MythFolklore.net

[bkompe]

The gradebook is used to record student marks but it is also used to record other information pertaining to the student. The information may be associated with the student enrolment or it may be information provided to the student.
My request: I would like the ability to create a column which contains text but CAN be visible to the student. For example, it could be used to inform the student and the staff of the name of the tutor assigned to the student as well as maintaining a record of the information at an obvious and convenient location for posterity.

Point 1: There are two ways of implementing this. In some cases the text column would be associated with a grading scheme and in other cases it would just be a text column (similar to the notes column but visible to the student and downloadable to Excel so it can be kept as a record).

Point 2: If the text column was associated with a grading scheme then I think it would be important to give staff the option of only displaying the 'name' to the student. Frequently staff do not wish students to see the 'numerical value' associated with a grading scheme name as in the screenshot of a student's Grades shown just below. gradebook; 

[laurakgibbs]

YES  @bkompe  ! I now that this can be extremely useful. We had that feature in D2L, and while I have no interest in grades per se, I am very interested in communicating with the students through the Gradebook while they record their own grades. I used it in D2L to keep track of the students' progress through their semester-long project, to alert them to important items they needed to address, etc. I knew they were using the Gradebook to record their grades several times each week, and it was a great way for me to share individual communication with them beyond just messages/email.

I made a proposal like this that went nowhere as a Feature Request; here's how I documented my idea:

Feature Request: Text Fields in Gradebook 

The idea itself got put into Cold Storage because it failed to get any support. I'm still not clear on the features of the new Gradebook and whether we will (finally) be able to create our own text fields so that we can configure the Gradebook in ways that are NOT just about numeric-driven grade calculations. I certainly hope so. There are many ways people approach grading which the Canvas Gradebook is unable to support... and that is especially depressing to see when we need ALL kinds of grading innovation, lots and lots of grading innovation, so that we can find new/better strategies.

[jhurley]

Laura,

I totally support what you are doing. Let me know how I can help. Many faculty all over the country are moving towards non-point-based assessment, and some of us are moving towards a no-grades classroom. Canvas does not seem to have this as part of their vision. I have been trying for years to get Canvas to improve the students’ visibility of instructor feedback, but it has gone nowhere. This means I am back to paper and pen to make my comments.

Jennifer Hurley

Associate Professor of English

Ohlone College, Newark Campus