Override final grade

[johnpj]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

It would be convenient if instructors could override the calculated final grade. Many faculty use the gradebook export to send grades to the student information system and there are sometimes factors in determining a final grade that are based on the discretion of the instructor.

This idea has been added to our product plan for Q1 2019 and will influence development within Canvas. To find more information about this idea’s related priority, please follow Priority: Gradebook Enhancements‌

:smileyinfo: Adding this idea to our product plan means we will be working on it, but it does not guarantee that it will be developed exactly as defined by the idea, or that it will be added to the production environment.

Read more about the feature idea process:

• Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes
• How does the feature idea process work in the Canvas Community?
• What is the feature development process for Canvas?

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the Canvas Release Notes (2019-02-16) .

[leward]

Same situation at IU.  Instructors want the ability to change borderline grades or to apply codes such as incomplete (I), never attended (FNN), failed due to poor attendance (FN) etc.  It's important to both faculty and students that the grade in Canvas match up with the grade in SIS.  As things stand today, our faculty make these changes after pushing their grades to SIS, which involves extra steps and results in grade discrepancies between SIS and Canvas for some students.

[kristin_bayless]

In our SIS gradebook, if the instructor alters the final grade, the font used is bolded and there might be a color change as well.  The instructor can get back to the calculated grade.  It's very helpful to determine at a glance if a grade has been altered, esp. if there's an inquiry and the front office must field the call.  Our teachers frequently override the final grade if the student has shown improvement or effort in areas not reflected in the graded work.

[straussi]

We like this idea and will vote it up, but want to add that in our SIS (PeopleSoft), the instructors still have to go in and approve/submit the grade roster, so edits to any grades can be done there as well.

[KAilsa_Rowan]

We also submit grades separately in our SIS (Jenzabar). However, if there is a mis-match between the submitted grade and the record in Canvas, this can become an issue---for example when a grade is appealed. Therefore it would still be helpful for us to have the ability to enter the override in Canvas as well.

[lisaarter]

In case you didn't get to vote - you click the up button by the total vote count above (on the left).  Not sure if that was what you meant

[cwruck]

This request seems to regularly come up near the end of grading periods. We can understand that there is a need to adjust a final grade before it goes to another system, or compensate for things that are not accounted for in Canvas. We think there are ways that we could solve these problems, but giving instructors the ability to arbitrarily adjust a final grade is problematic in two very important ways:

1) There is no transparency to the students about why their grade is different than they would expect based on math. And this lack of documentation about the grade adjustment could be problematic if the Total Grade was ever to come into question.

2) If we allow open-ended editing of the Total Grade, the Total Grade immediately becomes stale (read: wrong) the moment an instructor adds another assignment/quiz grade after previously editing the Total Grade.

We would propose that we solve the problem with “Extra Credit”, a.k.a, “Fudge Points”.

If we added a way for instructors to add/subtract points to the overall grade, then the point adjustment would be transparent to the student, documented, and would allow the Total Grade to remain accurate.

[cwruck]

Thanks  @leward ​ and  @vkg ​ for your input on this! This is an interesting problem. I'm going to see what we can do to help with these custom SIS codes. I can see something where we might set up a way for the Administrators at an institution to define some custom codes, maybe as part of a grading scheme or something- it wouldn't have a grade associated with it, but would match the SIS codes for that institution. I like it! We'll dive in and see what we can do to make this easier for you.

[vkg]

Christi, I understand your logic.  But again, extra credit wouldn't account for all grades that are assigned at our institution -- e.g., the difference between NR (No report), NG (No grade), ED (unofficial withdrawal), and I (incomplete) can't be determined by any point totals.  In addition, while I understand your point about transparency, our instructors do find situations where other grades are determined outside of mathematical formulas.

I'd suggest that a more flexible -- and easier -- solution might be an additional field of "Instructor assigned final grade".  If it was included in CSV exports/APIs, instructors could choose to use either the mathematical or the instructor assigned final grade in a given course as the feed to the SIS.

[RobDitto]

Our institution has standardized grading similar to what  @vkg ​ mentions, with the added twist that the applicable grading scheme can differ by student depending on his/her degree program.  Thus, we currently have no choice but to hide totals -- working against the transparency aim Deactivated user​ articulates. 

An instructor-assigned final grade capability would open up the possibility for Canvas to play a role in offering students more transparency around grading.

[cwruck]

Hi Victoria, Did you happen to see the response (where I mentioned you) about adding the custom codes you are talking about to grading schemes? I agree with you that the extra credit doesn't solve that problem. I wasn't aware of that problem. Regarding the "Instructor assigned final grade": how would transparency to the student be achieved by adding this to a CSV export/API's?