Hi Ron,
"Back in the days of Blackboard," we could select certain columns that would automatically create a separate "running total" column from columns we specified. It was a true "running total" column - we could mark it as such by selecting an option when creating it.
In Blackboard, we could make it so that only the points from the running total column would pull into the course total while still recordkeeping the other points within the LMS.
Additionally, the auto-tallied running total could be selected as the only column visible to students. That is, we did not have to have all columns visible to students in order to enter points (Canvas requires them to be "published/visible" in order to enter points.) We could also specify to drop scores from the other columns going into the running total column. (Kind of like you can do with Assignment Groups in Canvas, except the dropping of scores was related to the running total column rather than the course total.)
As an aside: In Blackboard, the option to "hide/unhide" grading columns from student view was a handy class management feature, especially with very large classes of students. There is always a certain subset of students that, rather than listen to explanations in class or read the syllabus, they send emails about "not getting points that day." Well, it's because they weren't in class to participate. These are the students who "act before thinking" when they get Canvas updates on every move I make in the gradebook. This is not a big deal if the total number of students is small, like 50-90. But with a few hundred students and only one TA, it makes a palpable logistical difference. (E.g., 10% of 300 is 30 students, vs. 10% of 50 is 5 students.)
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"How are you determining the points awarded? I am assuming that because it is participation that you note who has participated in class and you then want to add those points to a running total."
Correct.
With the way Canvas is now, however, it does not appear there is an option for a running total column that also pulls into the course total.
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"You could have a single assignment where you have to manually go in and update the point total on that assignment for a student as they earn them. I.e. current score is 10, and they earned 2 participation points today, so change it to 12."
Correct. However, this is labor intensive in mass lecture classes with frequent points, which is why an auto-tallied running total column would be nice. I want to keep a record of both the points they earned on any given day as well as the running total, with only the running total pulling into the total course grade.
To be clear, by "running total" I mean that different students will be at different points of completion on their "journey toward 50 points" over the course of the semester. It has implications for how the student's grade appears along the way as well. It is also why hidden columns with points were nice (less confusion among students means fewer knee-jerk reaction emails for me).
For the time being, my workaround is creating individual assignment columns for "any day" participation points, but selecting (via the checkbox) "Do not count toward course total" for these assignments, while also maintaining, by hand, an additional running total "assignment." This method is particularly confusing to the subset of students mentioned earlier, because all columns are visible by individual days, so they think they somehow "missed points," when in actuality, they can just get their points on some other day. The running total "assignment" is included in course total.
The option I and other professors seem to be looking for amounts to a valuable time-saving measure that is particularly useful for mass-lecture classes with little classroom support (i.e., TAs).
-Michelle
EDIT: Another thing I noticed is that the "running total assignment" I just created requires that I enter a total amount of points. This is particularly problematic in terms of what it does to the way their course grade looks. It seems I have to set it to not count toward their final grade until the end of the term, at which point I will need to change it to counting toward their final grade. If I set it to zero and include it in their course total, Canvas would register it as "extra credit," falsely inflating their grade. If I set it to 50 and count it toward the course total, then everyone would have an F for participation so far, creating mass panic. So, the only viable solution seems to also keep this running total assignment set as "not counting toward course total" and then changing it at the end of the term. I have explained this to the students in the description, but will brace for the fallout at the end of the term from that subset of students.
