Custom grade formula for a group

[Varick_Erickson]

My university recently switched to Canvas from Blackboard.  I am trying to figure out if there is a way to do a custom weighting of tests based on performance.  I am trying to achieve the following:

• 40% Assignments
• 60% Tests (Final 100 points, Midterm 100 points)
  
  Tests = Max(0.7*Final + 0.3*Midterm, 0.3*Final + 0.7*Midterm)

The idea is if a student scored better on the Final than the Midterm, then the Final will be given more weight than the Midterm.  Similarly, if the student did better on the Midterm than the Final, then the Midterm will be given more weight.

For assignments, it is very straightforward to assign 40% weighting.  Is there a way to achieve the custom weighting for the tests?

[mzimmerman · Accepted solution]

Hi @Varick_Erickson 

Canvas does not offer the same kind of custom grade calculation that Blackboard does.  The main tools are weighting by assignment groups (equivalent to categories in Blackboard) and the option to drop X number of the highest or lowest grades from a particular assignment group.

To do what you describe, you'd really need to export the grade book, do the calculation in Excel (or other spreadsheet), then import the result back in as an override grade https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-override-a-student-s-final-grade-in-the... if your school's Canvas allows override grades.

Alternatively, you do the midterm/final grade calculation in Excel and create an "Tests Grade" assignment with its own assignment group and a submission type of "no submission" to record the resulted calculated grade for the midterm and final, and calculate the final grade by giving that assignment group 60% or the grade, the other assignments 40%, and the actual midterm and final 0% to take them out of the calculations.

[Gabriel33]

I had a solution for automating this in a similar situation, where the exams were outside of Canvas.

Setup: Four Canvas assignments
1) Assignments, worth 40%
2) Midterm, worth 30%
3) Final, worth 30%
4) Re-weight, worth 40%

I uploaded each exam's grades twice, once on their respective specific assignment (midterm or final), and another in the re-weight assignment.

In that re-weight assignment, I set it to drop the lowest grades,

That way, the lowest of the two will be worth 30%, the highest of the two will be worth 70%.

And that has the advantage that students see the calculation working inside Canvas.

Still trying to figure out a way to do this with exams being Canvas quizzes, though, since I don't have a way to "repeat" the grade.

[James]

@Gabriel33 

You can repeat the grade, but not automatically. After creating your second assignment to hold the reweight grade, you can either (1) manually type the scores, (2) download the gradebook to Excel, duplicate the scores, and then import the grade back to Canvas, (3) write a program that gets the grades using the Canvas API and then duplicates them to the second assignment; run that script on-demand or add it to a scheduled job.

The third option is the one I use. I have a quiz where students are supposed to supply the variable choices they are going to use for a stats project. I download their answers from Canvas, check them to make sure they followed directions and that they have a usable set of variables. For a different (non-quiz) assignment, I then complete a rubric based on any problems they have and give them a score.

It's all automatic except that I think I manually run the script instead of automating it. I might have it automated. Once you have a script, adding it to a cron job is relatively simple.

[Gabriel33]

Right, I thought of options (1) and (2), but was looking for someone more automatic.

I guess I can do option (3), I also use the API for generating quizzes, so that's likely the easiest path, thank you @James