Gradebook Status Options

[Amanda-Landers]

Hey Canvas community.  I am not sure if I am the first one, or the only one, to ask this question but I've been using Canvas LMS since 2015 and this has always been on my mind and a big desire for me.  

You know how you can change a grade status to Late, Missing, Exempt, or Dropped?  I was wondering if we could add Incomplete to that.  Or something similar to it.  I know there is a grading option for an assignment to be graded as either Complete or Incomplete, but I am talking about if I notice that a student did not submit the entire assignment, and I want them to resubmit it with all of the criteria.  Can there be a status to mark it as "Incomplete" so that the students knows something is wrong and needs to be done.  

In my experience, even when I mark it with a clear rubric and write in the comments, of both the rubric and assignment space, that all the criteria is not included and to please resubmit, the student doesn't check the assignment comments or rubric comments and just thinks they either got a zero, whatever temporary grade I gave them.  Sometimes I'll even mark it as MISSING and send it back for resubmission and they will resubmit the same thing thinking they did something wrong submitting it the first time.  BUT if it comes up incomplete in their status, it will flag them to check out why.  

Is this just a me thing? Or have other people asked or wanted this before?  Thanks!

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @Amanda-Landers,

As long as you're not using the free-for-teacher instance of Canvas, a person with a Canvas administrator role can add up to three custom grade statuses to Canvas, following the How do I manage gradebook statuses in an account? - Instructure Community - 584834 guide.  I would suggest that you reach out to your Canvas team, usually in the eLearning, IT, or Digital Education departments, to find out whether they'd be willing to add the Incomplete status.  This will generally affect a bunch of courses, not just yours, so they may want to have discussions about it and may say no, but Canvas does at least have the option.

I hope this helps.

-Chris