Grading Two Subjects in One Canvas Page

[eliset1]

Is it possible to grade two subjects in one Canvas course?

I currently teach two subjects - math and science. I have only one Canvas page for all of my students. Is it possible for me to grade both math assignments and science assignments on this one Canvas page, but without the grades combining into one grade? I would need to know what they have received as a math grade and what they have received as a science grade, thus needing to separate their grades into sections. 

I really need this as it would make grading so much easier, haha! 

Thank you for your help (-:

[chriscas]

Hi @eliset1,

May I ask what grade level you teach?  In the traditional Canvas LMS setup, you really just get one gradebook.  You could use assignment groups (one for each subject) to somewhat mimic having two graebooks as each group will have a subtotal column, but I'm not sure how clear things would be for your students.  Canvas also has a somewhat newer "Canvas for elementary" option, which could perhaps be more what you're looking for.

Hope this helps a bit!

-Chris

[eliset1]

Thank you for your response!

I currently teach 5th grade. I tried to use assignment groups, but it did not work exactly as I wanted. I may use Canvas for elementary, that seems promising! Is this something that I could do independently, or would I have to contact the Canvas admin for my organization to set this up? I tried to follow along with the guide, but the option to select Canvas for elementary was not visible.

Thank you!

[chriscas]

Hi @eliset1,

I believe the Canvas for Elementary feature does have to be enabled by an admin for at least a subaccount in Canvas.  It seems like something your school may want to investigate, but they probably wouldn't want to enable it in the middle of a year.

You mentioned you couldn't get the assignment groups to work exactly how you wanted...  Could you elaborate on that?  I think that's going to be the best route to go in the short term since you can do it yourself inside of your current course.

-Chris

[SusanNiemeyer]

Next time, I'd really advise you to create two separate courses, one for each subject. However, what's been done has been done.

Here's my question: Are you simply hoping to calculate your students' grade percentages and then you're entering the letter grades in a separate system such as SIS? That's how grading is handled at my community college. If this is the case, then I can suggest a solution for you.

First, put all of the students' graded work into Assignment Groups. You might end up with something like this:

• Math Weekly Quizzes
• Math Homework
• Math Chapter Exams
• Math Final Exam
• Science Weekly Quizzes
• Science Homework
• Science Chapter Exams
• Science Final Exam

To calculate the grades for Math, use percentages such as these:

• Math Weekly Quizzes        25%
• Math Homework                25%
• Math Chapter Exams         25%
• Math Final Exam                 25%
• Science Weekly Quizzes    0%
• Science Homework            0%
• Science Chapter Exams     0%
• Science Final Exam            0%

Then reverse the percentages for Science.

I would strongly advise you to go into your Course Settings, click on the tiny blue letters more options at the bottom of the page, and "disable" the students' current grade percentages. It will be too confusing for your students to see what you're doing behind the scenes to calculate their final grades.

[JeffW · Accepted solution]

Hi @eliset1!

Thanks for your questions!

If the roster for your two subjects are separate you could technically separate the grade totals by only assigning the section that is relevant to the respective assignment. So if you have your science roster in one section and you have Science assignment A, then you would edit it and only assign it to the Science section. If the same roster is participating in both topics in the same course, there is not a good way to separate those out. You would really need to have two independent course shells.