Group Discussion as Assignment - Apply Same Grade to All

[mcmaguire]

• I set up a Discussion with Groups
• I make it an Assignment, and categorize it as a Group Assignment
• Canvas STILL does not allow me to apply the same Assignment grade for this Group Discussion Assignment, to all Group members - in the same way I can set up grading for other Group Assignments (that are not Discussions), with the same grade being applied to all Group members.

At this point, I'd be satisfied if anyone could (at least) provide a good rationale for why this quirk with Canvas Assignment grades still exists (I've run into this issue for years).

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi there, @mcmaguire ...

Thank you for sharing your process for creating a graded group discussion in your course.  I'm not sure if this Guide will provide the answer you are looking for, but take a look at the last sentence in the first paragraph in the light-blue box:

How do I assign a graded discussion to a course gr... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

Highlighting is my own...

You can create a graded discussion for a course group by using the Group Discussion checkbox. Canvas uses group sets to assign group discussions, and each group within the group set that is assigned to the discussion is required to complete the discussion. Grades for group discussions are assigned to each group member individually.

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I don't have an explanation as to *why* this is, however.  Hopefully this will be of some help to you, though.  Take care...

[chriscas]

I'm just a Canvas Admin for our institution, but I can guess that the grading works this way for group discussions because you can actually see what each group member contributed to a discussion, unlike a group assignment where there is usually one submission for the entire group.  On one hand, there is an inconsistency between assignments and discussion grading, but on the other hand the work is different too.  Now a group assignment does have a checkbox to control whether grades are assigned to the group or individually, so maybe that could be brought over to discussions.  I guess personally, I have trouble wrapping my head around a single group grade for a discussion even though I have no problem with doing that for an assignment.  Maybe I'm just so used to the way that Canvas works that it influences how I think about it now.

-Chris

[sharon_kitching]

Are you grading participation, and so everyone gets the same grade? There is the default grade feature that would let you grade everyone as the same grade, and then tweak the non-participation students?