Help me figure out Grade Posting Policy and Hide Grades

[gnoack]

Please help me figure out the grade posting policy and hide grades.  Since Instructure took away Mute Grades I have not been able to make much sense of the new policies.  I thought I understood that if I wanted to grade an assignment and make comments, I had to change the Grade Posting Policy to Manual before I began grading.  Once done, I post the grades. This only effects new grades I enter, any existing grades stay published. 

I understood that Hide Grades only hides grades that have already been entered. It doesn't hide new grades that I enter. 

But now I'm not sure.  And the hide/post grades from the Speedgrader seems to have a third different effect on grades. 

Today, I had an exam that was part multiple choice and part short answer. I let the student complete the exam, then I went in to set the grade posting policy to manual.  This did nothing, the grades were not hidden, the gradebook didn't show the eye closed icon for their final grade or the exam grade.  Is this because part of the exam had already been completed?  If I want to hide the grades for this exam, do I have to set the Manual Grade Posting policy before any student takes it?  And if I forget, what would work?  My understanding of the Hide Grades is that it wouldn't work until after I have entered all the grades for each student.  So, while I'm grading the exam, students would get notifications and see their grades, but then when I hide the grades, they can't see them anymore.  This is in-fact what has happened. 

Would hiding the grades from the Speedgrader toolbar have worked? 

[kmeeusen · Accepted solution]

Hi @gnoack 

It is nice to be answering one of your questions, since you have been so busy answering question of other community members lately - thank you for that, by-the-way!

When grade posting policies were first implemented, our faculty also found them confusing; and they are or can be, but are also very powerful. The guide on this page, How do I use posting Policies in a course? includes a flow chart that my faculty found quite useful.  I also found is quite useful to improve my own understanding so that I could better help my faculty.

If you need more, just holler.

As an aside, I understand you work at a school that is part of an IL. consortium of colleges that includes the school where the great @kona Jones works. She spoke kindly of you!

Kelley

[gnoack]

Hi @kmeeusen, 

Thanks,  To solve my issue, I had one more section to grade.  To do so, I had to both Hide Grades and set the Grade Posting Policy to manual. 

I have seen that graphic. IMO, If you need a graphic such as that to figure out how to just hide your grade column while you grade, you've made it too complicated, I miss the simplicity of Mute. But, I'll work with what we have. I think it would help with more clear language.  For example, Hide Grades should actually be "Hide Posted Grades".  I also think having a Hide Grade button in the SpeedGrader is disingenuous because I think common sense would assume that the reason the button would be there is so that you could hide your grades right before you begin grading, but that isn't what happens. So, I think Instructure has some work to do to clean this up. I hope they are working on it. 

I do know @kona.  She and I served on ILCCO, a consortium of community colleges sharing resources for online teaching as well as sharing courses.  I miss the conversations and ideas from the meetings. Kona always had great ideas and information to share, she's a great resource.  I took a faculty position several years ago and that responsibility isn't mine anymore.   Hi Kona!

[kmeeusen]

 @gnoack 

Yep, there is much I also do not like about grade posting policies. As seems typical with too many software engineers, they made it much more complicated than they needed to. Users were asking for a way to mute (another bit of silly Canvas jargon) the entire gradebook, then release grades after they finished grading an assignment - in other words, they wanted to start from a muted gradebook!

I strongly believe that every software engineer should be paired with a crusty old curmudgeon like myself, and one that does not code. Some who can tap them on the shoulder and say, "why in the heck did you add that?", "why can't that be shortened to one click?", or my favorite "OMG, Dude, nobody wants that!"

Stay safe and have a great Christmas.

Kelley

Kelley

[bsr]

That flow chart makes me want to cry. And bang my head on my desk. And quit my job. 

I came in here with the same question, and I can't say that I understand it any better. I have set my grade posting policy to "manual," but some columns show the "hidden" icon, and others don't. How the heck am I supposed to know whether students can see their grades, and which grades they can see? 

And now I'm learning from this thread that the hide/show eye in Speedgrader doesn't do the same thing as it does in the gradebook column??? This is a HOT MESS!

I have an exam to grade, and I want to make sure that the students aren't seeing it until I'm done. It's set to "manual," but the gradebook column shows no eye icon, and the Speedgrader shows the open eye icon, both of which would indicate that the grades ARE visible to the students. The "hide" options are grayed out, though, which would imply the opposite. This flow chart is of no use in interpreting the current status. Can they see the grades, or not?