How do I weight grades in a course?

[sackettl]

My course is currently marked that the grades are not weighted. However, I want the students to easily view their overall grade in the course at any moment. How do I weight the grades to reveal a current course total grade?

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hello  @sackettl  Welcome to the Canvas Community.  Thank you for posting your question.  I think you might want to use Assignment Groups.  Please review these Guides:

How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups? 

How do I add an assignment group in a course?  

How do I create rules for an assignment group?  

How do I move or reorder an assignment group? 

https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-9934-415241283 

Do you think these Guides will meet your needs?  Please let us know...thanks!!!

[ms5878]

I was grateful for Leah Sackett's question about weighting grades.

I read the documentation on adding assignment groups, and now I am more confused than ever, and my grades are due. I will calculate the weighting of grades by hand instead. This is disappointing, because if I had been able to do it in Canvas, I could have provided my students a great deal of clarity regarding how the grades were calculated. Now, unfortunately, I can't.

The problem with the documentation is that you are using Canvas-specific terminology without adequate definition. Back to basics: what exactly IS an assignment group? Once I am clear on what that is and what it might be good for, I can contemplate creating it and using it effectively. Until then, the documentation is just a source of frustration.

Thanks.

[kmeeusen]

Hi  @ms5878  

Jargon is always a problem when learning new things, so I will start by providing this link https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-5341-canvas-glossary?sr=search&searchId=12df5eae-3427-41fa-... 

Canvas calls all graded activities "assignments", and all assignments must be in an Assignment Group - think of these as categories. Canvas creates a default group called "Assignments", and you will see that on the Assignments Index page - oops, more jargon - the Assignments Index page is where you end up when you click Assignments in the left-side course navigation menu.

You can create as many Assignments Groups as you want or need, and create rules and weightings for those groups.  If you are not a fan of the default group, you can delete it but remember to move any assignments in that group to some other groups. You can move assignments within a group or between groups by dragging and dropping them. This is handy, as the Gradebook will organize itself based on the organization of assignments on the Assignments Index page.

I hope this helps,

Kelley