Logic behind Grade Posting Policy

[slwilso3]

I see many posts about how the Grade Posting Policy is set to Automatic by default. I also see many people asking that this be something  we can change at an admin level.

I am looking for the WHY  of this policy. My staff are asking for the logic behind the choice to make automatic posting the default instead of manual, something official from Instructure would be great. 

It's causing some tension at my institution which has recently adopted Canvas and I'd like to give them a reason. 

So, why is it Automatic instead of Manual?

[SusanNiemeyer]

If the default were "manual" instead of "automatic," I can guarantee you that we would be inundated with posts like this: "I graded my students' work. Why can't they see their grades???" 

[slwilso3]

100% true!  That's literally already happening. 

What I'm looking for is the logic, if any, of why the programmers chose this option. The support team and faculty will be happier if they have a why. 

"Because that's how Canvas works" is a less satisfying answer.

[SusanNiemeyer · Accepted solution]

The bottom line is this: the more steps an instructor, especially a novice Canvas user, has to take to accomplish a task, the greater the likelihood that he or she will get hung up on the way. If the grading policy is automatic, the instructor just has to enter the grade (one step). If the grading policy is manual, then the instructor has to enter the grade and then post the grades (two steps). 

Fewer steps >>>> higher likelihood of success

[mzimmerman]

Hi @slwilso3 

The "grade posting policy" option is relatively new to Canvas.  Prior to that, grades were posted automatically unless they were specifically hidden in the Grades column, so for existing Canvas users, I expect "automatic" seems like the most natural choice for a default setting.

If there are specific settings that you would like included in all courses (such as changing the default grade posting policy for the course to "manual", or enabling/disabling specific course navigation links), you might look at using a template course, whose settings would be automatically implied whenever a new course is created.  There is more information about using template courses at https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Admin-Guide/How-do-I-enable-a-course-as-a-course-template/ta-p/46... 

[slwilso3]

We're looking at templates for other reasons. 

I think your response about how they were posted automatically previously makes the most sense so far. It may have been easier to keep that code.

I have plenty of faculty who will argue about which one is more "natural"

[SusanNiemeyer]

@slwilso3 

Here is the very reason why it makes sense to set the default grading policy to "Automatic Posting." If the default were "Manual Posting," we would be swamped by questions such as this:

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Question-Forum/Students-not-seeing-their-grades/m-p/558268...