New semester, new gradebook section?

[Mrs_Brase]

Is there a way to delete last semester's grades in the gradebook without deleting the assignments? Or, is there a way to start fresh with points for this semester without deleting last semester? I do not see options under "Filter" for two semesters. 

Thank you!

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

@Mrs_Brase ...

My question for you is...why are you wanting to delete last semester's grades?  Keeping in mind that I don't know much of the details of your request, I would think you'd want to hold on those grades of your students...especially if a student were to question grades later on after the semester had ended.  Or, another case might be if your school had to do some sort of audit of courses and needed to see that kind of data.

Are you wanting to start a new semester with new students...and therefore need a clean gradebook?  If that is the case, most schools will just set up a new course shell for you, and you can then copy in content from one course to another...with the new students in the new course shell.  But, it almost sounds like you want to re-use the same course shell over and over each semester.

I could be totally wrong on all of this, so if you could please come back to this thread to provide some additional details, I think that would be helpful.  Thanks!

[TrishaMeyer1 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mrs_Brase ,

Are you using Canvas Free for Teachers, or are you part of a larger institution? In my experience, the institution's administrator needs to create Grading Periods in order to create a new Gradebook for each term.

I don't know how the free version works. Do you have administrator rights? If so, I assume you can set up your own Grading Periods to make a new gradebook for each term.

ETA:

Alternatively you could use weighted Assignment Groups to achieve something similar. Your AGs don't actually have to add up to 100%, so you can create semester 1 weighted groups and separate semester 2 weighted groups. If you don't use weighted categories, you would just create a "Semester 1" worth 100% and a "Semester 2" worth 100% and then just make sure to place assignments in the proper Assignment Group.

If you do use weights, you'll have to create duplicate AGs, one for each semester. So you might have, for example, "Writing Semester 1" = 20%, "Reading Semester 1" = 20% and so on AND ALSO "Writing Semester 2" = 20%,  "Reading Semester 2" = 20%, etc. Again, you would have to make sure to choose the correct Group when creating Assignments. The unused Groups (per term) would simply be ignored by Canvas when doing grade calculations.

This method won't create a new gradebook, but you will be able to filter by assignment group. You will have to train your students to look only at the current assignment group totals because I think the course Final Grade will still include all scores.

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

@Mrs_Brase ...

My question for you is...why are you wanting to delete last semester's grades?  Keeping in mind that I don't know much of the details of your request, I would think you'd want to hold on those grades of your students...especially if a student were to question grades later on after the semester had ended.  Or, another case might be if your school had to do some sort of audit of courses and needed to see that kind of data.

Are you wanting to start a new semester with new students...and therefore need a clean gradebook?  If that is the case, most schools will just set up a new course shell for you, and you can then copy in content from one course to another...with the new students in the new course shell.  But, it almost sounds like you want to re-use the same course shell over and over each semester.

I could be totally wrong on all of this, so if you could please come back to this thread to provide some additional details, I think that would be helpful.  Thanks!

[Mrs_Brase]

Thanks for the reply! I'm sorry for the confusion. I teach an English class that is the whole year, but I'd like for students to be able to have two different grades for each semester. Since I can't find a way to keep last semester's grades and begin fresh, I'm assuming I have to delete the old grades? 

I have saved each student's grade and sent a progress report with grades to parents for first semester. I am not concerned about deleting the grades so much as I am about losing the assignment descriptions for next year. 

For more clarification, it may help to know that I teach a class of homeschoolers once a week. 

[TrishaMeyer1 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mrs_Brase ,

Are you using Canvas Free for Teachers, or are you part of a larger institution? In my experience, the institution's administrator needs to create Grading Periods in order to create a new Gradebook for each term.

I don't know how the free version works. Do you have administrator rights? If so, I assume you can set up your own Grading Periods to make a new gradebook for each term.

ETA:

Alternatively you could use weighted Assignment Groups to achieve something similar. Your AGs don't actually have to add up to 100%, so you can create semester 1 weighted groups and separate semester 2 weighted groups. If you don't use weighted categories, you would just create a "Semester 1" worth 100% and a "Semester 2" worth 100% and then just make sure to place assignments in the proper Assignment Group.

If you do use weights, you'll have to create duplicate AGs, one for each semester. So you might have, for example, "Writing Semester 1" = 20%, "Reading Semester 1" = 20% and so on AND ALSO "Writing Semester 2" = 20%,  "Reading Semester 2" = 20%, etc. Again, you would have to make sure to choose the correct Group when creating Assignments. The unused Groups (per term) would simply be ignored by Canvas when doing grade calculations.

This method won't create a new gradebook, but you will be able to filter by assignment group. You will have to train your students to look only at the current assignment group totals because I think the course Final Grade will still include all scores.

[Mrs_Brase]

Thank you for this helpful reply! Our group uses Canvas Free for Teachers. We have a coordinator who helped to get us set up on Canvas, so I will share your message and see if he can set up different grading periods. 

Thanks again!

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mrs_Brase,

As far as I know, grading periods (which would be the most "official" way to handle this scenario in Canvas) are not available in the Free for Teachers version, as they are an administratively set up option.

If you want the grades for each semester to be totally separate, I'd probably set up a new course for the second half, import the second half materials from the original course, and finally enroll the students in the new course.  That way the original course will remain as an archive of the first half in case any questions about grades or material arise later.  If you need help with any of these steps, let us know and we can provide some links to Canvas guides on these topics.

Hope this helps a bit!

-Chris