RE: Dropping the Lowest Score but Keeping a Zero Penalty for Cheating

[berwin]

I have a rule set for an assignment group to drop the lowest score.

However, a few of my students cheated on a few of the quizzes, so I gave them a zero for those particular assignments. Problem is, Canvas drops the Zero that I want them to keep.

Anyone have any ideas on how to rectify this?

I'm thinking I'll have to create a new assignment group with those quizzes, only assign the students that cheated to those quizzes, assign a weight and a zero. Then, go back to the original assignments and re-assign the whole class, except those who got a zero.

I'm also wondering if the weights will be okay, since the new assignment group will also be weighted. Will it go over the 100%?

Lastly, can this be a feature request? To make exceptions to the lowest score rule? i.e. "do not drop zeros for these particular students."

[Ron_Bowman · Accepted solution]

@berwin -

in the assignment group where you are dropping the lowest score, you can also select an assignment to never drop (from the same edit spot).  the only problem with that is that it will apply to all students so some students may not get their lowest score to drop.

it would be nice if you could select which students that applied to, but that is not possible currently.

another option you could have (you will have to try it out and see if this works).  Create another quiz assignment for those students that cheated (differentiated assignment - just assign it to them).  The other students wont see it - only the students that you assign it to.  Then put it in as the never drop assignment, excuse them on the original and then see if it drops the correct score for those students.

edit - the above seems to work.  Create a differentiated assignment for the students that cheated, excuse them from the original and then add the special differentiated assignment to the don't drop list.

[berwin]

i forgot about the "excused" option in the gradebook. that will save a lot of time and make it easier than removing them from the assignment by individually assigning every other student

creating another quiz under the same group and adding the never drop to it is also an excellent idea

i'll let you know if it works. i was going to import the same exact quiz to assign a zero, but looks like i can just create a blank quiz and assign a zero

there are seven quizzes and they cheated on different ones, so the never drop (applying to all students in the assignment group) wouldn't work in this instance, but the other suggestions should work

[Ron_Bowman]

@berwin -

the dummy assignment that you create for the students that cheated does not have to be a quiz.  you can make it a regular assignment - you could give it the same name as the original quiz as well.  Of course if you do that, then the students do not have access to the questions on the quiz (same goes with the excused assignment I believe).  So you may have to copy the original quiz if you want them to have access to the questions.

[berwin]

it worked out. i created a blank dummy assignment under the assignment group with the "drop lowest" rule, made a rule to never drop it, assigned it to the cheating students, manually gave them zeros for it, then excused them from the original assignment and it dropped their second lowest grade. thanks for the help

[Ron_Bowman]

@berwin -

Glad you were able to use that work around.  Also thanks for replying back that the idea worked for you.  a lot of times, the person with the question never responds back with what worked or what they did to solve the issue.  At least this way people that come across the question know that this method worked.