Treat ungraded as zero?

[veltmaal]

Hi, I have a question about the Canvas gradebook.  The gradebook used to have a button called "treat ungraded as zero," which would show a student's true percentage score, in the event that the student did not submit a quiz or an assignment.  Without selecting "treat ungraded as zero," the gradebook shows an overall percentage score of only completed work.  In any case, Canvas seems to no longer have "treat ungraded as zero," and I'm wondering if it is buried in Canvas somewhere, or if there is another button that performs the same function.  Thanks for any clarification you can provide!

[jwadec]

Hi,  @veltmaal ‌!

The new Canvas grade book calls this a late submission policy. There is a great guide on how to accomplish this: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-16569-4152826329 

[rhelmstu]

I don't think this carries exactly the same functionality.  In the old system, the "treat ungraded as 0" did exactly that, even for assignments that were not yet due.  This way, students had an accurate bottom-threshold on their course grade:  if I get nothing but zeros here on out, this will be my grade.

The late submission policy does not act that way on all assignments.  So, it only has the same effect on the last day of class, which is too late to plan. 

If there is a way to rig this new late submission scheme to act in the same way as the old system, I would love to hear about it.

[Stef_retired]

 @rhelmstu , please know that in the old gradebook, "treat ungraded as 0" only showed the effect of those zeros in the instructor's view; it did not give students zeros for those assignments, which could only be done by entering the zeros directly or using the default grade option to enter the grade in bulk for that assignment. 

[rayfrey]

Even though the setting 'treat missing as 0' is invoked for the entire term, Canvas still sometimes sets a missing assignment with a '-' rather than a zero. One then has to scour the gradebook and change them manually, it seems. Rather frustrating.

[rhelmstu]

I found the solution.  This functionality still exists as in the old gradebook, it is just harder to find.

You have to switch your gradebook to "individual view."  There you will find under global settings the option "treat ungraded as 0."

[lesley_cryderma]

Again, Stephanie is correct, students DO NOT SEE the results of this action. It is only for the instructor to see.

If you want students to be able to see this, they should go to their own gradebook and uncheck the little box on the right side that says "calculate only on graded assignments." Additionally, students could use "what if" grades to enter zeros for all assignments without a grade and it will give them a "what if" total grade. It is not actually changing their grade, it just lets them play with scores to see what would happen if they score a particular grade on a particular assignment.

[graeme_douglas]

@rhelmstu In my testing, this setting will affect the view of a student's grade under Individual View, but it does not change the setting in the gradebook for the entire course. We'd like to be able to see ungraded treated as zero when looking at the entire student list. Do you know if this is possible? 

[gulick_24 · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, this 12-19-20 re-release of the feature (for which I’m glad, don’t get me wrong…) doesn’t solve the actual issue --> that students need to be able to see their final grade in the course if they do nothing else in the course. Many students think they can skip the final exam because their current final grade is an A, but without doing the exam, it falls to a C. Then they're surprised they got a C... "but I had an A!" etc. Can't tell you how many times I've had that conversation with students. (As an academic advisor, I'm the one the students come to to complain about this for quite a number of courses.)  So STUDENTS need access to a “treat ungraded as zero” sort of option, not just instructors.

[gnoack]

This is a behavioral issue, not a technical issue.  It shows that students lack the number sense and the common sense to know that if they skip an exam their grade will drop.  

That said, there is a great tool already available.  You should point them to the "What if Grades" feature. For students, its actually better than a "Treat Ungraded as Zero."

How do I approximate my assignment scores using the What-If Grades feature?

[lmacintyre1]

I have developmental education math students of whom some do not even know how to open another window on their computer.  Try explaining that to them!

[graeme_douglas]

Hi @gulick_24 ,

Students can see their real final grade by de-selecting the "Calculate based only on graded assignments" box in the Grades tool.

Once de-selected, their current grade total will display based on what they have completed to date as a percentage of all assessments. Unfortunately, our LMS admin hasn't been able to figure out how to have this box de-selected by default and we've found that many students are not aware of this setting. We'd love to see this setting turned off by default.

I'd still like to see "treat ungraded as zero" added for the instructors. Using the late submission policy for this feels more like a work-around that affects other course decisions. At the least, the Total grade displayed in the Teacher's Grades tool should be the Unposted Final Score. This would help prevent instructors from submitting the wrong grade at the end of the semester because they were not aware they needed to mark zeros for all unsubmitted assignments.

Graeme

[gulick_24]

@graeme_douglas  and @Stef_retired - Thank you for those ideas. I passed that along to my instructor team and they want to know if deselecting "calculate based only on graded assignments" is possible via the mobile app, citing that the majority of their students access grades via the app.

Seconding what Graeme said, my instructors would like to be able to turn that setting off on a course by course level.  I.e. Once we reach the point in the semester where students have earned enough points to pass the course, they want to turn off the setting so that students with low #s of points will see that they need to step it up, that even though Carmen says they have a "C" today, they can't just cruise through the rest of the semester without turning anything and maintain that "C".  (Yes, I know that sounds obvious to all of us reading this post, but I work for the open-access arm of my institution, so my students are on a wide spectrum of preparedness for college, and an even wider spectrum of technology intuition/skills. Example: I once taught a student that when a phone number includes letters (like how our IT helpdesk ph# is 688-HELP, that the letters correspond to numbers on her cell phone). That was the reason he hadn't ever called them before, because his cell phone "didn't dial letters".  So anyway, I say that just to illustrate that even though students can uncheck that setting if they are motivated to do so and are using the browser, it's the students who don't know that they can/how to do it/care enough to do it who need it to be a setting the instructor can turn on. And why is it important that unmotivated/underprepared students be given that extra reminder about how college grades works? Precisely because they're underprepared--they're the reason college access programs and open-access institutions exist. 😊  (I promise I say all this with a smile... Canvas has some really great tools that we use to support our students, and it's because we see what awesome tools Canvas comes up with that we continually ask for better and better options to make college an even more amazing experience for our students.) Thanks for making that possible for us! 🙏 🤝

[graeme_douglas]

You're welcome. Glad it was helpful. Students do have the option in the app to select "Base on graded assignments." This is very prominently placed at the top of the Grades screen. I should note that my testing has been with a weighted Assignments tool, which is the primary way our faculty manage the grades.

[KristinL]

Hi --

From the Grades tab in Canvas Student for Android, there should be a checkbox at the top. Students can decide then whether or not to base their course scores on graded assignments only. Android users also have the option to look at "what-if scores".

How do I view Course Grades in the Student app on my Android device? 

Unfortunately, I do not see these options in Canvas Student for iOS.

How do I view Course Grades in the Student app on my iOS device? 

[GuillaumeBrassa]

What will differentiate "unsubmitted, ungraded as zero" from "submitted-to-be-graded" and from "actual zero" in the dashboard? Will the student know that his ungraded zero just became a real one ?

if someone forgets to grade the "ungraded" before the deadline, will it freeze the score as zero?