multiple optional assignments, one grade in gradebook

[IoanMuntean]

Hi there,

I am new to Canvas as my university just migrated from Blackboard. I have a large class in which students have 3-4 readings per each module. Each reading has a specific prompt and is graded on the same scale (let us say, 25 points). Each student can pick ONE reading per module, submit the answer by the deadline and move to the next module. 

My question is about the gradebook. How I set this in gradebook such that:

1 students are able to submit only one answer per module

2 students are able to see the submission of others, but only for the same reading

3 the stat does not add all the readings together. That means for that module the 25 points would be the maximum grade.

I did something like this in Blackboard by creating a discussion forum for each readings for each module. What is the right way to do this? Is there any way to group together some grades and consider them together as one score?

Thanks in advance!

[IoanMuntean]

Here are several details. My course is based on modules, and I have nine modules in the whole class. We assign a core number of texts, usually two on which students need to reflect or ask questions about and that is in my case just a discussion board. Even with that I have a slight problem because canvas doesn't have topics or subjects in discussion boards, so students need start their post with the first line uhhhh, underlined or bold as a selector of the core readings they discuss. The second assignment is about four to five supplementary readings. So, students will choose one of these supplementary readings and write a review on it or a reflection. In most cases this implies that only about 1/4 of the students should interact with other students, those who read the same supplementary readings. I thought I could create four discussion groups for the four supplementary readings such that students post only in those discussion boards but that complicates the grading procedure. 

I'm trying to look for another way to do this. I can create some self-enrolled groups named after each the supplementary reading in each module such that students self-enroll in these groups based on their choice of supplementary reading, and within that group they find a discussion board in which they can post the reduce or reflection and see the reviews of others. Blackboard had easier system to deal with this. I grade with the same score all the self-enrolled groups and then put together a column which is a calculated column that get the max grade of all these four groups. Each student will contribute to one group, but in the calculated column I will see in canvas one final column per module.

Is this a good idea? I just end up with 40+ group in the gradebook and many empty columns. Also the advantage is that if I decide to give them an individual assignment on a specific module, rather than a collective one (discussion board) i simply create an assignment in that group.

The other was to create peer-review assignment per each group of supplementary readings, but that forces students to reply to a random assignment that they did not select.

I am curious if people have encountered the same problem and whether there is a better way to do this.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

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