View But Not Edit Gradebook

[JJacobs7]

Greetings,

I have admin access, and I am looking for the right permission to allow a TA to view the grade book but not have the ability to enter or modify scores.  The interface is great for seeing who has submitted, who still needs to be graded, and who has not submitted, regardless of the due date. I want the TA to have this function.

Thank you,

John

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hello @JJacobs7 ...

That would all be handled via your "Permissions" screen as a Canvas administrator.

• What user roles and permissions are available in C... - Instructure Community - 102 (canvaslms.com)
• How do I manage the Permissions page? - Instructure Community - 114 (canvaslms.com)
• How do I add a course-level role in the Permission... - Instructure Community - 178 (canvaslms.com)
• How do I set permissions for a course-level role i... - Instructure Community - 101 (canvaslms.com)

Within the "Course Roles" tab of the "Permissions" page, there is a column for "TA" (Teaching Assistant).  If you make any changes to the "TA" role, those changes will apply for all people who currently have the TA role within that particular account.  You'll want to look for the rows:

• Grades - edit
• Grades - select final grade for moderation
• Grades - view all grades
• Grades - view audit trail

Clicking on each of these will display a slide-out tray on the right side of your screen.  Each row provides "WHAT IT DOES" and "ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS" sections which I highly recommend reviewing before you make any changes.  These areas will give you a better understanding on each of the permissions and whether or not you'll want to make any modifications to them.

You could also leave the "TA" role alone and create a brand new "custom" role if you thought that you wanted to leave the "TA" role "as is" yet have some similarities in a "custom" role.  For example, maybe you want to have a "custom" role called "Gradebook View Only"...and only allow people with that role to view the Gradebook.  Just throwing that out as another option.  You could create the new role based on the "TA" Base Type.  (See the third link that I provided above.)

I hope this will help a bit.  Sing out if you have any other questions, and I'm sure someone from the Community will be happy to help.  Take care...be well.

[marthazumack]

One of our departments wanted the ability to edit grades in Speedgrader but not in the gradebook! Have you come across that sort of query before?

[Chris_Hofer]

@marthazumack ...

I have not.  But, I'm not sure I understand the reason for the request, either.  Grades in SpeedGrader are tied to the Gradebook.  Why would someone want those to be different?  I would think that would be very confusing for an instructor.  Maybe an example or two from you would help clarify the need for something like this.  People in that department could certainly submit an idea here in the Community if they felt it was a real need.

How do I create a new idea in the Instructure Community?

[mjlicht]

To your question about those wanting access to Speedgrader but not to Gradebook:  I know it seems counterintuitive, but it's useful if you have graders whose task it is to just grade (certain) assignments, but who shouldn't have total access to all students' grades in the main Gradebook.  When we used another LMS (Moodle), there were ways to tease out those permissions.  I tried hard to see if that could be replicated in Canvas, but was told it wasn't possible. 

[Chris_Hofer]

@mjlicht ...

Thank you for providing the clarification.  Based on your latest reply, I may have misunderstood your other posting.  That makes sense now that you've provided more detail.  In looking at the "Permissions" screen in the admin side of Canvas, the "Grades" and "SpeedGrader" areas aren't separated out to only give permissions to one or the other.  They are all combined together...so yes, what you were told is currently true.  I don't know if there are any plans to further separate these two areas from each other since they are so closely tied together.

If you wanted, you could submit an idea here in the Canvas Community so that others could evaluate it and it could have the potential to be voted on.  Here are some instructions on how to get started with that process:

How do I create a new idea in the Instructure Community?

Sorry I don't have better news for you, but I hope this helps in some way.

[marthazumack]

@mjlicht that's exactly what our department wanted, and likewise, had previously used Moodle where it was possible.

[LauraCira]

@marthazumack that's a great question. We also have many faculty who would like to review TA grades in an assignment or test before they make their way into the gradebook. 

The best way to accomplish this is to set the individual assignment or quiz to be hidden via the Gradebook's Grade Posting Policy. This allows any or all grades to be recorded in the individual tool, allowing time to review the grades, keeping them hidden from students until someone actively posts the grades.  

Otherwise, once grades are posted in SpeedGrader, they are reflected immediately in the gradebook, and you probably wouldn't want the two grades to diverge permanently due to the inevitable confusion it would cause.

[JJacobs7]

I had the setting on the role only having "view grades," but there must be a delay or cache on changing permissions and logging in and out. It is now doing what it is expected to do with seeing the grade book and the speed grader without the ability to enter or edit grades. Thank you.