Grading with Rubrics - Please allow me to "hide" the scores

[SusanNiemeyer]

Hello, Canvas folks.

I understand how to "hide" and "post" grades when I grade with Speedgrader. I do it all of the time so that I can release all of the scores and comments when I have completed my work.

However, this function doesn't work with rubrics. Right now, I'm using a rubric and I want to grade each criterion at a time. (It's like an answer key, and it's easier for me to grade this way.) 

This afternoon, I started grading a set of assignments, but I'm not able to finish today. I just got a worried email from a student who wants to know why she's only received 2 out of 8 points. Well, it's because I've only entered a score for the first of four criteria. 

Please make my life easier. Please let me "hide" my rubric scores until I'm ready to release my grades. Canvas folks, you can do this. Make it so.

[Ron_Bowman]

@SusanNiemeyer 

Just out of curiosity, do you have the grade posting policy set to automatic or manual?

With grade posting policy set to manual and grades hidden, I can grade a rubric and students do not see the score until I post the grades.

I just tried it with grade posting set to automatic, and the grade does go out when you post a change via the rubric.   

With the manual grade posting policy, you will see the phrase hidden under the score when you save the grades.  with automatic posting, the word hidden goes away.

grade posting policy is at the bottom of the list from the assignment options in the gradebook - you can also set this policy for the course from the gradebook settings gear.

[SusanNiemeyer]

Hi Bowmanr,

Thanks so much for your reply.

I have set the course's grade posting policy to "Automatically Post Grades" because I also give a lot of quizzes. With the quizzes, I want the students to be able to automatically see their scores without waiting for me to "post" grades for them.

What I typically do is change each Discussion or :Assignment to "hidden" when I sit down to grade it. As I work my way through that set of student work, I will occasionally go back and make adjustments to the scores and to my comments. When I'm done, then I post the grades for it.

This worked well until I realized that that my scoring rubric was prematurely spitting out scores. The solution for me is that the Canvas programmers fix this glitch.  

[Ron_Bowman]

@SusanNiemeyer 

edit: I just re-read your post.  Just selecting hidden will only hide grades that are currently posted.  When you change the grade and the grading policy is automatic, the grade immediately is posted again.  You must select the manual posting of grades for the assignment so that grades are not posted until you post them.

Either I wasn't clear in my post or there is something different between my course and yours.  You can select manual grading for individual assignments (which I showed and I believe you know about).  Once you have manual posting policy for that assignment(and grades hidden if any had been posted), then any changes you make with the rubric do not show up for the student until you post the grades - they remain hidden.  The key is to make sure that if any grade has been posted when you make the grading policy manual, you must hide the grades then any changes you make to the rubric scoring will not be visible by the student.

For me here is the rubric view before making a change:

Here it is after I change it:

It still shows hidden, and I have verified that students do not see the grade.

[SusanNiemeyer]

Hi Bowmanr,

Thanks again. I will see if I can turn the knobs a bit and see if I can hide the scores and rubrics for these assignments. I hope so!

One of my best students was so perplexed and discouraged when she thought that I had given her a very low score that she recorded not one, but two videos about her disappointment. I felt so badly for her. What had really happened is that I had scored half of her assignment with the rubric and taken a break. I had mistakenly thought that the little crossed out eyeball on Speedgrader meant that she couldn't see anything. 

I still think that this is a glitch that Canvas can solve. If the manually entered scores and comments can be easily hidden, then so should scores on rubrics. It shouldn't take an extra step. 

I really enjoy using Canvas, but there are many small idiocrasies. I wish the Canvas programmers would take note of them and fix them. 

[Ron_Bowman]

@SusanNiemeyer 

I understand completely.  The crossed out eyeball will show for an assignment if some of the grades are hidden.  it is just a matter of making the individual assignments manually graded.

I teach at a university, so I just set the course to manual grade posting for everything and then after the grading is done, I post the grades. So I am lucky in that regard - I just have to remember to post the grades.

I believe Canvas works the same way for everything, it is just the manner in which it has to be set up (and possibly the naming) that is the confusing part.

Check out 
https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-select-a-grade-posting-policy-for-an-as...
https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-hide-grades-that-were-previously-posted...
https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-post-grades-for-an-assignment-in-the-Gr...

I have not looked at these in a while, but there is probably a good explanation in there somewhere.

[SusanNiemeyer]

Hi Bowmanr,

Thank you so much for helping me. It took me two steps, but it's working now. Here are the steps:

1) In the Gradebook, I changed the column for that assignment to "Manual" by using the dropdown menu and clicking on "Grade Posting Policy" as you had shown me.

2) Then in Speedgrader, I had to also "hide" the grades, which gave me the crossed out eyeball icon.

What was most helpful to me was your explanation of Step 1. Thank you so very much! 

I would still recommend to the Canvas folks that doing Step 2 alone should have be the one-click solution to hiding the scores created by using the rubric. The best course design is always intuitive. There's oftentimes a "work-around" in Canvas, but we shouldn't have to go hunting for simple solutions.  

[Stef_retired]

@Ron_Bowman Thank you so much for working with Susan on a near-term solution!

@SusanNiemeyer I'm concerned that this idea might get missed by the community at large. The original idea is premised on the assumption that rubric scores on assignments with their grades hidden are communicated to students, and it's possible to see how the the desired solution ("doing step 2 alone") will get lost in this thread, and as such won't get the kind of attention from members that will assist in a focused conversation. Would you have time to author and submit a new idea that reframes the request in the context of "how it currently works" and "how it might be improved with a one-click solution"? Thanks!

[SusanNiemeyer]

Hi Stefanie,

Will do!  I have always found it helpful to my students and myself to "hide" scores while I'm in the middle of grading a set of assignments.  It's always the best, most conscientious students who are checking for updates to their grades. 

[Ron_Bowman]

@SusanNiemeyer 

I'm glad you were able to figure it out.  I just learned something from this exchange as well.  I never noticed the eyeball to post or hide grades before.  It took me some looking around to find it from your information (which had me confused about hiding grades in speed grader).  That feature of hide or post grades works the same as the one on the project options from the grade book - if the posting policy is automatic, the hide grade only hides the grade until you make a change to it, and then that modified grade is posted - you just are never told that.

I now better understand your confusion and question.  I agree that is something that Canvas needs to clean up in some manner.  Maybe they could add another option for grade posting policy toggle for automtatic/manual for there.  Plus they could add information pop ups that explain what each of the options actually means: i.e. hover over hide grades, and a dialog pops up and states that the current grade will be hidden until a new grade is entered and grade posting is automatic, Or something along those lines.

I think where a lot of the confusion comes in is they have the documentation available to look at explaining all these features, so they leave out some of the detail I mentioned above (and what you were needing).  As a developer (and a teacher) I know I have said why don't they RTFM (Read The Fine Manual).  I am guilty of not reading the instructions given and just start playing around thinking I can figure it out.  Of course semantics and interpretation always come up and what I think is different from what someone else will think reading the same information.

[Stef_retired]

@SusanNiemeyer Thank you, Susan! We've changed the stage on this one to Archived, but that won't prevent the conversation currently underway here from continuing.

[dnimri]

Hi all, 

I noticed that students are still able to see the rubric even if the Grade Posting Policy for the specific assignment is set to MANUAL. Is there a way to hide the rubric from the student until grades are posted?

Doing step 2 (as noted in replies above) is not an option until at least one grade is entered.

[SusanNiemeyer]

@dnimri That is exactly what I have discovered. You'll also need to click on "Hide Grades" once you enter the first student's grades.