Hi @remerick - No, the dashes are NOT counted as zeroes at all. You MUST fill those in with scores. Dashes basically mean that it counts neither for nor against the student in any way at all. Admittedly, this is a bit tricky to find in the documentation--and I'm sure it's explicitly spelled out somewhere--but it's kind of hinted at in the blue text at the top of this page:
Once a student receives a grade for an assignment, the grade will always apply to the student's current and final score. If you unassign a student or section to a differentiated assignment you have previously graded, the grade will only be removed from grading calculations if you excuse the assignment for the student.
Now to address the real issue: giving these students a 0. First of all, do NOT use the option that is outlined here, because it is solely for you to see what might happen to student scores if you did indeed grade those assignments with zeroes. To really do it, there actually is a kind of shortcut:
- Depending on whether you are using the current gradebook or the New Gradebook, find either the drop-down menu/options icon to get a menu for the grading column in question. (In other words, this will have to be done on a column-by-column basis.)
- Select the option to Set Default Grade. This is outlined in more detail here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12834-415255002 .
- Absolutely, positively do NOT enable the checkbox that will be on the ensuing dialog box labelled "Overwrite already-entered grades." You can imagine the panic that would ensue
That's it. Now, while you will have to this on a column-by-column basis within your gradebook, the good news is you do NOT have to do on a student-by-student, assignment-by-assignment basis, which is certainly a bit easier than filling in all of the blanks one-by-one.
I hope this helps a bit, Ryan!
