Grade Mismatch?

[rgibson1]

Community, this came in from a faculty member. (Attached.) I don't have a ready answer as to what is going on.

[Stef_retired]

rgibson1‌, could you ask the faculty member to walk through the process they used to "set null entries to zero"? 

[rgibson1]

I looked at this on his behalf. I guess I need a tutorial on "Treat Grades as 0". If I set it to "ON" I get 89.96%. If I set it to "OFF" I get 92.96%. I re-read the documentation and I'm not sure I have my head around this feature. The documentation says:

"As an instructor, you can view student grades as if all ungraded assignments are worth zero points in the Gradebook. This feature, called Treat Ungraded as 0, is located in Gradebook Settings. Treat Ungraded as 0 is a visual change and does not affect any grades. This setting shows the change in Gradebook calculations if ungraded assignments were given scores of zero. Enabling this option has no effect outside of the Gradebook; students cannot see any difference in their grade pages. Similarly, TAs or other instructors in the course will not see any change in their view of the Gradebook. Only the user who enables this option will see the affected grades.  

When the Treat Ungraded as 0 setting is enabled, assignments that do not have a grade will be treated as if a student received a score of zero. You can disable this setting in the Gradebook at any time. Even when this setting is enabled, Canvas will not populate zeros in the Gradebook. Dashes will still display for each student submission."

Can you explain what is happening and why the student sees one thing and the instructor sees another? Which should he be using? (ON or OFF)

Thanks Stephanie!

[Stef_retired]

rgibson1, yes, I think we've zeroed in on the reason for the discrepancy between views. "Treat Ungraded as 0" is nothing more than a toggle in the instructor's view that shows the instructor what the final grades would look like if all of the remaining unsubmitted assignments received a score of zero. Applying that setting in the gradebook (and it's only in the old Gradebook; it has been removed from the New Gradebook) does not change grades. 

This is the key part:

Treat Ungraded as 0 is a visual change and does not affect any grades. This setting shows the change in Gradebook calculations if ungraded assignments were given scores of zero. Enabling this option has no effect outside of the Gradebook; students cannot see any difference in their grade pages.

So if the instructor actually wants to assign 0 grades to unsubmitted assignments, they'll need to set a default grade for each assignment. I just answered another instructor's question about this very thing, so I'll refer you to the conversation at https://community.canvaslms.com/thread/42080-gradebook-question .

[Stef_retired]

...or, if the instructor doesn't want to set the default grade, they'll need to enter zeros manually for each student for each missing assignment either in the Gradebook or via Speedgrader.

[rgibson1]

What would be a good 'use case' for this feature? In other words, what circumstances lend themselves to a faculty wanting to see this alternative grade view?

[Stef_retired]

rgibson1‌, I'll leave that to others to answer; personally, I never found it useful.