On This Page

Overview

Grading

Organization and Management

Assignment Column Organization
View Student Information
Late and Missing Assignments Policies

Resources and Support

Canvas New Gradebook Guides
Comment Library/Saved Comments
CTSI Assessment Resources
Support

Overview

The New Gradebook is a new version of the Gradebook with various changes and improvements. For details, visit our New Gradebook Information page.

Note about Quercus (Canvas) System Performance:

The New Gradebook should render consistently in courses with a course weight of up to 80,000.
A course weight is calculated as follows: (# of Students) X (# of Assignments).

Important Note: Manually Post Grades is now the default setting for every new course in Quercus as of the Winter 2021 term

Grading

Enter Grades

For graded assignments, you can manually enter and edit grades directly in the selected cell.

Click into a cell to highlight the cell with a crosshair.
Enter a grade or edit an existing grade.

You can also use SpeedGrader to view, comment, and grade student submissions directly within the browser. In the new Gradebook, SpeedGrader is accessible from the Grade Detail Tray.

Note about Quercus (Canvas) System Performance:

In large courses, SpeedGrader loading times are affected by a threshold of data points that can be loaded within a 60-second window. This threshold is based on a single submission per student. Multiple submissions by the same student increases the submission threshold. Assignments with more than 1,500 submissions may result in delayed SpeedGrader loading times, and assignments with more than 2,500 submissions may fail to load at all.

Important Information about Letter Grades in Quercus

A number of potential issues regarding the use of letter grades in Quercus have been identified. Please refer to the information in the link below if you are considering using letter grades in your Quercus Gradebook.

Important information about letter grades in Quercus (October, 2018)

Grade Detail Tray

The Grade Detail Tray allows instructors to view and enter grades, submission status, and comments, both by individual assignment or student. Instructors can also access Speedgrader for an Assignment or view the individual Grades page for a student.

To view the Grade Detail Tray, click on any cell in the Gradebook and click the Grade Detail Tray icon that appears. The Grade Detail Tray will open on the right side of the screen.

Features

The Grade Detail Tray offers the following features:

Student Name: Select to view the individual student's Grade page
Move Between Students: Click the arrows to advance to the next student’s details on the same assignment.
Move Between Assignments: Click the arrows on either side of the Assignment Name to advance to the next assignment for the same student.
SpeedGrader : Click on the link to go to the Speedgrader for the selected assignment.
Grade Input Box: Use this box to enter, view, or change the student's grade for that submission.
Status: Quercus automatically assigns a status based on the assignment due date and the student submission date. Use the Status box in the Grade Detail Tray to manually enter, view, or change student submission status. Available statuses include Late, Missing, Excused, or None. If you select the Late status you will also be able to specify the total number of days late.

Note: You can customize the colours for all statuses except None by selecting Statuses in the View menu.
Comments: Use this box to enter, view, edit, or delete comments for the submission. Click Submit to attach the comments to the submission.

Note: Students will be able to view these comments only if the assignment grade is posted. If the assignment grade is hidden, they will not be able to see any instructor comments.

New Gradebook Grade Detail Tray features

Post or Hide Grades

In the New Gradebook, the option to mute/unmute assignments has been updated with a Grade Posting Policy that allows instructors to define if grades are posted [1] automatically or [2] manually, at the course or assignment level:

Automatically Post Grades: When this setting is selected for the course or an individual assignment, grades are visible to students as soon as they are entered.
Manually Post Grades: When this setting is selected for the course or an individual assignment, grades are hidden from students until posted.

NOTE: Manually Post Grades is now the default setting for every new course in Quercus as of the Winter 2021 term.

Change the Grade Post Policy to "Automatically Post Grades" for the Course

In Course Navigation, select Grades.
Select the Settings (gear) icon.
Select the Grade Posting Policy tab.
Select the Automatically Post Grades option.
Click the Update button to apply your changes

Change the Grade Post Policy to "Automatically Post Grades" for an Assignment

In Course Navigation, select Grades.
Hover over the assignment column header and click the Options icon (3 vertical dots).
Select the Grade Posting Policy option at the bottom of the drop down menu.
Select Automatically Post Grades from the menu that appears on the right side of the screen.
Click the Save button to apply your changes.

For more information about setting a Grade Posting Policy, please see the following guide: How do I use posting policies in my course?

Post Grades for an Assignment

As the new default for courses is Manually Post Grades, you will need to post grades before they will be visible to students, unless you have changed it to Automatically Post Grades. In the Gradebook:

Hover over the assignment column header and click the Options icon (3 vertical dots).
Select Post grades.
Select a Posting Option. You can Post Grades to:
- Everyone (all students) or Graded (only students with graded submissions).
- You will also have the option to release the grades to Specific Sections in your course.
Click Post to confirm.

Note: You will not be able to access the Post grades feature for an assignment unless you’ve entered a grade for at least one of your students.

Hide Grades for an Assignment

The Hide Grades feature is useful for hiding grades that have already been posted for an individual assignment. To avoid automatically showing grades to students as soon as they’re entered, it is recommended to leave the Grade Post Policy as Manually Post Grades rather than using the Hide Grades feature.

To hide grades for an individual assignment:

Hover over the assignment column header and click the Options icon (3 vertical dots).
Click Hide grades
Select the option to hide the grades only for Specific Sections, if applicable.
Click Hide to confirm.

Note: You will not be able to access the Hide grades feature for an assignment unless you’ve entered a grade for at least one of your students.

Grade Post Policy Indicators

The following table shows the Grade Post Policy indicators you may see in the Gradebook and what they mean:

Indicator

Name

What it means

No indicator

The Grade Post Policy for the course or for the assignment is set to Automatic.

grades are visible to students as soon as they are entered.
to prevent students from seeing their grades, change the Grade Posting Policy for the assignment or course to Manual

Grade Post Policy Manual Policy Indicator

The word Manual

The Grade Post Policy for the course or for the assignment is set to Manual.

when grades are added for the assignment, an outlined Visibility icon (i.e. an eye icon with a grey outline and a diagonal line through it) will also display and the grades will be hidden from student view until posted.
after grades are posted, the grey Visibility icon disappears and only the word Manual remains in the column heading, unless the grade post policy for an assignment or course is changed to Automatic.

Grade Post Policy Manual Plus Grades Indicator

An outlined Visibility Icon and the word Manual

The Grade Post Policy for the course or for the assignment is set to Manual AND a grade has been entered for at least one submission in the assignment.

there are grades in the Gradebook assignment column that have not been posted yet.
when all graded submissions have been posted for an assignment, the icon will disappear and only the word Manual will remain in the column heading, unless the grade post policy for an assignment or course is changed to Automatic.

For a quick guide on managing student grade visibility in your course, please see the following Canvas document: Student Grade Visibility Flowchart

Organization and Management

Assignment Column Organization

The New Gradebook offers various features to organize Gradebook columns according to your preference. You can customize and organize your view of the New Gradebook by using features such as Filters, Arrange By, and Sort By.

1. Arrange Columns

Instructors can organize the order of assignment columns in the New Gradebook:

Arrange By

This feature affects all the columns in the Gradebook.

1. 1. From Grades, click on the View menu
  2. Hover over Arrange By to see all the options for ordering columns in the Gradebook.
  3. Select the desired option: Assignment Name, Due date, Points, or Module. The Gradebook will be organized by your chosen option from left to right.
  4. Select Default Order to return to the original order of assignments. The default order is the order set in the Assignments page.

Manually

You can also arrange Gradebook columns by clicking the column heading and dragging the heading to the desired location.

2. View Specific Assignment Column Details

The New Gradebook offers different options to focus on specific content in Gradebook columns.

Filters

Instructors can minimize what is shown in the New Gradebook by using the Filters feature. More than one filter can be applied at any time.

1. 1. From Grades, click on the View menu.
  2. Select the Filters link to see the available filters for the specific Quercus course.
  3. Select to filter by Assignment Groups, Modules, and/or Sections of the course. The selected filters will show a check mark beside them.
  4. Each selected filter will create a drop-down menu at the top of the Gradebook.
  5. Click the menu corresponding to the filter of your choice and select the desired view.

To remove a filter, select the View menu, click Filters, and select the filter that you want to remove. The filter and its associated drop-down menu options filters will be removed from the Gradebook.

Sort by

In the New Gradebook, instructors can also sort individual assignment columns by Grade or Assignment Status.

1. 1. For the desired Assignment column, select the More Options menu (3 vertical dots).
  2. Select the Sort by link.
  3. Select one of the sorting options.

New Gradebook Assignment Column Sort by Options

View Student Information

The Student Name column in the New Gradebook offers options for sorting and displaying student names and secondary information.

1. Sort and Display Student Names

You can view options to sort names in alphabetical order by student's last name. You can also display student names by either first or last name. Sorting, however, is always done by the student's last name.

1. Hover cursor over the Student Name column header and select the More Options menu (3 vertical dots).
2. Select the Sort by link to view sorting options.
3. By default, student names display in ascending alphabetical order (A-Z), according to student's last name. To sort in descending order, click the Z-A option.
4. To display names in a specific name order, select the Display as link.
5. By default, student names display as First, Last Name. To display by last name first, select the Last, First Name option.

New Gradebook Sort Student Names Options

New Gradebook Display Student Names Options

2. View Secondary Information

Additionally, the Secondary Info menu allows secondary information to display below the student’s name. Only one secondary information option can be displayed at a time.

1. To add secondary information to the Student Name column, select the Secondary info link.
2. Select the desired option: Section, SIS ID, Integration ID, Login ID, or None.
  
  Note: At the University of Toronto, selecting SIS ID or Login ID will display the student's UTORid. Selecting Integration ID will display the student's Student Number.

New Gradebook Student Secondary Information Options

3. Search Students

The default view of the Gradebook lists all active students in your course. You can use the Search field to search for an individual student by name, Student Number or UTORid.

Late and Missing Submission Policies

In the New Gradebook, the Settings menu (the gear icon) is where instructors can set grading rules for late and missing submissions.

NOTE: Late Policies is the name of the tool in Quercus (Canvas) that instructors can use to calculate grades for late or missing submissions, as specified in the course syllabus. This tool is not associated with U of T Grading Policies. Please check with your department or division for Grading practices before implementing grade rules.

1. Access the Settings Menu

To access the Settings menu, click the gear icon at the top right of the New Gradebook:

Note: Features accessed via the gear icon in the current Gradebook have moved to other locations or have new icons in the New Gradebook. For additional information, please view the Functionality Comparison Current vs New Canvas Gradebook

2. Enable Late and Missing Submission Rules

After clicking on the Settings menu icon, a Late Policies tab will appear:

To enable a Missing Submission rule click the check box, and enter a percentage to be assigned when a submission is missing after the due date. For additional information, see: How do I apply a Missing Submission policy in the New Gradebook?
To enable a Late Submission rule, click the check box , select a percentage to be deducted, and select for it to be deducted for each Day or Hour that it is late. You can also define a threshold percentage (Lowest possible grade percent) under which a student will not be scored, regardless of how late the submission is submitted. For additional information, see: How do I apply a Late Submission policy in the New Gradebook?
Click Update to finalize the settings selected in [1] and/or [2].

New Gradebook Grade Late and Missing Assignment Policies

3. Important Considerations for Late and Missing Submission Rules

If you choose to enable grading rules (called Policies in the New Gradebook) for Late and/or Missing submissions in your Quercus course, please be aware that these rules:

Must be set up on a course-by-course basis. They do not apply at a global instructor level.
Cannot be set for individual assignments. They will apply automatically to all online submission assignments, including quizzes and discussions. This includes assignments with due dates in the past. To exclude a specific assignment, submissions need to be manually changed to a status other than Late or Missing in the Grade Detail Tray.
Do not apply to Paper Submission or No Submission assignments or assignments setup with external tools (including publisher integrations). Those assignment types can be manually designated as Missing or Late in the Grade Detail Tray. Their grades can also be calculated manually and adjusted accordingly.

In addition, please consider the following best practices:

Determine any rules you wish to apply to Late and/or Missing submissions and set them up in your Quercus course before creating assignments
Include information about Late and/or Missing submissions in your course syllabus or outline. Consider linking to this information in every assignment description so that students are aware of any points that will be deducted for Late and/or Missing Submissions.

For additional information on how Missing and Late policies work with online submission assignments, quizzes and discussions, please view the following documents from the Canvas Instructor Guides:

Resources and Support

Canvas New Gradebook Guides

For more information about using the New Gradebook, see the following Canvas guides:

New Gradebook Guide-Table of Contents

How Do I Use the New Gradebook?

How do I use posting policies in my course?

How do I post grades for an assignment in the New Gradebook?

How do I hide grades for an assignment in the New Gradebook?

How do I hide or post grades in SpeedGrader?

Student Grade Visibility Flowchart

Comment Library/Saved Comments

Comments can be entered into a Comment Library in SpeedGrader to be saved for future use.

For more information, please consult the Canvas video guide, or the Canvas documentation.

CTSI Assessment Resources

For information on assessing learning, see the following resources from the U of T's Centre for Teaching Support and Innovation (CTSI)

Assessment in Large Classroom Teaching

Assessment Resources

Support

For assistance with the Gradebook, please contact your divisional support contact.

Visit our Quercus Support Resources Assessments page to learn how to create and grade different types of assignments in Quercus.

Return to Main Page Search the Quercus Support Resources