Weighted Grades
When you use the Canvas Gradebook to calculate grades, there are two options for how Canvas can calculate the final grade at the end of the semester: Unweighted and Weighted.
Option 1: Unweighted (Default)
By default, students' grades are based on the total number of points for all assignments. All points are considered equally, so if you want to make a test worth more than a small assignment, it will have to be worth more points. For example, the assignments may be set up like this:
In this example, there are 500 points possible, and a student's grade will be calculated based on their total points out of 500. The instructor had to make the Final Exam worth 200 points in order to have it count twice as much as Test 1.
Option 2: Weighted
Instructors can choose to calculate students' grades based on weighted categories (called "Assignment Groups" on Canvas). Points within each Assignment Group are equal but points in different Assignment Groups may have different value toward the final grade.
To set this up, you will need to first put your assignments into Assignment Groups. See Gradebook and Assignment for details.
Next, click on the Settings button (a gear symbol) at the top right of the page next to the blue button, then click the check box that says "Weight final grade..." and fill in the percentages for each Assignment Group, then click the blue "Save" button.
In the Gradebook, Canvas will show the subtotals for each assignment group, then use the percentages you entered to calculate the final grade.
In the example below, there are three Reading Reports worth a total of 15% of the final grade - each assignment counts for one third of the group. If you were to add a fourth Reading Report, the Assignment Group would still be worth 15% total, but each individual assignment would count as one fourth of that group.
Canvas also lets you drop the highest or lowest score(s). To do that, click the Settings button to the right of the Assignment Group name (red arrow above).
In the above example, each Reading Report contributes to the final grade equally because they are all worth 10 points. If "Reading 3" were worth 15 points instead, it would be worth proportionally more than the other assignments, but that Assignment Group as a whole would still only count for 15%.
If you need a single assignment by itself to be worth a certain percentage of the class grade, the easiest way to do this would be to put it in an Assignment Group by itself, like this:
Since the "Final Exam" assignment is in it's own category, the total points do not matter, you can choose whatever scale is most convenient for grading that particular assignment.
Adding Extra Credit
If you weight your grades with Assignment Groups, there are two ways to add an extra credit assignment:
- Add an "Extra Credit" Assignment group (Recommended: worth 1% of grade, with one assignment worth 1 point)
- Add an extra credit assignment to an existing assignment group (worth zero points)
See Using Extra Credit in Canvas Gradebooks in for more details.