Fall 2023 Canvas Updates
New quizzes:
Faster report generation: One issue in the past is that the statistics report on a new quiz took hours to be available. It is now available as soon as students submit. You will find it in the same place.
Build on last attempt: If you give students multiple attempts in a New Quiz, there is now an option you can enable that will have the subsequent attempts only clear out the incorrect answers. So, instead of a fully blank attempt, they'll only reattempt their mistakes.
If a student gets a 100%^the first time they attempt the new quiz, they will not be given an opportunity to reattempt it.
When this option is enabled, the student will not only reattempt only incorrect responses, they will only see those questions. Any questions they got right will now be hidden in subsequent attempts.
Students can reattempt incorrect questions until everything is correct or until they run out of attempts.
Canvas gradebook:
New filtering process: Now, instead of setting which filter drop-downs you want on your gradebook page, all filters are available under the "Apply Filters" menu on the left side of the gradebook. You can filter by:
Sections - Use this to see a specific class instead of all students at once.
Modules - Use this to see assignments that are from a specific module/modules.
Assignment groups - Use this to see only the assignments from a specific grading category/assignment group. (These are set up in the Assignments tab.)
Student groups - Use this to see grade from specific students within a section.
Status - Use this to see only assignments that have Late, Missing, Resubmitted, Dropped or Excused submissions.
Submissions - This one is new! Use this to view only assignments that still have submissions waiting to be graded, assignments where there are any submissions, assignments where no one has submitted, and assignments where grades are still hidden. A nice easy way to find if you have any grading/posting left to do instead of hunting through the whole gradebook!
You can also set and start and end date to see only assignments from that time range.
Keep in mind that you can apply filters from multiple categories, creating a very focused set of grades in your view.
There is also the ability to create new filters. Perhaps you know you will want to look at a subset of students or a particular group of grades. You can create a filter that includes Section, Module, Assignment group, Submission status, and a start and end date in one. When this gets chosen, it will apply all those filters at the same time instead of having to click them all on.
Syncing your grades to Skyward and your viewing options have also moved. The upper right corner will now have the above options. Import and Export are rarely used.
Under Sync the only option is "Sync to SIS". This is what you want to click to export your grades to Skyward.
By clicking on the setting gear icon you will find three tabs - Late Policies, Grade Posting Policy, and View Options.
Late policies: Under Late policies, you can set rules for Missing submissions and Late submissions.
If you enable "Automatically apply grade for missing submissions", once a due date passes, Canvas will automatically assign the grade you have denoted. This most often used to assign a zero as soon as a due date is passed so the student sees that grade. Set the percentage you'd like Canvas to assign in the box labeled Grade for missing submissions.
If you enable "Automatically apply deduction to late submissions", you can tell Canvas to deduct a certain percentage per day or hour, as well as set a floor for the lowest a grade can be reduced for being late.
If your assignment is autograded, Canvas will automatically apply this late deduction.
If your assignment is hand graded, this allows you to grade normally, and Canvas will still take the late deduction off the grade you give.
Please note that if you turn on this option after you've already done some grading, it will go back and affect those previously entered grades. It is best to apply this policy at the beginning of a semester if you plan to use it.
Grade Posting Policy: Under Grade Posting Policy you can set the default for whether grades automatically post as soon as a grade is entered (like handing each test or essay back individually the second you finish grading it) or whether you will manually post them once you have everything in order (like handing back the stack of tests or essays once you've completed grading the whole class).
If you choose to manually post, just remember to go back to the gradebook when you're done grading and choose "Post grades" for the assignments so students can see them and so you can sync them to Skyward.
View options: Here you can change how the gradebook looks.
Change your view: Click on the Arrange by dropdown, and choose the method that works best for your needs. Do you want to just see the latest assignments? Choose Due Date, and have it sort newest to oldest. Do you want to be able to see all of the assignments from a particular unit together? Choose Module and group things into those modules that you want to view together.
Modify how submission statuses look - Canvas defaults to a variety of light pastel shades to denote when an assignment is late, missing, resubmitted, dropped or excused. To change those colors to make them more noticeable upon a first glance, click on Statuses, and click on the pencil on any status you'd like to change. The default options are all light pastels, so if you'd like something brighter, head to this website and use the color picker to create a color you like. Just copy the HEX code from the top and paste that into the box in Canvas.
Get rid of uneccesary columns - There are a few columns that you can choose to include or hide from your gradebook view.
Unpublished assignments - Click this off to get rid of all the assignments that are in your course that are not yet published/assigned. (Depending on if you've imported a prior year's course, this could take A LOT out of your view.)
This is also helpful to see if you've got some random things published that shouldn't be!
There is a Notes column you can also toggle on and off. You might use this for notes about students, or you can get rid of it.
You can also choose to hide the category grade totals and overall total here. This is highly recommended as most often the grade in Canvas does not match the grade in Skyward as there will be things on paper/tests that aren't included in the Canvas grade. Hiding these grading columns can save you a lot of emails and conversations about mismatched grades being visible to students and parents.