Get updated tips on grades submission in Canvas in the latest blog on this subject (published November 10th 2021):

Your top 9 grades submission questions answered

If you’re trying to submit your grades and hitting blocks or errors along the way, we hear you! It’s one of the most common requests we receive in the LX.lab, and with such a high volume of enquiries this year, we can also see which issues are coming up most frequently.

Before you throw your laptop out the window, take a quick look at the seven common issues below, and what you can check for each case. We’ve covered both UTSOnline and Canvas below, but if you’ve just moved to Canvas and need to work through the process first, check the resource on the Canvas grades submission process, part of the Collection which looks at setting up assessments in Canvas

7 points to check in Canvas

1. Have you set up Assignment Groups?

Assignment Groups generally correspond to assessment items in your subject outlines. 

2. Have you organised your assessment tasks into Assignment Groups?

It’s best practice to allocate assessment tasks into their own Assignment Groups. For each assessment item in Assignment Groups, you also need to specify the overall weightings.

3. Have you filled blank spots in Gradebook?

All assessable items that contribute to the final total need to be given a numerical mark – including students who have not attempted or submitted. If there is no numerical mark, Canvas recognises this as an unmarked assignment. 

4. Is the ‘STAFF_ADMIN’ Assignment Group missing? 

When new subjects are created in Canvas, they automatically have an Assignment Group called “STAFF_ADMIN” with a task “SYS_EXCEPTION_GRADE”. Don’t change or delete this! If this Assignment Group or task is missing for you, lodge a ticket to ITD, requesting for it to be re-created.

5. Have you reviewed any borderline grades?

You may want to review any borderline final grades (eg. 64, 74) before submitting, to ensure the result matches the student’s performance in relation to subject outcomes and criteria. You can adjust marks up or down with the Marks Override feature. Note that decimal places are automatically rounded up or down to the nearest integer on submission, with 0.5 rounding up (so 64.5 will automatically round to 65 – Cr on transfer).

6. Can’t see your REVIEW Marks in Gradebook?

In REVIEW, check your tasks are synced to your LMS. Navigate to the ‘Task settings’ and it will indicate if it is ‘synced with Canvas’. If your REVIEW tasks are synced to Canvas, but marks are still not appearing in Gradebook, contact us via LXlabservices.uts.edu.au 

7. Why can’t I submit on CAT (Canvas Admin Tool)?

Only those at Course Coordinator level or higher can approve and transfer grades in CAT. If you’re at this level and the subject still doesn’t appear in CAT, this might be a technical error, and you can contact ITD to sort out your access.

7 points to check in UTSOnline

1. Have you configured the SYS_WEIGHTED TOTAL?

Make sure you’ve added all assessments items that contribute towards the final subject mark into this column

2. Are your ‘SYS’ Column settings correct? 

The settings for all “SYS” Columns needs to be correct for a successful transfer. Not sure about this? Check the SYS column settings guide: Grades Submission Automation – Setting Up Your Grade Centre for Automation at the Start of Session

3. Can’t see your REVIEW Marks in Gradebook?

In REVIEW, check your tasks are synced to your LMS. Navigate to the ‘Task settings’ and it will indicate if it is ‘synced with UTSOnline’. If your REVIEW tasks are synced to Canvas, but marks are still not appearing in Gradebook, contact us via LXlabservices.uts.edu.au  

4. Not sure which column to add into the SYS_WEIGHTED TOTAL?

This only applies to users that have marked in REVIEW, where you have used either a Turnitin or BlackBoard assignment for student submissions. When adding assessment items into the SYS_WEIGHTED TOTAL, select the REVIEW items and not the assignment box columns.

5. Do you have multiple copies of the same REVIEW Column in your Gradecentre?

The problem might be that you’ve allocated the wrong column, as this might be an outdated column that was rolled over from a previous session. Check out this guide on how you can manage and delete outdated REVIEW columns

6. Have you reviewed any borderline grades?

You may want to review any borderline final grades (eg. 64, 74) before submitting, to ensure the result matches the student’s performance in relation to subject outcomes and criteria. You can adjust marks up or down with the Marks Override feature. Note that decimal places are automatically rounded up or down to the nearest integer on submission, with 0.5 rounding up (so 64.5 will automatically round to 65 – Cr on transfer).

7. Not sure how to submit marks to CASS?

Once you’ve finalised your marks in UTSOnline, this guide to submitting grades takes you through the process.

We’d love to know if you found these tips helpful. If there’s something that hasn’t been covered in this list, you may be dealing with a less common issue which needs a bit of extra attention. You can request online support or book a consultation via Lxlabservices.uts.edu.au.

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