Grades submission is coming…
Grades submission issues are one of the most common requests we receive at the LX.lab. We’ve gathered 9 of our commonly asked questions which should get you through your grades submission with ease.
1. Have you organised your assessment tasks into Assignment Groups?
A particular requirement that is commonly overlooked is defining your weighting percentage for your assignments.
- The recommended structure is to place assignments or quizzes under their own Assignment Group and apply weighting for each Assignment Group.
- Assignments that are not counted towards the Total mark can be placed under their own separate Assignment Group with 0% weighting.
Alternatively, go into the assignment settings and tick the ‘Do not count this assignment towards the final mark’ checkbox. For more information, check out our Canvas Grades submission process resource.
2. What if I’m using REVIEW to mark?
If you’re using REVIEW to mark, the recommended structure in Canvas is to place all the original Canvas assignments under an ‘Assignment Submissions’ Assignment Group with 0% weighting and leave the synchronised REVIEW assignments within their own individual REVIEW assignment groups.Use the Canvas assignments as submission portals for student work. Enter the assessment weightings on the REVIEW Assignment Groups. Marks that come from REVIEW into the Gradebook assignment column will be counted towards the total mark. We cover all these steps in our Grades Submission and REVIEW resource.
3. Why do I have so many columns in the Gradebook?
All assignments that contribute to the final total mark appear in the Gradebook (including the assignments under an Assignment Group with 0% weighting). When you create an assignments and assignment groups, corresponding columns are also created. Assignment groups column cannot be edited in the Gradebook. If you are having difficulty locating your students or sections (tutorial groups) you can quickly set up your own custom filter using the Gradebook filters, or the Gradebook Settings to hide columns (Hide Assignment Group Totals) to simplify your view. Read more about how to set up Gradebook filters in our resource Find student marks fast in Canvas Gradebook.
4. Fill in missing/blank spots in the Gradebook
For a successful transfer, all assignments that contribute to the final Total mark must have grades entered for all students, including those that have not submitted work. Your Grades submission will be unsuccessful if there are blank spots in the graded assignment columns. This will be displayed as a dash (” – “). Canvas registers this as an unmarked student causing an error with your Grades submission. Prevent this by entering a ZERO “0” in the blank cell, to replace the dash.
You can also use the Set Default Mark/Grade tool to give all students without a mark a “0” automatically. WARNING: Do not tick ‘Overwrite already-entered marks’ because that will wipe all existing grades and give all students 0s.
5. Where to insert pending or withheld marks?
All Canvas subjects will automatically have the STAFF_ADMIN assignment group with the SYS_EXCEPTION_GRADE assignment which is located in your Assignments tab and Gradebook (Marks tab).To enter exception grades, go to the Gradebook and enter the appropriate exception letter grade for the student (see the Coursework Assessments Policy).
If STAFF_ADMIN or SYS_EXCEPTION_GRADE is missing or was accidentally deleted from your Assignments page, it may cause errors when transferring grades. Log a ticket to the LX.lab to request for it to be recovered or recreated.
6. How do I adjust the total mark?
In the Canvas Gradebook (Marks) there will be an Override column at the right-side of the Gradebook which is used to adjust borderline Total marks (e.g. for students bordering a pass and a credit). The final mark Override only shows the letter grade, but you can see the numerical mark by exporting the Gradebook. Marks entered in the Override column will be transferred to CASS instead of the Total mark. Students won’t know that the calculated mark has been overridden.
7. What do I do if I have a non-graded subject?
For non-graded subjects, you will still need to follow the same steps for Grades submission as for graded subjects.Create a placeholder assignment in an assignment group with a 100% assignment weighting. You won’t need to post the assignment marks to students, its main purpose is to facilitate grades submission. Some subjects have different requirements. Feel free to reach out to us either live chat at lx.uts.edu.au or through Service connect at lxlabservices.uts.edu.au.
8. Where do I submit my results in Canvas?
After finalising your grades, you will need to submit your results through a separate system – CAT (Canvas admin tool) at cat.uts.edu.au. Only subject coordinators will have access to their subjects in CAT for submitting grades.
If your subject is not listed in CAT, you will need to raise a ticket directly to ITU and request access to your subject through Service Connect.
9. I’m late to submitting grades or need to change a result – what should I do now?
If results are not submitted by the due date specified by your faculty, submit an Authority to Vary Results (AVR) form or contact your Faculty Admin for further support.
Who should I go to for extra support?
Need more help? For online support and consultation booking, log a ticket to the LX.lab via ServiceConnect.
Feature image by Freepik.