About Canvas grade posting policies at IU

• Overview
• Automatic versus manual grade posting
• IU's default grade posting policy
• Impact of course imports on grade posting policy
• Confirm and/or change the course- or assignment-level policy
• Tips for working with grade posting policies in Canvas

Overview

In summer 2019, Instructure replaced the ability for instructors to mute and unmute individual columns in the gradebook with course- and assignment-level grade posting policies and related features. Grade posting policies offer far greater flexibility and control over whether and when students can see their grades in the Canvas gradebook. The following is an overview of grade posting policies in Canvas and their implementation at Indiana University.

Automatic versus manual grade posting

Grade posting policies can be defined at two levels, course and assignment. The course-level policy applies to all assignments in the gradebook except those for which an assignment-level policy has been set. Assignment-level policies can be set to override the course-level policy for specific assignments. Regardless of level, the posting policy has two possible settings:

• Automatic: Grades are visible to students as soon as they are entered.
• Manual: Grades remain hidden until they are manually posted by an instructor or grader. Students will not receive new notifications about their grades nor will they be able to see grader comments until grades are posted.

For more general information about grade posting policies in Canvas, see How do I use posting policies in a course?

IU's default grade posting policy

The default course-level grade posting policy has been set to "automatic" by Instructure. IU has elected to override the Canvas default because more harm can be caused by unintentionally releasing grades than by delaying their release. Thus, effective April 9, 2020, the course-level grade posting policy in all new SIS and manually created courses will be set to manual by default. The course- and assignment-level grade posting policies in courses created prior to this date will not change. Also, courses created through IU's third party provisioning process, including IUSM courses, will not be affected by this change.

Impact of course imports on grade posting policy

When an existing course is imported into a new Canvas course, the course- and assignment-level grade posting policies are also imported, which can result in overriding the default policy set in the new course. After importing content from another course, be sure to check the grade posting policy for the course as well as individual assignments, and make changes if necessary.

Confirm and/or change the course- or assignment-level policy

Course-level policy

The course-level policy is the default for your course. It will be applied to all assignments except the ones with an override policy at the assignment-level. To review or change the course-level grade posting policy (see How do I select a grade posting policy for a course in the Gradebook?):

1. In the Canvas Gradebook, click the settings (gear) icon.
2. In the Gradebook settings pop-up, select the Grade Posting Policies tab.
3. Review and select (or confirm) the policy you want to apply to all or most assignments.
4. If you changed the policy, click Update to save your changes.

Assignment-level policy

To override the course-level policy for a specific assignment, set an assignment-level grade posting policy (see How do I select a grade posting policy for an assignment in the Gradebook?):

1. In the desired column of the Canvas Gradebook, click the vertical ellipsis (⋮) to open the options menu for the assignment.
2. From the options menu, select Grade Posting Policy.
3. Review and select (or confirm) the desired policy for the assignment.
4. If you changed the policy, click Save to save your changes.

Tips for working with grade posting policies in Canvas

• Double-check the grade posting policies after importing content: As mentioned above, importing content from another course can result in changing course- and assignment-level posting policies. Double-check the course-level policy after importing and adjust as necessary. Also, for all assignments that should use a manual policy, make sure the word "MANUAL" follows the point value in the column header.
• Look for visual cues: Canvas provides these visual cues to help instructors understand the grade posting policy and current status of each assignment in the gradebook:
  • A "MANUAL" designation following the point value appears in the column heading for all assignments that have a manual posting policy (this may be hidden if the column is not wide enough.):

    

  • If one or more student grades for an assignment are currently hidden, a visibility icon appears in the column header for the assignment:

    

  • If an individual student has one or more hidden grades, a visibility icon appears in the "Total" column for the student:

    

  • When posting grades, orange dots at the upper left of the cell indicate which grades are currently hidden:

    

• Hiding grades with an automatic posting policy only affects grades that have already been entered into the gradebook. Newly entered grades will be immediately visible to students. To hide all past and future grades, change the posting policy for the assignment to manual. For more on hiding grades, see How do I hide grades that were previously posted in the Gradebook?
• Posting hidden grades: When posting hidden grades, instructors can opt to post grades for all students (even those who have not been graded) or graded students only. For courses with multiple sections, instructors can also opt to post by section. If you don't post all grades at once, remember to return to the assignment later to post the remaining grades. The visibility icons in the column headers will tell you which assignments have unposted grades. For more on posting grades, see How do I post grades for an assignment in the Gradebook?