Quercus Gradebook

Grading

Enter Grades

You can also use SpeedGrader to view, comment, and grade student submissions directly within the browser. In the new Gradebook, SpeedGrader is accessible from the Grade Detail Tray.

Important Information about Letter Grades in Quercus

A number of potential issues regarding the use of letter grades in Quercus have been identified. Please refer to the information in the Quercus Letter Grades page if you are considering using letter grades in your Quercus Gradebook.

Grade Detail Tray

The Grade Detail Tray allows instructors to view and enter grades, submission status, and comments, both by individual assignment or student. Instructors can also access Speedgrader for an Assignment or view the individual Grades page for a student.

Post or Hide Grades

In the New Gradebook, the option to mute/unmute assignments has been updated with a Grade Posting Policy that allows instructors to define if grades are posted [1] automatically or [2] manually, at the course or assignment level:

1. Automatically Post Grades: When this setting is selected for the course or an individual assignment, grades are visible to students as soon as they are entered.
2. Manually Post Grades: When this setting is selected for the course or an individual assignment, grades are hidden from students until posted.

Resource: How do I use posting policies in my course?

Change the Grade Post Policy to “Automatically Post Grades” for the Course

1. In Course Navigation, select Grades.
2. Select the Settings (gear) icon.
3. Select the Grade Posting Policy tab.
4. Select the Automatically Post Grades option.
5. Click the Update button to apply your change

Resource: How do I use posting policies in my course?

Change the Grade Post Policy to “Automatically Post Grades” for an Assignment

1. In Course Navigation, select Grades.
2. Hover over the assignment column header and click the Options icon (3 vertical dots).
3. Select the Grade Posting Policy option at the bottom of the drop down menu.
4. Select Automatically Post Grades from the menu that appears on the right side of the screen.
5. Click the Save button to apply your changes.

Resource: How do I use posting policies in my course?

Note: You will not be able to access the Post grades feature for an assignment unless you’ve entered a grade for at least one of your students.

Resource: How do I post grades for an assignment in the New Gradebook?

Hide Grades for an Assignment

The Hide Grades feature is useful for hiding grades that have already been posted for an individual assignment.  To avoid automatically showing grades to students as soon as they’re entered, it is recommended to leave the Grade Post Policy as Manually Post Grades rather than using the Hide Grades feature.

To hide grades for an individual assignment:

1. Hover over the assignment column header and click the Options icon (3 vertical dots).
2. Click Hide grades
3. Select the option to hide the grades only for Specific Sections, if applicable.
4. Click Hide to confirm.

 

Resource: How do I hide grades for an assignment in the New Gradebook?

Grade Post Policy Indicators

The following table shows the Grade Post Policy indicators you may see in the Gradebook and what they mean:

Indicator	Name	What it means
	No indicator	The Grade Post Policy for the course or for the assignment is set to Automatic. grades are visible to students as soon as they are entered. to prevent students from seeing their grades, change the Grade Posting Policy for the assignment or course to Manual
	The word Manual	The Grade Post Policy  for the course or for the assignment is set to Manual. when grades are added for the assignment, an outlined Visibility icon (i.e. an eye icon with a grey outline and a diagonal line through it) will also display and the grades will be hidden from student view until posted . after grades are posted, the grey Visibility icon disappears and only the word Manual remains in the column heading, unless the grade post policy for an assignment or course is changed to Automatic.
	An outlined Visibility Icon and the word Manual	The Grade Post Policy  for the course or for the assignment is set to Manual AND a grade has been entered for at least one submission in the assignment. there are grades in the Gradebook assignment column that have not been posted yet. when all graded submissions have been posted for an assignment, the icon will disappear and only the word Manual will remain in the column heading, unless the grade post policy for an assignment or course is changed to Automatic.

Resource: How do I use posting policies in my course?

For a quick guide on managing student grade visibility in your course, please see the following Canvas document: Student Grade Visibility Flowchart  (pdf)

Organization and Management

The Gradebook offers various features to customize your Gradebook view according to your preference. You can organize and manage the Gradebook content by using features such as Arrange By, Sort By, and Filters.

1. Arrange Columns

Instructors can organize the order of assignment columns in the Gradebook via Arrange By feature or manually:

Arrange By

This feature affects all the columns in the Gradebook.

1. From Grades, click on the Settings icon.
2. Select View Options tab.
3. Open the Arrange By drop-down menu to see all the options for ordering columns in the Gradebook.
   
4. Select the desired option: Assignment Name, Due date, Points, or Module.
5. Click the Apply Settings button. The Gradebook will be organized by your chosen option from left to right.
6. Select Default Order and click Apply Settings again to return to the original order of assignments. The default order is the order set in the Assignments page.

Manually

You can also arrange Gradebook columns by clicking the column heading and dragging the heading to the desired location.

2. Sort Individual Assignment Columns

Instructors can sort individual assignment columns by Grade or Assignment Status in the Gradebook.

1. For the desired Assignment column, select the More Options menu (3 vertical dots).
2. Select the Sort by link.
3. Select one of the sorting options.

 

3. View Specific Content in Gradebook

The Gradebook offers Enhanced Gradebook Filters to focus on specific content in Gradebook.

Instructors can create and apply gradebook filters to minimize what is shown in the Gradebook, select and manage filter types used in a filter, and enable or disable a filter. A filter may be used once or saved for future use.

View Student Information

The Student Name column in the New Gradebook offers options for sorting and displaying student names and secondary information.

1. Sort and Display Student Names

You can view options to sort names in alphabetical order by student’s last name.  You can also display student names by either first or last name. Sorting, however, is always done by the student’s last name.

1. 1. Hover cursor over the Student Name column header and select the More Options menu (3 vertical dots).
   2. Select the Sort by link to view sorting options.
   3. By default, student names display in ascending alphabetical order (A-Z), according to student’s last name. To sort in descending order, click the Z-A option.
   4. To display names in a specific name order, select the Display as link.
   5. By default, student names display as First, Last Name. To display by last name first,  select the Last, First Name option.

   

2. View Secondary Information

Additionally, the Secondary Info menu allows secondary information to display below the student’s name. Only one secondary information option can be displayed at a time.

1. 1. To add secondary information to the Student Name column, select the Secondary info link.
   2. Select the desired option: Section, SIS ID, Integration ID, Login ID, or None.Note: At the University of Toronto, selecting SIS ID or Login ID will display the student’s UTORid. Selecting Integration ID will display the student’s Student Number.

 

3. Search Students

The default view of the Gradebook lists all active students in your course. You can use the Search field to search for an individual student by name, Student Number or UTORid.

Late and Missing Submission Policies

In the New Gradebook, the Settings menu (the gear icon) is where instructors can set grading rules for late and missing submissions.

1. Access the Settings Menu

To access the Settings menu, click the gear icon at the top right of the New Gradebook:

Note: Features accessed via the gear icon in the current Gradebook have moved to other locations or have new icons in the New Gradebook. For additional information, please view the Functionality Comparison Current vs New Canvas Gradebook

 

2. Enable Late and Missing Submission Rules

After clicking on the Settings menu icon, a Late Policies tab will appear:

1. To enable a Missing Submission rule click the check box, and enter a percentage to be assigned when a submission is missing after the due date. For additional information, see: How do I apply a Missing Submission policy in the New Gradebook?
2. To enable a Late Submission rule, click the check box , select a percentage to be deducted, and select for it to be deducted for each Day or Hour that it is late. You can also define a threshold percentage (Lowest possible grade percent) under which a student will not be scored, regardless of how late the submission is submitted. For additional information, see: How do I apply a Late Submission policy in the New Gradebook ?
3. Click Update to finalize the settings selected in [1] and/or [2].

3. Important Considerations for Late and Missing Submission Rules

If you choose to enable grading rules (called Policies in the New Gradebook) for Late and/or Missing submissions in your Quercus course, please be aware that these rules:

• Must be set up on a course-by-course basis. They do not apply at a global instructor level.
• Cannot be set for individual assignments. They will apply automatically to all online submission assignments, including quizzes and discussions. This includes assignments with due dates in the past. To exclude a specific assignment, submissions need to be manually changed to a status other than Late or Missing in the Grade Detail Tray.
• Do not apply to Paper Submission or No Submission assignments or assignments setup with external tools (including publisher integrations). Those assignment types can be manually designated as Missing or Late in the Grade Detail Tray. Their grades can also be calculated manually and adjusted accordingly.

In addition, please consider the following best practices:

• Determine any rules you wish to apply to Late and/or Missing submissions and set them up in your Quercus course before creating assignments
• Include information about Late and/or Missing submissions in your course syllabus or outline. Consider linking to this information in every assignment description so that students are aware of any points that will be deducted for Late and/or Missing Submissions.

For additional information on how Missing and Late policies work with online submission assignments, quizzes and discussions, please view the following documents from the Canvas Instructor Guides:

• How do I apply a Missing Submission policy in the New Gradebook?
• How do I apply a Late Submission policy in the New Gradebook?
• Late Policies FAQ   – Guide to how late policies work with online submission assignments.

View Ungraded as Zero

By default, ungraded assignments are not included in any assignment total calculations.

View Ungraded as 0 option provides instructors with a visual change in identifying grading calculations for ungraded assignments. This feature allows instructors to view student grades as if all ungraded assignments were worth zero points.

When the View Ungraded as 0 setting is enabled, UNGRADED AS 0 displays as a heading in all Assignment Group columns and the Total column to indicate this feature is turned on in the Gradebook.

Quercus will not populate zeros in the Gradebook for student submissions within individual assignments. Only the Assignment Groups and Total columns will automatically factor in all scores of zero into the overall percentages for each student.

This setting is a visual change only and does not affect grades for students or other users of the Gradebook; students cannot see any difference in their grade pages. Similarly, TAs or other instructors in the course will not see any change in their view of the Gradebook. Only the user who enables this option in the Gradebook will see the affected grades.

Note: This feature affects the configuration of the Total Column in the Gradebook, which also applies to CSV Exports. The CSV file displays columns for the Current and Final scores: the Current score reflects the total while ignoring unsubmitted assignments (option disabled), and the Final score counts unsubmitted assignments as zero (option enabled).

1. From Grades, click on the Settings icon.
2. Select View Options tab.
3. Select the View ungraded as 0 checkbox.
4. A window will pop up to provide some information about using this feature.
   
5. Click OK to proceed.
6. Select Apply Settings.

Canvas, the platform powering Quercus, has several built-in tools and settings that are under development and being tested by Instructure (Canvas). These typically involve significant changes to the regular workflow within Quercus and are not enabled by default. Please note that some Canvas Feature Options may not be available at the University of Toronto.

Anonymous grading allows for the option to anonymously grade  Quercus Assignments. Learn more at Anonymous Grading (.)

You can also Hide Student Names in SpeedGrader.

Instructors can use this feature to hide the view of quantitative (numeric) data for students and observers. When this setting is enabled, students cannot see the points and percentages associated with an assigned grade, but they would be able to view feedback and the equivalent letter grades defined by the grading scheme. Teachers, TAs and Graders can still view the numeric data.

Notes:

• Point and percentage grades are converted to Letter Grades, regardless of the Display Grade type selected by the instructor.  
• The default grading scheme in Quercus does not align with the University of Toronto’s grading schemes. Please make sure to select the appropriate U of T grading scheme for the course or the assignment. Please refer to the information in the Quercus Letter Grades page for more information and considerations.
• All grades are displayed as Letter Grades or Complete/Incomplete in the Grades tab for student. 
• Quizzes still show numeric point values to students if they navigate directly to the Quiz page.

1. Click Settings on the Course Navigation Menu.
   
2. Select Course Details tab (usually selected by default).
3. Scroll down to Quantitative Data Options.
4. Select the Restrict view of quantitative data checkbox.
   
5. Select Update Course Details to save your changes.

Note about Quercus (Canvas) System Performance:

The New Gradebook should render consistently in courses with a course weight of up to 80,000.
A course weight is calculated as follows: (# of Students) X (# of Assignments).

Please consult our resource page on Considerations for Large Courses for details about Quercus and large course use.