[ARCHIVED] Grading Inaccuracies

[daoudparker]

Canvas doesn't seem to provide an accurate total average grade for my student's quiz assignments.

I have a series of quizzes for my course which are part of an assignment group. Some of them are extra credit. Following earlier advice to deal with Canvas's lack of a proper extra credit category I changed those quizzes after they were scored from graded quiz to graded survey with total point value as zero. So an extra credit quiz that earned say 4 out of a possible 5 points would then be registered as 4 out of 0.  All of these points should add up in the same grading category but for some reason it looks like Canvas doesn't attribute them consistently.  As you can see from the two examples below, it doesn't totally ignore the extra credit ones but it also doesn't add them all. It's almost like it splits the difference.

With the student example that shows a 100% average for instance, if it ignored the extra credit the grade would be 29/36 or 80%.  If it accounted for all the extra credit it would be 42/36 or 116%.

Please let me know what is going on if you have an answer and how I might fix this.

Thanks!

[rmurchshafer · Accepted solution]

I don't have an answer but a suggestion which might help figure out whats happening.  Click on the score in the column for each of those examples so see what the actual points are as shown below.  Seeing how many points are being calculated out of how many available for each might help figure out  what's going on. 

I've also found that when making some changes to an assignment such as how many points it worth, the results don't always update automatically.  With Roll Call Attendance for instance if you change the number of points it's worth,  the grades will be messed up until you take attendance again.  By changing the quizzes to practice quizzes worth 0, it could be something similar and going to Speedgrader and clicking through the grades might cause things to update.

Rick

[rmurchshafer · Accepted solution]

I don't have an answer but a suggestion which might help figure out whats happening.  Click on the score in the column for each of those examples so see what the actual points are as shown below.  Seeing how many points are being calculated out of how many available for each might help figure out  what's going on. 

I've also found that when making some changes to an assignment such as how many points it worth, the results don't always update automatically.  With Roll Call Attendance for instance if you change the number of points it's worth,  the grades will be messed up until you take attendance again.  By changing the quizzes to practice quizzes worth 0, it could be something similar and going to Speedgrader and clicking through the grades might cause things to update.

Rick

[daoudparker]

Thanks for the suggestion to check the basis for the percentage. I didn't know I could do that.  Turns out the percentage score was based on only one of the required quizzes since I forgot that I had left the rule in place which discounted their lowest quiz score.  It still does not count the extra credit scores though so I will have to add those manually in another column as I did last semester.  Any suggestions on getting Canvas to tally them automatically would be helpful.

Thanks!

[Steven_S]

I am not familiar with a benefit to switching to surveys for extra credit assignments.  In a graded survey students are usually awarded all of the points regardless of their answer.  Perhaps when you switch from graded quiz to graded survey (and the points available to zero) AFTER the quiz is graded the existing score does not change.  I would double check that to make sure in your gradebook and not just in the summary shown here.   

If you manually fill out the same scores in the test student (if your gradebook does not have one, just switch to student view briefly from the homepage) can you recreate the same totals?  If so, what happens when you have entered grades for the test student in every graded quiz?  Is it still adding up incorrectly?

My approach to extra credit assignments requires manual grading.  I set the assignment or quiz to be worth zero points and then I type in the points earned in the speedgrader (or on assignments use an attached rubric with the extra points added).  Using this method I have never had the problem you describe.  However, I also have all graded assignments worth 100 points.

[daoudparker]

Thanks for your reply.  I used to manually assign a score to each question for each student since I assigned each question to be worth zero.  I would leave it as a quiz worth zero but then I would grade each question, enter in the extra points they received on top of that and that always counted towards their total.  It was tedious and then became almost unbearable once my enrollment doubled.  (For this particular class I have a lot of smaller extra credit quizzes). I then decided to assign each question their possible points so at least Canvas could grade them and score them for me.  I read from another Instructure forum that I could then change the type from quiz to survey after it was graded so as not to lose those points, keep it as graded but make it out of zero points.  The score remains the same but I still haven't been able to get canvas to tally those scores even though they clearly show up in the summary. They just aren't counted in the percent average.  It is very frustrating that Canvas hasn't come up with an easy way to account for extra credit on exams like Blackboard has.

[Steven_S · Accepted solution]

An alternative that might be easier and more reliable is to calculate how much the extra credit is able to influence the final grade.  What is the highest score that is possible for students to earn if they earn 100% on every thing graded, and also 100% of the extra credit points graded out of a total of zero?  If the answer is 110%, make an extra credit assignment group weighted at 10% (I see that you already have weighted assignment groups).  In that extra credit assignment group, assignments will count as extra credit, without needing to be calculated out of zero points. These extra credit assignments are a bonus because they make it possible to earn more than 100% in the course total.  You grade them exactly like every graded assignment.

Until you have one score in every weighted group, this will not look like extra credit at all.  I would simply explain that situation to students, so they know that any apparent penalty for not earning extra credit points will not last.  I would also remind them about whatif scores they can use to see the impact of future scores on their total.  However, if you want to avoid that, you can start out with the extra credit in a zero percent assignment group, and change the group's weight to the appropriate bonus percentage after there is at least one score in every other assignment group.

Also, I was taking for granted that your extra credit was in the quizzes group, you have weighted at 25%.  If you have the extra credit in an assignment group for which there is not yet a single graded submission that is graded out of anything more than zero points, the assignments graded out of zero points will not be tallied in the total yet.  In that case, as soon as you have one assignment graded out of anything more than zero, your course totals will include the extra credit.

[daoudparker]

I love that solution however, what if the student does poorly on the extra credit?  Does canvas look at the average percentage grade for each category and average that out with the rest?  In other words lets say my extra credit does make it possible to get a 110% for the course if they got everything right and did all the assignments.  Now what happens if they have an average of 90% for all the required assignments, tests etc. but in the extra credit weighted assignment group they averaged 50%.  Will that bring their grade up or down?  If it ultimately brings it down then it is not true extra credit.

Does Canvas look at only points or percentages when calculating the averages?

[Steven_S]

If students earn 90% of the points in the assignment groups that total 100%, and 50% of the points in an assignment group weighted at 10%, they will have a final total of 95%. If they earn 100% of the points in groups that total 100% and 50% of the extra credit weighted at 10%, they will have a total of 105%.  The percent that the groups total max out at 100% allowing the extra groups to be truly extra, because they only count in the numerator, not the denominator.  

Earlier in the semester, students may have earned 100% of the points in assignments graded so far in groups weighted at 50%, other assignments groups accounting for 50% have no score, and they have earned 50% of the points in extra credit graded so far in a group weighted at 10%.  At that point, it would appear to hurt their score because canvas will calculate a total based on only those assignment groups that include some points (50%+10%), and the extra credit group is not "extra" until the groups used in calculations total more than 100%.  The total in this case would be based on 55/60, rather than 55 out of 50.  That's why I say either explain this to students, or keep extra credit weighted at zero until near the end of the semester when every other assignment group has at least one graded submission.

[daoudparker]

Now why didn't I think of that?! 

I like it, that could work nicely. You've solved my problem.

Thank you so much!