Drop the lowest assignment category from grade calculation

[bsrinvasan]

One of my instructors has 8 lab assignment categories with multiple assignments under each category. She wants to set it up where all categories have equal grades, but then drop the category with the lowest grade.

For eg: (This is how I understand the way it works) - If all categories are worth 15% each, the 8 categories will total to 15*8=120. If she drops the lowest category it will come to 15*7=105. How do we do this?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[TrishaMeyer1]

Hi @bsrinvasan ,

I don't know of any way to set up Canvas to do this. But I have an idea that might work.

1) Create a "Category Total" assignment for each Assignment Group.

2) Add up all the individual assignment scores and put the total in the corresponding Category Total assignment.

3) Reset all the individual assignments to "Do not count this assignment towards the final grade."  I think you can skip this step.

4) There will now be only 8 graded assignments that are counted (one per category), and you can drop the lowest of the 8 for each student.

ETA: Sorry, I realized you need one more step. You'll have to create ONE MORE Assignment Group with all 8 category "Grade Total" assignments in it and drop the lowest from there because the "drop" option appears to be attached to Assignment Groups. (I've never used this option and had to look it up.) So you'll have to make sure each Assignment Group has the same number of points since the traditional weighting by Group option will be useless. You'll have the 8 AGs containing the individual assignments; set all of those AGs to 0%. You'll have a 9th AG containing "dummy" assignments of the totals from each of the other 8 AGs. Set this Assignment Group to 100% and set a "rule" to drop the lowest. 

[bsrinvasan]

I really like this idea and I will try it! Thank you so much @TrishaMeyer1 . I do have a question. The totals in each category will have to be done manually, right? I don't think it can be automated. Please let me know. Really appreciate you taking the time to provide such detailed solution. Thanks a lot!

[TrishaMeyer1 · Accepted solution]

Hi again, @bsrinvasan ,

I've been mulling over an idea using Assignment Groups in a way similar to this but haven't actually set it up yet in a course. Yes, you would have to manually input the totals to the "dummy" assignments, but I think you could just pull the numbers from the columns in the Gradebook that show the totals for each AG. You wouldn't have to add up the scores or anything because the Gradebook would already display that information for each student. You might have to click on each cell; that's what I'm having to do in my Sandbox to see points earned/points possible rather than the percentage. Make sure that in your Gradebook settings "Hide Assignment Group Totals" is unchecked.

[bsrinvasan]

This works perfect! Thanks so much @TrishaMeyer1.