Grades and Feedback in SpeedGrader
SpeedGrader is the Canvas tool used to give students feedback and grades. Teachers can use SpeedGrader for assignments, discussions, and quizzes. In group assignments, group names appear in SpeedGrader instead of student names, provided the assignment has been set up correctly.
Grades entered in SpeedGrader are reflected in the Gradebook, and grades entered in the Gradebook are reflected in SpeedGrader. Depending on the grade posting policy, teachers may need to post grades before they become visible to students.
Teachers can leave feedback in several ways, including annotations in a student document, text comments, media comments, and file attachments.
How are grades posted?
- Open the Gradebook by clicking Grades in the course navigation menu.
- Find the column for the assignment and click the three-dot menu at the top of the column.
- Click Post Grades.
- Confirm the action in the panel on the right.
- You can also post grades in SpeedGrader by clicking the visibility icon (eye icon) in the upper-left corner.
For official Canvas guidance, see the SpeedGrader and grade posting guides in the Canvas Instructor Guide.
Grading group assignments
In a group assignment, the grade and feedback given to one group member are applied to all students in that group unless the assignment is set to grade students individually.
To give one student in a group a different grade from the other group members, enable Assign Grades to Each Student Individually in the assignment settings. While this setting is enabled, grades are entered separately for each student. The setting can be turned on or off as needed.
A practical approach is to begin by grading each group as a whole. After that, enable Assign Grades to Each Student Individually if you need to adjust individual student grades. Doing this does not change the group grade already entered for the other group members.
In group assignments, all students must be placed in groups, including those allowed to submit on their own. Group membership should not be changed after submissions begin. If self-sign-up is allowed, it is advisable to disable it before submissions open. Canvas notes that grades and submissions may be affected if students are added to or removed from groups after the submission activity has started.
Related topics:
- Course groups
- Common group-related issues and how to prevent them
- Launching SpeedGrader by student group, which can be useful in large courses where grading is divided among several teachers (this does not work with group assignments). How do I filter SpeedGrader by student group?