Grading in WebCampus

The WebCampus Gradebook and a number of grading tools allow you to regularly assess student learning and keep updated records of student grades. This page provides an overview of the Gradebook, and other grading tools.

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For more guidance on effective grading in WebCampus see:

 

Gradebook basics

The Gradebook helps instructors easily input and distribute grades for students. Grades for each assignment can be calculated in a number of ways, including points, percentages, pass/fail, and more.

Gradebook overview

View a brief video overview of the WebCampus Gradebook.

See the following Canvas Guide for more information and step-by-step tutorials:

Creating gradebook columns

Most often, Gradebook columns are generated when an assignment is created. If you have created an assignment, a graded discussion, or a graded quiz, a column will automatically appear in the Gradebook.

Assigning grades

Within the Gradebook, you can assign grades, leave comments, adjust grades, and message students. Note also that SpeedGrader is the tool designed for viewing, marking up, commenting on, and assigning grades to student work submitted in WebCampus.

Posting and hiding grades

At the course level, you can choose between a policy of automatic and manual posting of grades. Automatically post grades for course is the default policy in which grades are visible to students as soon as they are entered. Manually post grades for course is recommended if you do not want the grades you enter to be immediately visible to students and you wish to enter them manually.

Note: If you enter grades for an assignment while your course is set to the default “Automatically Post Grades” option, the grades you’ve entered and posted will remain visible to students even if you later change to Manually Post Grades. To learn how to hide grades that are already visible to students, please see the section “Hide assignment grades” below.

To set an assignment-level grade posting policy that is different than the course posting policy see:

Hide assignment grades: If you’ve accidentally posted grades that you’re not ready to have visible to your students, you can use the Hide Grades feature to hide grades that are currently visible. Note: this feature only allows you to hide grades that are currently visible to students and will not prevent future grades that you enter from being posted for students to see. If you don’t want grades to be automatically displayed to students’ as soon as they’re entered, you will need to change your course-level Grades Posting Policy to “Manually Post Grades.”

Post assignment grades: If you’ve set the Manually Post Grades Policy, you will need to post grades before they will be visible to students.

Weighting grades

Assignment groups let you organize multiple assignments under a specific category. You can group similar assignments together, and assign that group a weight that will figure into the total course grade. For example, you might create a group if students must complete fifteen reading response essays, all of which together will be worth 10% of the total course grade. You can also create Assignment Group rules that determine how WebCampus handles any exceptions you want to create for grade calculations, like dropping the lowest grade for an assignment. If you do not create your own specific assignment groups, WebCampus will by default place them under the assignments group.

 

Grading tools

 

SpeedGrader

SpeedGrader allows you to view and grade student assignment submissions in one place. Some types of documents (for example, Word, PDF, and text files) can be marked up for feedback directly within the submission. You can also provide feedback to your students with text or media comments.

SpeedGrader overview

View a brief video overview of the SpeedGrader tool.

See the following Canvas Guides for more information and step-by-step tutorials:

Entering grades and comments

The SpeedGrader allows you to view student submissions, then enter grades and comments in one place. See the following Canvas Guides for more information and step-by-step tutorials:

Marking up student submissions

SpeedGrader allows instructors to view and mark up student work in the DocViewer. Using the tools built into SpeedGrader, instructors can leave point or block annotations, highlight text, strikethrough text, or draw on the submitted page.

Note that only the following file types will be viewable in SpeedGrader:

  • Fixed Layout Formats: PDF
  • Microsoft : DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX
  • OpenDocument Formats: ODT, OTG, ODS, ODP, ODF, SWX, SXC, SXI
  • Text: TXT

See the following Canvas Guide for more information and step-by-step tutorials:

 

Rubrics

Grading rubrics communicate to students what is required to achieve a particular grade on an assignment and help facilitate simpler and more consistent grading of student work. Rubrics can be added to Assignments or Discussions, displayed to students, and used for convenient point-and-click grading.

Rubrics overview

View a brief video overview of Rubrics in WebCampus.

See the following Canvas Guides for more information and step-by-step tutorials:

Adding a rubric to an assignment, discussion, or quiz

You can add an existing rubric to your assignments (including discussions, assignments, and quizzes). All of your rubrics can be accessed from your current course and across all the other courses in your account.

See the following Canvas Guides for more information and step-by-step tutorials:

Grading with rubrics

Once you have added a rubric to an assignment, discussion, or quiz, you can use that rubric to assess student work within the SpeedGrader tool.

Note: If you want to use the rubric to calculate a grade, be sure you have selected the Use this rubric for assignment grading checkbox when adding a rubric to an assignment. Make sure this checkbox is selected before you begin grading submissions. See the following Canvas Guide for more information and step-by-step tutorials:

 

Outcomes

The outcomes tool allows instructors (and/or program managers) to track student learning mastery in a course or across a program. Outcomes can be aligned to assignments, quizzes, and discussions to assess student mastery of learning objectives.

Outcomes overview

View a brief video overview of outcomes.

See the following Canvas Guides for more information on what outcomes are, when to use them, what are the calculation methods, and a step-by-step guide on how to create an outcome in your course:

Linking outcomes to an assignment, discussion, or quiz

Outcomes are used in conjunction with rubrics to assess student learning mastery. You can align an outcome with a rubric, and then add the rubric to an assignment or discussion. Be sure you align the outcome before you add the rubric to an assignment or discussion.

See the following Canvas Guide for step-by-step instructions on aligning outcomes and rubrics:

Outcomes can also be aligned with a question bank, which can be used in a quiz. See the following Canvas Guide for detailed instructions on aligning an outcome and quiz bank:

Viewing outcome results

The Learning Mastery Gradebook is where instructors view the results of the learning outcomes. Note that the Learning Mastery Gradebook is an optional feature that needs to be enabled by the instructor. Once enabled, the Learning Mastery Gradebook can be accessed from Grades.

See the following Canvas Guide on how to enable the Learning Mastery Gradebook and how to use it to view outcome results: