Grading schemes

Introduction

A grading scheme is a set of criteria that measures students’ levels of achievement in a course. In the Canvas course settings, there is a grading scheme feature that, when enabled, applies a percentage range to students' final letter grades and overall percentages in the Gradebook and in each student’s Grades page.

However, students cannot see the grading scheme itself in Canvas, so instructors should communicate evaluation criteria at the beginning of and throughout a course to provide transparency for students and empower them to monitor their progress. “Students should never experience an unhappy surprise when it comes to their course grade." (Artze-Vega, et al., 2024).

Missouri Online Recommends - Missouri Online recommends that a course include grading criteria (example: grading scale, grading/weight table, etc.) in the syllabus or at the beginning of the course and to have points/percentages for assignments listed consistently throughout the course site. (See items #5 and #6 in the 5 Pillars Quality Review rubric.)

Purpose

The purpose of providing a grading scheme and points/percentages throughout the course is to provide structure and transparency for students and enable them to adjust their learning strategies as needed.

• Transparency - Clear and consistent grading structures boost transparency. Students should understand how their performance is being assessed and how grades are calculated. Transparency helps in managing expectations and reducing confusion.
• Fair Evaluation - Consistent grading ensures that all students are evaluated under the same criteria. This promotes fairness and equity in the assessment process.
• Motivation- Knowing that grading is consistent can motivate students to put in staunch effort throughout the course. If the grading criteria are unclear or change frequently, it may lead to frustration and discouragement among students.
• Communication- Grading criteria act as a communication tool between teachers and students. They provide a common language for conveying expectations, discussing academic performance, and allowing for constructive feedback that is aligned with the established standards.

In addition to these benefits, grading schemes and criteria serve a symbolic purpose. They signal to students what aspects of the course are deemed most valuable and where they should direct their efforts (Artze-Vega, et al., 2024).

Canvas grading schemes

In Canvas, instructors can enable a grading scheme created by their institution, add a new grading scheme specific to their course, and view and manage grading schemes. Grading schemes are built based on points and percentage ranges, and each percentage range is assigned a name value. Letter grade schemes are the most commonly used and are the default in Canvas. However, you can create any type of grading scheme by editing the name and percentage range for each item. 

When enabling a grading scheme for a course, the grading scheme is applied to the students' final grades and overall percentages in Canvas. Students cannot see the grading scheme itself, but they can see the results on their Grades page.

Grading schemes can also be created and applied to individual assignments. Each assignment includes a field that allows you to add points for the assignment and choose how the grade is displayed in the Gradebook and students’ Grades pages. (Learn how to enable an assignment grading scheme here.)

Campus standards

Each campus in the University of Missouri System provides guidance on grading scheme standards:

• At Mizzou, the purpose of the campus grading system is to provide a framework in which the faculty can report evaluation of a student’s performance and achievement. For the internal purposes of a school or college, its faculty may adopt a variant of the campus grading system.
• The UMKC grading policy provides a +/‐ grading scale and grade point system that is used by all faculty in all undergraduate, graduate and professional programs.
• Missouri S&T’s IT Services offers to discuss with instructors changing a course grading scheme from the standard Missouri S&T scheme enabled in Canvas by contacting CAFE at cafe@mst.edu.
• At UMSL, faculty teaching in the undergraduate and graduate programs have full discretion in using full-letter grades, plus/minus grades, or any combination of full-letter and plus/minus grades.

Conclusion

The establishment of clear grading criteria at the outset of and during a course is very beneficial. By providing clear guidelines for grading and feedback, educators establish a foundation for productive dialogue and support students in taking ownership of their learning journey. Therefore, grading criteria should be viewed not only as a tool for evaluation but as a vital component of effective communication and mutual understanding within the educational process.

Created on: August 23, 2024