"Score at least" conundrum

Question

I teach math. I want my students to take assessments in order, and I want them to achieve a minimum score on what I call "Skills Tests" (online, self-grading computational assessments). They then also take a "Challenge Set" of questions that are more theoretical/deeper thinking.

I know how to set an assessment so that Ss have to earn a minimum score, but I don't want that to prevent the grade from showing up in Canvas, and I don't want it to prevent them from starting the next Module. I do want it to prevent them from attaining an overall "passing" score (which I can set with the grading scale). This can really hobble them. I allow as many retakes on these Skills Tests as necessary to achieve the minimum, but I want them to be able to do those when time allows, not have to try to cram it in so they can keep up with whatever section we're currently on. I want them to be able to see and do the homework for chapter 3 even if they haven't "passed" the Skills Test (yet) for chapter 2.

How do I set things up so that the score they get doesn't get recorded unless it meets the threshold, but they can still keep working forward if they don't pass it the first (or even maybe second) time?

Ron_Bowman · Accepted Answer

@lglen2 -

If I understand what is going on you do not want a grade to show up until students receive a certain score on a quiz(online self grading assignment).  All content in the course should be available to the student.

if that is the case, I do not know of anyway canvas will keep a score from counting until a threshold is made.  The only thing I can think of would require some work on your part.  For all the skills exams, they go into an assignment group that is worth 0% (I am thinking of percent based gradebook - not sure how to set this up with points based gradebooks).  For each assignment, you create a module that is locked until the score on the assignment reaches your threshold which unlocks it.  you would have to have something in that module that would indicate to you in the gradebook that the student passed the skills assessment such that a graded assignment (in an assignment group that has a weight) in that module could have a score assigned to it (which you would have to do)

The above is convoluted and probably confusing and it would require understanding of your students(which I have no idea what age they are - I teach at a university).   The easiest way for you to do the updating of the score from the actual assessment to the assignment that counts would be with excel using a downloaded gradebook.

I have an idea of how I would attempt to do it, but I don't have time right now to try it out.

You can set up skills assesssment to have a grading scheme that would show passing or not passing as the grade, so the students know how they stand with the assignment.  Then in the downloaded gradebook, you could use a formula to check the assessment score and if it is below threshold, the student gets a 0 for the assignment that counts and if it is above the threshold, then the student gets that score.

Hopefully someone smarter than me comes along to help you out.

Ron

TrishaMeyer1 · Accepted Answer

Hi @lglen2 ,

I don't know of a way to do this automatically, but I can think of a way that might work for you if you use weighted Assignment Groups.

Put all of the actual assessments in a AG with a weight of 0%. Set each assessment to have unlimited attempts.

Create a "No Submission" assignment in each respective module/unit that is in an appropriate weighted AG.

Students take the assessments until they earn an "acceptable" score. Depending on your course policy/desire, either they contact you or you monitor their scores. As soon as a student achieves a score that is ready to be counted in the grade, you manually input that score into the corresponding "No Submission" assignment in that unit. Only that score is used in the course grade calculation.

Regarding taking the assessments in order, you would create an assessment module with all of the (actual) assessments in order and with the requirements set so that they need to be taken in order. This module would be separate from your unit modules and would not be a prerequisite to any other module. Its requirements would apply only within itself.

The "No Submission" assignments that contain the actual scores would not need to be placed in a module at all; they would just be in the background and appear in the Gradebook. In your unit module you could place a link to the corresponding assessment in the assessment module, or even just a Text Header prompting them to go to the assessment module to take the test.

This set-up might be confusing for students at first, but in the long run it is a much fairer system for them, and I think they will learn to appreciate it.