Can institutions customise the default rubric criterion values?

KenJohnson1

In Canvas, when I create a new rubric and draft a new Criterion I see the default Rating Names 'Exceed, Mastery, Near, Below, No Evidence' with ranges from 100-75.1, 75-50.1, 50-25.1, 25-0.1 and 0 (assuming the Points possible is changed to 100) (see screenshot below).

My institution uses the grading scheme HD, D, C, P, F with ranges 100-85, 84-75, 74-65, 64-50 and 49-0, so every teacher needs to go through a process of changing the rating names and changing the ranges each time they create a new rubric.

It would save teachers time if my institution could customise the default values to those rating names and ranges that we use.

Is this possible or on the roadmap?

jeremyfw

Institutions can’t change Canvas’s built-in default rubric ratings, and there’s nothing on the public roadmap to make those defaults configurable.
But there are two well-established ways to solve this operationally and save teachers a lot of time.

Why the default can’t be changed

The rating set you’re seeing (Exceeds, Mastery, Near, Below, No Evidence with 75/50/25 splits) is hard-coded in Canvas. It isn’t tied to the grading scheme and can’t be customized at the account level.

So every new rubric will always start with those defaults.

Two practical solutions that institutions actually use

Option 1: Create an Account-level rubric (recommended if possible)

If your institution is comfortable with this:

1. An Account Admin creates a rubric at the Account or Sub-account level using:
   • Your preferred rating names (HD, D, C, P, F)
   • Your preferred point ranges (e.g. 100–85, 84–75, etc.)
2. Ensure instructors have permission to use account-level rubrics.
3. Instructors then:
   • Go to an assignment
   • Click Add Rubric
   • Choose Find a Rubric
   • Switch from This Course → Account
   • Attach the institutional rubric
   • Optionally duplicate it and make small course-specific edits

This gives you a canonical institutional template while still allowing flexibility.

Option 2: Share a rubric template (if account-level access isn’t desired)

If you don’t want teachers browsing account-level rubrics:

1. An admin (or lead teacher) creates the custom rubric once.
2. Download/export the rubric template (or copy it from a shared course).
3. Share the template with teachers (via Commons, shared course, or instructions).
4. Teachers then:
   • Import the rubric into their course
   • Attach it using Add Rubric → Find a Rubric
   • Edit as needed for their assignment

This still avoids recreating rating names and ranges from scratch every time.

Key workflow tip (either option)

Teachers don’t need to build new rubrics from “+ Rubric” each time.

Instead:

• Attach a template
• Edit / duplicate
• Save

That’s the time-saver.

Step 1: Create the Institution (or Account) level Rubric as a general template

Step 2: Download the template and share it with institution's teachers (or provide teachers access to account level rubrics)

Step 3: Teacher imports rubric template into a personal course (now becomes accessible via FIND RUBRIC in all the teacher's courses)

Step 4: Add rubric to assignment (FIND RUBRIC - attach the template, duplicate criterion template and revise accordingly)