canvas not computing grade correctly with dropping highest score when not all scores are been enterd

Hi,

I have two assignment groups for exams: one is the highest of the four exams scores and one is the lowest of the four exams scores.

I use a rule in the assignment group for each (drop the lowest three scores and drop the highest three scores, accordingly).

When I have only three scores entered (in each group), they aren’t acting the same.

The highest score group is dropping the lowest two scores and using the highest score for the group.

The lowest score group is just averaging the three scores for the group.

When I enter four scores into each group, both are working correctly.

What is happening?

This is artificially improving the overall course grade that students see when the semester is partially completed since the lowest exam score is inflated.

Thanks for the help!

Brenda Wilborn

Find more posts tagged with

Accepted answers

All comments

james_whalley

@BrendaWilborn1 I see what is happening here. Because the Lowest only has 3 scores, it cannot enforce the rule. If there are only 3 scores and it removes the 3 highest, there are no scores left. With the Highest group, dropping 2 and using the missing assignment (not yet submitted) as the third score to drop.

BrendaWilborn1

Is there any way I can deal with that?

I am really uncomfortable with students getting a false sense of their overall grade.

Creating these different exam groups was the work around that I got from the community to weighing students' highest and lowest exams differently.

I have a third exam group for the middle two exam scores (so drop the highest and lowest exam). It works fine with three of the four scores input.

I am also open other ideas to do my exam weighting in Canvas. I want the highest of each students exam scores to count for 25% of the course grade, the middle two exam scores to count for 17% each (so one category that drops the highest and lowest and is worth 34%), and the lowest exam score for each student to count for 11% of the course grade. If there's an alternative to seperate assignment groups and rule, I'd love to hear!

james_whalley

Until there are 4 exam grades, I am not sure how the calculations would not give them a false sense of their overall grade. For the Lowest group, you could update the rule to drop the 2 highest for now (if you feel the other ones are reflective enough of their actual grade).

BrendaWilborn1

I guess for assignment groups where it drops the lowest, like a quiz group with 10 assignments with the lowest 2 dropped and only 6 assignments are completed, the Canvas is using the highest 4 to calculate the group average. Looking for the same in reverse - use only the lowest 4 to calculate the assignment group score given the same situation. Instead of just averaging all 6 assignment scores.

Neither give a perfect reflection of the overall grade, but doing it the way it's done when dropping the lowest is much closer than just averaging all of the scores.

I can change the rule each time I put in a new exam score. But then students can't use the great "What If" feature in the gradebook.

Please let me know if there's any way to get that redo in the code so that dropping the lowest and dropping the highest when not all scores are entered is done the same way.

Thanks for your help!

Unanswered Questions

Reusing question groups from multiple quizzes
A colleague asked me how to reuse the questions from the 14 quizzes he has already created as a large question pool to draw questions from for a cumulative exam. Each of the 14 quizzes has multiple question groups, and none of them was linked to a question bank at the time of creation. The best thing I could find is the…
Learning Mastery Gradebook: assign_outcome_order API Returns Success But Doesn't Persist Column Order
Summary:The Learning Mastery Gradebook allows drag-and-drop reordering of outcome columns, and this triggers a call to /api/v1/courses/:course_id/assign_outcome_order. The API returns 204 No Content (success), but the column order does not persist after page refresh. Steps to Reproduce: Open Learning Mastery Gradebook for…
Gradebook Color Status for Incomplete 2-Part Discussions (Discussion Checking-point)
Hi all, Quick question about the Gradebook color status for a 2-part checkpoint discussion. If a student completes the first due date (initial post) but does not complete the required replies by the second due date, is there any way for Canvas to automatically show a color (e.g., missing/late) instead of staying as…
"Take the Quiz" button missing
We have recently encountered an issue where two students were unable to see the "Take the Quiz" button. These students were taking different exams for different courses within our Testing Center. Both exams required Respondus LockDown Browser and were restricted to specific IP addresses. In both cases, the students were…
Enhancing Collaborative Evaluation Workflows Using Canvas Portfolios
Canvas Portfolios provide a powerful platform for students to document their learning journey, reflect on their progress, and showcase competencies. However, in programs where multiple educators are involved in assessment—such as team teaching, moderation, or competency-based evaluation—there are important questions about…