MSHE Instructional Design and Technology logo

Northwestern University Information Technology team (NU-IT) released an upgrade Oct. 19, 2019, that clarifies a fair grading process in Canvas.

Canvas now more clearly designates the hiding and posting of grades, designed to give students a fair review of the grades and feedback on a given assignment. “Mute Assignment” is now “Hide Grades,” while “Unmute Assignment” is now “Post Grades,” in Canvas’ new Gradebook. Through this labeling, instructors can more intuitively grade student work, hold back grades, then release all grades at once to students.

Step-by-step guide

1. Log in to Canvas and access your Canvas course.
2. Go to “Grades” along your course’s left menu to access Gradebook.
3. Click/tap the gear icon at the top right of the page.
4. Go to “Grade Posting Policy” tab. Select “Manually Post Grades.” Click Update. With this you have automatically muted all assignments, or, what is now called “hiding grades” in all assignments. No need to go to every assignment, as what was previously required.
5. Next, when you enter a grade, the assignment defaults to hiding grades. This means that you can enter scores and feedback for all students. When you are ready for students to see your feedback, unmute the assignment:
   1. Access Assignments page, a left-menu option on the course home page.
   2. Select specific assignment in which you want to release grades.
   3. Go to SpeedGrader.
   4. At the top left, you’ll see an eye icon crossed out. Click/tap on that, and select Post Grades (previously known as Unmuting Assignment).
   5. When you do this, students will automatically receive an email notification that grades and feedback are available for that assignment. They will need to log in to the Canvas course to view your grade and feedback.