Regular and substantive feedback on student work encourages academic growth and improvement. It is an important communication channel with your students. In the post below, we will discuss the general structure of grading and feedback in Canvas, as well as link to Canvas documentation on feedback and grading.

When you set up your Canvas Grades (Gradebook) and provide feedback to students, you will be working in three distinct areas of Canvas.

Assignments

The Assignments area of the Canvas lists every graded item in Canvas — assignments, quizzes, and graded discussions. Assignment Groups organize assignments and are used for weighted grades, if required.

This area exactly reflects the Grades (Gradebook) columns.

Grades (Gradebook)

The Grades (Gradebook) area of Canvas displays individual student grades, instructor feedback, and calculates total grades. The Grades (Gradebook) area has many features for entering, modifying and overriding grades, posting/hiding columns, calculating late work deductions, and messaging students based on grading criteria.

SpeedGrader

The SpeedGrader is the grading interface for online assignments, quizzes, and discussions. The SpeedGrader layout displays student work, any grading rubrics, and feedback options (including annotations, written, audio, or video feedback).

Students access instructor feedback entered in the SpeedGrader through their view of Grades.