Assessing Students
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      1. CTL Knowledge Base
      2. Courseworks (Canvas)
      3. Assessing Students

      How do I grade student assignment submissions?

      Once students complete an assignment, there are several options for downloading and grading the assignment. You may bulk download assignment submissions for grading on your computer or use the SpeedGrader to annotate and grade assignments in CourseWorks.

      How do I add or edit points for assignments?

      To add or edit points for an assignment in CourseWorks, you will need to use the "Assignments" section in your course.

      Steps to Follow:

      1. Go to your course and select "Assignments" from the navigation menu.
      2. Click the options icon (three dots button) next to the assignment you want to edit and select "Edit".
      3. In the assignment settings, modify the "Points Possible" field to your desired value.
      4. Click "Save" to apply the changes.

      How do I download my student's assignment submissions?

      You can download all your students' assignments from Canvas as a zip file to grade them offline on your computer. 

      Steps to Follow:

      1. Access the assignments area and select the assignment you want to download. 
      2. On the right side of the page, under "Related Items," you will see the "Download Submissions" option. 
      3. Click "Download Submissions" tol generate a compressed zip file containing all student submissions for that assignment.
      4. Once downloaded, open the zip file on your computer to access individual student submissions for grading.

      How do I hide grades until ready to share with students?

      In some cases, instructors may wish to hold student grades until all assignments have been graded, and then release grades to all students at the same time. To hide student grades temporarily, an instructor can choose to mark an assignment as "muted". Students can still see and submit a muted assignment. Only the grade will be hidden.

      Please note that muted assignments in the grade book may cause problems when importing the Canvas total score. The scores for muted assignments are not included in the calculation of the imported score, although the total score looks correct in the grade book.

      Learn more about the muting and unmuting assignments here. 

      How do I give extra credit in a course?

      To give extra credit in CourseWorks, you can create an extra credit assignment or add points to an existing assignment. 

      Steps to Create an Extra Credit Assignment:

      1. Go to the “Assignments” page
      2. Click “+Assignment”
      3. Name the assignment "Extra Credit"
      4. Set the points to zero (0)
      5. Choose No Submission for the submission type
      6. Click Save & Publish
      7. Manually add points in the Gradebook

      Steps to Add Points to an Existing Assignment: 

      1. Locate the assignment in the Gradebook
      2. Click on the score area for the student you want to give extra credit to
      3. Update the score points

      Steps to Use an Assignment Group to give extra credit: 

      1. Create an assignment group and name it "Extra Credit"
      2. Assign a weight to the group that's higher than 100%
      3. Add assignments to the group

      You can use the Test Student feature to see how extra credit will appear to students. 

      CTL has also published a self-paced online course on Assessing and Grading Students. Follow the link to enroll.

      Up-to-date information about grading in CourseWorks can be found in the Canvas Instructor Guide. 

      Last updated: 08/28/2025