How to Weight Course Grades Using Assignment Groups
While Assignment Groups allow you to organize the assignments in your course, they can also be used to weight the final course grade. Canvas will calculate the final course grades based on the percent weight assigned to each assignment group. The percent weights will display in the gradebook and can be changed at any point in time.
Please Note the following:
Percent weights are assigned to each assignment group, not the assignments themselves.
The total percentage of all assignment groups can be set above or below 100%.
If an assignment group is weighted to zero percent, any course items added to the group will not count toward the final grade.
To weight the final course grade based on assignment groups, please follow the steps below in the tab called "How to Weight Course Grades Using Assignment Groups".
For an explanation of how the final grades are calculated by Canvas when assignment group weights are used, please see the tab below called "Final Grade Calculation Explanation."
How to Weight Course Grades Using Assignment Groups
Navigate to your canvas course and click Assignments in the course menu on the left.
Click the options menu (3 vertical dots) at the top right corner of the page.
From the dropdown menu, click Assignment Groups Weight.
Click the Checkbox to the left of Weight final grade based on assignment groups.
Proceed to enter the appropriate percent weight for each assignment group. Note: The percent weight can include decimals. Check to make sure your total sums to 100%; Canvas will not provide a warning if your total is above or below 100%.
Click the blue Save button.
Note that the percent weights you entered in step 5, will now appear to the right of each assignment group.
When you go to the gradebook and filter by All Assignment Groups, the last few columns of the gradebook will display the overall student scores for each assignment group. Note that the percent weights for each assignment group will display below the name of the assignment group. The "Total" column will display the final course mark for each student.
Final Grade Calculation Explanation
Image 1 depicts an assignment group called "Midterms" that contains the following 3 assignments:
Midterm 1 (Essay) - worth 35 points
Midterm 2 (Multiple Choice) - worth 45 points
Midterm 3 (Final Report) - worth 20 points
The total possible points for the "Midterms" assignment group is 100 points (35 + 45 +20).
If Student A's score totaled 85 points for the "Midterms" assignment group (Image 2: The student receives a 30/35 on Midterm 1, 40/45 on Midterm 2, and 15/20 on Midterm 3), the Student A would earn an 85% (Image 3) for the "Midterms" assignment group.
In the gradebook, note how the "Midterms" column displays a score of 85% for the student (Image 3). This percentage is then multiplied by the selected group weight of 50% to yield the assignment group calculation.
Canvas calculates the final grade by taking the sum of the assignment group calculations. For example, a course has the following 4 assignment groups (Image 4):
Quizzes - worth 5% of Total
Midterms - worth 50% of Total
Final Exam - worth 40% of Total
Discussion - worth 5% of Total
A student receives the following scores for each assignment group (Image 5):
Quizzes = 90%
Midterms = 85%
Final Exam = 100%
Discussions = 100%
The assignment group calculations for this student will be:
Quizzes: (0.90×0.05)=0.045
Midterms: (0.85×0.50)=0.425
Final Exam: (1.0×0.40)=0.40
Discussions: (1.0×0.05)=0.05
The final score for this student will be the sum of the assignment group calculations multiplied by 100%:
(0.045 + 0.425 + 0.40 + 0.05) x 100% = 92%
Please note the final score calculation is changed if there are no graded items in an assignment group. In this case, all assignment groups with graded items will be divided by their combined weight, and the assignment groups without graded items are removed from the equation. If the previous example was adjusted so that the assignment group called "Discussions" contained no graded material, the calculation for final score would be [(0.90 x 0.05) + (0.85 x .50)+ (1.0 x 0.40)] ÷ 0.95 = 0.915 or 91.5%.