Getting Started — Dropping Scores

So the semester is about to begin, and I’m getting my Canvas site set up. One of the first things I do is figure out what kind of work do I want to do this semester. Do I want to try something new? Am I going to change things up? If so, they I come up with my point scale. For example, this semester is going to look like:

Four midterms (100 Pts. each)                       400               (44.44%)           
Homework Checkups                                          25                (2.77%)
Homework Surveys                                             25                 (2.77%)
In Class Quizzes/Exercises                               95                 (10.56%)
Nomenclature Quiz                                             25                 (2.78%)
Prelab Exercises                                                15                 (1.67%)
Prelab Quizzes                                                   30                 (3.34%)
Lab Reports                                                       110               (12.23%)            Unknowns                                                           25                 (2.77%)
Final Exam                                                          150               (16.67%)      

This is directly from my syllabus. Notice that each has a percentage next to it. These will come up in a future post. For now, it’s simple enough just to note that there are different ‘groups.’ See, for the Checkups, Surveys, Quizzes, Lab Reports, and Exercises, I drop the lowest point value. I could do this manually in Excel, but I like to keep my students up to date.

Step 1: In the Assignments section, make a bunch of GROUPS that go along with your materials.

Step 2: Click on the three little dots next to a group you want to drop something in at the top of the section and select Edit

Step 3: You’ll get a window like below. You can select how many assignments you want to drop. Another nifty function is down at the bottom. Let’s say you don’t want them to be able to drop their last assignment (so they have to turn it in even if they are doing really well). You can tell Canvas not to remove specific assignments.

Now. This is a pretty vanilla thing to do. Lot of Canvas users know how to do it. This is just a small taste of things to come (get the cooking references? Eh? Eh????).