Set Assignment Groups & Weights

Assignment Groups are your evaluation/grading criteria categories you use to grade your students. Weights are the percents the assignment groups are worth (adding up to 100%). You probably have this information already in your syllabus in the section Evaluation and Grading Criteria. If not, consider establishing this grading format for your online course.
 View this Overview of Assignments video from Canvas

Setting Assignment Groups with corresponding percent Weights is beneficial for you and your students. It allows you to set your level of importance for the work your students will do. It objectively communicates your expectations since it is based on percents. For example, you might have a course long project that you think is significant for your students and requires a good deal of work. You can easily set the Weight of this project to any percent (perhaps 30% out of 100%).

Another benefit for you is that Canvas has its own built-in grade calculator (Yay!). Once you set up your Assignment Groups and Weights, Canvas does the grade calculations while your course is running and the final grades themselves (in your Gradebook). Knowing how your students are doing in real-time allows you to identify and support those students that aren't doing well in your class.

The benefits for your students are similar to yours. Your students will understand how you are grading them on a high level. They, too, can keep track of how they are doing throughout your course and reach out to you if need be.

Use your Evaluation and Grading Criteria from your syllabus to set up your Assignment Groups and corresponding percent Weights in your online classroom. Add Assignment Groups, set your final grade to be based on Weights, and then add percents to each group (adding up to 100%). 

• ❑ How do I use the Assignments Page? Links to an external site.
• ❑ How do I add an Assignment Group Links to an external site.
• ❑ How do I move or reorder an assignment group? Links to an external site.
• ❑ How do I set assignment weights using assignment groups? Links to an external site.

Next, Announcements (one easy way to communicate with your crew).