End of Semester Gradebook Checklist in ISU Canvas for Faculty

Summary

This checklist provides a clear roadmap for aligning your ISU Canvas Gradebook with your syllabus to ensure a seamless end-of-term experience.

Body

Description

This checklist provides a clear roadmap for aligning your ISU Canvas Gradebook with your syllabus to ensure a seamless end-of-term experience.

By following the steps below, you will confirm accurate grading policies, consistent naming conventions, and clear communication for your students. This proactive approach sets your students up for success and makes your own workload more manageable.

Please note: Term grades need to be entered in MyISU. See Faculty Grade Entry

1. Ensure your Gradebook accurately reflects your syllabus.

Your ISU Canvas Gradebook should mirror the structure you have outlined in your syllabus. When categories, weights, or assignment names don't match, students may misinterpret how their grade is calculated.

Check the following:

Does every graded item in the syllabus appear in ISU Canvas?
Do the category names match?
Are the weights identical? (if used)
Does the grade book show only what you actually grade?

For more information, see:

How do I use the Gradebook?

2. Verify grade book columns match syllabus categories.

Each graded item in ISU Canvas should correspond to a category or assignment listed in your syllabus.

Don't do this:

The syllabus describes weighted categories, but the ISU Canvas Gradebook shows a list of items without weights.
Syllabus	ISU Canvas Gradebook
Participation: 10% Midterm Exam: 30% Final Exam: 40% Project: 20%	Weekly Quiz 1 Weekly Quiz 3 Assignment 1 Assignment 2 Assignment 3 Midterm Final

Do this instead:

The gradebook should be a direct reflection of what you have described in your syllabus. Please note, if you are using weighted assignment groups (categories) the individual items will be averaged based on their max grade. If all the individual items within an assignment group have the same max grade, they will contribute equally to the overall grade.

Both the syllabus and the ISU Canvas Gradebook have weighted groups of graded items with the same names.
Syllabus	ISU Canvas
Participation – 40% Discussion Wk1 Discussion Wk2 Final Exam – 60% Essay Section Multiple Choice Section	Participation – 40% Discussion Wk1 Discussion Wk2 Final Exam – 60% Essay Section Multiple Choice Section

For more information, see:

3. Use consistent naming conventions throughout the course.

Maintain uniform names for assignments, quizzes, and other graded items across both ISU Canvas and your syllabus to avoid confusion.

4. Review your course grading policies in ISU Canvas.

All your grading-related policies should be clearly stated in your syllabus and consistent with your policy settings in ISU Canvas.

Grading policies may include the following:

Late work
Resubmissions
Extra credit
Grade posting

For more information, see:

5. Match the grading scheme between ISU Canvas and your syllabus.

The "grading scheme" in Canvas is the relationship between the final grade percentage and letter grades. Ensure that the grading scheme in ISU Canvas matches your syllabus.

Please note that all courses were created with a Default ISU Grading Scheme.

Don't do this:

The syllabus shows a letter distribution different from the Default ISU Grading Scheme.
Syllabus	ISU Canvas
Course Grading Scheme A 96-100 A- 90-95 B+ 88-89 B 82-87 B- 80-81 C+ 78-79 C 72-77 C- 70-71 D+ 68-69 D 65-67 F 0-64	Default ISU Grading Scheme A 93-100 A- 90-92 B+ 87-89 B 83-86 B- 80-82 C+ 77-79 C 73-76 C- 70-72 D+ 67-69 D 63-66 D- 60-62 F 0-59

For more information, see:

How do I edit a grading scheme in a course?

6. Publish and post all graded assignments in ISU Canvas.

Unpublished and unposted grades are excluded from Canvas' total grade calculation, which can lead students to see inaccurate or inflated grades.
Publishing and posting all graded items ensures transparency and helps students understand their true standing.

For more information, see:

Tip: You can message students directly from the ISU Canvas Gradebook.

You can use "Message Students Who..." in the Gradebook to send targeted messages and reminders.
- Filtering criteria includes missing assignments, low scores, or late submissions.

For more information, see:

How do I send a message to students from the Gradebook?

Contact the ITRC if you need additional assistance.

Details

Article ID: 169200

Created

Thu 12/4/25 5:05 PM

Modified

Mon 12/8/25 6:15 PM