Why should I engage in this topic?

Why should you spend some time to get familiar with the tool, which in this case - Canvas’s functionalities on maintaining grades before you start drafting out the grading criteria in your syllabus?

If you are planning on using Canvas as a ‘one stop shop’ for both your students and you, where they can find all course content, participate in assessment activities, watch recordings, do readings, interact with their peers and you - the instructor, view grades. And where for you - the instructor to set up, manage and maintain the gradebook for the students, we strongly recommend you getting yourself familiar with Canvas’s capabilities on grading aspects first before everything.

Save time and avoid future headache

No matter if you are an experienced Moodle or Blackboard user, or Canvas is the first learning management system that you are going to use. It is important to get yourself familiar with Canvas, especially the functions Canvas provides on the grading aspects, so you can be fully prepared to design or rethink the gradebook set up of your course.

Failing to do so might result in frustration and time consuming fix after you finish setting up your assessment activities and only to find out your gradebook design is beyond Canvas’s capabilities, that you will need to rethink your gradebook design or looking for alternatives such as maintaining your gradebook in a spreadsheet outside of Canvas.