Gradebook Filtering And Organization

Search for Students and Assignments

Canvas has several search and sort functions to help you locate information quickly.

  • Student Names - You can search by first name or last name to filter your gradebook down to the student (or students) whose grades you want to see. To select multiple students for your filter, click on the name of one student in your search bar then start typing the name of the next student in the search bar next to the selected student’s name.
  • Assignment Names - You can display specific assignments in your gradebook by searching and selecting an assignment in the Assignment Names field. Like the Student Names field, the Assignment Names field allows the selection of one or multiple assignments.

The student and assignment filters can be used together to allow you to easily find the gradebook entry for a specific student’s assignment.

Did you know?

You can now view student names in separate columns for first name and last name. This can be helpful for gradebook exports (possible in the Actions menu at the top of the gradebook) where student names should be separated.

To view split names in the enhanced gradebook filter view (see below for more info), click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the gradebook and select the View Options tab. Check the "Split Student Names" box to view separate columns for first and last name. In the non-enhanced filter gradebook, this option is found in the View menu at the top of the gradebook page.

Filtering the Gradebook

The new enhanced gradebook filters feature moves the filters to a slide-out menu on the right side of the screen, giving you more space to explore and select gradebook filters. You can also name and save your filters for easy access to turn on and off.

As of August 2023, the enhanced gradebook filter will be on in every course.

Enhanced Filters

The enhanced gradebook filter functionality improves the experience of having multiple filters selected at once. The filter labels that appear next to “Applied Filters” help you easily see which filters are turned on, avoiding the clutter of multiple filters found in the non-enhanced version of gradebook filtering.

To create and enable a filter, click the Filter button on the right side of the gradebook screen. This will open the slide-out menu in which filters can be built and saved.

Enahnced Gradebook Filter On

While you can have multiple filters turned on at the same time, you cannot select multiple conditions of the same type to display at the same time. For example, you can only filter to one section at a time, not two sections in a course with three or more sections.

Read more about the enhanced gradebook filters here: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-create-a-filter-in-Enhanced-Gradebook-Filters/ta-p/513581. Links to an external site.

Note: Filters are tied to individuals, not courses

You can create and save your filters for future use in your course. However, filters that you save will not be visible to other instructors in your course, so they will need to make their own saved filters, if needed.

Sorting and Organizing the Gradebook

By default, your gradebook will list students alphabetically by their last name and will list assignments in the order in which they appear in your Assignments tab in Canvas (including quizzes and graded discussions, all of which will appear in Assignments). However, you can change your gradebook’s display through the following actions:

  • Drag-and-drop assignments - you can reorder the assignments in your gradebook by dragging the column headers (assignment name) into the preferred order. This will not change the order of assignments in the Assignments tab of your Canvas course.
  • “Sort by” function in assignment menu - hover over an assignment’s name (in the column header of the gradebook) to reveal the three-dot menu to the right of the assignment name. In this menu, you have several sorting options, including assignment grade, missing submissions, and late submissions.
  • Arrange assignments - you can arrange the order of assignments in the gradebook alphabetically, by due date, by point value, or by module. In the enhanced filter gradebook view, the arrange function is found in the Gradebook Settings (gear icon in upper right corner) under the View Options tab.  In the non-enhanced filter gradebook view, the arrange function is located in the View menu at the top of the gradebook, just below the course name.

Did you know?

You can use the “Message Students Who” function in the assignment options (three-dot) menu to send a message to all students who scored above/below a specific grade or students whose assignment hasn’t been graded.

Gradebook Settings

The enhanced gradebook filter interface moves several key gradebook management functions to the gradebook settings area (noted with a gear icon in the upper right corner of the gradebook):

  • Late Policies
  • Grade Posting Policy
  • View Options - contains the following settings/options:
    • Arrange by - options for sorting gradebook columns
    • Show - Notes, Unpublished Assignments, and Split Student Names
    • Status color selection - change the colors associated with various assignment statuses (late, missing, excused, etc.)

Speedgrader and Assignment Status

From the gradebook, you can launch Speedgrader Links to an external site. to grade student submissions of assignments, graded discussions, or quizzes.

To access assignment information from the gradebook, click on the student's score or submission for the given assignment in the gradebook to produce a right-pointing arrow icon. Then click on that icon to see a slide-out menu on the right side of the screen that shows the assignment score, the status of the assignment, a comment box, and a link to Speedgrader for grading the assignment.