Grade Totals in Canvas

Thomas J. Kennedy

Contents:

The Syllabus lists the weights for computing your Final Course Grade.

Example 1: Syllabus - Grading

Final grades will be computed using the following weights:

CS 417 CS 517

Homework 30% 25%

Machine Assignments -- 5%

Exam 1 15% 15%

Exam 2 15% 15%

Semester Project 10% 10%

Final Exam 30% 30%

Total 100% 100%

Final course grades will be assigned based on the standard 10-point scale ¹:

Point Range Letter Grade

90 – 100 A

80 – 89 B

70 – 79 C

60 – 69 D

59 and Below F

I will apply pluses (+) and minuses (-) to letter grades as appropriate.

CS417 students are encouraged to complete Machine Assignments. 5% of your Machine Assignment average will be added to your Final Grade.

Your Final Exam percentage can be used to replace your Exam 1 or Exam 2 grade… if your Final Exam percentage is higher. Note that both Exam 1 and Exam 2 can potentially be replaced.

	CS 417	CS 517
Homework	30%	25%
Machine Assignments	--	5%
Exam 1	15%	15%
Exam 2	15%	15%
Semester Project	10%	10%
Final Exam	30%	30%
Total	100%	100%

Point Range	Letter Grade
90 – 100	A
80 – 89	B
70 – 79	C
60 – 69	D
59 and Below	F

1 Canvas Total is Wrong!?

However, your Interim Total does not always match these weights. At the end of the semester… your Total Grade (i.e., Final Grade) will be correct.

There are a few obvious discrepancies if you are a CS 417 student…

Homework is only 25% instead of 30%
Machine Assignments are 5% instead of showing up as Extra Credit
There is a 417/517 column
There is a 417 - Homework Adjustment column
There is a Grade Computation Category worth 5%

and… Weights add up to 105%. Due to

how Canvas grading works
how Extra Credit is applied
the Homework and Machine Assignment differences for CS 417/517

we have a bit of a Rube Goldberg machine.

1.1 Homework

If you are a CS 417 student your Homework Total is shown with a weight of 25%. You will see the same total listed under 417 - Homework Adjustment with a weight of 5%. And… 25 + 5 = 30 which is the correct Homework weight.

If you are a CS 517 the 417 - Homework Adjustment will be blank.

1.2 Machine Assignments

If you are a CS 417 student… Machine Assignments are optional. They can add up to 5 points to your final course grade using

0.05 * (Machine Assignment Average)

However, Canvas requires that all students have the same Final Grade Computation. The Machine Assignment average does impact your Total Grade until the end of the semester when all grade are entered.

At the end of the semester… Machine Assignments will be correctly included in your grade (i.e., as points).

If you are a CS 517 student… the 5% weight is correct.

2 Extra Credit Value is Decreasing!?

This is can be explained with some quick math (well… arithmetic). Suppose that you have

earned 10 points of Homework extra credit
earned 10 out of 10 points on Homework 0

The Homework portion of your grade uses the standard earned-divided-by-possible computation:

(total earned points + extra credit points) / (total possible points)

In our example this would become

10 / 10 = 1.0 = 100%

before Extra Credit… and

(10 + 10) / 10 = 2.0 = 200%

after incorporating Extra Credit.

As you complete more Homework the Extra Credit will still be worth the same number of points. But the Homework possible point-total will increase.

Consider the following table. For this example… assume a perfect score on every exercise.

Most Recent Assignment	Total Earned	+10 Points	Possible Points	Avg.	Avg. with Extra Credit
Introduction Post	1	11	1	100	1100
0	11	21	11	100	190.91
1	21	31	21	100	147.62
2	31	41	31	100	132.26
3	41	51	41	100	124.39
4	51	61	51	100	119.61
5	61	71	61	100	116.39
6	71	81	71	100	114.08
7	87	91	81	100	112.35
8	91	101	91	100	110.99
9	101	111	101	100	109.90
10	111	121	111	100	109.01
11	121	131	121	100	108.26