Grading Your Harmonize Discussions in Canvas

Overview

Now that you've created your graded Harmonize discussion in Canvas and student's have begun participating, how do you grade it? This article outlines all the aspects of grading within Harmonize from viewing current student activity to entering grades into the gradebook.

Viewing Harmonize Discussion Activity

The Harmonize Discussion Activity Report allows instructors to view the posts and comments that have been made by each participant. It is particularly useful when facilitating a topic discussion or viewing activity in a discussion prior to its due date. This Discussion Activity view will always reflect the most up to date discussion activity and indicate when student work is available for grading via SpeedGrader. Please see the following help guide for more information:

• Harmonize Discussion Activity

Harmonize submits student work to SpeedGrader when the final Milestone Due Date elapses or the student fulfills all Milestone requirements, whichever occurs first. If your final Milestone Due Date has elapsed, you are free to open the SpeedGrader view of your Harmonize Discussion and grade your students according to the work they've posted.

NOTE: If you are not using Milestones with your graded Harmonize discussion, please skip to The SpeedGrader View section of this guide.

The SpeedGrader View

• Open your Harmonize discussion.
• Click the SpeedGrader button located on the upper right corner of the page. 

• This will open the Canvas SpeedGrader view.
• Please note that the left window is the same as the individual student view of the Harmonize Discussion Activity Report.

• [1] Public Topic Activity. This area displays a detailed view of all public original student posts as well as all public comments and replies to other student or instructor posts.
• [2] Annotating Your Student's Work. This is a live view of the discussion and you are able to fully interact with it by commenting / annotating your student's work. Please see the following help guide for more information: Commenting / Annotating Your Student's Work.
• [3] Posting Comments / Replies. Because this is a live view of the discussion, you are also able to post a comment or reply on your student's work, including Private Comments and Replies.
• [4] Milestones. This area displays a detailed view of the student's Milestone progress along with the current status of Participation Auto-Grading. See Milestones and Auto-Grading to learn more about these features.
• [5] Public Activity Totals. This areas displays the total student participation in the current discussion including the number of student posts and comments, the number of responses received, and the number of all discussion posts viewed by the student.
• [6] Canvas SpeedGrader Panel. This is the Canvas SpeedGrader panel and it enables you to enter student grades as well as grade/assignment comments. Please see "How do I use SpeedGrader?" for more information.
  • If enabled for this discussion, Harmonize's Auto-Grading feature will automatically submit any points earned by the student into the SpeedGrader Assessment field. A complete breakdown of earned points is available in the Milestones section of the Harmonize window.
    • NOTE: Instructors may override the points/grade awarded to the student at any time by entering a new grade in the Canvas Assessment field.
  • All points entered into the Assessment field will automatically appear in the Canvas Gradebook.

Auto-grading in Canvas

You may also choose to use auto-grading for your Harmonize discussions in Canvas. There are a few things you should know:

Sending Scores to SpeedGrader

Assuming the discussion has one or more Milestones and Auto-Grading enabled, Harmonize will send a student's score to SpeedGrader when one of the following occurs, whichever comes first:

1. Milestones complete. The student completes all requirements for all Milestones.
2. Due date passed. The dues dates for all Milestones on the assignment have passed.

Showing Grades to Students

Students will see their score for the assignment:

• On their Canvas Dashboard in Recent Feedback
• In their individual grades as soon as the score generated by Harmonize Auto-Grading appears in the SpeedGrader score text box
• In the Canvas gradebook

Optionally, you can change the Canvas Grading Policy to Manual to control when the grades are released.

Partially Completed Milestones

• If a student only completes one of the Milestones, they will receive points for only that milestone and none for the Milestones that were not met. 
• If a student completes a portion of the requirements in a Milestone, they will receive a percentage of the possible points.

Work Submitted After the Due Date

If students complete requirements after Milestone due dates, their content will still appear in the SpeedGrader view but it will be marked as late. Likewise, their Milestone section will be highlighted in red to note that the milestones were completed after the due date. 

Caution with milestones: Setting a Milestone requirement to be completed after the Canvas Assignment due date may result in student work being marked late by Canvas.

Note that once a grade has been given for a student, either manually by the instructor or by Harmonize via the Auto-Grading feature, the posts and comments present at the time of grading will become locked and cannot be edited by the student.

Can instructors change the participation score created by Harmonize?

Yes, instructors can change the score in SpeedGrader as they see fit. This is done by editing the score in the SpeedGrader score text box.

Still Have Questions about Auto-grading in Canvas?

See Harmonize Auto-Grading & Canvas SpeedGrader FAQs for details.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How does auto-grading work in Canvas?

• Auto-grading works similarly to regular grading. Student work passes through to the SpeedGrader and gets graded when the discussion's final Milestone Due Date elapses or the student fulfills all Milestone requirements, whichever occurs first. Students see their grades immediately (unless a manual posting policy has been set up). See Harmonize Auto-Grading & Canvas SpeedGrader FAQs for details.

Q. How do I make student work appear in SpeedGrader? 

• Harmonize submits student work to SpeedGrader when your discussion's final Milestone Due Date elapses or the student fulfills all Milestone requirements, whichever occurs first.
• We recommend using Harmonize's Discussion Activity view if you want to review student work prior to the final Milestone due date. Please see the following help guide for more information: Harmonize Discussion Activity.

Q. Why is the score that appears in SpeedGrader different from the score that appears in the Gradebook?

• This discrepancy is usually caused by a Late Submission Policy you have enabled in the Gradebook. Please see "How do I apply a Late Submission policy in the Gradebook?" for more information.