eLearning Blog

Category: LMS

Grade Submission Options

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Grades

As we near the finish line of a challenging spring semester it’s a good time to review the options instructors have for submitting their final course grades. Read on to learn more about using the Canvas gradebook or Banweb to accomplish this.

Submit Grades from Canvas Gradebook

If you keep your Canvas gradebook accurate (with no muted or ungraded assignments and a correct grading scheme in place) you can choose to have Banner extract grades directly. The grading scheme validates Michigan Tech letter grades so they can be used in the Canvas gradebook. The Total column of the Canvas gradebook automatically calculates grades based on all published assignments in the course (including any weighting established with individual assignment groups). This column can be used for final grade submission, but this is a calculated column and cannot be manually adjusted.

To provide flexibility, all Canvas courses are created with an unpublished assignment called Final (course grade) which allows instructors to enter letter grades directly in Canvas. Once grades are entered you can choose to extract final grades from this assignment column by selecting it when using the Canvas grade submission tool. Details on submitting grades from Canvas are available in this knowledge base article.

Submit Grades from Banweb

You can also submit grades directly in Banweb via the Faculty/Advisor tab. This options allows you to manually enter grades and works well for smaller course sections (less than 30). When you choose the grade submission option in Banweb you are directed to choose the course and then the final grade option to begin entering grades. Any “I” or “F” grades that you enter will require you to provide additional information about student attendance in the course. A Banweb submission knowledge base article details this option.

Regardless of the grade submission option you choose it’s important to make sure that the grade information in your Canvas gradebook is up to date and accurate so your students know their status as the term progresses.

Resources

Need Help?

Contact the elearning support team in the Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning if you have questions about Canvas, Huskycast, Zoom or other educational technology tools.

elearning@mtu.edu | 487-3000

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Respondus Live Proctoring; Is this the right tool for your class?

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Lockdown Browser +Instructor Live Proctoring

Pandemic-induced remote instruction practices have brought new challenges for protecting the integrity of student assessments. If you can’t administer your exam in the classroom and can’t use the services of the Michigan Tech Testing Center (students not campus-based) there are other options.

Michigan Tech instructors have had access to Respondus LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor to support online assessments for some time. Now a third option called Respondus Live Proctoring is available. To review, LockDown Browser is a dedicated browser designed to confine the testing environment to Canvas. A companion tool called Respondus Monitor builds on this by leveraging student webcams and video analytics to help deter cheating in non-proctored environments. Instructor Live Proctoring adds to the Respondus toolbox by working in conjunction with LockDown Browser and Zoom to allow instructors to proctor exams live (via a Zoom meeting) for small classes (Respondus recommends up to 25). Let’s take a closer look at this new option.

To use Respondus Live Proctoring instructors create a Canvas assessment using the Quiz tool and then enable Respondus LockDown Browser and Live Proctoring from the LockDown Browser dashboard available in the Canvas course navigation.

Respondus Lockdown Browser dashboard in Canvas
Respondus LockDown Browser Dashboard
Live Proctoring Settings
Respondus Live Proctoring Setting

To avoid test day complications make sure students have previously installed LockDown Browser on the computer they will be taking the exam on. At test time students join the Zoom meeting for last minute instructions, attendance, and a start code that will allow them to open the exam from LockDown Browser. Canvas Classic Quizzes (used by most MTU instructors currently) require students to first open LockDown Browser, log in to the Canvas course, and then open the quiz. Once the quiz is opened in LockDown Browser, students are confined to the quiz environment, but the Zoom meeting is still active in the background. This allows the instructor to proctor students via their webcams in the Zoom meeting.

Important Considerations

The CTL recently tested the Live Proctoring feature and offers the following observations and guidance.

Test, test, test

It’s important to test this workflow before an actual exam. Creating a simple Canvas test quiz with the Live Proctoring feature enabled will allow for this. Students will have an opportunity to install LockDown Browser and open the test quiz to confirm that their system is working properly. This also gives you a chance to experience what Live Proctoring “looks like” from a Zoom meeting. As noted earlier, Respondus recommends this feature for small class sizes (no more than 25).

Limited communication during quiz

Once the Canvas quiz is underway the instructor maintains full access to the Zoom meeting while students have NO ACCESS to the Zoom meeting. As long as students leave their webcam and microphone on before starting the quiz the instructor will still be able to see and hear them. This also means that other students can hear them as well. As the instructor, you get to decide how to manage any potential distraction that may arise. You could ask students to mute their microphone before they open the quiz in LockDown Browser. Or you could ask students to leave their microphone on, but complete the exam in a quiet space to avoid distractions. You could also mute individual student microphones from your Zoom controls if distractions arise during the quiz.

It is technically possible for instructors to make an announcement in the Zoom meeting during the quiz, but students would not see the instructor. One option might be to inform students in advance that you will ask for questions at a predetermined time so students know there will be an opportunity to ask a question at some point. All students would hear any discussion between any one student and the instructor.

Live Proctoring is different that Monitor

The Live Proctoring feature does not record students during the test and does not provide instructors with any alerts of suspicious activity during exam time. That’s the job of the instructor. Automated recording and alerts is only available in the automated Respondus Monitor proctoring solution.

Resources

Need Help?

Contact the elearning support team in the Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning if you have questions about Canvas, Huskycast, Zoom or other educational technology tools.

elearning@mtu.edu | 487-3000

Continue Reading →