Apps and Tools / Canvas · January 18, 2022

January Canvas Updates

Canvas has regular updates and from time to time, we’ll write about those here on the blog so you’re aware of some of the more important changes. This month, there are three small, but helpful, updates we wanted to make you aware of.

Gradebook labels

As you know, Canvas adds labels to the gradebook automatically. Starting this month, the “Missing” label will automatically be removed when you add a score. This is nice because before, you had to manually change the label. Saved mouse clicks for the win!

Splitting First and Last Names

There is a new setting available in the gradebook which allows you to split first and last names into two columns. On the surface, so what?

The default display in Canvas is First Name Last Name, but sorted by last name. You can change that display already by clicking the three-dot menu in the Name column and select Last, First Name.

Click the three-dot menu in the Student Name column, hover "display as," and select "Last, First Name" to display the roster alphabetically last name first.
Display student names as Last, First name in the Canvas Gradebook.

This gradebook change will add an option to the View menu allowing you to split student names into two columns.

The Canvas gradebook view menu has a new option to split student names into First and Last columns.
This new option is in the View menu.

The main benefit to using this option is that student names are still split when you export the gradebook as a CSV to use in Excel or Google Sheets.

Partial Credit on New Quiz Matching

New Quizzes used to only allow all-or-nothing scoring on Matching questions. Now, by default, partial credit will be awarded for matching questions. Scores are calculated by # correct – # incorrect. You can still manually override any individual question score in the SpeedGrader.

Watching for more…

We’ll keep an eye on more updates as they come and post them here. You can also subscribe to those updates yourself on the Canvas Community Forums.