Gradescope will help you turn assignments around faster and more efficiently, while still providing detailed feedback/rubrics! Additionally, you'll be able to view data about how the assignments worked overall for your students.
Why Use Gradescope
- Good for both homework and exams
- You can have multiple graders collaborating
- Grading is done by problem or question (versus by an entire submission), which helps keep grading consistent
- Code submissions are easier to assess
- Students can submit handwritten assignments for grading (useful for equations!)
- Online assignments can be created that can replace older, paper-based assignments
Where to Start
First, you'll need to enable Gradescope in Canvas:
- Navigate to "Settings" in your Canvas course.
- Click on the tab for "Navigation."
- Find "Gradescope" on the list and select the drop-down menu next to it.
- Select "enable."
- Select "Save" to finalize these changes!
- Access Gradescope by selecting "Gradescope" on the left-hand navigation menu.
Accessing & Using Gradescope
You'll both access and use Gradescope by selecting "Gradescope" from the left-hand navigation menu (once it has been enabled in your course shell).
Navigation Links
- Dashboard: Overview of To Do items, shortcut for creating assignments, and assignment status info.
- Assignments: This is where you'll create and configure course assignments.
- Roster: By default, this includes the currently enrolled student, as well as any roles associated with the shell (graders, reviewers, etc.).
- Extensions: Where you can add extensions and add time for students who require accommodations.
- Course Settings: Verify the course info and use the features to alter integrated course settings.
Assignments
Here, you can create and access previously created assignments.
Create An Assignment
Click "Assignments," followed by "Create Assignment" in the bottom, right-hand corner to quickly create an assignment!
The Assignment Workflow is the configured process for assignments in Gradescope. It includes assignment types, managing scans and submissions, grading, reviewing, re-grading, and assignment statistics. Here, assignments can be duplicated, and grades can be downloaded.
Gradescope maintains an up-to-date resource on the Assignment Workflow.
Assignment Types
- Exam/Quiz
- Very similar to a paper-based exam
- Students can complete and upload via their mobile devices
- Learn More
- Homework/Problem Set
- Similar to a paper-based homework/problem set
- For courses that require computation
- Learn More
- Bubble Sheet
- Allows you to print off a template & create something similar to a scantron
- Bubble Sheet Template
- Students can upload the completed bubble sheet from their mobile device
- Responses are auto-graded
- Learn More
- Programming Assignment
- Students can submit code samples & projects
- Both a custom-written autograder feature, as well as the ability to manually grade (utilizing a traditional grading & feedback interface)
- Learn More
Linking An Assignment to Gradescope in Canvas
Once your course has been linked to Gradescope, assignments can be linked in Canvas using the External Tool option in Canvas Assignments.
- Click on Canvas "Assignments" and then "+ Assignment."
- Select the "External Tool" submission type.
- Click "Find" and search for "Gradescope" from the list of options.
- Select the option to "Save and Publish."
- In order for the assignment to be recognized properly, it needs to be published in Canvas!
- Alter the assignment grade post policies on the assignment itself to control how students will be communicated with about grading and the assignment.
- Create the Gradescope assignment and click "Link" under Canvas Assignment. Find the published assignment from the listing.
Roster
Once a Gradescope course is paired to the Canvas site, the rosters can be synced between the two systems. To learn more about this, please refer to Gradescope's guide on LMS Integration.
Extensions
Access extensions by selecting "Extensions" on the left-hand navigation menu. Then click "Add Extension."
When accessibility accommodations are a factor, Gradescope behaves very similarly to Canvas. There are similar abilities built-in for Online Assignments.. For timed assignments, for example, you can choose to add extra time in actual time (minutes) or as a factor of the original time allotment (e.g. 1.5x, 2x, etc.).
Course Settings
Canvas Course in Gradescope displays the paired Canvas Course via the Gradescope-Canvas integration (LTI). Use this field to verify that the correct course information is paired. Use the features to Change Link and Unlink to alter the integrated course settings.
Grading defaults in Gradescope determines the default rubric behaviors and boundaries. By default, Gradescope adopts a Negative Scoring rubric — in other words students start with full credit and as you give feedback and deduct points for errors/mistakes. If you use the Positive Scoring behavior — you build the student’s grade up by adding points as you grade questions. The Ceiling is the maximum grade allowed on the assignment outline (including ways that extra credit can be allotted). The Floor sets how low a grade can go based on the rubric feedback and corresponding point deductions.
Note: In all of these cases you will still be able to programmatically re-grade responses based on groupings of like responses.
Support
Dartmouth contracts with Gradescope to provide direct user support on their tool. The following is information from Gradescope about how to access this support:
Gradescope Support (or as we call it - Customer Happiness): Customer support for Gradescope users is available via email (we reply within 24 hours): help@gradescope.com. Upon request, our Customer Happiness team is happy to schedule video calls and screen share. We also have a series of short onboarding videos and written help documentation in our help center. Instructor accounts also come pre-loaded with demo materials so that they can quickly try out Gradescope.
Resources