Grading in Canvas – How to Set up and Customize the Canvas Gradebook

Last updated on April 1, 2026

Note: This is the fourth section of a five-section Canvas Spotlight on Grading in Canvas. Below is a list of the other sections:

1. Grading in Canvas
2. Identify What Can and Cannot be Graded in the Canvas Gradebook
3. Understand How Students Interact with the Canvas Gradebook
4. How to Set up and Customize the Canvas Gradebook
5. How Assignment Groups Impact the Canvas Gradebook

The Canvas Gradebook offers a wide variety of customizations and options, allowing you to create a system that works best for you.

This final Spotlight in the Grading in Canvas Series will go over how to create grade configuration and calculation rules, adjust the Gradebook settings, and navigate all the different features of the Canvas Gradebook.

Directions

Gradebook Configurations

You can set the Gradebook to calculate students’ grades based on specific grading policies, such as weighted grades, dropped scores, late policies, and curved grades.

Grading Schemes

As the default, Canvas will show a student’s total grade as a percentage. However, you may want the students’ final grades to appear as a letter grade. In Canvas, you are able to enable and create Course Grading Schemes that will calculate a student’s letter grade based on either percentage or point ranges.

To learn how to set up a Grading Scheme for your course, check out our Spotlight, Finalize Your Course for End of Semester.

You can also add Grading Schemes to individual assignments. Read our tutorial, Add a Grading Scheme to an Assignment, to learn more.

Weighted Grades

Some instructors prefer to use weighted grades instead of points-based grades. With a weighted grading scheme, assignment groups are each set to make up a certain percentage of the total grade. For example, homework could be weighted at 15%, discussion at 20%, quizzes at 25%, and exams at 40%. Canvas would automatically perform the calculations to determine a student’s total grade.

Points are still relevant within each grading category. For example, a 20 point homework assignment will impact the grade more than a 10 point homework assignment. However, the number of total points or total assignments in each category does not affect the weighted grading scheme. If the homework category contains 1000 points, and the exam category only contains 100 points, homework will still have a far smaller impact on the total grades than exam.

To learn how to set up weighted grades in your course, check out our tutorial, Create Weighted Assignment Groups.

Drop Lowest or Highest Grades

Canvas allows you to set rules to drop the lowest or highest grades within an assignment group. For example, if you had 10 homework assignments, you could have Canvas automatically drop the homework with the lowest score for each student. You can also select certain assignments to never be dropped.

To learn how to set up rules to drop scores, check out our tutorial, Drop Low and High Grades. 

Late and Missing Policies

Every instructor addresses late submissions differently. You can set your Canvas Gradebook to automatically deduct a percentage from a student’s score based on how late the assignment is submitted.

To learn how to adjust your late policy in the Gradebook, check out our spotlight, Late Policies. 

You can also set the Gradebook to automatically assign a zero grade to missing assignments.

1. Click Grades on the left-side course navigation menu.
2. Click the Settings Gear on the top right of the screen.
3. Click the box next to Automatically apply grade for missing submissions.
4. Enter a Zero in the text box that appears.
5. Click Apply Settings in the bottom right of the pop-up menu.

Note: You may want to turn off missing assignment settings before copying your course from one semester to the next, as Canvas can sometimes assign zeros to students based on the previous semester’s due dates.

Curved Grades

You can curve the grades on an individual assignment to create a fixed distribution of grades. This feature sets grades to fit a bell curve around an average grade you choose. The average score is not the true average of student’s pre-curved scores, but rather what you would like the average score on the assessment to be after curving.

Unlike other curving methods that raise all scores, Canvas’s curving formula will lower some scores, with the highest score always receiving 100%, and the lowest score calculated based on the average score you set.

After you curve an assignment’s grades, the curve cannot be undone. If you choose to use this feature, please use it with caution.

To curve the grades for a specific assignment:

1. Click Grades from the course navigation menu on the left.
2. Hover your cursor over the assignment name you want to curve.
3. Click the three-dots to the right of the assignment name.
4. Select Curve Grades from the drop-down menu.
5. Enter an Average Score for the assignment.
   • Note: Canvas does not calculate the average based on how students performed, you will need to decide what you want the average grade on the exam to be. The distribution of scores will then be calculated based on the Average Score you enter.
6. Click Curve Grades at the bottom right of the pop-up window. 

To learn more about how Canvas calculates students’ final score when using the Curve Grades feature, check out the Instructure Community resource, Curving Grades in Canvas.

Default Grades

You may set the Canvas Gradebook to automatically apply a default grade to an assignment unless you manually override that grade. This could be used, for example, if a student earns full credit by completing an activity and does not actually need to be graded.

To set a Default Grade for an Assignment in Canvas:

1. Click Grades from the course navigation menu on the left.
2. Hover your cursor over the assignment name you want to set a default grade for.
3. Click the three-dots to the right of the assignment name.
4. Select Set Default Grade from the drop-down menu.
5. Enter the score you want to be the default.
6. Select the box next to Overwrite already-entered grades if you want previously graded submissions to change to the default grade.
7. Click Set Default Grade.

Grade Override

If you would like to enter a final grade that is different from what Canvas has calculated, you may manually override that grade in Gradebook.

1. Click the Setting Gear Icon at the top right of the Grades page.
2. Click Advanced from the top panel in the pop-up window.
3. Select the box next to Allow final grade override.
4. Click Apply Settings at the bottom right of the pop-up window.
   • A new column will appear after the Total column where you can enter the final grade you want the student to have.

Grade Posting Policies

By default, Canvas will post grades automatically, so students can see their score as soon as the assignment is graded. You can change this setting to Manual grade posting, allowing you more control over when students can see their scores.

To learn more about Grade Posting Policies, check out our tutorial Use Grade Posting Policies in Canvas Gradebook.

Gradebook View Options

The Gradebook View Options in Canvas allow you to customize the organization of the gradebook in any way that you prefer. These options allow you to filter by categories (Modules, Assignment Groups, Status, etc.), customize how they are arranged, and more.

To learn about how to customize the organization and view of the Gradebook, check out our tutorial, Use Different View Options in the Gradebook.

Use Course Analytics

Course Analytics is a Canvas tool that allows you to easily analyze various types of course data. You can keep track of average course grades, weekly participation, individual student performance, and more! You can use this tool to identify areas of strength and weakness in your course and communicate with students who are struggling or thriving.

Read our tutorial, Use Course Analytics, to learn more.