How to use the Canvas Learning Mastery Gradebook to Gather Data on All Students' Mastery Goals
The Canvas Mastery Learning Gradebook is the perfect tool to augment any teacher's mastery or standards-based grading system in the classroom.
The Canvas Mastery Learning Gradebook allows teachers to view a snapshot of all students' proficiency towards standards-based skills. In the screenshot below, each row represents one student's data; each column refers to a different standard. The teacher enters which standards he or she wishes to evaluate for any given assignment.
When you hover over each standard, the mastery gradebook will provide a percentage breakdown of your class's mastery/proficiency for that standard. (This data is based on your own assessment of student work.)
This is an invaluable tool to help you objectively assess the degree to which your students have mastered a standard, allowing you to make instructional decisions on whether students need more time practicing a skill, and to what degree.
This gradebook takes advantage of a common tool you're likely already using in Canvas -- the ability to add a rubric to an assignment and conduct your grading through Speedgrader:
When set up correctly, the data that you enter on a rubric through Speedgrader translates to the Canvas Mastery Learning Gradebook. This provides you with the data shown in the gradebook snapshot above. This means if you already grade students' work with rubrics in Speedgrader, there is not too much extra work you need to do in order to turn on the Mastery Gradebook and gain ample data on your students' progress!
Another benefit is that the Mastery Learning Gradebook is an additional tool to your traditional Canvas gradebook. This means you can conduct your grading as usual and play around with this tool, without affecting students' traditional gradebook data. Think of it like a second gradebook.
Part 1: Concept Overview and Considerations: The Canvas Learning Mastery Gradebook
Part 2: Setting up the Canvas Learning Mastery Gradebook
Set up the Tech
To turn on the Canvas Learning Mastery Gradebook, go to a Canvas course and select settings.
Click "Feature Options."
Under Learning Mastery Gradebook, hit the X and click "Enable."
If you wish to have students access the Mastery Gradebook, enable "Student Learning Mastery Gradebook" as well. (Students will only see their own data while your report will display the whole class's data.)
Now that you've enabled the Mastery Gradebook, it's time to tell it what skills you'd like students to master!
Step 1: Determine your standards
When conducting mastery grading, you must first determine what skills or standards students are attempting to master. Canvas calls these standards outcomes. For ELA teachers, the natural categories for standards follow the Common Core, or the standards your state follows.
I grouped my outcomes by aligning them with the Common Core categories: reading, writing, speaking/listening, language. For each category, I entered the standards I wished to focus on most that school year.
When setting up your outcomes, you can front load all of them into the system at one time, or you can choose to add a new standard to the list throughout the school year, as you need them. The good news is that you can import these outcomes into your future Canvas courses, so you do not need to duplicate your efforts next year. Entering standards can take a bit of time, but it will save time in the long run. This is because you will not have to type in rubrics for each assignment anymore -- you will import them directly from your bank of outcomes. (More on this major benefit later!)
Set up the Tech
In your Canvas course, click "Outcomes" from the left hand menu.
To set up your categories, click "Create New Group."
To add individual standards in each group, click "+Create."
I recommend naming your standard in simple terms. For instance, you can name a standard as "Diction" or "Characterization" depending on its main focus/purpose. Note: Whatever you enter for Friendly Name will override the Name value, so I typically only use the Name box. Under description, I copy the standard directly from the Common Core's wording.
Step 2: Determine your proficiency ratings
Before completing the rest of this outcome box, take some time to decide what terminology you'd like to use when rating your students' mastery. This should be terminology you are comfortable using with your students. I choose to use the following proficiency levels: Distinguished, Competent, Developing, Novice, Insufficient.
Canvas suggests the following terms: Exceeds Mastery, Mastery, Near Mastery, Below Mastery, No Evidence. Spend time determining what you'd like to use so that when you enter all of your standards, you are consistent. If you change your mind later, you will have to edit each standard you've already entered into the system. Students also will see this rubric terminology when you grade their work in Speedgrader. For points, I follow the 4-0 scale shown below. Note: You may choose to simply enter your proficiency terms, but you can also type in the criteria for mastery along with the terms for each row, if you wish.
Step 3: Determine how you wish Canvas to calculate mastery
Canvas will provide you with three ways to determine if a student has reached mastery of a particular skill. I usually opt for either the highest score or most recent score, depending on the particular standard or assignment. I have not used Decaying Average (it is not usually recommended to factor in previous data for a grade once a student achieves mastery), but it can serve as another option depending on your purposes.
Set up the Tech
Click "Create" to save your outcome.
Repeat these steps for each standard you wish to enter.
To allow students to access these outcomes, go to "Settings" and click on "Navigation." Be sure "Outcomes" is set as visible to students. (Hit "Save.")
Ready to Use!
Now that you've set up the back end, you're able to utilize this powerful grading tool!
When creating an assignment, you have the ability to add a rubric. This option will appear after you've created your assignment as normal and hit "Save."
Now that you've set up outcomes, you do not need to type anything into the rubric section itself. Instead, delete the template row provided, and then hit "Find Outcome."
You will be able to import one standard at a time to build your rubric for this particular assignment. Continue to hit "Find Outcome" until you have all the skills you wish to assess for this assignment's rubric. When you are finished, click "Remove points from rubric."
When you enter Speedgrader (which you can reach on the assignment page or through the traditional gradebook), you can rate each student on the Speedgrader rubric. After you save their rubric score, you then will be able to see their data in your Learning Mastery Gradebook.
How to view the Mastery Gradebook
To access your Learning Mastery Gradebook, head to the traditional gradebook. Click "Gradebook" and select "Learning Mastery."
To return to the traditional gradebook, click "Learning Mastery Grade Book" on the upper right and click "Gradebook."
As you use Speedgrader to score students' proficiency on your assignment rubrics, the data will appear here for each student and standard you assess.
Involving Students
To have students access their data in their Learning Mastery Gradebook, have them navigate to their normal gradebook. At the top of the gradebook, they can select the tab that says "Learning Mastery." Note: This will only appear if you have enabled the Student Learning Mastery Gradebook in settings.
Students will see all the categories you created in your outcomes section. When they click on each dropdown, they will see the specific standards you have added. If you have graded any assignments with outcome rubrics in Speedgrader, these standards will show which assignment(s) you've linked and what the student's mastery level is for each standard you have assessed.
Part 3: Involving Students to Reflect on Mastery
The best way to involve students with the Mastery Gradebook is to make it a reflection tool. You can make it a regular practice for students to log into their Mastery Gradebook and check on their progress toward achieving mastery of any given standard(s). Students can then identify where they have not yet achieved mastery of certain skills.
Using the Learning Mastery Gradebook with students in this way empowers them to make their own individual learning target goals, and they can make some type of implementation plan for how to improve. This allows students to gauge their own understanding and activate their metacognition to self-assess, instead of them continuing to depend on the teacher to tell them how they're performing.
Want students to track their progress on mastering Common Core writing standards? This resource provides rubrics tailored to each writing standard, with space for students to keep track of their progress and your feedback to improve.
Enjoy this Canvas tool's ability to make you a more informed teacher regarding your students' progress toward skills in your class!
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