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A Guide to Auto Grade Syncing

Auto Grade syncing takes all the work out of updating your LMS gradebook. Save time and reduce student confusion with Auto Grade Syncing.

Updated over a month ago

Auto Grade Syncing creates a continuous feed of grades being pushed into your LMS by Blended Teaching. Your LMS gradebook will always reflect exactly what is in your Blended Teaching Gradebook. This short guide is broken down in to:

  1. Auto Grade Syncing

  2. How It Works

  3. Switching On Auto Grade Syncing

1. Auto Grade Syncing

Each time a student submits an assessment that results in an updated grade in the Blended Teaching Gradebook, Blended Teaching will inform your LMS and it will update to reflect the relevant grade.

It will also update your LMS if you manually override a grade in your Blended Teaching Gradebook.

2. How It Works

When you use Auto Grade Syncing, Blended Teaching effectively becomes the parent, and your LMS the child. Blended Teaching takes priority and tells your LMS what to do.

  • Whatever you've set in Blended teaching for the assessment, your LMS will update to follow, including assessment Start Dates, Due Dates and End Dates, and the number of Points.

Therefore, the first step is to set your desired Start Dates, Due Dates, End Dates and Points for each assessment. Click here for further instructions.

Here's what happens when a student makes a submission.

  • Each time a student submits a graded assessment in Blended Teaching, if the grade meets the requirements of the grading strategy you have set in Blended Teaching for that assessment (e.g., highest, latest, etc.) that grade will be stored in the Blended Teaching Gradebook and simultaneously pushed into your LMS gradebook.

  • Blended Teaching pushes an update for that student and that assessment only. It doesn't overwrite other students or other entries each time an update is made.

  • The student will be able to see their results in Blended Teaching according to the Results Display settings that you have defined in Blended Teaching for that assessment. Simultaneously, they will be able to see the grade in the LMS gradebook according to the visibility settings you have defined in your LMS. Be sure to set the grade visibility settings that you want in your LMS.

All changes to assessments must be made in Blended Teaching, and not your LMS.

  • If you want to make any amendments to grades, you should do so in Blended Teaching. If you make amendments in your LMS instead, Blended Teaching will overwrite them.

  • The Start Dates, Due Dates and End Dates in your LMS will match Blended Teaching. Any discrepancies, and the LMS will update to match Blended Teaching. So make sure to control your Availability in Blended Teaching, and not your LMS.

  • When you first switch on Auto Grade Syncing, if you have a different number of points for an assessment in your LMS and Blended Teaching, your LMS will immediately update to match the points in Blended Teaching, changing existing grades for students in your LMS. This is probably best avoided. So be sure to have the desired points set correctly in Blended Teaching, as this will become the defining figure.

3. Switching On Auto Grade Syncing

To use Auto Grade Syncing, complete the following steps in Blended Teaching and your LMS:

  • Step 1: Prepare your assessments in Blended Teaching

  • Step 2: Turn on Auto Grade Sync in Blended Teaching

  • Step 3: Update your visibility settings in your LMS gradebook

3.1. Step 1: Prepare Your Assessments in Blended Teaching

3.2. Step 2: Turn on Auto Grade Syncing in Blended Teaching

To turn on Auto Grade Syncing in Blended Teaching:

  1. Go to the Settings tab in your Control Center.

  2. Scroll down to the LMS Integration section of the page.

  3. Select Auto Grade Sync and press Save Changes.

3.3. Step 3: Set Grade Visibility Settings in Your LMS

Once Auto Grade Syncing is on, you will want to define the grade visibility settings in your LMS. This will control what students see in your LMS as soon as they submit a graded assessment in Blended Teaching.

  • You can set your LMS gradebook so that students will immediately see their grades automatically, or so that they will only see their grade when you choose to publish them in your LMS.

  • Note, whatever you choose to display in your LMS, this will not impact what students see in Blended Teaching, which is governed by the Results Display settings you have put in place for your assessment.

3.3.1. Canvas Grade Visibility Settings

To set grade visibility in Canvas:

  1. Go to your Canvas gradebook.

  2. Select the cog in the top right.

  3. Select Grade Posting Visibility.

  4. Choose Automatically Post Grades if you want students to immediately see their grades in the Canvas gradebook when submitting their assessment in Blended Teaching. OR select Manually Post Grades if you want to control when the grades are released in the Canvas gradebook.

  5. If you have chosen to manually release the grades in Canvas, when you want to release the grades, find the relevant assessment column in the gradebook, select the three dots in the header, and then select Post Grades.

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