Introduction to Moderated Grading

Moderated grading is a feature by Canvas (Instructure) that allows multiple reviewers to grade a student’s submission and create draft or provisional grades for an assignment. This process is especially useful when multiple reviewers (such as Teaching Assistants) grade submissions while a designated moderator (the IoR) reviews their assessments before determining the official final grade for an assignment.
Anyone with assignment creation permissions can set up a moderated assignment, specify the number of graders, edit assignment details, and review grades. A moderated assignment supports up to two provisional grades and one moderator grade. The provisional grades are invisible to students and do not appear in the Gradebook. Students cannot view any grades until they are posted by the moderator.
The user designated as the moderator (final grader) is the only person who can specify the final assignment grade for each student submission. Any person with appropriate account-level permissions can be selected as the moderator, but the moderator is not required to personally grade individual assignment submissions. Once an assignment is created, only the assigned moderator and course admins have permission to edit who is designated as the final grader.

Set up Moderated Grading

1. Navigate to the Assignments tab in the course navigation. Click Add Assignment to create a new assignment or click the title of an existing assignment that has not yet received student submissions to edit the assignment settings.
2. Add all required assignment details, then select the Moderated Grading checkbox.
3. Provide the Number of graders in the text box (maximum of 10). If the course lacks enough users with appropriate permissions to fulfill the specified count (or exceeds the maximum of 10), Canvas will display a warning message.
   1. The moderator is not included in the count because they do not traditionally grade individual submissions. Example: If you have two TAs, the count would be 2.
   2. If a course has a surplus of graders, any eligible grader can access submissions until the required number of reviews is reached. When that threshold is reached, remaining graders are locked out of accessing the assignment.
4. Configure Grader Visibility.
   1. Select Graders can view each other’s comments (selected by default) to allow peer reviewers to see feedback left by others.
   2. If anonymous grading is enabled, checking Graders cannot view each other’s names allows graders to see the comments left by other graders without revealing the graders’ identities.
5. Select the Final Grader (Moderator).
   1. In the Select Grader drop-down menu, choose the “moderator,” or person who is responsible for determining the final assignment grades. This menu displays course graders who hold permission to determine the grades.
   2. By default, the option Final grader can view other grader names is checked, assuming the moderator is the IoR, allowing the moderator to see which grader submitted each evaluation.
6. Click Save (or Save & Publish) when done to finalize the settings.

Moderators: Publish Grades on Moderated Assignments

Once student submissions are submitted, final assignment grades must be moderated and published to the Gradebook.

1. Navigate to the Assignments tab from the course navigation menu, click on the assignment title, and select the Moderate button.
2. Review submissions and assign final assignment grades.
   1. Confirm all students have received reviews from assigned graders.
   2. To inspect a student submission or comments directly in SpeedGrader, click the student’s name or anonymized identifier.
   3. To select a final assignment grade for an individual student, choose the preferred grader’s name from the Final Grade drop-down menu.
   4. To accept all grader evaluations that are pending, click the Accept button. If the Accept button is grayed out or missing, one or more submissions were evaluated by multiple graders with conflicting scores and you must choose a score manually. (Note: Accepting a grade cannot be undone; but changes can be made in the Gradebook by those with appropriate course permissions once final assignment grades are posted)
   5. Moderators can override reviewer scores by typing a custom grade directly in the drop-down menu’s text box and pressing Enter or Return. An identifier of (Custom) will be next to the grade.
3. Release grades to the Gradebook.
   1. Click Release Grades and confirm by clicking Ok.
   2. Releasing grades transfers them to the Gradebook and renders the Moderate page as read-only for historical reference. Grades can no longer be edited from the Moderate page but can be adjusted in the Gradebook by those with appropriate permissions.
4. Post Grades to Students.
   1. Click Post to Students and confirm with Ok to make final grades and feedback visible to students.

Keep in Mind

Further Resources

• How do I add a moderated assignment to be graded by multiple reviewers?
• How do I publish final grades for a moderated assignment?