Zeros in Gradebook Caused by Copying Gradebook Late Policy

• You discover zeros entered into one or more Gradebook columns for some or all students before the associated assignment due date has arrived, but you did not enter the zeros.

1. You have a course which uses the Late Policies in Gradebook Settings to apply zeros to missing submissions, and one or more assignments with due dates in the past.  For example, this might be a course from a past term or a current course with past due dates still remaining.
2. You copied the course to a course in an upcoming or current term and included Settings in the copy selection (or chose 'All content', which also includes Settings).
3. Since the due dates are in the past, and you have the Late Policy enabled and set to enter zeros, the assignments with due dates in the past suddenly get zeros for everyone's grade in the destination course.
4. You then updated the due dates in the current course to relevant future dates for the upcoming or current term.
5. Additional students get added to the course.  By this time, you have new due dates, so the Late Policy has no effect on them and no zeros get entered for these students unless there is no submission when the due date passes.

1. If Automatic Missing Policy is enabled in your course, the following warning message appears when clicking on +Add to Import Queue, "You're importing from a course with Automatic Missing Policy enabled. This policy and its settings will be copied to your course. If any imported assignments have past due dates, they may receive automatic zeros. To avoid this, you can cancel and adjust due dates, or choose not to import the missing policy from the course course." 
2.  
3. You have two options: Don't Import Policy [1] and Import Anyway [2]. Do not select Import Anyway [2]. Selecting Import Anyway will import the missing policy into destination course's gradebook, and students in the destination course will receive zeros on all assignments at the start of the term. This will cause students to worry about their grade, and you will be inundated with student emails about their grades. Instead, select Don't Import Policy [1].  
   • The Automatic Missing Policy will not be imported into the destination course. After you complete the import, update the due dates in the destination course to future dates relevant to the current or upcoming term.
   • Enable Automatic Missing Policy only after the due dates have been updated.

• Solution to erase zeros when no student submissions exist in a grade column:
  1. In each column where unwanted zeros have been automatically entered because of your Late Policy in combination with due dates in the past:
     1. From the vertical ellipsis menu available to the right of a column name, choose Set Default Grade.
     2. Leave the Default Grade entry box empty.
     3. Select 'Overwrite already-entered grades' (be sure no submissions exist already from students; if they do, they will also get set to 0, but if you don't select the overwrite option the other zeros won't get erased).
     4. Click 'Set Default Grade'.
     5. The zeros are erased, leaving blank grade cells.
     6. If you did accidentally complete this procedure in a column where a submission existed, the grade for the submission should still exist but it just doesn't display.  You should be able to go to SpeedGrader and use the Update Grade button at the bottom of the student submission to bring back the grade of the submission.
     7. Once a student submits for the assignment/exam, the real grade for their submission should overwrite the default grade of zero.
• Solution to erase zeros without erasing grades that already exist:
  1. In each grade cell in each column, manually remove each zero grade.

• Tutorials
  • Course Copy Tutorial
  • How do I set a default grade for an assignment in the Gradebook
  • How do I apply a Missing Submission policy in the Gradebook
  • Grade Detail Tray
  • How do I adjust events and due dates in a course import?
• Canvas Community Articles
  • Automatic 0's in gradebook before due date passed
  • Assignment that is due in May is marked as zero, students grades negatively impacted
  • Unsubmitted assignments getting zeros added incorrectly in Canvas
  • Apply Missing Submission Policy in the Gradebook

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