Use Outcomes to:

• Focus students' attention on the most important skills and activities in your course (find existing outcomes or create new ones)
• Align Quizzes and Assignments to different kinds of mastery
• Run reports at the account-level about student artifacts of learning mastery
• Assess student progress through calculation methods
• Track student progress on a learning outcome or overall in the Learning Mastery Gradebook
• Align accreditation or other core standards to programs of study, courses, or student assessments

The Weighted Average calculation factors the average of all assessment items while weighing the most recent (current) submission to any assignment associated with this outcome at a higher percentage.

By default, the Canvas weighted average is set at 65/35, meaning the current item is weighted at 65%, and the average of all other user scores is weighted at 35%. However, users can specify between 1% and 99% for the current percentage, and prior scores are weighted against the percentage difference. Note that the average is rounded to the next two decimals. If there is only one result, then the single score will be displayed.

For example, a student has four aligned items with scores of 4, 3, 2, and 5 (scores listed chronologically from oldest to most recent). If the current item is set to be weighted at 65% of mastery, prior scores are weighted at 35%:

• Current item score: 5
• Average of prior item scores: (4 + 3 + 2) / 3 = 3
• Calculated score: 5 (.65) + 3 (.35) = 3.25 + 1.05 = 4.3

The Decaying Average calculation uses a formula to determine proficiency based on students' average scores, giving more weight to the most recent scored. To determine the weight given to the most recent score, the formula uses a decay rate. The higher the formula's decay rate, the more heavily the most recent assessment is weighted. 

By default, the decay weight is set at 65%. However, you can adjust the rate to any percentage between 50% and 99%. Between two assessments, the most recent assessment gets 65% weight and the first gets 35%. For each additional assessment, the sum of the previous score calculations decay by an additional 35%.

For example, a student has scores of 1, 2, 3, 4 (scores listed chronologically from oldest to most recent):

(1 × .35) + (2 × .65) = X

(X × .35) + (3 × .65) = Y

(Y × .35) + (4 × .65) = Z  (this being the current standard score; 3.48)

The n Number of Times calculation requires a specific number of times that mastery must be met or exceeded, and the number of aligned items that must be completed for calculation eligibility. Any scores that do not meet mastery are not part of the calculation.

Users can specify between 1 and 10 items required for mastery.

For example, a student is required to achieve mastery 2 times with a mastery score of 5. If the student has scores of 1, 3, 2, 4, 5, 3, and 6, only the scores of 5 and 6 would be part of the calculation.

• Average score of eligible items: 5 + 6 = 11
• Calculated score: 11 / 2 = 5.5

The Most Recent Score calculation always selects the most recent score for all assessment items.

The Highest Score calculation always selects the highest score for all assessment items.

To select the average score from all assessment items, select the Average option [1].

You can view an example of the Average calculation in the Example section [2].

Note: Average is not a good fit for most outcomes-based or mastery-based learning use cases because students may need time to reach mastery of an outcome and early poorer performance can bring down an average.