Once you have added assignments to your assignment group, you can create rules for the entire assignment group. Assignment group rules determine how Canvas handles any exceptions you want to create for grade calculations. Assignment groups can be weighted or unweighted.

When using the lowest or highest score rule, an assignment group must include at least one score, plus the number of dropped scores and the number of assignments that should not be dropped. For instance, if you have a rule for dropping three scores and one Never Drop assignment, you would need five student scores in the assignment group to have all three lowest or highest scores dropped.

Canvas considers how the rule most negatively or positively affects the student's overall score. A rule to drop the lowest score will remove the assignment score(s) from a student's group percentage calculation that will result in the best possible score for that group. A rule to drop the highest score will remove the assignment score(s) from a student's group percentage calculation that will result in the lowest possible score for that group.

In some cases, the point value may be considered more important than percentage score when determining which assignment to drop. For example, an instructor may set a rule to drop the lowest score in an assignment group, where a student earns a 100% on a 50-point assignment, 65% on a 100-point assignment, and 50% on a 24-point assignment. The 50% score is the lowest percentage, but the 65% score will be dropped as this action provides the student with a better total score for the assignment group than dropping the 50% score.

Multiple Grading Periods

If your course includes Multiple Grading Periods, you cannot change assignment group rules once an assignment group has assignments in a closed grading period.

Additionally, if an assignment group contains assignments that fall into multiple grading periods, grades may have unintended consequences when calculating assignment group rules.