You can use the Gradebook to curve grades for an assignment. In the academic community, curving grades is advisable if only a certain number of students can pass, or when you require a fixed distribution of grades distributed throughout the class.

To curve grades, Canvas asks for an average curve score and then adjusts the scores as a bell curve 66% around the average score. For instance, if the average score is the equivalent of a C, Canvas would distribute mostly C- and C+ scores, distributing outward down the curve to Bs and Ds, and then ultimately As and Fs. This type of scoring creates a predictable distribution, but it means that students will compete against their classmates for scoring.

To learn more about how curved grades are calculated, view the Curving Grades in Canvas PDF.

Note:

• Grade curving cannot be undone. Pre-curved grade histories will be available, but the curving action is irreversible.
• Student grades will be impacted differently based on where they are in the distribution of scores. Perfect scores will not be affected by curving grades.
• When Multiple Grading Periods are enabled in a course, you cannot set a default grade for any assignment that has at least one student in a closed grading period.

You may be able to deactivate an enrollment in your course within your course Settings in Canvas. An inactive enrollment retains prior activity in a course but does not allow the student to access course content. This status can be used for students who do not pay tuition or drop the course at a future date. Inactive students do not appear in any messaging lists within the course and cannot be added to a group. Grades for inactive students still display in the Gradebook and can be edited like other students.

To see course participation for an inactive enrollment compared to other enrollment types, view the Canvas Enrollment Status Comparison PDF.

Note: Enrollments may be added by your institution's student information system (SIS). If an enrollment includes an SIS ID, you cannot deactivate an enrollment from the course. Additionally, deactivating enrollments is a course permission. If you cannot deactivate enrollments in your course, your institution has restricted this feature.

The statistics page shows a snapshot view of activity in the current account. Statistics provide current information about your account but you can also view information over time. Statistics work in conjunction with Account Analytics, which can also be viewed from the Statistics page.

View a video about Analytics and Statistics.

As an Admin, you can choose to set default restrictions for student access in your institution. These restrictions include student access to courses before the start date and/or after the end date.

To manage student access, you can set the default value but allow instructors and sub-account admins to edit access for the course and sub-account levels as necessary, or you can set and lock the student access setting for the entire institution. The checkbox settings at the account level are passed to the sub-account and course levels as default values.

Restrict students from viewing course before start date: When a student enrolls in a future course, the course displays in the Future Enrollments section in the student Courses list. Once a course is published, the course displays an invitation to join the course, where the students can view course content at any time before the course begins. However, when the student restriction for the course start date is enabled, students cannot view a link to the course until the start date, even if the course is published.

Restrict students from viewing future courses in enrollments list: When a student enrolls in a future course, the course displays in the Future Enrollments section in the student Courses list. However, when the view courses before the start date restriction is enabled, a second option is displayed to completely remove the future enrollment from the Courses list. This setting can also be enabled to keep students from knowing they are enrolled in a course with a future start date.

Restrict students from viewing course after end date: Once a course has concluded, students can still view the course but all content is displayed in a read-only state. However, when the student restriction for the course end date is enabled, students can no longer view the course in the Courses list after the course has concluded. This setting can be used if your institution uses the course across multiple terms and want to restrict students from accessing prior content for future students, or if students have to re-enroll in the course.

These restriction settings also apply to the override start and end dates for the course. If no override dates are specified, the start and end dates apply to the term dates. Learn more about term and course dates in Canvas.