Open your Canvas to-do list and nearly every assignment on it says the same thing: 100 points. That number feels like it is telling you something about how much the work matters. It is not.
Thirty out of thirty-three
On one real, currently enrolled account, 30 of the 33 outstanding assignments are worth exactly 100 points. Identical. The other three are worth one point each.
Among those thirty identical assignments, the share of the final grade runs from 1.25% to 30%. The same number on the screen, twenty-four times the consequence.
| Points | Of grade | Assignment |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 30.0% | Group Assignment: White Papers & Presentation |
| 100 | 20.0% | Assignment: Industry Professional Interview |
| 100 | 15.0% | Group Design Project: Presentation |
| 100 | 2.14% | Discussion: Regulation and Social Acceptance |
| 100 | 1.25% | Independent Design Project: Literature Review |
| 1 | 0% | Group Design Project: Peer Evaluation |
Where the difference comes from
Points are counted inside an assignment group, and the group carries the weight. A group worth 30% of the course containing one assignment makes that assignment worth 30%. A group worth 5% containing seven discussions makes each discussion worth about 0.7%, no matter how many points it says.
So the arithmetic is: the group’s weight, divided among the points in that group. A 100-point assignment in a small heavy group is worth a great deal. The same 100-point assignment in a large light group is worth almost nothing. Canvas shows you the points and not the group, which is the half that decides the answer.
The ones worth nothing at all
Three assignments on that account are in a group weighted at zero per cent. Not a small share — none. Whatever is scored on them cannot move the final grade by any amount, because the group they belong to contributes nothing to it.
They are peer evaluations, and they still have to be handed in: an instructor can require work, chase it, and mark you absent from it without it carrying weight. But knowing that it cannot cost you a grade is worth having on the night you are deciding what to drop.
How to check yours
Open the Assignments page and switch to Show by Type. Canvas groups the list by assignment group, and where weights are in use it prints the percentage beside each group name. That percentage is the number that matters.
Count what is in the group. A group weighted 20% with one assignment in it means that assignment is 20% of your grade. The same 20% split across ten assignments makes each one 2%.
Do it once, near the start. The weights rarely change during a term, and ten minutes spent on this at week one changes how you spend every week after it.
Check the syllabus against Canvas. When they disagree, the syllabus is what your instructor intends and Canvas is what will actually be calculated — which is worth an email before it is worth an argument.
Related
The mechanics of weighted groups, including what happens when the syllabus and Canvas disagree, are in how weighted assignment groups work. If the percentage Canvas is showing you looks too good, it probably is.