what does assignment dropped mean

Help Articles

Check assessment grades, learner help center feb 13, 2023 • knowledge, article details.

This article will show you how to check your grades, understand assessment statuses, and view assessment feedback.

Check your grades

Assessment statuses, assessment feedback.

To view your grades: 

• Open the course.
• Open the Grades tab (from the left sidebar).

You’ll see all your assessments listed on this page. Here’s what you can find in your Grades tab:

• The status of each assessment
• Your assessment grades (and any adjustments to them).
• The weight of each assessment (which shows how much that assessment counts toward your overall grade)
• Your assignment due dates and personalized deadlines.
• Whether an assessment is locked.
• Peer review requirements.
• Your final grade (once all assessments have been graded).

In private courses, you may also see your current grade.

Back to top

In your Grades tab you’ll see one of these statuses next to each assignment:

• --: You haven’t started the assignment yet.
• Started: Your assignment has been started, but not yet submitted. Your assignment won’t get a grade until it’s submitted.
• Submitted: You submitted your assignment, but it doesn’t have a grade yet.
• Graded: You submitted your assignment and it has a grade. This assignment doesn’t have a required passing score.
• Passed: You completed the assignment, received a grade, and your grade is above the required passing score for that assignment.
• Didn't Pass: You completed the assignment, received a grade, and your grade is below the required passing score for that assignment.
• Dropped: This assignment’s score won’t be included in your final course grade.
• Adjusted: Course staff, or a lateness policy, changed your grade for the assignment.

You can open an assessment and click View Feedback to see feedback on your assessment. This will show you your score for each question, and may also include additional info about each question.

In private courses, some assessments may be manually graded by your instructor. You’ll always be able to see your assessment score on your Grades tab, but you may not be able to view additional feedback. 

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Digital Matters

An Emory blog about teaching with technology

Dropping Lowest Scores in Canvas

In this post, I highlight the score dropping feature of Canvas assignment groups, discuss its approach, and share some background & the obscure details about this feature.

The Feature

One of the benefits of using Canvas’s assignments & grading tools is the option to automatically drop some score(s) from an assignment group. This feature’s most popular use is dropping the lowest scored item in a homework or quiz assignment group. It’s easy to activate this feature for an assignment group with these steps:

• Choose Edit from an assignment group’s option menu (triple-dot icon).
• Enter “1” in the Lowest Scores box (or a higher number, if you’re feeling generous).
• Click “Save”.

For more details and screenshot, please see the Canvas instructor guide about Assignment Group Rules (it also explains the Never Drop rule – to designate assignments that must be kept in the assignment group total score – and the little-used Drop Highest rule). I suspect that learning about the Drop Lowest Scores feature may attract instructors who have yet to use Canvas to calculate their final scores to make the switch. (If you are such an instructor, consider joining & working through our online course for setting up your assignments & grading .)

The Approach

What does it mean to ignore the lowest score in an assignment group? It may seem obvious, but there are (at least) two possible approaches. One approach is to remove the assignment(s) for which a student scored their lowest percentage(s) in an assignment group. Canvas’s approach is to keep the assignment scores that result in the highest possible assignment group subtotal. When all assignments in a group have the same number of possible points, there is no difference in these approaches. But when there are different possible points for assignments in the same group, the approaches sometimes remove different assignments’ scores and produce different assignment group subtotals. The Assignment Group Rules guide offers an example of this type in its preamble (the top section with blue background). Although removing an assignment with a higher percentage goes against a common intuition, Canvas will remove it if doing so results in a higher assignment group subtotal. In other words, Canvas’s approach to dropping the lowest scores is to drop the worst scores .

Background & Obscure Detail 

The impetus for me to write this post was research I did while in conversation with an instructor who found differences between Canvas’s quiz subtotal and one they had calculated. Before this conversation, I had assumed that Canvas dropped the assignment with the lowest percentage in the group (it seemed both intuitively plausible mathematically and the plainest meaning of “lowest score”). But the instructor’s example showed that Canvas sometimes dropped assignments that did not have the lowest percentage in the group. I tried my hand in Excel at calculating subtotals with lowest quiz scores dropped and inferred that Canvas was dropping assignments in order to maximize each student’s percentage for the assignment group (because where our subtotals diverged, mine were lower than Canvas’s). Only after that exercise did I realize that the Assignment Group Rules guide linked above clearly states that this is Canvas’s approach. 😅

Curious to know how Canvas achieves its approach, I eventually searched through Canvas source code to read its routine. I was pleased to find a comment in the source code citing an article by Daniel and Jonathan Kane about dropping lowest grades . This article (certainly worth reading if one has some spare time and abundant curiosity) compares approaches, explores counterintuitive cases, and describes algorithms to find the highest possible subtotal that will results from dropping grades. Canvas code implements the bisection algorithm discussed in that article.

I find that the approach Canvas adopts is very persuasive despite running counter to my original intuition in a small number of cases. I hope that this post and the linked resources make clear the what, how, and why of dropping the lowest, i.e. worst, score(s) in Canvas.

Photo by Dan-Cristian Pădureț on Unsplash

Schoology Plus

A web extension that enhances your schoology experience with numerous interface improvements.

Schoology Plus is temporarily down from the Chrome Web Store while a bug is being fixed. It should be back on the store by Monday. Please join our Discord server for updates and temporary download instructions.

Help & Docs What-If Grades Dropping Assignments

Dropping Assignments

“Dropping” assignments from the gradebook is a Schoology feature such that a certain number of the lowest scores in a category won’t be counted. Dropped assignments essentially don’t exist, and act as if they were never entered into the gradebook in the first place. Dropping an assignment produces the same result as your instructor deleting it. Dropped assignments display as having a strikethrough through the entire row.

Schoology Plus allows you to both drop assignments that currently count towards your grade and undrop assignments that are currently dropped.

To start, ensure grade editing is enabled. Either right-click the assignment in question or click the three-dot (“kebab”) menu on the right side of the assignment row. A context menu should appear. For a normal, undropped assignment, it should look similar to the following:

Note: For Schoology Plus added assignments, “Drop” will instead be “Delete.” As discussed above, these operations are mathematically equivalent; the only difference is that normal dropped assignments can be undropped, whereas added assignments will disappear when deleted, and must be re-added. The context menu for an Added Assignment looks something like this:

Click “Drop.” The assignment will be dropped and no longer count towards your (simulated) grade, and the course and category grade displays will update accordingly.

Note that the assignment now displays like any other Schoology dropped assignment.

Schoology Plus “Added Assignment” assignment entries will disappear, instead of changing to a stricken-through display, when “Delete” is clicked.

Either right-click a dropped assignment or click the three-dot (“kebab”) menu on the right side of its assignment row. A context menu like the following should open:

Click undrop. Its strikethrough line should disappear and it should be re-added to the gradebook. Its effects on the category and course grades will be recalculated.

Note that even in cases where a drop is simulated (like this example), an undrop will not remove the grade modified error_outline indicator.

About assignments in Canvas

Watch a video overview of Canvas assignments

Why do I have to re-create my assignments in Canvas?

If you already have assignments created in Word or Google docs, Catalyst tools, or posted online, you might wonder, “What’s the point is of recreating them in Canvas?” Not only does Canvas make it easy to create assignments with lots of options (selective release, group assignments, peer review, submission type) it also adds convenience for you and your students.

What are Assignment Groups?

Like Catalyst Gradebook, Canvas prefers for you to create assignment groups for organization. The groups you create control how the gradebook is structured and you can choose to weight final grades based on those groups. By default you begin with a group called Assignments. You can choose to keep all of your assignments in this one group, or create as many new ones as you like.

Where do I create assignments?

You can create assignments in the Assignments area of Canvas or in the Calendar. Your Assignments page will show the work you have assigned. In student view, the Assignments page will show all assigned work and the point value of each (if you set point values when setting up an assignment). Any graded activity (such as a discussion, quiz, essay or project) can be an assignment.

When you create an assignment in your Canvas course it is automatically added to the assignment list on the Syllabus page, the course calendar, and your gradebook. If you change the due date for an assignment, Canvas updates it course-wide. If you alter the assignment you can have Canvas notify your students.

What can I do with assignments?

Assignments can be used to:

• Set up online submissions that can be quickly graded in the SpeedGrader™
• Grade online submissions work submitted on paper
• Set up peer review
• Grade Discussions, either among the whole class or student groups
• Open Quizzes for a limited amount of time
• Create ungraded activities that align with course outcomes

Assignments and Grading

Having your assignments in Canvas and automatically linked to the gradebook means you can take advantage of SpeedGrader and rubrics to make the grading process faster and more efficient. Canvas communication tools allow you to provide your students with text or multimedia feedback on all assignments.

The hub of teaching and learning at Cedarville University

Canvas Reassign Assignment: An Easy Way to Ask Students to Resubmit Work

Canvas has added a new tool in SpeedGrader to simplify your workflow. Imagine a student submits an assignment, but they dropped it in the wrong assignment or just grabbed the wrong document to upload. Previously, you’d message the student or leave a comment in SpeedGrader. The student would then need to see that note and remember to complete the request. Now Canvas has added a button in SpeedGrader that will add an assignment back to a student’s to-do list.  

Before we get into the  how  of this feature, there are some limitations you need to know about.  

• This feature is only available for some types of assignments. It’s not available for External Tool (LTI), on paper, or no submission assignment types.
• The assignment must have a due date in order to use this feature.  
• This feature does not automatically extend the due date/close date for an assignment. If either of those need to be adjusted, you will need to do that manually.  

Using the submission reassignment feature is simple. Navigate to SpeedGrader for an assignment. If your assignment meets the criteria above, you’ll see a greyed-out “Reassign Submission” button on the right panel below the feedback comment box. Enter a comment in the feedback box (we suggest something that includes instructions or context for what you want the student to do) and submit the comment. That will activate the “Reassign Assignment” button and send it back to the student’s to-do list.  

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or email us at  [email protected]  

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Canvas - Dropped Students FAQ

Beginning June 4th, 2018, when a student or auditor drops from a Canvas course, they will be marked as “inactive” instead of being removed from the course completely. Inactive students cannot view or participate in the course anymore, but instructors and TAs can still see inactive students’ work and grades.

The reason students are marked “inactive” instead of being removed completely is to preserve their activity and grades in the course before they dropped. To avoid cluttering your Canvas roster with drops that occur long before the course actually begins, students will only be marked inactive if they drop two days before the start of a fall or spring course, and four days before the start of a summer course. Students who drop earlier will simply disappear from the Canvas course.

You can do this in the Grades area of your Canvas course. To learn how, visit How do I view grades for inactive students?

If you have enabled the New Gradebook (beta) in your course, there is a different method for viewing inactive students. See How do I view inactive students in the New Gradebook? for more information.

Unfortunately, Canvas does not provide a way to filter out or hide inactive students within the People tool at this time. As a workaround, you can view a list of your students in the Grades area, where you can filter by active/inactive students.

The Activity by Date chart in the Analytics tool tallies the activity for all students that were active in the class that day, even if they were later marked inactive or removed completely from the course. The other charts in the Analytics tool like the Grades histogram exclude students who have dropped, whether they were removed completely or marked inactive as a result. Visit How do I view Course Analytics? to learn more about this tool.

Yes. Quiz statistics tally data for all students who attempted that quiz, even if they were later marked inactive or removed completely from the course. Visit this quiz statistics help page to learn more about these metrics.

No. Students who are marked inactive are not taken into account when curving grades in the gradebook, even if you are currently displaying inactive students in your view settings. Visit How do I curve grades? to learn more about this feature.

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How do I know when my instructor has graded my assignment?

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What does it mean if an assignment says dropped?

Table of Contents

• 1 What does it mean if an assignment says dropped?
• 2 What does a dropped grade mean?
• 3 Do teachers drop the lowest grade?
• 4 What does dropped mean in class?
• 5 What to do if grades are slipping?
• 6 What does it mean when you drop an assignment?
• 7 What happens when an assignment is not graded on canvas?

If your grade says “Dropped”, the instructor: Dropped the highest and/or lowest grade item in this category. Dropped this assignment so it does not count toward the final grade.

What does a dropped grade mean?

Dropping the lowest score means no or fewer make-up exams or quizzes, which is a good thing for the teacher. However, the material on that dropped exam or failed quiz is lost, as the student doesn’t or didn’t have to learn it.

How does dropping an assignment work?

Dropped grades are omitted from the course grade calculation, and the total points possible in the category are reduced by the point value(s) of the omitted item(s).

Why was my grade dropped?

A drop in grades could also indicate a serious problem such as substance abuse, or might be caused by an undiagnosed condition such as ADHD, problems with hearing or sight, or a learning disability.

Do teachers drop the lowest grade?

Many teachers allow students to drop the lowest score from a sequence of quizzes, tests, or homework assignments. When the number of grades is large, some teachers will even allow students to drop several of their low- est scores. In some circumstances, it can be non-trivial to determine the best grades to drop.

What does dropped mean in class?

unenrolling Drop a class refers to unenrolling in a course due to low grades or disinterest. Should a student drop a class after the add/drop deadline, it is considered a withdrawal and they will not be eligible for a tuition refund.

How do you drop the lowest grade in a GradeBook?

Drop Lowest Assignment Scores from GradeBook

• From the GradeBook, click Settings.
• Click the Categories tab.
• At the top of the Categories page, select an assignment category.
• At the top of the list of assignments, enter the number of low assignment scores to be dropped in Drop lowest Category assignments.

Is a dropped Grade bad?

Dropping a class is much better for your GPA than failing a class or getting a C or D in it is because a dropped class does not affect your grade point average. Dropping a class may also raise your GPA because it can allow you to spend more time on other classes and raise your grades in them.

What to do if grades are slipping?

Talk to them about taking on an extra assignment that would help raise your grade. Extra credit might entail doing something like participating in a science fair, writing an extra essay, or giving a presentation to the class. It never hurts to ask! Don’t redo old work at the expense of new work.

What does it mean when you drop an assignment?

Why does my grade say ” dropped ” on my Report Card?

What’s the difference between dropped grades and dropped grades?

What happens when an assignment is not graded on canvas?

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