Fixing a Canvas gradebook full of zeros

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When a course is imported with the late grading policy enabled, Canvas will apply the grading policy toward any assignment that has a due date in the past. This may cause students to view a grade of zero before a class has started. To avoid this, remove any late grade or submission policies from the course that will be copied before it is imported to the new Canvas course.

Note: If the class has already begun some students may have graded assignments. Those students and graded assignments will need to be identified before beginning. Sort each assignment column by Grade: high to low and make a note of any grades. Students who have a grade listed will need to have their grade re-entered after the grade of zero is removed for the other students.

To update scores for students who have received grades erroneously, the Default Grade option can be used.

Go to your Canvas course.
Select Grades in the course navigation menu.
In the gradebook column header, select the Options icon (three vertical dots) next to the assignment title (See Figure 1).
Select Set Default Grade (See Figure 1).

Figure 1: Assignment Options menu to select Set Default Grade.
In the Default grade window, leave the Grade Value field empty (See Figure 2).
Next to Overwrite already-entered grades, select the checkbox (See Figure 2).
Figure 2: Default grade options selection box.
Select Set Default Grades (See Figure 2).
Once complete, a verification message will display detailing how many student grades were updated.
Select OK (See Figure 3).

Figure 3: Verification of default grades message.