Hiding Grades

By default, most grades entered into eConestoga are immediately visible to students. However, there are many reasons why an instructor might want to temporarily hide one or more Grade Items from students-- for example, they may need time to review final exam grades, or they may wish to enter grades for a large assignment gradually over several days without letting some students see their grades before their classmates.

Instructors have a lot of control over which grades data is visible to students at any given time. However, it can become quite complex to hide grades, because a given grade will be displayed in several different places within the course, and you need to be sure to hide it in all of the locations it will appear.

This guide will walk you through all of the locations grade data shows up in eConestoga, and how to temporarily hide each of them from students.

Note: The steps in this guide should be followed before you enter any grades for the assignment(s) you are going to hide. If you enter the grades first and then hide them afterward, students will receive a grade notification that will persist even after the grades are hidden.

Previewing Student Grades

Before we begin, it's useful to know that you can always check which grade items are currently visible to the students in your course. Go to Course Tools -> Grades -> Enter Grades, then click the drop-down arrow beside any student's name and choose "Preview". A window will pop up that contains that student's exact Grades screen, including the presence or absence of any Grade Items you've hidden or made visible.

Hiding Grade Items

Go to Course Tools -> Grades.
Open the Manage Grades tab at the top.
Find the grade item associated with the assessment you want to hide. Click the drop-down arrow beside its title and choose Hide From Users.

Hiding Final Grades

The Final Calculated Grade in the Grades tool ignores the visibility of grade items when calculating its value. If you hide a Grade Item but leave the Final Calculated Grade visible, students will still see the hidden grade reflected in their final grade, and then do some basic math to work backwards to the grade you've entered. To avoid this, any time you hide a Grade Item, you should also un-release each student's Final Calculated Grade.

Go to Course Tools -> Grades -> Enter Grades.
Click the drop-down arrow beside the Final Calculated Grade and choose "Enter Grades".

You will be taken to a screen that displays a table with a list of your students and each student's Final Calculated Grade. At the top of the page will be a large bold title that says Final Grades. Click the arrow beside the title and choose Unrelease All.
Say Yes to the prompt.
When the page reloads, click Save and Close to return to the Enter Grades screen.

Hiding Assessment Grades

The steps above will hide selected grades from your students as long as the grades are being entered manually into a Grade Item-- i.e., based on in-class or on-paper work graded offline. However, if the grade you are hiding is derived from an online assessment within eConestoga, then in addition to hiding the grade item and final grade as detailed above, you may also need to hide the grade within the Quiz, Assignment Folder, or Discussion Forum where you will be grading them.

Hiding Quiz Grades

There are two mechanisms that control students' ability to see their grade on a quiz:

The Graded Status

When a student submits a quiz, the system withholds grade data for that submission until the quiz is marked as Graded. This status can be seen and toggled manually by going to:

Course Tools -> Quizzes
Click the drop-down arrow beside the Quiz and choose "Grade"

The last column in the submissions table is titled "Graded", and contains a checkbox for each submission.

If this box is checked, the submission is marked as "Graded", which transfers the Quiz mark to the Grades tool (assuming you've connected the Quiz to Grades) as well as publishing any Quiz Submission Views you've set up (see below).

If you wish to have an opportunity to review exam marks before students see them, then before students write the exam, you should configure your Quiz to not automatically publish the grades for Quiz submissions on receipt. To set this up:

Go to Course Tools -> Quizzes.
Click the drop-down arrow beside the Quiz and choose "Edit".
Open the "Assessment" tab.
Uncheck the first checkbox, labeled "Allow attempt to be set as graded immediately upon completion". As long as this option is unchecked, you can safely set the next two options-- linking to a Grade Item and checking "Allow automatic export to grades"-- as no grades will be exported until the submission is set as Graded.
Click Save and Close at the bottom.

Submission Views

The Submission Views feature controls what information students can see after they submit a quiz. By default, students can see only their overall grade on a quiz, and can't see the questions they answered or any other details. The release of this overall grade is dependent on the Graded status of that submission, so you likely do not need to make any changes to your quiz' Submission Views to keep students from seeing their grades.

Hiding Assignment Folder Grades

If you wish to enter grades into an Assignment Submission Folder without letting students see them, there are two mechanisms that you can use:

Draft Feedback

When you enter feedback on a student's Assignment submission, there are two confirmation buttons at the bottom of the screen: Publish, and Save as Draft. If you save your feedback as Draft, it will be saved, but NOT released to the student. However, the grade will also not be transferred to Grades until it is published, even if the Grade Item you've connected it to is hidden. If you wish to save assignment feedback without your students seeing it, you will need to instead make your submission folder invisible.

Hiding a Submission Folder From Students

Go to Course Tools -> Assignments.
Click the drop-down box beside the submission folder and choose "Hide from Users".

The page will reload, and the submission folder will now have a crossed-out eye icon to indicate that it is not visible. While invisible, students will not see published feedback for that Assignment, but their grade will still be transferred to any associated Grade Item, allowing you to see the impact that the new grade has on their overall grade.

Hiding Discussion Grades

Hiding a Discussion Topic grade works similarly to hiding an Assignment Folder grade-- you must make the entire Topic invisible to students before you grade the Topic. To do this:

Go to Course Tools -> Discussion Forum.
Click the drop-down arrow beside any Discussion Topic and choose Edit Topic.
Scroll down to the "Availability" heading. Either select the "Hide this topic" option, or select "Topic is visible for a specific date range" and then pick a Start Date when you wish your students to see their grade.
Click Save and Close at the bottom.

As with an Assignment Folder, a grade you enter into a hidden Discussion Topic will not be visible to the student at the discussion tool, but will be transferred to any associated Grade Item.

Note: Students will not receive a new grade notification (i.e., a "red dot alert" at the top of eConestoga) if the grade item is hidden when their grade is entered and saved, even after you make the grade item visible again. Therefore, it may be a good idea to let your students know by some other means, such as an Announcement, that they have new grades available.