Important information on anonymous assignments

When you create an anonymous assignment in Canvas, Canvas does not indicate to the student that the assignment is anonymous until they have submitted the assignment. Students have no way of tracking their own anonymous ID or saving the ID in an uploaded file. The most common scenario for anonymous assignments is that teachers ask students to write an assignment in a Word document. Students need to be given instructions on how to name the file for the assignment so that their identity is not shown to the teacher. This image shows the view for a student who has submitted an anonymous assignment. Note that the only information they receive is that: "You might not see all comments right now because the assignment is currently being graded." Only once you have graded the assignment will they see a message in this area that the assignment was graded anonymously.

student anon

Via the Grades menu the students sees the crossed-out eye icon showing that they have not received a Grade yet. This is the same symbol for if the teacher has decided to post grades manually instead of automatically:

anon grades student

Once students have submitted their files you will be able to grade the assignment in Speedgrader.

Create an anonymous assignment

Start by creating an assignment either via Modules or Assignments (1) and write your instructions in the Details tab.

create first window

2. Give a point value to the assignment - this is important - you must add 1 point as default for Canvas to behave properly in the Gradebook. Select the Assignment group if relevant and how you wish the grade to be displayed Display grade as. Many KI teachers select the option "Complete/Incomplete" since the pass or fail grade is entered at a later date in Ladok.

3. Select the Online submission type and choose File uploads.

select anonymous

4. Tick the box for anonymous grading.

5. Add your Due date - note that students can still submit after this date but the assignment will be labelled Late.

6. Add Until date if you want a definite deadline after which students cannot submit the assignment.

Save the assignment.

If you wish to use Urkund for Plagiarism check then don't forget to tick the box Anonymous when you select Urkund in the Plagiarism Review area:

bocka för rutan Anonymous i Urkund

Grading and commenting on anonymous assignments

Open Speedgrader for your assignment as you usually would.

speedgrader anon

Note that the Related items menu allows you to Download submissions.

How to find the Anonymous ID via the Speedgrader

It is very important to understand that the numbering Student 1, 2, 3 etc that you see in the dropdown menu for Students in the Speedgrader is by no means a "constant" or permanent number. If a student drops out of the course this numbering may well change. The ID is "hidden" in the URL address that you see in the Speedgrader. At the end of this address you will see "anonymous_id=" followed by a number/letter combination. This is the anonymous ID and we recommend that you use it in the comment box when grading the assignment. You may wish to make a note of IDs and grades in an Excel file.

Time stamps for anonymous assignments

Please note that the time stamp for submission of the assignment for anonymous submissions is hidden for teachers because of security reasons ie you might be able to guess which student submitted it. System administrators can see this time if it is necessary to verify the time.

Once you have de-anonymized the assignment you will see the time for submission. Note that for students Canvas will read the time setting on the computer when checking for support.

anon id in speegrader

* Also note that the eye icon to the left only changes to a crossed out eye WHEN you start grading. This can be deceptive to those expecting to see it crossed out before grading. All anonymous assignments are by default "muted" meaning that notifications for grading (including comments) will not be sent to students until you have "unmuted" ie selected to post the grades. This is best done in the Gradebook. In the Gradebook you will see a red text for the column for the anonymous assignment showing ANONYMOUS.

The Gradebook

In the Gradebook you will see the column for the assignment clearly marked as Anonymous (1). Only once you have started grading do you see the crossed out eye (2) but you will still not see the grade for specific students since the assignment is still anonymous.

gradebook columns anon

Once you have graded all the assignments then you can publish the grades from the Gradebook using the Post Grades menu. Click on the three dot menu indicated in the image and select Post grades.

post grades

Now the following window will open allowing you to see how many hidden grades there are and warning you that the assignment will no longer be anonymous. Please note than the message in the blue box does NOT mean that students will see each other's grades. Students only see their own grades.

post anon grades 2

Once you have published the grades you will now see them in the column for the assignment in the Gradebook but note that the actual ID for the student is not indicated here which is why we recommend that you add it to the comment field for documentation purposes.

anon grades published

You students will receive a notification saying the assignment grades have been released. The Student will also see via the assignment page itself a confirmation that the assignment was marked anonymously.

student view of graded anon assignment

Locating the anonymous ID on downloaded assignments

If you choose to download all the assignments via the Related items Download assignments you will be able to download a compressed folder with all the Word submission files in one folder. Each file is saved with the anonymous ID in the file name.

anon id

As you can see below your compressed zip-folder saves all the submissions with the same ID as we saw in the Speedgrader:
anon_zip
This ID you can add to the header of the document when you reload the submissions or add to the comment field:
id_in_comment

The student also see this comment.