Since every activity in Canvas is automatically added to the gradebook, instructors may face challenges when monitoring student progress and grading assignments in courses with very large enrollments. The task can be made a little easier by applying filters to the gradebook, which can be used to limit both the rows of students visible AND/OR the columns of gradable activities displayed.

Filtering the Gradebook

To select filters, click on the button Apply Filters near the top left:

You can filter by course sections, course modules, assignment groups (used in a weighted grading setup), student groups, submission status, whether there is a submission, and by assignment date:

There are various options within each filter:

• Sections: In a large course with multiple sections, it may be convenient to filter by section. You can select multiple sections as needed.
• Modules: When you apply filters, they apply across the whole gradebook display; put the assignment in a Module by itself to narrow the display to one assignment 
• Assignment Groups: filter by the groups in your Assignments menu, whether assignments, quizzes, discussions, etc.
• Student Groups: filter by the groups created for group assignments.
• Status: filter by whether late, missing, excused, etc.
• Submissions: filter by whether a student has or has not submitted an assignment, whether submissions are ungraded, and whether grades are unposted.
• Start & End Date: narrow the display of filtered items by the start and end dates of an assignment.

Imoprtant note: multiple filters can be used together to narrow the display of the grade and grading status of each assignment.

There are also visual indicators of submission status in the cells of the gradebook. The following example shows the filtered grade display for several students for an assignment called "Test":

In this dummy assignment example, the status of submissions is indicated by the default status colours:

• Matt, John, and Lori have submitted their assignments on time and have been graded.
• Dave's assignment was late, but he has a posted grade.
• Renée has not submitted an assignment.
• Douglas has submitted an assignment that has not yet been graded.

In larger courses, you will need to scroll vertically through the list to see the grading status of each student's submission, but applying filters will make the task easier.

Filtering SpeedGrader

You can filter the SpeedGrader by course sections by activating "Launch SpeedGrader Filtered by Student Group" in Settings: