canvas-bulk-grading

Canvas Bulk Grading

Grade multiple submissions for one assignment in a single pass, showing every proposed grade before anything is written to Canvas.

Prerequisites

• CanvasLMS - API connected and canvaslms-api --test succeeds.
• An educator-level Canvas token (student tokens cannot grade).
• The course and assignment to grade, and either a grading rule (e.g. "10 points for a submission, 5 if late") or a rubric already attached to the assignment.

Steps

1. Call list_submissions for the assignment to see who has submitted, what they submitted, and current grading status.
2. If grading against a rubric, call get_rubric (via list_rubrics first if the rubric id isn't known) to see the criteria and point values.
3. Build the proposed grade for each submission:
   • No rubric: call bulk_grade_submissions without confirm to get a preview of the grades that would be applied.
   • Rubric-based: call grade_with_rubric without confirm per submission (or in the batch form if supported) to preview rubric scores and comments.
4. Present the full preview to the educator as a table before touching anything else. Wait for explicit approval, including any corrections to individual grades.
5. Re-run the same call(s) with confirm=true only for the submissions approved as-is (or with the educator's corrections applied).
6. Report which submissions were graded and any that were skipped or failed.

Output format

Preview table, before any confirm call:

| Student | Submission | Proposed grade | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Link/summary | 18/20 | Late, -2 |

After confirmation, a short summary: Graded N of M submissions in [Assignment]. List any skipped or failed submissions with the reason. Never call bulk_grade_submissions or grade_with_rubric with confirm=true on a submission that wasn't shown in a prior preview.