How do I use SpeedGrader?

How do I use SpeedGrader?


SpeedGrader makes it easy to evaluate individual student assignments and group assignments quickly.

SpeedGrader displays assignment submissions for active students in your course. However, SpeedGrader displays assignment submissions according to the current Gradebook settings for inactive enrollments and concluded enrollments. For instance, if the Gradebook settings show inactive enrollments, inactive student submissions also appear in SpeedGrader.

You can access SpeedGrader through: Assignments, Quizzes, Graded Discussions, and the Gradebook.

SpeedGrader Performance

In SpeedGrader, all values for an assignment are loaded and saved in the browser, including student submission data, any grades (including original grades for resubmitted assignments), rubrics, and comments. This behavior reduces load time while using SpeedGrader, allowing instructors to grade all submissions quickly without continually refreshing the browser. Advancing from one submission to the next does not dynamically load any updated content.

In large courses, SpeedGrader loading times are affected by a threshold of data points that can be loaded within a 60-second window. This threshold is based on a single submission per student. Multiple submissions by the same student increases the submission threshold. Assignments with more than 1500 submissions may result in delayed SpeedGrader loading times, and assignments with more than 2500 submissions may fail to load at all.

To improve SpeedGrader performance, large courses should be separated into sections, which allows SpeedGrader to display submissions for a specific section and decrease the overall loading time for an assignment's data.

SpeedGrader Users

SpeedGrader is generally designed for one instructor role to grade submissions at a time. Because of how SpeedGrader data is loaded and stored in the browser, multiple users should not grade assignments at the same time since each grader cannot view the most recent information for a submission. Updated grades also affect the Gradebook.

If your course includes multiple graders, graders added to a course can be limited to only interact with users in a section and only grade submissions in the section where they were enrolled. This enrollment option prevents assignment grading overlap so multiple instructor roles cannot grade the same assignment.

Moderated Grading

If you are grading a moderated assignment and the maximum number of graders has been reached, SpeedGrader will be displayed in a read-only mode to hide all student names and submission details.

Note: Instructors cannot delete assignment submissions. If you need to delete an inappropriate assignment submission, contact your administrator.



View SpeedGrader


SpeedGrader includes several areas to help you locate and view student submissions, grade submissions, and add comments to submissions.

View SpeedGrader Menu and Assignment Details


The SpeedGrader menu includes several tools and resources to assist with grading assignments.

The left side of the menu includes general settings and options.

To return to the Gradebook, click the Gradebook icon [1].

To post or hide the assignment, click the Visibility icon [2].

To view SpeedGrader settings, click the Settings icon [3]. SpeedGrader settings include:

Options, which allows you to select student list sorting options and enable anonymous grading.

Keyboard Shortcuts, which opens a list of keyboard shortcuts for SpeedGrader. You can also press the Shift+Question Mark keys simultaneously.

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Note: When moderated grading is enabled for an assignment, final graders (moderators) will also view a Moderation Page button, which will allow them to view the Grade Summary Page for the moderated assignment.


The center of the menu bar includes assignment information and overall grading information. Assignment information includes the name of the assignment [4], assignment due date [5], and the name of the course [6].

To view the assignment details, click the name of the assignment. The assignment details page also lets you download all student submissions for the assignment.  

To return to the Course Home Page, click the name of the course.

Grading information includes assignment statistics, including the number of assignments that have been graded out of the total number of students in the course [7] and the average score and percentage [8]. You can use this information to keep track of your grading progress.

View Student List


The right side of the menu bar includes the student list for the assignment. SpeedGrader opens the assignment for the first student listed in the student list, arranged alphabetically by last name. If you have activated the student view, the Test Student will be shown at the end of the student list. The student list also displays the status of each student's submission. You can also use the student list to find student submissions.

View Student Submission


Once you have selected a student, the student's submission displays in the preview window.

Depending on the assignment and submission type, the SpeedGrader preview window may vary. For example, a website URL submission type will appear in the main body of SpeedGrader with the option to open the URL in a new tab. Some website URL submissions cannot be viewed in the LMS and must be viewed in a new tab. Media submissions may display as an embedded file in SpeedGrader or only display as a downloadable file.

To provide comments on document submissions, you can:

Use the Astria LMS DocViewer to mark up .pdf, .doc/.docx, and .ppt/.pptx assignments directly in SpeedGrader. SpeedGrader may take up to ten minutes after an assignment is submitted to display a document that supports DocViewer.

Download the submission, put feedback on the document, and re-upload the submission.

View Sidebar


The SpeedGrader sidebar provides all the submission details for the student shown in the student list. However, submission details are not shown when an assignment is graded anonymously.

View the submission details [1], including as the date and time of the submission; if an assignment was resubmitted, you can view previous versions of the submission.

You can also download the submission file by clicking the link [2].

Complete the assessment of the submission by entering a grade or using a rubric for grading, if available [3].

Leave assignment feedback comments for the student in the comments section [4]. Assignment comments also display as a new thread in Conversations.



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