Leaderboard Settings

The Delphinium Leaderboard is a powerful tool for creating more "social presence" between students, even when they do not meet physically together. Connection between students is a powerful engagement tool that helps improve student performance. The leaderboard helps drive engagement in four ways:

  1. Social Comparison - The Delphinium Leaderboard allows students to visually see how they compare to other students. Many students like to know that they are "in the pack" and performing as well as the main body of their peers. This knowledge gives them comfort and helps pull them through the course if they can see that they are falling behind their peers.

  2. Competition - Competition can be a powerful motivator for some students as they strive to outperform other students. The Delphinium Leaderboard allows students to identify other students of similar ability and indicates when they are pulling ahead or falling behind in class performance. In addition, some students enjoy the social connection that comes from watching excellent performers compete for top position!

  3. Pacer - Courses often include a few students who are excellent performers and set the performance bar for all other students. This can help drive performance and pace for the entire class. The leaderboard shows excelling student's progress to all students.

  4. Social Sharing - Most courses include components that share their data with the Leaderboard so that students can view each other's stats; including points earned, avatars, and achievements. This helps students create a stronger connection with their peers.

Note: The Leaderboard has no manual settings, it is configured entirely by the Delphinium Configuration AI.

Open the Component Settings

On the Delphinium page, in Teacher or Periscope View, click the Settings icon in the top right corner of the page.

The "Settings" dialog will open.

Click the Delphinium Settings tab in the tab bar at the top of the Settings dialog.

The “Delphinium Settings” tab will be displayed.







The Delphinium Settings tab has two sub tabs, "Course Settings" and "Component Settings." If necessary, click Component Settings.

The "Component Settings" sub tab will be displayed.

If your course has more than one tab, you will see those tabs mirrored in the "secondary tab bar". You may need to click the correct tab in the secondary tab bar to display the icon for the component you wish to edit.


Click the Leaderboard icon.

The “Leaderboard Settings” dialog will display.


Edit Leaderboard Levels

By default, the Leaderboard will create 5 levels and assign an icon to each. You can customize the icons, label, and number of levels.

Order - You can change the order that levels are displayed by clicking and dragging the "six-dot drag icon" on the right side of each level row. Drag the drag icon up or down to change the level order.

Create Level - Click the Create Level button to open the "Create Level" window.

Add a level "Name" and "Icon" and click Save Level to close the window.

Edit - Click the Edit icon in the "Edit" column for the level you want to edit. The "Edit Level" window will open.

Change the level "Name" and/or "Icon" and click Save Level to close the window.

Remove - Click the check box in the row of the level or levels you want to remove. The "Remove" button will be enabled. Click Remove to remove the level or levels. A "confirmation dialog window" will ask if you are sure you want to delete the level. Click Yes. This action cannot be undone.


Filter Assignments with Tags

Filter which assignments are used to calculate student rankings in this Leaderboard by selecting one or more "assignment tags" to include.

Select the check box next to the "tag" you want include in this Leaderboard's student ranking calculations.

Selecting no tags will include ALL assignments.

Note: Use the Tag Manager to create new tags, and Module Meta-data Manager to add tags to assignments.

Note: If your Delphinium Layout includes Delphinium components that generate bonus or penalty points, these bonus and penalty points will not be included when calculating student rankings when you filter a leaderboard. (This does not apply to bonus or penalty points that you give students manually in an assignment or in the Canvas gradebook.)

Save Settings

Click Save to save your changes to the Leaderboard settings. The Leaderboard Settings will close.

Refresh the page to see your changes in the Leaderboard.

Adding Multiple Leaderboards to the Same Layout

You can use the Layout Editor to add multiple Leaderboards to the same Delphinium Layout. For example, you might want to use tags to identify assignments with similar characteristics, like Unit 1, Unit 2; quizzes vs discussions; topic A vs. topic B. You could then create different Leaderboard for each tag to track student ranking and progress .

Each Leaderboard will have it's own icon button in "Component Settings". Mousing over a Leaderboard's icon button will show a tool tip with a "Find Me" button that will help you identify which Leaderboard settings you are editing.


Note: Leaderboard rankings are calculated differently depending on if a course is using 0-based or %-based grading and whether or not the leaderboard is configured to filter for specific tags (described above).

In %-based grading, a student's % is taken directly from the % calculated in Canvas. As a result, this value will be sensitive to any assignment or grading rules configured in the Canvas Assignments page.

In 0-based grading, points are raw values taken from the scores students receive on assignments. Thus, grading rules, like weighted assignment groups and dropping a score, are ignored when calculating leaderboard ranks.

When filtering a leaderboard by specific assignment tabs, raw assignment scores are used to calculate ranks, even in %-based courses, and Canvas grading rules are ignored.

Note: By default, points used to compute ranking are not weighted using assignment group weightings. However, it is possible to weight ALL points that are displayed in Delphinium by assignment groups. The best option is to not use assignment group weights so that the impact of an assignment is transparent to students. If this is not possible, you can display points weighted in Delphinium, but this is risky because point values will be displayed as their TRUE value, not as they are displayed in Canvas in the Canvas gradebook or in assignments. Only use this option if you are confident the difference will not confuse students.

Note: In teacher mode you will see students name with their alias below, in periscope and student mode, you will see the students' alias and a competition label below.