Uploading Grades
To eliminate potential double-entry of Grade Center data, you can perform offline grading and import grades into the Grade Center. You can also upload grades from external sources such as an Excel spreadsheet or a comma-separated values (CSV) file. You must format data specifically to upload correctly and to synchronize with existing Grade Center data.
Format external files
To synchronize external data to Grade Center data, unique identifiers are necessary for each student and for each column in the Grade Center. The unique identifier used for each student is the student’s username. The unique identifier for each column is a column ID number. Column ID numbers are generated by the system and shouldn’t be changed or deleted. Columns that don’t have column ID numbers in an uploaded file will create new columns in the Grade Center.
Columns that you add to the Grade Center from an external file are added as text columns with points possible equaling zero (0).
Text columns can’t be included in calculated columns, such as weighted, total, average, and minimum/maximum. After the upload, convert text columns to other columns types and add points possible.
Each data file you upload to the Grade Center requires a header row with one record per line subsequently.
The format of the data file uploaded to the Grade Center is determined by the type of delimiter you use to parse the data into separate columns. Data files are tab-delimited with a file extension of XLS or comma-delimited with a file extension of CSV.
Data in each column of comma-delimited files must be contained within a quote character-the most common is quotation marks ( ” ” ). Data in each column of tab-delimited files doesn’t require a quote character.
Upload a file to the Grade Center
Any file you upload that contains an “Incomplete” for a grade entry will be set to null, with no grade or text displayed. Any file you upload that contains “Complete” for a grade entry will be set to an override grade of the maximum points possible (100% for a grade item) in a column that has the primary display of Complete/incomplete. Any file you upload that contains a numeric entry will be a numeric entry.
1. Access the Work Offline menu and select Upload.
2. Browse for the file on your computer or from the Content Collection if you have access to it.
3. Select the delimiter type: Comma, Tab, or Auto. If you choose Auto, the system attempts to automatically detect the delimiter used in the selected file.
4. Select Submit to upload the file.
5. On the Upload Grades Confirmation page, review the list of data from the file you want to upload. Clear the check boxes for any data to be excluded from the upload. With this method, you can upload only the columns of data you want from the file.
- Review the Data Preview column to check that the correct data is being uploaded. Data that appears incorrectly can denote an improperly formatted file. The data preview only shows a sample of the data in each column in the file.
6. Large files take significant time to process and a warning message appears for files that need extra time to process. To avoid long processing times, break up large files into separate uploads.
7. Select Submit to confirm and upload the file.