Creating Grade Items in Excel for Importing to Brightspace

If you are preparing your grades to one or all assessments offline and want to import your spreadsheet of grades into Brightspace, the file must be set up correctly before attempting an import. It must be in CSV, TSV or TXT format (Excel file format is not acceptable) and column titles must be correctly labelled. (See Gradebook Import Fields below for acceptable labelling). It is essential to follow all the formatting principles and accepted fields outlined in Brightspace to successfully import your grades.

If you are importing grades from a Scantron report, see How to Import a Scantron Report to Brightspace.

If you are not importing from a Scantron file, the easiest way to ensure your file is set up correctly is to either:

1. Export your Gradebook (either the whole gradebook or only select columns) as a CSV file to edit, or
2. download the Grades_Sample_Import_File to use as a template (in the Grades tool, click Enter Grades, click Import, click Grades_Sample_Import_File), to edit.

Whether you export or download, you can add a column to your spreadsheet to add and import additional assessment items.  

Once you have made your edits, save the changes, keeping the file as a CSV, and you are ready to import the file, see How to Import Grades to Gradebook.

Creating a spreadsheet for one grade item

You may instead want to create a spreadsheet from scratch for just one grade item and import it. To do that, be careful that you include the required columns and that they are labelled correctly. 

These are the required fields for importable grade items numeric grade, pass/fail, and Final Adjusted Grades.

1. Numeric Grade Items:

Numeric grade items - or points grades - are one of the most commonly used grade items in Brightspace. When importing a numeric grade item, the following fields are required:

• Username and/or OrgDefinedID
• Points Grade (the column title must be Grade Item Name Points Grade)
• End-of-Line Indicator

In this example, the numeric grade item's Points Grade column has an optional text "<Numeric MaxPoints:10 Weight:10>" appended to the heading. This text means that the grades inputted is for a numeric grade item, with maximum point of 10 and weight of 10 in a weighted grading system.

Notes: You cannot input textual elements for student grades (only numerical values). Any errors with cell data for student grades will not get imported.

2. Pass/Fail Grade Items:

Pass/Fail grade items are grade items that are evaluated using a pass/fail grading scheme. When importing a pass/fail grade item, the following fields are required:

• Username and/or OrgDefinedID
• Points Grade (the column title must be [Grade Item Name] Points Grade, for example, "Quiz 1 Points Grade")
• End-of-Line Indicator

In this example, the pass/fail grade item Points Grade column has an optional text "<Pass/Fail MaxPoints:10 Weight:10>" appended to the heading. This text means that the grades inputted is for a pass/fail grade item, with maximum point of 10 and weight of 10 in a weighted grading system. The system will also use the MaxPoints value to assign student pass/fail grades.

Note: Each student must either be assigned 0 (failure) or the maximum point (pass). The maximum points of a grade item is specified during the grade item creation in Brightspace. Any other number will have an error associated with it, and not get imported.

3. Adjusted Final Grades

Instructors can also manually update student final grades by importing a file into Gradebook. When importing Adjusted Final Grades the following fields are required:

• Username and/or OrgDefinedID
• Adjusted Final Grade Numerator
• Adjusted Final Grade Denominator
• End-of-Line Indicator

Note: The final grade will be calculated as a percentage based on the denominator (for example, 80/80 will generate a final grade of 100% instead of 80%).

Instructors must also select the Final Adjusted Grade as the course grade for students in Brightspace, in order for it to be the final grade released to students instead of Final Calculated Grade. Follow the steps of "Release Adjusted Final Grades to your students" once you complete importing the final grades.

Explanations of the Gradebook Import Fields