Exporting and Importing Grades
Illinois Compass can export grades in a .csv (comma
delimited) format file. This file can be opened in most spreadsheet programs,
such as Microsoft Excel, or even as a text file. Many instructors like creating
a local copy of their grades so that they can print or manipulate
the data in a spreadsheet program. Grades that have been edited in
a spreadsheet can then be imported back into Illinois Compass allowing those grades
to be shared with students. It is strongly recommended that instructors regularly import and export their grade books for archiving purposes.
Exporting Grades from Illinois Compass Grade
Book
To access the Grade Book tool, select the Teach tab, and under Instructor Tools select Grade Book.
Click Export to Spreadsheet
on the lower left-hand side of the grade book screen. Make sure you check the names of the students whose grades you want to export (or select the "check all" box at the top to export all students' grades).
Choose the format that you would like to download in, and
select Export. In most cases, we recommend that you keep the default settings. The default settings will export only visible
columns as a .csv (comma delimited) file.
On computers running Microsoft Windows operating system,
name your file and click Save. Macintosh operating
systems will automatically download the file to the default download location.
Importing Grades to Illinois Compass Grade
Book
After you have made changes to your spreadsheet, make sure
that the file is saved as a .csv file before trying to import it back into Illinois
Compass.
Note: If you are using Excel, you
will probably receive a warning message that some parts of the file may not be
compatible with the .csv format. If you receive this or a similar message, click
Yes to proceed with the save and double check in
Illinois Compass that your file uploaded properly.
Select the Teach tab, and under Instructor Tools select Grade Book.
From the Grade Book screen, click on Import from Spreadsheet from the toolbar on top of the page.
In the Import File screen, click on Browse
to locate the file on your hard drive. Choose Comma,
then select Upload.
Illinois Compass will check the file that you have uploaded
with the existing Grade Book. All of the files that match existing columns will
have a green check next to them. For the columns First Name, Last Name, Role, and any other
columns that you have not made changes to, make sure that the dropdown menu says Do not import. You only need to import the columns that you have made changes to.
For new columns, make sure that the dropdown menu reads Add as new column. In our case, we have added a new Extra Credit column that needs to be added to the Grade Book.
Note: Make sure that the column User
ID matches. If it does not, reopen the .csv file on your local computer and
rename the column with the students' NetIDs to User ID. If
this file does not match, student data on the .csv file will not be uploaded into
Illinois Compass.
Once you have checked the import settings, click Import.
Any errors in the importing process will be displayed on the confirmation page.
Note: This is not really an error, we did not want First Name and Last Name columns to be imported anyway.
After importing your spreadsheet back into Illinois Compass,
you must make the new column(s) that you have entered accessible and viewable
in the grade book.
From the Grade Book screen, click on the Grade Book Options dropdown menu and select Column Settings.
Find the newly imported column(s). Notice that the column
Type is imported as "Text," and both the Released to Student and Grade
Column rows are imported as "No."
First, you must change the Type to Numeric in order for it
to be accessible from the grades tab. To do this, click on Text.
The pop-up window "Convert Column Type" appears.
Make sure that the default for "New Value" is set to Numeric, and click
Save.
In the "Confirm New Values" screen, make sure that
the new column on the right displays the proper information for the conversion.
Click Apply.
Next, from the Column Settings page, toggle the No
in the Released to Student row, and the No in the Grade Column row
to Yes. This will make the column gradable, as well
as making it viewable to students.
When you are finished, return to the grade book view to make
sure that your newly imported column is visible.
For more information about editing column settings, please
see our web page Setting Up Illinois Compass Grade Book.
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