The following article details the export and import of grades.
Please note that the course layout, steps, and screenshots shown below may differ slightly for your campus.
Grades can be exported or imported in Brightspace. Exports can be downloaded and stored on your computer for your records, or modified and re-uploaded back into Brightspace with the import function. While Brightspace handles the process of both export and import, imported grades must match the import specifications exactly or the process can result in errors or missing data.
Exporting grades
- Exporting and importing are both done from the “Grades” screen. Along the top, click the Export button.
- The key field has three options. In the DLE, both the “Org Defined ID” and the “Username” fields are the SUNY Global ID, so your choice here is not important.
- Sort order of students defaults to sorting by the key field followed by “Last Name” and then “First Name”. To set it to a more ‘traditional’ alphanumeric sorting, use the dropdown to set this to “Last Name, First Name, Org Defined ID, Username”.
- “Grade Values” selections will create a column per selection for each grade item. For example, checking all three boxes on a Weighted gradebook export would result in a column for points, a column for the individual weight, and a column for the grade scheme symbol (letter or percentage) for each grade.
- “User Details” selections add columns for each selection. If you would like to use the Last Name, First Name sorting from the earlier step, both of those options must be selected. The Email option shows the primary campus email for students. Two options that may or may not appear depending on course are Group Membership and Section Membership. If you are utilizing either, selecting these will add a column showing which of these the student is enrolled in.
- Choosing “Grades to Export” will determine which grades are exported. By default, all individual grade items will be exported. Category subtotals, which are visible in Brightspace Grades in some views, do not get exported unless the “Weighted grade” option was selected in “Grade Values” above.
- Once all choices have been made, click Export to CSV or Export to Excel at the bottom to begin the download process. While both will output a spreadsheet, if you are going to re-import this file back into Brightspace the Export to CSV button will provide a file in the correct format for importing back in.
- On the next screen click the Download button.
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Importing grades
- Importing is done from the “Grades” screen. Along the top, click the Import button.
- On the next screen, click Choose File to launch your device’s file explorer. You will then need to locate the gradebook file for uploading.
- The only option available during an import is “Create new grade item when an unrecognized item is referenced”. When this option is enabled, rather than discard any column on the imported gradebook that is not in your Brightspace grades, the import process attempts to create a grade item. This option still requires the column to be formatted correctly for import, otherwise it will discard the column as if the option was not enabled.
- Once the file has been selected, select Continue to begin the upload and conversion process. If successful, a message will appear indicating so, otherwise see the subsection below for information about errors.
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Warnings about imports
- While Grade exports can be done as CSV or XLSX, Grade imports accept CSV, TSV, and TXT formats only. When working in Excel or other spreadsheet software, care must be taken so that the file is saved as a CSV rather than XLSX or other format. In Excel, this is done by selecting CSV from the file format dropdown when saving.
- If you encounter any other errors, they are most likely due to issues with the format of your columns/rows. Refer to the sample template provided by D2L for an example of what your import file should look like. This sample template is also available on the screen after clicking the Import button.
- The Subtotal columns and Final Calculated Grade column that may have been selected during export are automatically discarded and do not get imported back into Brightspace. No changes made to these columns on the exported file will be maintained; the Subtotals and Final Calculated Grade will automatically recalculate based off of the updated grades after import.
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