Uploading and Downloading Grades
Topic Overview
If you prefer to maintain student grades in an Excel spreadsheet on your computer, you can still upload them to your course site.
NOTE
You can upload multiple grade columns to the Grade Center at once.
IMPORTANT!
Columns that are added to the Grade Center from an external file are text columns with zero points possible. Text columns cannot be included in Calculated Columns such as Weighted Grade, Total Points, Average Grade, and Minimum/Maximum grade. To include the added column in calculations, modify the column after uploading: change Primary Display from text to score and type points possible.
Steps
Download Grade Center Spreadsheet
- Click Work Offline in the upper right corner of the main Grade Center page.
- Select Download from the drop-down menu.
- Select the Full Grade Center radio button.
- Leave Tab as a delimiter type. Tab delimited files have the file extension .xls.
- Choose Yes next to Include Hidden Information if you want hidden columns and students to be included in the spreadsheet.
- Press the Submit button.
- Press the Download button and save the file on your computer.
Calculation formulas cannot be downloaded or uploaded in such columns as Total and Weighted Total. Blackboard only copies values that resulted from the calculations.
Open a Tab-Delimited File in Excel
Double-click the downloaded tab-delimited file.
OR
- Open the Excel program.
- Select File > Open. Select the saved tab-delimited file. Select Open.
- If Text-Import Wizard opens, leave the default “Delimited” option unchanged and press Next.
- Leave Tab selected as a delimiter and press Next.
- Press Finish.
Edit a Spreadsheet
You can use the downloaded spreadsheet to manage the grades in an Excel spreadsheet on your computer. For example, you can:
- Enter grades in columns downloaded from the Grade Center
- Create new columns
- Enter grades in the new columns
- Perform grade calculations using the Excel functions.
Don’t change any student information (name, username, and student ID) and existing column headers if you plan to upload the spreadsheet back into Blackboard. When you add a new column, remember to type the name of the column in the header. Blackboard will add a column ID automatically when you upload the column.
Save a Spreadsheet as a Regular Excel File
- Select File > Save as.
- Type the descriptive name of the file including the course code and date (e.g., ed255_050508) in the File Name box.
- Select “Excel Workbook” in Save As Type (on a PC) and Format (on a Mac) drop-down menu.
Save a Spreadsheet as a Tab-Delimited Text File for Uploading
- Select File > Save as.
- Type the descriptive name of the file including the date (e.g., ed255_050508) in the File Name box.
- Select “Text (tab-delimited)” in “Save As Type” (for a PC) and Format (for Mac) drop-down menu. You can also select CSV (comma delimited option).
- Click Save.
- Click Yes to the question, "Do you want to keep the workbook format?"
A Text (tab-delimited) option will save a file with .txt extension, for example, course.txt. A CSV (comma-delimited) option will save a file with .csv extension, for example, course.csv. Blackboard recommends using tab-delimited files for uploading.
In order to upload grades to the Grade Center in Blackboard, you can first download the Grade Center, make your modifications, and save the file. For instructions on how to download the Grade Center and correctly save the modified file, click this link: Downloading the Grade Center
Upload a Delimited File
Preparing the csv file
Your file should contain a header row on top to include the word username. You should also have a title for the newly created column and should not be left blank.
- In Blackboard, click Work Offline in the upper right corner of the main Grade Center page.
- Select Upload from the drop-down menu.
- Press the Browse button.
- Select the file on your computer. Make sure you selected a delimited file with .txt extension or a file with .csv extension.
- Click Open.
- Select the Delimiter Type: Auto. Auto will attempt to automatically detect the delimiter used in the selected file.
- Click Submit to upload the selected file.
- Review the list of data from the file to be uploaded. Use the check boxes to deselect any data to be excluded from the upload. Using this method, it is possible to upload only the desired columns of data from the spreadsheet.
- Review the Data Preview column to ensure the correct data is being uploaded. Data that appears incorrect can denote an improperly formatted file. The Data Preview will only show a sample of the data in each column in the file.
- Click Submit to confirm and upload the file.
You can upload multiple grade columns to the Grade Center at once. The columns that do not have any difference with the Grade Center columns will be faded and not available for upload. To avoid long processing times, break up large files into separate uploads