Enter marks using a spreadsheet

If you prefer to record your marks using a spreadsheet rather than entering directly into the Grade Centre, this can be done using the ‘Work Offline’ function in the Blackboard Grade Centre. The ‘Download’ option will provide a spreadsheet for you to enter your marks and the ‘Upload’ option allows you to upload that spreadsheet of marks back into Blackboard.

You need to have created the Grade Centre column before downloading the spreadsheet.

QUICK STEPS: Downloading a spreadsheet

1. Enter the Full Grade Centre.
2. Select Work Offline.
3. Select Download.
4. On the Download Grades page choose Selected Column.
5. From the drop down list, select the Grade Centre column that you created manually. Please note that the ISIS fed column will also be listed - do not select this column.
6. Select Submit (leaving Options and Save Location with the default settings).
7. Click on the Download button.
8. Your web browser will then prompt you to Open or Save the file. You need to save it somewhere that you know you will be able to find.

QUICK STEPS: Editing and saving the spreadsheet

Please only add marks for students who did make an attempt. Do not enter a mark of zero for any non-submitting students as this will be interpreted as an attempt rather than a non-submission. Non-submissions should be left blank.

1. Open the file that you downloaded and you will receive an Excel prompt to say that the file is in a different format to that specified by the file extension. Select Yes.
2. The spreadsheet will have the following columns:
   • Last Name
   • First Name
   • Username
   • Student ID
   • Your manually created grade column
   If you have ‘Last Access’ and ‘Availability’ columns displayed in the Grade Centre, these will also be included as columns in the spreadsheet.
3. It is important not to change the formatting of the spreadsheet but you can sort the column data into the order that you want to mark them in, for example by Student ID. To do this, select the Sort & Filter option and then Custom Sort.
4. Make sure that My data has headers is ticked and then from the Sort by drop down, select which column you want to sort by e.g. Student ID. Select OK to apply the sort.
5. Enter your marks in the Excel column for your manually created grade column.
6. If you add additional columns for your own data, please remember to delete them from the spreadsheet before uploading the marks.
7. When you save the spreadsheet, you will receive an Excel prompt saying that the file may contain features that are not compatible with Unicode Text. Select Yes.

Copying from another spreadsheet

If you wish to copy marks from a different spreadsheet into the downloaded spreadsheet, we would recommend you make at least the following checks:

• Order both spreadsheets in the same way before you copy
• Check that the number of student rows match in both spreadsheets

Once the two checks above are carried out, the following more advanced check can be made to compare that the students are in the same order and the same rows:

1. From your other spreadsheet, copy the equivalent student ID and marks columns.
2. Paste these columns into free columns in the downloaded spreadsheet.

   If the data you copied is calculated, please use the Paste: Values option . This will ensure that only the end value is pasted and not the formula.

3. In the next available column enter the formula =EXACT(D2,G2) (Assuming that column D is the Student ID column from the downloaded spreadsheet and column G is the Student ID column copied from your other spreadsheet - adjust as required).
4. Use the Fill down function to apply the formula to all rows.
5. Where the content of the two columns match you will see TRUE. Where the content of the two columns does not match you will see FALSE.
6. Once you are happy that the students are in the same order and the same rows, move the copied marks into the column for your manually created grade column.
7. Delete the two columns that you copied in from the other spreadsheet and also the column containing the formula.
8. Save the spreadsheet. Select Yes on the Excel prompt saying that the file may contain features that are not compatible with Unicode Text.

QUICK STEPS: Uploading the spreadsheet

1. Enter the Grade Centre and select Work Offline then Upload.
2. On the Upload Grades page select Browse My Computer, then navigate and select the downloaded spreadsheet where you have saved your marks.
3. Select Submit.
4. On the Upload Grades Confirmation page, if you see a green tick under Match, you can continue and select Submit. If you do not see the green tick, please contact the Learning & Research Systems team.
5. The marks will be showing in the Grade Centre column that you manually created. The next step is to carry out the mapping process to send the marks to ISIS.