From Academic Computing

Contents 1 What is it? 2 What you need 3 e-Grades Submission Tool - Where is it located? 4 Submitting your Grades 4.1 Using Manual Entry 4.2 Using a Gradebook Item for Submission 5 Submitting Midterm Grades and Running Weighted Total 5.1 Download/Upload Gradebook 5.2 Not Including an Item in Gradebook Calculations 6 Submitting Grades for a .ALL Course 6.1 Downloading the .ALL Gradebook 6.2 Uploading the .ALL Grades 7 Changing Individual Grades 8 Resubmitting All Grades

[edit] What is it?

E-Grades is USF's Web-based system for assigning and submitting course grades from the Blackboard Learning System to the Banner Student Information System.

With myUSF e-Grades, you use Blackboard to submit grades directly into OASIS/Banner. No more need for pre-printed course reports and little bubbles to fill in with pencil. With the Blackboard Gradebook as its home base, (Blackboard lets you import grades from your Excel spreadsheet, and save the grades back to Excel) e-Grades Submission takes you through the grading process from start to finish –or- lets you complete one or more parts of the process and finish up later.

Only the Instructor(s)-of-record listed on OASIS/Banner for the class may use this system. Student names are taken from the Blackboard class list imported directly from OASIS/Banner, providing the Instructor an accurate roster. If a student is not listed, the student is not enrolled in that course and/or section. Please inform the student of this fact.

[edit] What you need

To use myUSF e-Grades, you need three things:

1. A USF NetID
2. A myUSF account
3. Access to the myUSF Portal (https://my.usf.edu) on any Internet-connected computer with a Web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator, Opera)

IMPORTANT NOTES Before you begin using myUSF we recommend you update your computer with the latest patches. If you are using Windows 2000/XP please visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com to update your computer to the latest service pack. We also recommend your computer has Java (1.4.2) installed. You can download the latest version of Java from Sun's website (http://www.sun.com) Note: MacOS 8 & 9 have an earlier version of Java –certain features of Blackboard may not work correctly

[edit] e-Grades Submission Tool - Where is it located?

Communication and collaboration tools that enhance interaction between users are always placed in the Course Tools area of the Control Panel.

[edit] Submitting your Grades

With myUSF e-Grades , you can assign grades for the entire class by selecting a column from the Blackboard Gradebook, or enter your grades manually. If you already have your grades in Excel, or prefer to enter grades in a spreadsheet, see the following pages on how to Download the Gradebook and Upload Grades.

[edit] Using Manual Entry

This is the simplest of all grade submission methods because it mirrors the old method of grade submission. Any faculty member that does not keep their gradebook in an electronic format (e.g. Blackboard, Excel) should use this method. If you do keep your gradebook electronically, please proceed here.

1. Access your course
2. Click on the Control Panel link on the Course Menu
3. Select e-Grades Submission on the Control Panel
4. Select Manual Entry as the grade source
5. Click Next to continue
6. Pull down the To Be Submitted menu to assign a grade –repeat for each student in the class list
   • To add and/or edit a comment, click on the icon next to the appropriate student
   • A valid date for the Last Date Attended is required for any of these grades: F, I, U
   • At any time during this step, you may click Save to save your work and resume later, or click Cancel to quit the process altogether
   • To assign via e-Grades Submission a grade for academic dishonesty, please do the following:
     1. At any point in the term that you decide to issue the FF grade, you should immediately e-mail a brief statement to UGS Associate Dean Janet Moore (moore@ugs.usf.edu), and Associate Registrar Tony Embry (tembry@admin.usf.edu) regarding your intent to issue an FF grade –Undergraduate Studies will assist you with the student notification process per university guidelines
     2. At the time of submitting your e-Grades, you should post a grade of F to the student's record
     3. You will then need to submit an Instructor's Change of Grade Form –at this point, the grade will be changed from an F to the FF grade
7. When finished, click Submit to transmit the grades to OASIS/Banner
   • Your USF NetID and Password serve as your electronic signature. Clicking the Submit button on this page issues to the University Registrar an electronic directive to record the associated academic progress information and confirms your electronic consent.
   • As submissions are queued, an estimate of the time for completing the process is shown –you may exit at this point, as you need not wait for the receipt; you will be notified via e-mail when all the grades have been recorded in OASIS/Banner
   • After completion, each time you select e-Grades Submission on the Control Panel, a receipt page is displayed confirming the results recorded in OASIS/Banner
   • If a grade is not recorded properly, click on Click to view message to display the error condition
   • For a printer-friendly version of the OASIS receipt, click on [View Print Version] at the top of the page
8. Click OK to return to the Control Panel

[edit] Using a Gradebook Item for Submission

1. Access your course
   1. Go into the Courses Tab
      
   2. Then click on your course
      
2. Click on the Control Panel link on the Course menu
   
3. Select e-Grades Submission on the Control Panel
   
4. Select Gradebook as the grade source
   
5. Pull down the Select Item menu to select the desired grade column and click Next to continue
   
   
   • As only letter grades may be submitted to OASIS/Banner, you may use the following page to modify the built-in Blackboard grade scale that converts percentages or scores into letter grades
   • The grade distribution for the course –based on your grade scale– is represented in a histogram
     
6. Check the box(es) of the letter grade(s) you do not intend to use and adjust the grade scale as needed –the histogram will reflect the updated grade distribution
   
7. To restore the default scale, type Yes into the text box, and click on the Reset button
   
8. When finished, click Next to continue
9. If you wish to make any individual modifications, pull down the To Be Submitted menu next to any student
   
   
   • To add and/or edit a comment, click on the "pencil" icon next to the appropriate student
     
     
   • A valid date for the Last Date Attended is required for any of these grades: F, I, U
     
     
   • At any time during this step, you may click Save to save your work and resume later, or click Cancel to quit the process altogether
   • To assign via e-Grades Submission a grade for academic dishonesty, please do the following:
     • At any point in the term that you decide to issue the FF grade, you should immediately e-mail a brief statement to UGS Associate Dean Janet Moore (moore@ugs.usf.edu), and Associate Registrar Tony Embry (tembry@admin.usf.edu) regarding your intent to issue an FF grade –Undergraduate Studies will assist you with the student notification process per university guidelines
     1. At the time of submitting your e-Grades, you should post a grade of F to the student's record
     2. You will then need to submit an Instructor's Change of Grade Form –at this point, the grade will be changed from an F to the FF grade
10. When finished, click Submit to transmit the grades to OASIS/Banner
    
    • Your USF NetID and Password serve as your electronic signature. Clicking the Submit button on this page issues to the University Registrar an electronic directive to record the associated academic progress information and confirms your electronic consent.
11. An alert box will pop up asking you to confirm that you are authorized to submit grades for this course, click OK. If the browser is closed or if you leave the page before the alert box appears the data will not be sent. Please wait for the processing page to appear before leaving the page or closing the browser.
    • As submissions are queued, an estimate of the time for completing the process is shown –you may exit at this point, as you need not wait for the receipt; you will be notified automatically via e-mail when all the grades have been recorded in OASIS/Banner
      
12. After completion, each time you select e-Grades Submission on the Control Panel, a receipt page is displayed confirming the results recorded in OASIS/Banner
    • If a grade is not recorded properly, click on Click to view message to display the error condition
      
      
    • For a printer-friendly version of the OASIS receipt, click on View Print Version at the top of the page
      
13. Click OK to return to the Control Panel
    

[edit] Submitting Midterm Grades and Running Weighted Total

The Running Weighted Total column can not be used to submit grades through e-Grades. If you use Running Weighted Total there are two options to ensure the correct grades are submitted. The first is to create a new "midterm" item, then Download and Upload the Gradebook. The second is to Change from Running Weighted Total to Weighted Total and not include items in the calculation. Both ways are explained below.

[edit] Download/Upload Gradebook

1. Include the all the grades so far for the students. If a student has not submitted an assignment enter a zero for that student. Zeros do not work for "complete/incomplete" grades that appear as a checkmark. Leave theses grades blank in the Gradebook.
2. Create a "midterm" column in the gradebook. To view instructions on how to do this go to How to use myUSF's Gradebook-Managing Gradebook Items
3. Download the Gradebook to your computer. To view instructions on how to do this go to Download Gradebook.
4. Upload the file back to Gradebook. To view instructions on how to do this go to Upload Gradebook.
5. Select the Import Item to be running weighted total.
6. Select the Existing Item to be the "midterm" column you created.

[edit] Not Including an Item in Gradebook Calculations

1. In the Gradebook click on the Item's name.
   
   
2. Click Item Information.
   
3. Under Section 2 Options select no for Include item in Gradebook score calculations.
   
4. Click Submit.

You will need to change Running Weighted Total to Weighted Total. To do this follow the instructions below.

1. In the Gradebook click on Running Weighted Total
   
2. Click Item Information
   
3. Click Exempt items that have not been graded
   
4. Click Submit
5. Click OK and OK again to go back to the Gradebook

[edit] Submitting Grades for a .ALL Course

Blackboard .ALL courses are used to manage multiple sections simultaneously. The exception to this is with submitting e-Grades. Instead of submitting your grades for all sections directly through the .ALL course, you will need to go back into each section and submit grades individually. This process is made more efficient by first downloading the Gradebook from the .ALL course, then importing grades into each section.

[edit] Downloading the .ALL Gradebook

First, the Gradebook is downloaded from within the .ALL course.

1. Select Gradebook on the Control Panel
   
2. Select Download Grades
   
3. Select the delimiter type for the downloaded file and click Submit
4. Click Download and select where to save the Gradebook file
5. Downloading a Gradebook does not remove any information from the Gradebook

[edit] Uploading the .ALL Grades

The Gradebook file downloaded from the .ALL course, which should contain students from all sections, is uploaded into each section individually. Blackboard will automatically filter out students not in the section you are uploading to, so the same gradebook file with all of the students listed will work with each section. The following steps should be performed for each course section you will be submitting e-Grades for.

1. Select Gradebook on the Control Panel
2. Select Upload Grades
   
3. Click Browse, select the file to upload to the Gradebook and click Submit
4. The Choose Column to Import page will appear
5. Select the import column which has the students' final (or mid-term) grades, then select the Gradebook column (or create a new one) that they will be exported to and click Submit
   
6. You should see a confirmation page, or a page for creating a new Gradebook item if you selected that option. Press OK and/or create the column to continue.
7. Click Select All and press Submit to update the Gradebook
   

[edit] Changing Individual Grades

Grades may be changed and resubmitted to OASIS/Banner until they are rolled into academic history by the Registrar –once this has occurred grade changes are no longer allowed through e-Grades Submission.

1. Access your course
2. Click on the Control Panel link on the Course Menu
   
3. Select e-Grades Submission on the Control Panel
   
4. Click Modify at the bottom of the receipt page
   
5. Pull down the Final Grade menu next to any student if you wish to change any individual grades
6. When finished, click Submit to transmit the modifications to OASIS/Banner
   • If a grade is not recorded properly, click on Click to view message to display the error condition
     
   • For a printer-friendly version of the OASIS receipt, click on View Print Version at the top of the page
     
7. Click OK to return to the Control Panel
   

[edit] Resubmitting All Grades

Grades may be changed and resubmitted to OASIS/Banner until they are rolled into academic history by the Registrar –once this has occurred grade changes are no longer allowed through e-Grades Submission .

This option erases all the data history in e-Grades Submission. Do not use unless you wish to change ALL the grades for your course.

1. Access your course
2. Click on the Control Panel link on the Course Menu
3. Select e-Grades Submission on the Control Panel
4. Type the word Yes in the space provided
5. Click Reset at the bottom of the receipt page
6. Click OK to return to Select Grade Source, or click Cancel to return to the receipt page

If you have any questions about the myUSF e-Grades Project, please contact us at e-Grades@usf.edu. For more information also see the E-grades FAQ.