Blackboard is no longer supported at SDSU. Please see the directions uploading grades from Canvas to WebPortal!
https://clicker.sdsu.edu/canvas-to-webportal-course-letter-grade-upload/
Got grading? ITS, Enrollment Services, and the Registrar created a tool in early 2016 to make your end-of-semester grading easier. This process will permit you to upload your grades from Blackboard into the SDSU WebPortal simply and painlessly. No more endless drop-down menus and fewer errors that inevitably result from the manual entry of grades.
This new functionality works best for courses with around 50 or more students. Since there are several steps involved, you will need to decide if the extra work is worth it. Participants in a pilot project to test out this tool reported more than a 90% reduction in the time it took them to input final course grades. If you are not comfortable creating columns in Blackboard Grade Center or using Excel files, you can drop into the Virtual FIT Center and we can assist you.
vFIT in Zoom
URL: http://sdsu.zoom.us/my/sdsuits
M-Th: 8am – 5:30pm
F: 8am – 4:30pm
Please note:
- This process will ONLY work with a CSV file downloaded from Blackboard using the column name“Course Letter Grade”.
- It will not work with a CSV file generated in any other way and you cannot open the file once you download it from Blackboard.
- This tool will return an “ERROR” message for any grade of Incomplete. Grades of Incomplete must be entered into WebPortal manually and require instructors to complete an Incomplete Agreement in WebPortal.
- WebPortal will return a formatting error for any Preview or Test Users that are in your Grade Center.
Check out this link for a demonstration of how to use this new tool: http://bit.ly/1SUHyXG
Blackboard to WebPortal Process
Blackboard Grade Center
3. Scroll down and select “Download”
4. When a new window opens, in Section 1 choose “Selected Column” and choose “Course Letter Grade” from the drop down menu
5. In Section 2, Delimiter type = “Comma” and “Submit”
Upload the file to WebPortal:
Note: Fields that are uploaded to WebPortal are: Last Name, First Name, Username, Course Letter Grade.
2. Click on “WebGrades”
3. Select “Submit Grades” and make sure the semester is correct and click “Go”
5. Upload your saved .csv file (the file will start with “gc_”)
8. Press “Submit and Finish” below the list of grades to save in WebPortal.
If you make a mistake, it is possible to do a second upload from Blackboard into WebPortal; new grades will overwrite the old grade. Grades can be uploaded as many times as needed before grade submission deadline.
Download and Prepare Canvas Grades for Upload into Blackboard
1. Prepare your gradebook for Final Grade Submission
a) Unmute all muted assignments that you want counted towards the final total
b) Exclude any assignments that you’re not using in the course’s final grades. To exclude an assignment from the course’s final grades, “Edit” the assignment details. Click the “Do not count this assignment toward the final grade” checkbox above to remove points (i.e., 100) from final gradebook calculations
2. Export the Gradebook to Excel
a) Go to Canvas Grades => Actions => Export in the top left corner
b) Save the file to the Desktop
3. Remove Unneeded Columns (there may be many)
a) Open the Excel document you downloaded from Canvas.
b) Verify that the Final Score is correct
c) Delete all columns except SIS User ID and Final Score
d) Delete Row 2 (Points Possible)
4. Save Excel Sheet to the Desktop.
a) File => Save As => Desktop (re-name the file if you like)
b) Save as .CSV (MS-DOS comma delimited)
c) Click to close Excel.
5. Upload Canvas Final Score into Blackboard
a) Go to the Blackboard course
b) Go to Grade Center
c) Click “Work Offline” in the upper right corner of the Grade Center window
d) Scroll down and select “Upload”
6. Click “Browse my Computer” and “Auto” and press “Submit”
This will upload your Canvas final grades into Blackboard. Now you must follow the directions above for uploading from Blackboard to WebPortal.
Barry Dorr says
These instructions were sloppy and useless to me. I won’t waste my time going into details, but I didn’t see a way to simply enter my letter grades. The only possibility was for Blackboard to assign the letter grade based on the percentage. also, I couldn’t enter a RD grade.
Linda Woods says
We are sorry you experienced difficulty using the instructions. We worked on them through several iterations until we thought they were clear and even created a short video tutorial. We did preface our instructions by saying that it’s not worth the effort if your class is relatively small. It could be easier to simply hand-enter grades into WebPortal and skip all of the steps involved in creating a new column, downloading, uploading, etc. There are some “grade” designations, such as Incomplete, which have to be manually entered. We are here in Adams Humanities Room 1109 ready to assist you if you’d like to try again next semester.
Peter Salamon says
The part of the instructions that said to use a calculated column is not required. This initially made me also hesitate but I used a regular column (NOT calculated) and it works fine with that as well.
Brent Bolton says
The issue I keep circling around is how do I “mass upload” the letter grade into BlackBoard? If I need to manually enter the letter grades into Blackboard, just so I can download them into WebPortal, that doesn’t save any time. I don’t want the students to see the letter grade in Blackboard, I want them to have to go to WebPortal to find it out. I assume I’m just missing a step somewhere?
Sean Hauze says
Hello Brent,
You can upload an Excel spreadsheet to the Blackboard Grade Center via the following steps:
In Blackboard:
1. Navigate to Grade Center within your Blackboard Course
2. Choose “Work Offline” then “Download”
3. Choose “User Information Only”
4. Choose “Download”
In Excel:
5. Locate and open the downloaded file in Excel
6. Delete all columns except: Last Name, First Name, and Username
7. Create a column with the name of the score/grade you are uploading
8. Manually enter/copy and paste scores
9. Save as .csv file
In Blackboard:
10. Navigate to Grade Center within your Blackboard Course
11. Choose “Work Offline” then “Upload”
12. Choose “Browse My Computer” and select the .csv file
13. Click “Submit”
If you have any questions please contact us at bbhelp@nullsdsu.edu or call us at 619-594-3485
Arnel Aguinaldo says
This is a good strategy and for a class of 150+, this will save me some time! However, this still involves the instructor having to enter the letter grades manually, either on Blackboard or in Excel. However, in Excel, you can enter this formula in each of the cells under the Course Letter Grade column that would automatically enter the letter grade depending on the total score a student receives. Here’s an example of this simple formula:
=IF(AM10>277,”A”,IF(AM10>268,”A-“,IF(AM10>259,”B+”,IF(AM10>250,”B”,IF(AM10>241,”B-“,IF(AM10>232,”C+”,IF(AM10>223,”C”,IF(AM10>214,”C-“,AO10))))))))
In continued in AO10 (since the length of the formula in the cell is limited):
=IF(AM10205,”D+”,IF(AM10>196,”D”,IF(AM10>187,”D-“,”F”))),””)
I use a 300 point system for all my courses but you can adjust the scale accordingly (i.e., >93, “A”). All the cells will be automatically updated with the letter grades then all you have to do is copy this column and paste as values in the .CSV file that gets uploaded to the Webportal. Just make sure you save in its original format (not .xls or .xlsx).
Hope this helps!
Sean Hauze says
Thank you, Arnel.
This is a good tip for users using Excel!
To All Faculty: It is important to note that uploading letter grades from the Blackboard Grade Center is a convenience only for faculty who currently list their course total as a letter grade. This is optional. If you do not use letter grade totals, this will actually be more work for you. Please keep in mind that this is optional.
Bob McKinney says
Maybe I’m missing something, but I just uploaded the grades from Blackboard, and I never once entered anything manually. I had my grade column attached to my grading schema in Blackboard, and that automatically entered the grades from my totals. The only difference from the instructions was from step 6 in Blackboard, instead of “course letter grade” my schema was listed and I clicked on that. The whole process took 5 minutes, and there was much less risk of error since I did not enter anything manually.
khaleel mohammed says
Have been following Linda’s instructions for years…and have always been successful. You do need to follow them to the letter.
Jeff Wield says
Wow, struggled with this for about an hour until I decided to follow the instructions exactly. Worked in minutes – super easy. Now I know for next time. I had already created the letter grade column in Blackboard and did a custom grading schema to get from the weighted total to the letter grade. Just needed to do the download properly checking the box for selected column and comma. This really helps to make sure there are no transcription errors. Thank you!
Kate says
I use blackboard as my grade book so it was just one extra column and all was done. This is great!
C. Probett says
Heads up for large classes: Blackboard does not properly alphabetize your class! So when grades are uploaded to WebPortal, students with same last name may have their grades crossed (for example, BB will list student 1: Jones, Rachael ahead of student 2: Jones, Alex….. but WP will list them properly: Jones, Alex before Jones Rachael). You need to carefully check the WebPortal grades!!!!
khaleel mohammed says
Thanks to the FIT center personnel for making this so easy…as long as instructions are followed exactly as outlined.
Sean Hauze says
Thank you, Khaleel!