Preparing Grades in Brightspace for Automatic Export to ISRS Grade & LDA Entry

REVISION IN PROGRESS: This article contains useful information, but is being revised to reflect recent updates. Direct questions to TLT (tlt@winona.edu).

Overview

The Minnesota State eServices Grades and LDA Entry page where faculty post official final grades now allows for the import of grades from the Desire2Learn (D2L) Brightspace Grades Tool. Instructors who already use the Brightspace Grades Tool can import them directly from their Brightspace course. This import feature works for both merged and unmerged Brightspace courses. Before faculty can import grades from a Brightspace course, the grades must be converted to an acceptable, official format. The following three sections (i.e. I. Set Grade Scheme to Symbol, II. Release Final or Adjusted Final Grades, and IV. Importing Grades to ISRS using the eServices Grade and LDA Entry) explain the process. To avoid errors, it is strongly recommended that faculty follow these four steps in order.

Step 1. Assign a grade scheme to your final grade column

In order to import your final grades from your Brightspace course to the official Minnesota State Faculty eServices site, they must be listed as a letter grade in your Brightspace grade book. Only the A, B, C, D, and F symbols can be used, no pluses or minuses. Any students who have other symbol entries (e.g. I, IP, AU, or W) or have non-earned grades will need to be entered manually into the official Minnesota State Faculty eServices site. This assumes that you have assigned a grade scheme to the Final Calculated Grade or Final Adjusted Grade column.

1. In the Grades tool, go to the Enter Grades page.
2. Click Edit from the Final Calculated Grade or the Final Adjusted Grade drop-down menu.
3. From the Grade Scheme drop-down menu, select your desired grade scheme. Do not use the default basic grade range, unless you want to use a standard curve or you have customized that scheme to your specification. Rather than edit this default scheme, it is strongly recommended that you create a new, custom scheme to match your preferred grade scale. Then select that custom scheme in this step.
4. Under Display Options, click Show Display Options link (if not already expanded).
5. Under the Student View, check the Override the display options for this item checkbox, then check the Points and Grade scheme symbol checkboxes.
6. Click Save and Close.

Step 2: Set your final grade column to display letter grade symbol

Once you have the desired grade scheme applied that transforms the total points/weight into a letter grade, you need to configure your Final Calculated Grade or Final Adjusted Grade to display the letter grade symbol only:

1. On the Enter Grades page, click Settings.
2. Click the Org Unit Display Options tab.
3. Under the Student View Display Options, check the Grade Scheme symbol checkbox.
4. Click Save.
5. Click the Calculations Options tab.
6. Under the Final Grade Released section, validate your choice of Calculated Final Grade or Adjusted Final Grade to be released by selecting the radio button next to your choice. Note: This will set the flag for which should be imported.
7. Click Save.
8. Click Close.

Step 3: Release Calculated Final Grade or Adjusted Final Grade

Once grades have been released, they can be imported into the Faculty eServices site. Either the Final Calculated Grade or the Final Adjusted Grade can be released.

1. In the Grades tool, go to the Enter Grades page.
2. Click Grade All from the Final Calculated Grade or the Final Adjusted Grade drop-down menu.
3. Click the drop-down arrow next to the Final Grades heading and click Release All.
4. Click Yes in the confirmation window.
5. Click Save and Close.

Step 4: Import Grades to ISRS using eServices Grade and LDA Entry

The final step of import is to log into ISRS using the eServices Grade and LDA Entry pages.

1. Access the Minnesota State Faculty eServices site and go to the Grades and LDA page for your class.
2. Select Import from D2L at the bottom of your class list.
   
3. Log in to D2L if you are currently not and allow the system to pull this data over to Grade and LDA Entry.
   
4. Successful imports will have Imported under the Grade Status column and a letter grade will appear in the Grade column.
   
5. If there were any errors that occurred during the import process they will appear in the Errors/Warnings column and at the top of the page and can be viewed by clicking on the Details button. NOTE: If you do have errors and click the Details button you will want to print this page so you have a record.
   
6. At this point, review the grades for accuracy and add any in-progess grades, audits, or the like. (See the complete list below.)
7. Finally, you can save your grade entries as drafts or publish as final grades.
   • Draft grades are stored in the system but are not final grades, the professor has the ability to go back later and make changes. Draft grades are not made available to the student.
   • Published grades are final and sent through the system and ultimately to the student's transcript.

Again, only letter grades (i.e. A, B, C, D, and F) will import automatically. Also, don't try and use letter grades with plus and minus as our system will not allow this type of grade. All others types of grades (see list below) will require manual entry as usual.

• Audit is indicated by AU.
• If a student registered on a Pass/No Credit basis (Grade Method: 04 or marked as P/NC), indicate P or NC.
• Incomplete, recorded as I, is used only at the discretion of the faculty member. For undergraduates, incomplete grades are administratively changed to a failing grade at the mid-point of the following term, not including the summer term. Graduate students have one year to clear an incomplete.
• In-Progress, recorded as IP, is used for course work that, by design, is not expected to be completed within the current term. For both undergraduate and graduate students, in-progress grades remain on the student’s transcript for one calendar year before being administratively converted to an F.
• If a student never attended, please choose “Never Attended” and administer an F.
• After grades have been entered you will need to Post Final Grades as normal by authenticating with your StarID to complete the process.

For more information on entering final grades into ISRS

For more information on setting up a Brightspace grade book for import into the state system, refer to Setup D2L Brightspace from the Minnesota State Brightspace support site.

For more information on entering grades into the state system, refer to Grade & LDA Entry – Posting Completed Grades from the Minnesota State Brightspace support site.

More Information

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