Technology for Professors -- A Users Guide

Information about uploading grades from a spreadsheet into the Moodle grade book program.

Yes, it is easy to upload or post or import grades from a spreadsheet into the Moodle grade book. However, you have to do three steps in preparation.
(In case there is a problem, if you already have grades in the Moodle grade book, it is recommended that you first export the grades that you have as a back-up copy while you import the new grades.)

1) The students in your spreadsheet have to match up with the students in your Moodle course. You can't have an extra student or be missing one student. It probably will cause a problem if you have any blank rows in the spreadsheet. You can only have one "top row" on the spreadsheet giving the information about each column. (For example, the top row might have the words "first name," "last name," "email address," "quiz 1," .... "final grade.") You should not have a blank space between the top row and other rows where all the information is.
2) You need to have one column that will allow the Moodle program to match up its roll with the students in the spreadsheet. I recommend using the students' user name (the part of their names before the @eckerd.edu in their Eckerd College email address). Their email address or name may cause a problem because they may have changed either or both of these as they modify their profile and put in another email address and/or or a nickname.
3) You need to save your spreadsheet as a CSV file. All spreadsheet programs have this ability if you use the "Save As" option. Please note if it is comma delimited or tab delimited and note where the file is saved.

Once this is done, go to the Moodle grade book and click on the "Import" tab, the CSV link, and the Browse button. Find the file, make sure the correct separator is checked, and click on the Upload grades button.

If you use the user name (as suggested above) to match everything between the spreadsheet and the Moodle grade book, you will want to map from "user name" into "username."
You can ignore everything expect for the grades that you want to appear in the Moodle grade book. You can have some or all of the spreadsheet grades go into grade items already in the Moodle grade book. You can have some or all of the spreadsheet grades go into new grade items in the Moodle grade book. This is determined by using the drop down menus.
Click on the Upload grades button.

You will either get a message, "Grade import success" (and if you do, Congratulations.) or you will get an error message. Usually the error message is pretty clear and indicates the changes that you must make to your spreadsheet to make the grades import smoothly.

When you are successful it is important to examine your revised grade book carefully to be sure that the new grades are in the correct places and that the averaging is being done correctly. If something needs to be changed, this can usually be done pretty easily by clicking on the "Categories and Items" tab and editing some things, especially the way that grades are averaged. However, if there is a big problem, you can always delete the grades you added and start over again.