Uploading Your Final Grades to Peoplesoft

Uploading Your Final Grades to PeopleSoft

Note: The online grading functionality will become available on December 8, 2008

How Do I Use the Excel Upload Function?

Internet Explorer is the recommended browser. Log in to and navigate in the top-left menu to Faculty/Advisor Self-Service, then Instructors, then View My Class Roster. In the main part of the screen, a list of your classes will load.
Next to each of your classes will be icons. One column labeled "My Class Roster" contains icons of students; you would click here to obtain a roster at the start of the term. A nearby column will be labeled "My Grade Roster" and it contains a new icon . It is this icon which you need to click to access your final grade submission roster.
You will be taken to your online bubble form. From here, you could manually select individual grades, if desired. To upload all the grades instead via an Excel spreadsheet, click the text link "Upload Grade Roster" near the top of the page.
You are taken to a page that lists all your classes again, with buttons near each class name. It will not work to upload your Excel file directly; the system requires a very specific format and file type to process the information. If you do not submit in this specific format, the program will not function and grades will not be submitted. Thus, you will first need to download a correctly-formatted .CSV file that has your roster pre-populated, and add (or paste) the grades onto that before re-uploading to PeopleSoft.
Click the DOWNLOAD button. Most browsers will block the opening of a "Save As" box (even the preferred browser, Internet Explorer, may initially block the download). Either hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard as you click, or wait for the popup to be blocked and click near the top of the page to allow this download. Note that sometimes the disabling of the popup-blocker may kick you back a few pages and you'll have to re-enter the grade roster. Once you overcome the popup-blocker and click to download, you may find that a new browser window pops open; once you see the box to save the file, you won't need that blank browser window. Save the file to your desktop, and then open it with Excel.
All currently enrolled students will be displayed. If this list does not include all of your current students, contact the Registrar (). Any students who have withdrawn will have a "W" already placed in the GRADES column. You may manually type the grades into this column, or paste them from your original grade book from the semester. (We have separate tutorials explaining how to generate letter grades automatically in Excel and how to generate letter grades using Webcourses or myUCF Grades).
Take extreme care if you are pasting grades. The number of students must line up exactly, or students will be awarded the wrong grade by accident.
To prevent problems, you should first adjust your gradebook to exactly match the downloaded roster for total number of students (for instance, your gradebook may have lines dedicated to students who have since dropped, but if they are not part of the downloaded grade roster, delete them before copy/pasting). If your gradebook ends on line 247 in Excel, the downloaded roster should also end on line 247. Make your gradebook match the downloaded roster.
When you delete a student, highlight the row first, then right-click and select "delete." Doing so should "move up" the other rows below it. If you just use your keyboard button to delete, the empty row will remain and grades would not be uploaded correctly.
Be very cautious about multiple students with the same last names or apostrophes in the names, which can lead to students being listed in your own gradebook slightly out of alphabetic order. It is wise to sort twice: first highlight all cells (there's an unmarked "select all" button between the column A and row 1), then sort by FIRST NAME, and finally sort by LAST NAME, which will ensure that everyone is listed fully alphabetically. You may wish to do this also to the downloaded roster, before pasting. An alternate method would be to sort by PID, if this is in your own gradebook, or by NID if desired.
If your original gradebook made use of a formula to calculate letter grades, you must "copy" and then "paste special" (via right-click) and select "values" for the letters to appear as desired.
If you have to "paste special," after pasting you should click around a few places to verify that none of the students have an extra spacebar after the pasted grade (this can happen if you use a VLOOKUP table and have errant spacebars in that table, which would cause this student's grade to be rejected when uploaded).
If you use the gradebook in myUCF Grades or Webcourses, you can export the gradebook in CSV format, but you must be cautious about matching up lines of students. Students with Ws will *not* be listed in these gradebook downloads; you must manually insert a line and add the student name (just paste from the end-of-semester grade roster, complete with W). You will also need to check whether your downloaded gradebook includes a line for DEMO STUDENT and/or a line for the instructor. If so, those will need to be deleted to make your students line up.
You should spot-check students throughout the roster after pasting, to verify nothing went awry. Be sure also that the paste was exactly the right length at the end of the roster (no missing grades at the end and no extra lines, either).
Add codes in column F for any grades of I, U, or F.
For Fall 2008:
CD=Began and cannot determine
SA=Began and stopped after 29-Oct-2008 or finished the course
SB=Began and stopped by 29-Oct-2008
NB=Never began the class
After you have added the grades, save the file as a .csv on your local computer (you may wish to choose "Save As" and manually select a location, such as the Desktop, so that the file will be easy to find for the upload). You will see a warning message about lost functionality; click YES anyway. If you try to close the file, it may ask about saving again, but a further save is not necessary.
Back in the web browser that should still be open, select the UPLOAD button for the class that you just addressed.
On the next screen, click the BROWSE button to locate your saved .csv file, and then click UPLOAD. You will be taken back to the previous screen.
Near the bottom of the screen will be a text box indicating "Progress." This text does not dynamically update or refresh itself! You must click the STATUS button to refresh the page and view whether all grades were processed correctly. You may have to click multiple times, or wait a few seconds.
Once your refresh does make text appear in the box, you will see line-by-line explanations of each student's grade record. If the grade was accepted, you will see a message that the grade has been processed. Any other notification means the grade was NOT accepted for that student (the reasons may be various, such as a typographical error, an extra spacebar in the field, or an F grade without a code for last date of attendance). You are free to adjust the .csv file and try to upload it again, or to simply return to the online bubble form and manually fix any remaining problems. Note that if you left the W grades on the sheet for re-uploading, even these will show up as an error message (there is no way to prevent this, shy of removing the rows with Ws before uploading, but there is also no harm in the error message and no subsequent action needed).
To return to the grade roster (online bubble form), click the GO TO APPROVE button near the right side of your screen (note that this button does not function to "approve" the grades, but merely returns you to the roster). The grades which were successfully uploaded should now be displayed. Any students whose records were not uploaded will still have a blank field, and you may manually select a grade from the dropdown box.
Switch the roster Approval Status to "Approved" using a dropdown menu near the top, and perform one final visual review/double-check of the grades. When ready, click the SAVE button at the bottom. No further action needs to be taken by the instructor. The Registrar's Office will collect and post the grades automatically from this point. You will also receive an email almost immediately that your grades have been marked as approved for the Registrar to post.
It is advisable to download and save (or print) a copy of the grades you are submitting. There is a button just below your student names to see a printer-friendly version.

Webcourses and myUCF Grades

There is no direct download from Webcourses to PeopleSoft, or from myUCF Grades to PeopleSoft. However, it is possible to download the grade book from Webcourses (or myUCF Grades) to your local computer, and also download the official grade roster to your local computer, and then use the grade book to (very carefully!) paste just the final grade into the grade roster for re-uploading as per the instructions above. If you need help downloading the grade book from myUCF Grades visit this tutorial. For the remainder of this section of the tutorial, the word "Webcourses" will be used, but "myUCF Grades" functions the same way.

Note that you can export the gradebook in TXT or CSV format, but you must be cautious about matching up lines of students with your grade roster. Students with Ws will *not* be listed in these gradebook downloads; you must manually insert a line and add the student name (just paste from the end-of-semester grade roster, complete with W). You will also need to check whether your downloaded gradebook includes a line for DEMO STUDENT and/or a line for the instructor. If so, those will need to be deleted to make your students line up. We recommend the following steps:

Download the webcourses gradebook and save it as a .csv file
Download the grade roster (from "View My Class Roster") and save it as a .csv file
On the grade roster, select all cells by clicking the space "between" column A and Row 1 (actually just to the left and above).
Select DATA - SORT in the Excel tools, make sure there is a checkmark by "my data has headers" and sort by GRADE. Click OK. The students will re-arrange themselves on the sheet, with all students who have withdrawn listed up top.
Highlight the rows for all students who have a W-grade by clicking on the row numbers. Once all students with a W are highlighted, right-click and select "delete." The rows below should move up.
Now again highlight all cells, select DATA - SORT, and this time sort by NID.
Turn to the webcourses gradebook. First, find yourself (the instructor) or DEMO STUDENT and click on the row number to highlight, then right-click and "delete." The rows below should move up. Do the same for fellow instructors, teaching assistants, and graders.
Next, highlight all cells, select DATA - SORT, and sort by User ID (which is the Webcourses word for NID).
Verify that the two .csv files now have students in the same order, and with the same number of students. Fix any discrepancies before proceeding to the next step.
Once students line up across both files, return to the Webcourses file and click on the column for the Letter Grade, however you have named it. Click on the column's "letter" at the top to highlight the whole column, and then right-click to copy.
Return to the grade roster, and right-click over column E to paste the entire column of grades. It's OK to leave column E named whatever it was called in Webcourses.
Verify that the paste yielded the right amount of grades for the students, and spot check around the roster (checking it against your webcourses file) to verify that students are receiving the proper grades.
Add codes in column F for any grades of I, U, or F.
For Fall 2008:
CD=Began and cannot determine
SA=Began and stopped after 29-Oct-2008 or finished the course
SB=Began and stopped by 29-Oct-2008
NB=Never began the class
Save the now completed grade roster again. It is not necessary to return it to alphabetical order before uploading. Proceed with uploading as detailed above.

Incomplete Grades

A new procedure for incomplete grades was instituted in Summer 2008. Paper forms are no longer used, and a fully-electronic form has taken their place. Faculty members initiate the online I-grade form. Go to "View My Class Rosters" and find a link for Incomplete Grade Form below the list of your classes. The next page has two tabs (one for finding an existing form, and one for generating a new one). If making a new one, enter the student's ID number (which is their PID minus the initial letter). For Fall 2008, the term is 1340. The five-digit Class Nbr can be found under "class detail" on the list of your classes (i.e., the underlined link of your class name).

A form will be created. When you complete the sections and save the form, an email will be sent to the student and to your College (but not to your department). Check with your department to see if they request additional action from you.

Common Problems

If you tried to upload grades and NONE of them worked (or if your attempt to update the STATUS yields "processing" for more than ten minutes), it is likely you used an incorrectly-formatted Excel file. You can't just upload your own gradebook; you must download one from the grade roster in PeopleSoft (see the numbered steps above), paste final grades in, and re-upload. Be sure you download the "right" Excel file from PeopleSoft. If you're looking at the screen that lists your students' names, you should click on a link near the top that says "Upload Grade Roster." Do NOT click on the spreadsheet icon in the table that contains your students' names; this is there so you can later save a copy of the grade records after you submit them, but it won't work for the submission process itself.
If you clicked into the "Upload Grade Roster" page and nothing happens when you click on the "Download" link, you may have pop-up blockers disallowing access. Watch for a small horizontal bar to pop-down at the top of your screen, or hold the CTRL key as you try to click the "Download" link. If all else fails, you may wish to switch browsers (Internet Explorer is the recommended browser).
If your attempt to paste grades yields "#N/A" rather than the expected letter grades, you are probably copying from an Excel file that uses formulas. You have to "paste special" to deposit the letter grades (rather than the formulas) into the new file. Right-click in the new file, select "paste special", select "Values", and click OK.
If you receive an error message when trying to switch the roster to "Approved" status after uploading grades, it is likely that one or more student grades had not been accepted during the upload process, perhaps due to typos or a lack of an Attendance Code. The fastest method to view the problematic students is to check the box "Display Unassigned Roster Grade Only" near the top of the page, and you can then manually select the grades for the displayed students via dropdown boxes.
If you attempt to upload an "I"-grade without first completing an electronic I-grade form, the upload attempt for that student will be disallowed. The preferred procedure is to create an I-Grade Form before you upload a roster; find the link for Incomplete Grades under the list of all your classes on the "View My Class Roster" page.
If you upload grades, save them, switch to "approved" mode, and then try to return to "not reviewed" mode to re-edit the grades, you may find that the dropdown menu now features only the currently-entered grade and a blank space. This is a glitch in the system. Switch the grade back to a blank space, save, and log back in to see the full range of possible grades.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I see at a glance which students had error messages during the upload attempt? Return to the online bubble form (the grade roster) and put a checkmark in the box next to "Display Unassigned Roster Grade Only," and the students with grades will temporarily disappear, leaving on the screen only those with no grade.
How can I print out (or save to Excel) the grades that I'm turning in? Near the top-right of the grade roster (the online bubble form page) is an icon for exporting to Excel, and from there you can print or save the grades you've input or uploaded so far.
What happens if I paste an F grade for a student who should have had a W? Normally, you're not supposed to enter anything other than a W (which should already been in the downloaded file), but if you overwrite the W when pasting, upon the upload attempt the system will merely note that this one student's record was not updated, and will continue to record the rest of the grades from the upload. In short, nothing breaks.