sims 8.9 training guide - simon fraser university...sims 8.9 training guide for grades / grade...

SIMS 8.9

TRAINING GUIDE

Grades / Grade Upload

Version 1.0

Prepared by

Mary Ann Pope

SIMS 8.9 Training Guide for Grades / Grade Upload

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Simon Fraser University SIMS 8.9 Training Guide

CONFIDENTIALITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

The information in this document is confidential and subject to the British Columbia's Freedom of

Information and Protection of Privacy Act, University Policy 110.04 - Access to Information and

Protection of Privacy, and the Registrar's Confidentiality Policy. As an employee of Simon Fraser

University, you have a legal obligation to protect personal information to which you have access through

SIMS and related University documents. Your legal obligation does not end with your employment at

Simon Fraser University but continues in perpetuity. Failure to keep confidential the personal

information of individuals is grounds for legal action.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. SECURITY ACCESS REVAMP........................................................................................ 4

II. PURPOSE OF THIS TRAINING GUIDE ........................................................................ 4

III. NAVIGATIONAL AND NEW FEATURES OVERVIEW: ............................................ 5

IV. ENTERING GRADES MANUALLY ................................................................................ 7

V. USING THE „ADD THIS GRADE TO ALL STUDENTS‟ FUNCTION ..................... 10

VI. UPLOADING GRADES FROM A SPREADSHEET .................................................... 12

VII. TROUBLESHOOTING THE GRADE ENTRY/UPLOAD PROCESS ....................... 19

“The Grade roster has not been generated or there are no students enrolled...”error message .............. 19

“Wrong Class!” error message ...................................................................................................................................... 19

“Unable to open the selected file” error message .................................................................................................... 20

“Invalid Student ID” error message ............................................................................................................................. 20

“Invalid Grades” error message .................................................................................................................................... 21

Withdrawals .......................................................................................................................................................................... 21

Audit Grades ......................................................................................................................................................................... 21

VIII. GRADING FROM THE INSTRUCTOR‟S POINT OF VIEW .................................... 22

IX. VIEWING THE STATUS OF YOUR DEPARTMENT‟S GRADE ROSTERS ......... 31

X. SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................ 33


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I. Security access revamp

In conjunction with the 8.9 upgrade, security access for SIMS users has been ‘cleaned up’ so

that it is easier to understand and manage. The roles and permissions needed to do the

functions of each job have been grouped into a ‘model’ for that job, called a Model ID. Your

security access is based on the Model ID appropriate for the functions which your job requires.

The revamped security access will take effect when the upgrade goes live on February 20,

2007.

II. Purpose of This Training Guide

Course Description

This guide provides instruction for SFU staff members in grade entry, grade upload,

making grade roster status changes, and tracking the status of grade rosters during the

grading period.

Troubleshooting common grading problems.

What the instructor sees – self-service grading.

Course Objectives

At the end of this course you will be able to:

Navigate to the grade roster page in SIMS.

Enter grades one by one.

Enter grades for a class using the NEW ‘add this grade to all students’ function.

Upload grades from a spreadsheet (excel, csv, or tab-delimited .txt file) using the NEW

grade upload functionality.

Change grades after upload and before the roster is set to ‘ready for review’.

Save the grades on the grade roster page.

Check the status of your department’s grade rosters.

Know how to submit grade changes after a grade roster is posted.


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III. Navigational and New Features Overview:

Considerable change in the look of the menus and the navigation.

Choice between navigating using the left-hand drop down menu or using the folder icon

views on the right hand side.

Holding the pointer on the menu item in the left-hand drop down menu will bring up a

short description of the contents of the folder.

The menu bar can be opened and closed by clicking on the ‘carrots’ on the left menu bar.

The browser’s back button can be used to go back 3 times – but if you haven’t saved your

data when you click the back button you will lose the data.

Use of the new ‘search’ feature on the menu bar to find the component/page that you need.

„My Favorites‟ folder is now inside the application – you can use your favorites at any

work station.

You can customize pages and set some personalizations.

You can ‘sort’ grids by their column headings.

You can download grid results into a spreadsheet.

Exercise I

** Before we begin, you each need an excel file that you will use later in the class:

1. Open MS Excel

2. Navigate to the Class Roster component:

Main Menu > Curriculum Management > Class Roster > Class Roster

3. Search for a class in your department with a small number of students enrolled in the Spring,

2007 (1071) term.

4. Open the class roster, highlight the roster grid copy it and paste it into a new excel spreadsheet.

You will have a file that looks like this

1 301065434 Davies,Robertson Graded 3 Bachelor of Arts D301

2 301065431 Laurence,Margaret Graded 3 Bachelor of Arts D301

3 301065430 Montgomery,Lucy Maud Graded 3 Bachelor of Arts D301

4 301065433 Richler,Mordecai Graded 3 Bachelor of Arts D301

5 301065435 Shields,Carol Graded 3 Bachelor of Arts D301

6 301065436 Tolstoy,Leo Graded 3 Bachelor of Arts D301

7 301065432 Woolf,Virginia Graded 3 Bachelor of Arts D301

https://sims-dev.sfu.ca/psc/csuat/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/s/WEBLIB_PTPP_SC.HOMEPAGE.FieldFormula.IScript_AppHP?scname=PT_PTPP_PORTAL_ROOT&pt_fname=PT_PTPP_PORTAL_ROOT&PortalCacheContent=true&PSCache-Control=role%2cmax-age%3d60

https://sims-dev.sfu.ca/psc/csuat/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/s/WEBLIB_PTPP_SC.HOMEPAGE.FieldFormula.IScript_AppHP?scname=HCSR_CURRICULUM_MANAGEMENT&secondary=true&fname=HCSR_CURRICULUM_MANAGEMENT&pt_fname=HCSR_CURRICULUM_MANAGEMENT&PortalCacheContent=true&PSCache-Control=role%2cmax-age%3d60


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5. Delete the numbers in the first column

6. Add two more columns to the left of the first column and one column to the right of the student

ID.

Your file should now look like this:

7. Add the Subject, Catalog number, and section number in the first 3 columns so that your file

looks like the example below:

8. Enter grades in column E and save the file on your desktop.

This file will be used as the grade upload file later in the class.

ENGL 207 D300 301065434 A Davies,Robertson Graded 3 Bachelor of Arts D301

ENGL 207 D300 301065431 C+ Laurence,Margaret Graded 3 Bachelor of Arts D301

ENGL 207 D300 301065430 B Montgomery,Lucy Maud Graded 3 Bachelor of Arts D301

ENGL 207 D300 301065433 D Richler,Mordecai Graded 3 Bachelor of Arts D301

ENGL 207 D300 301065435 C+ Shields,Carol Graded 3 Bachelor of Arts D301

ENGL 207 D300 301065436 A- Tolstoy,Leo Graded 3 Bachelor of Arts D301

ENGL 207 D300 301065432 D Woolf,Virginia Graded 3 Bachelor of Arts D301


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IV. Entering Grades Manually

Navigation:

Home > Curriculum Management > Grading > Grade Roster

1. Enter the term, Subject, Catalog Number, and session (if applicable) and click the „Search‟

button.


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2. Click on the section for which you want to enter grades

3. Click on the second tab (note – you can customize this component so that the grade roster

tab always opens as the first tab. The instructions on doing this are in the ‘Navigation and

New Features’ training guide.


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4. Enter each grade in the „Roster Grade‟

Note: The ‘tabbing’ for the grade roster page can be customized so that the cursor moves directly

down the „Roster Grade‟ field without stopping on any of the other tabs. The instructions to do

this are in the „Navigation and New Features‟ training guide.

Exercise 2

1. Navigate to the grade roster search page:


2. Search for a grade roster from your department.

3. Click on the second tab, enter grades for the class, and

4. Click on the first tab and save the grade roster. Please do not change the status of the grade

roster to ‘ready for review’.


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V. Using the „Add this grade to all students‟ function

New! This feature is very useful for classes that are graded on an S/U basis and for classes

such as thesis or project classes that are graded ‘IP’ and ‘CO’.

First select the grade that you want to assign to all students in the class. If you are assigning a

grade of ‘IP’ to 40 students in a class and ‘CO’ to six students, you can use this button and

assign the IP grade to all students, then change the grade of the 6 who have completed.


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Exercise 3

1. Navigate to the Grade Roster Search Page


1. Search for a grade roster in your department where the class is graded either IP/CO or S/U.

(Thesis or project or co-op courses are examples); or select a class for which you want to assign

every student a ‘DE’ grade.

2. Use the ‘Add this grade to all students’ drop down list to select a grade and then use the ‘Add

this grade to all students’ button to assign the grade that you wish.

3. Click on the first tab and save the roster.


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VI. Uploading Grades from a spreadsheet

You can also upload grades from a spreadsheet file.

Instructions on uploading grades can be found right on the grade roster page:

1. Make sure that the file is in the correct format:

Required format of a grade upload file:

The grades file must be formatted so that the correct course subject abbreviation is in the

first column (ENGL in the example below), the course catalog number (207 in the example

below) is in the second column, the class section number is in the third column (D300

in the example), the student’s ID number is in the fourth column, and the student’s grade is

in the fifth column.


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Grades are not uploaded to tutorial sections– they are uploaded to the primary, graded section of

the course. If two courses are combined, then you must do an upload for each of the two combined

enrollment sections.

The data can be in excel (.xls), comma delimited (.csv), or tab delimited (.txt) format. The file

should have no column headings. Be sure you have saved the file before you upload.


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You can include one or more columns, (for example a column for the students’ names) after the five

required columns (see highlighted columns below.). These additional columns are optional and will

be ignored during the upload. Any additional columns must be located after the five required

columns.

If copying grades from another spreadsheet (e.g. WebCT spreadsheet), please make sure that the

spreadsheets are sorted the same way (e.g. Student ID or Last Name plus First Name).

Note: Student ID is likely the safest sort to use to ensure that there is no mix up with the same last

names.

2. To Upload the file, click the Upload button on the Grade Roster page.


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3. Click on the Browse button.

4. Find and open the grades file for the class.


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Example from a PC

Example from a Mac

5. Use your computer operating system’s ‘Open’ dialog to navigate to the correct file location.

Select the correct file, then click Open (or double click on the file that you want to select)

6. Click the Upload button

7. Read the Upload Summary and correct any errors. (See Section VII for an explanation of

possible errors).


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On the Grade Roster page, when the upload is complete, an upload summary message

displays at the top of the page. Any errors should be corrected (enter a valid grade if an

invalid grade was on the spreadsheet, or if the spreadsheet had an incorrect student

number, then assign the grade to that student directly on the grade roster page.

For more problem solving information, please see Section VII.

8. Set the approval status to „Ready for Review‟.

9. Save the Grade Roster.

Once the grade roster status has been changed to ‘Ready for Review’ and the page has

been saved, and you have navigated away from the grade roster page, no further changes

can be made unless a person who has ‘grade approval’ authority (usually a department

chair or grad chair), changes the status back to ‘Not Reviewed’.


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Exercise 4

1. Navigate to the grade roster search page:


2. Following the instructions above, upload grades from the excel file that you saved to your

desktop at the beginning of the class.

3. When you have finished, please delete the excel file from the desk top.

Note: Instructors and staff are responsible for keeping grade information confidential and secure. Grade

spreadsheets should either be deleted or stored in a very secure location where they cannot be accessed

by anyone who does not have access permission.


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VII. Troubleshooting the Grade Entry/Upload Process

The following are error messages that you or a faculty member might see when entering

grades:

“The Grade roster has not been generated or there are no students enrolled...”

error message

Grade rosters are normally generated in batch in week 11 of the term. If a grade roster is

required prior to the batch generation, contact either Student Services (undergrad rosters) or

Grad Studies (graduate rosters).

“Wrong Class!” error message

This error may appear when the wrong subject, catalog number or section has been entered

into the document you are trying to upload. Change these values in your document and try the

upload again. If the file you are trying to upload is not the correct file, then ‘browse’ for the

correct file for that class.


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“Unable to open the selected file” error message

Ensure that the file you are attempting to upload is in either Excel (.xls extension), in comma delimited

(.csv extension) format, or tab delimited (.txt extension) format. Please see Step 2 above for detailed

instructions on how to format either of these files.

If you want to upload grades from a file which was originally downloaded from SIMS using the self-

service ‘grid’ download function, and you get this error message, please see the ‘Class Roster

Downloads’ tutorial for detailed instructions on how to save the file in a format that will allow

successful upload of grades.

“Invalid Student ID” error message

One or more student numbers on your spreadsheet are incorrect. Please check that you have entered the

correct student number and that the student is enrolled in the class, then attempt to upload the document

again, or manually enter the grade for the student on the grade roster page.


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“Invalid Grades” error message

To view a list of the grades that are valid for a particular student, click on the magnifying glass beside

the ‘Grade Input’ field. (Some grades are valid for undergraduate students, but not graduate students, for

example).

Withdrawals

Note that WD (withdrawn) and WE (withdrawn under extenuating circumstances) ‘notations’ cannot be

given by an instructor. If a student has stopped attending a class and has not formerly withdrawn, the

grade available to the instructor is an ‘N’, which has zero grade points.

Audit Grades

Students who have enrolled to audit a course cannot be assigned a letter grade and students who have

not been enrolled to audit the class cannot be assigned an AU grade.


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VIII. Grading from the Instructor‟s point of view

The Instructor logs-in using ‘the portal’:

The self-service menu, which includes the

Faculty Center displays.

The instructor clicks on the Faculty Center link.

* There is a video tutorial on how to navigate and use the Faculty Center *


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The instructor can select the term. The term descriptions display. (Term ‘codes’ (1071, 1067) etc. do not

display). The instructor chooses a term using the drop-down list and clicks the change button to see a

different term.

The page displays classes the instructor teaches. Using the radio buttons the instructor can select only

classes with enrollment, a weekly schedule, or classes for which he/she approves grades.

If there is a grade roster icon displayed, the grade roster has been generated. Instructors also see the

status of each grade roster (not reviewed, ready for review, approved, posted).

By clicking on the appropriate icon, the instructor can view/use the class roster or the grade roster.

The grade roster will only display when the grade rosters have been generated (week 11).


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By clicking on the „Grade Roster/ Upload‟ icon, the instructor accesses the grade roster page.

The instructor can now enter grades, upload grades from a spreadsheet, or use the

„Add this grade to all students‟ function.

‘


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When all the grades have been entered or uploaded, the instructor clicks


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Once the grades are saved, the instructor can see the grade distribution – by clicking on the

„View grade distribution‟ link:

A new window will pop-up with a bar graph that displays the distribution and the mean.


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By ‘hovering’ the mouse over each column of the bar chart, the number of each grade can be seen.

The instructor can change grades if necessary and re-save. Once the grades are finalized, the

instructor sets the status to „Ready for Review‟ and clicks .


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When the grade roster has been saved with a status of ‘Ready for Review’, the grade roster is ‘locked’.

The instructor cannot make any more changes. If further grade changes are required, the

‘grade approver’ must reset the status to ‘Not Reviewed’.


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The chair or other ‘grade approver’ logs in using self-service, selects the Faculty Center, and then

clicks on ‘classes I approve’ to bring up the classes for approval. The enrollment total and the status

of each roster display on this page.

The grade approver clicks on the Grade Roster/Upload icon to view the grades and grade

distribution.


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The grade approver reviews the grades and distribution.


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The „grade approver‟ sets the grade roster status to „Approved‟ and save the status.

IX. Viewing the status of your department‟s grade rosters Navigation:

Home > Curriculum Management > Grading > SFU Department Status

Enter the following fields:

Academic Career – Undergrad or Graduate

Approval Status – Not Review, Ready, Approved

Approved Grading Status - When you select an Approval Status of ‘Approved’, you must then select

an ‘Approved Grading Status of ‘Posted’ or ‘Ready’. Grade Rosters that are ‘Approved’ and ‘Ready’

are waiting for the posting process to be done. Grade rosters that are posted are ‘locked’ and cannot be

changed.


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As of Due Date – During the grading period you use this field to restrict the results to classes where the

grades are due as of that date (to eliminate grade rosters that are not yet due).

Click SEARCH to view classes you have requested.

The classes that you have requested are displayed. The „NOTIFY‟ button can be used, if desired, to

e-mail any instructors whose grade rosters are due.

Grades are not official or visible in student self-service until they are ‘posted’. There is an automatic

process that ‘posts’ grades that have been set to ‘approved’. Once the grades are posted, students are

able to see them on student self-service.

After a grade roster has been posted, any further grade changes for the class must be submitted on grade

change forms to Student Services (undergrad grades) or Grad Studies (grad grades).


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X. SUMMARY

In this class you have learned:

How to enter grades

Manually

Using the ‘add this grade to all students’ function

By uploading grades from a spreadsheet

How to solve grade upload problems

Saving the grade roster after grade entry

Updating the status of the roster

Changing grades

Grade post – how and when it is done

What the instructor sees and does using the self-service grade roster

Viewing the status of grade rosters for your department

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