If you want to use Microsoft Excel to manage your Grade Book, you can upload and download your Grade Book to and from Vista.
The first step is to create your Grade Book in Vista. This sets up the structure of your Grade Book so it is easier to upload and download your Grade Book. ITS has several handouts to help you with this task. The handouts include: “Using Grade Book,” “Adding Columns a Grade Book,” and “Creating the Grade Book in the Course Template” (which allows you to retain your Grade Book from semester to semester).
Exporting from Vista
Once you have your Grade Book set up and your section is created, you can download the Grade Book. To do this, you must first be on the Teach tab and select Grade Book.
To download your Grade Book, click Export to Spreadsheet, which is located below the list of students.
You have several options on what you can export.
- • All members: You must export all members.
- • Columns to Export: You have the option to download only the visible columns in your Grade Book, or, if you have hidden columns from your view, you can download them by selecting All columns.
- • Select Export Format: You also have the option to use a comma or tab to separate all the values in a Grade Book. It does not matter which one you select, just make sure you remember what you did so you know how to import it later on. A comma-delimited file creates a .csv file and a tab-delimited file creates a .txt file.
- • Select Character Set: Either of the character sets work with Excel. If you are using a different spreadsheet application, make sure you know which language it supports.
When you have made your selection(s), click Export. Vista will ask you if you want to open it or save it. Save it somewhere so you can find it again.
There are several ways to open your downloaded file with Excel.
- 1. If you are on a PC with Windows, you should be able to right-click the file and select Open With and then Microsoft Excel, as shown in the following figure.
- 2. You can also open Excel and drag-and-drop the file into Excel. This will open the file automatically.
- 3. The third option is to open the file through Excel; by opening Excel, selecting File from the menu bar and then Open. Browse for the file on your computer. Double-click the file or click once and select Open. You will then receive the Text Import Wizard, which will walk you through the procedure. Choose Delimited when asked if the file is delimited or fixed width and then click Next. Depending on if you downloaded the file as tab or comma delimited, choose your delimiter and then click Next. The last screen will show you a preview of the file. If it appears to have the correct formatting, click Finish. At any time you can click the Back button to redo previous steps.
Once you have downloaded (exported) your file, you can return to your Grade Book by clicking Back to Grade Book.
At this point, your Vista Grade Book and your Excel Grade Book should look exactly the same, except that your Vista Grade Book has the Demo Student and the Instructor included as the following two figures show.
A Vista Grade Book
An Excel Grade Book
It is important to keep a copy of your Vista Grade Book downloaded to a safe place. Make sure that your Grade Book in Excel is the same as the one that is in Vista throughout the semester. |
Importing into Vista
You can upload grades into Vista at any point. There are some important steps to do before you upload your spreadsheet.
- 1. Enter the grades into the correct column in your Excel spreadsheet. For example, add grades to HW 1 column. Make sure you Save after the grades are entered.
- 2. The only columns you should import in this example are the User Id column and the Grade column (HW 1). The User Id column allows Vista to associate the correct grades to the respective students. To do this, you can highlight the columns you do not want. Use the Ctrl key to highlight columns that are not adjacent to each other. Highlight a column by clicking the header (A, B, C). Once you have the columns highlighted, right-click (Control-click if you are on a Mac) and click Delete.
- 3. Now that your spreadsheet is ready to upload, select File and Save As and change the name so you do not overwrite your original Excel Grade Book. Make sure it is saved as tab or comma delimited so it can be uploaded into Vista.
These three steps should help you prepare your Excel file to import into Vista successfully. The final Excel spreadsheet should look like the following figure.
To import a spreadsheet into Vista, click Import from Spreadsheet.
Browse for the file on your computer, change the Separator menu to Tab if you did not use a comma delimited file, change the Character Set if you changed it on download, and click Upload.
Because you downloaded the Grade Book and worked from that spreadsheet, your columns should line up correctly on import. You should get the following screen.
Check that both the Import Column and Grade Book Column are correct. If they are not correct, you can choose another column from the drop-down menu. You can also import columns that are not already in your Grade Book. If you do this, you will need to go to column settings and change the settings for that column so you can see the column and the students can see their grades.
You can also check the information that is being imported by looking under Data Preview. This will give you an idea of what is being imported.
When you are satisfied with your import options, click Import. If there are any User ID's that are not in the Grade Book, Vista will give you a list of those User ID's and grades. You will then see all the imported grades in the Grade Book.
Make sure that you include a grade for Demo Student so you can test the grades by selecting Student View and then My Grades in the toolbar. To add a grade, select the dashes for Demo Student under the column you want.
This will bring up a box for you to enter a grade and save the value.
This adds a grade for Demo Student so you can test your entries in the Grade Book.
Don't forget to add My Grades to the toolbar from the Build tab.
If My Grades is not added, the students will not be able to view their grades. When there is a new grade, the students will see a green check mark next to My Grades in the toolbar.
When students select this link, they will see their grades.
This is what you will see from Student View.