Importing Grades Overrides Excused Scores

[jackrsturm]

I'm grading in a third-party online grading system, so I download my scores from that system and copy the scores into a CSV file that I import into the Canvas grade book. Sometimes, I'll mark a student's grade as "excused" for that assignment before importing the grades (so that I don't forget to do it). But I've noticed that when I import the grades, it removes the "excused" mark from the student (even if there is no score in the CSV file for that student). Is there a way to make the "excused" score persist?

[chriscas]

Hi @jackrsturm,

Unfortunately, I don't think this is possible in Canvas right now.  The "excused" is essentially a grade, so if you upload a different grade in place of the excused, that will take over.  Does the other platform you use for grading have an excused option you could potentially use there so it would import into Canvas properly?

-Chris

[jackrsturm]

Thanks for the answer. I thought that if the cell was blank, it would treat it differently since it's not replacing the "excused" with anything. It's just blank. 

I don't think it does. And maybe I'm wrong but I didn't know there was a way to designate "excused" in the file upload. If I type "excused" into the CSV file, does that mark the grade as excused in Canvas?

[jackrsturm · Accepted solution]

I just figured out that I can type in that list that previews the changes. If I type "Excused" in the 2nd column, then the excused stays (and I can scroll through to see which ones need that to be added). This works well enough for what I need!

[chriscas]

That's awesome, thanks for providing the update here!  This could certainly be useful info for others in the future too!

-Chris

[mathlete]

I would love your knowledge on how to import CSV files into Canvas. Our district has never been able to figure that out and it used to be a seamless option when we had School Loop.