Submitting Grades from Blackboard to Banner: Using Grades Journey (How-to)

The grades submission tool is called Grades Journey. Grades Journey allows you to send your midterm or final grades to Self-Service/Banner easily, even with merged courses.

You can only send grades from Blackboard when the Registrar's office makes grade entry available. Faculty will receive an email from the Office of the Registrar confirming availability.

Scores submitted via Grades Journey will be available for review on Self-service/Banner and updating by faculty until 8 p.m. when they cycle through a process to be released to students. 

1. Preparing Gradebook Overall Grade for Export

Before you can send grades to Banner, you must use the Overall Grade and the Grading Schema view of Letter +/-. Banner can only receive letter grades and not percentages. 

1. In Blackboard, go into your Gradebook and review the Overall Grade setup and Grading Schema to ensure it matches with what should be submitted to Banner.
   • When submitting letter grades, be sure the Grading Schema matches your syllabus grading scale for letter grades.
   • If you are using Credit/No Credit scores, you will need to change the Letter Schema requirements for Credit/No Credit. Change the first and last letter schema options to match your CR/NC expectations. Typical setup is CR = 60-100 and NC = 0-60.
   • If you are submitting a combination of letter grades and credit/no credit scores, you will have to complete the following steps twice. Once for the column letter grade display for the Overall Grade, then change the Grading Schema to match CR/NC, and then submit scores again for when the Overall Grade is associated with Credit/NoCredit scores. 

2. Sending Grades to Banner

1. Under the Content menu in Details & Actions, select View course & institution tools under Books & Tools.

2. In the new panel that opens, select Grade Approval and Transfer. 

3. Complete the following two steps in succession before leaving this view.
   1. Mark the (a) check box beside the Course ID for this course. Select  (b) Approve Grades and wait for the process to finish.

2. Then, mark the (c) check box beside the Course ID for this course. Select (d) Extract Grades. 

4. The system will confirm you want to extract grades. Click OK. 

5. Once the process is complete,
   1. You will see a (e) green success banner.
   2. The Approval Status will have changed to (f) Extracted.

NOTE: When submitting a combination of letter grades and credit/no credit scores, you will need to adjust the Grading Schema to reflect the credit/no credit grading schema. Change the first and last letter schema options to match your CR/NC expectations. Typical setup is CR = 60-100 and NC = 0-60. Then, repeat the above steps for Sending Grades to Banner. 

3. Checking for Successful Grade Submission

• In Blackboard, you can visit Grade Approval and Transfer to see whether or not the transfer to Blackboard was successful and the date it was submitted.
• In Self-Service/Banner, check to see that the grades are displayed.
  • Log into myDrake.
  • Click the icon labeled Self-Service.
  • On the screen that opens, Teaching &Grading card, click the Grade Submission link.
  • Choose the appropriate link: Either Click the Midterm Grades  – OR – Final Grades.
  • If you have multiple courses listed, narrow courses by term by entering the Term in the Search Box (i.e., Spring 2023).
  • The course(s) you are teaching should be listed – select the appropriate course.
  • You should now be able to view the grades that you extracted from Blackboard.
  • If they are not there, try to submit them again or contact ITS for further assistance.

4. Troubleshooting

If your grade submissions were not successful the first time, try the Step 3 to Approve Grades and Extract Grades again. 

If your second attempt is unsuccessful, please submit a Blackboard Learn Ultra Issue through the IT Service Portal. ITS and the Registrar's Office will investigate the issue and assist you with getting your grades submitted successfully.