Introduction
Stage 1: Mapping
Stage 2: Sending
The grades transfer process between NILE and SITS, the University's Student Records System, is a two-stage process.
• Stage 1: Mapping - this involves mapping the grades already awarded in NILE to a 'Grades Transfer' column in the gradebook of your NILE Ultra course. The 'Grades Tranfer' columns will already be in the gradebook for each assessment item, including resits, as they are created automatically by the SITS integration.
• Stage 2: Sending - this involves using the 'Send Grades to SITS' tool to send the mapped grades from NILE to SITS.
Please note that academic staff do not need to alter their assessment practices in order to accommodate the grades transfer process as the mapping process allows staff to map any type of assessment, including Turnitin assessments, Blackboard assessments, tests, journals, discussions, and offline assessments (i.e., assessments where students do not submit work electronically to NILE). The process will also work where staff use separate submission points for on time and late submissions, and assessments with equally or differentially-weighted multiple sub-components. More complex mappings are also possible, such as where students have multiple sub-components to an assessment but have the highest and/or lowest score(s) dropped.
The grades transfer process is a one-way, one time only process per-assessment. Once grades have been sent from NILE to SITS they cannot be recalled or changed and sent again from NILE to SITS, and can only be updated in SITS manually by the Student Records Team. Therefore, before beginning the grades transfer process, please ensure the following:
1. That the grading process in NILE is complete. This means that:
2. That all internal verification/moderation processes have taken place.
3. That all grades have been posted in the NILE course gradebook.
*In the case of first-sit assignments, there should be no blank grades for any student - a grade must be sent to SITS for all students taking the module, and there are no exceptions to this. For students who did not submit any work, even if they have mitigating circumstances approved, a grade of 0% should be recorded. For resit assignments, grades should be sent to SITS for all students who had a resit opportunity, with 0% recorded for students who did not submit. See our FAQ, How do I grade my assessments in NILE? for more information about grading student work.
**Staff marking first-sit and resit assignments will need to cap marks in NILE for late submissions where an extension has not been granted, and to fail non-submissions and late submissions which fall outside the late submission or agreed extension period in accordance with University policy. Staff marking resit assignments should always award the full uncapped mark in NILE for all work which has been submitted on time or within an agreed extension period. Details of students granted extensions is available from the Student Records Team. Full details of the University's mitigating circumstances process for staff can be found in the Staff Guidance on Mitigating Circumstances.
***Staff must submit referrals for academic misconduct through the SRS Staff Portal. If there are other reasons for delays to marking, please inform student records immediately.
| Work submitted | Mark |
| On time | Award full grade |
| Late, with extension, and submitted within the agreed extension period | Award full grade |
| Late, without extension, but submitted within one week of the submission deadline | Cap grade at minimum pass mark (40% for undergraduate, 50% for postgraduate) |
| Late, with extension, but submitted outside of the agreed extension period | Fail (0%) |
| Late, without extension, and submitted over one week after the submission deadline | Fail (0%) |
Notes:
Your grades transfer columns will be automatically created by SITS, and once this has happened you will be able to see them in the gradebook. These columns will be clearly marked with the assessment code, assessment name, and module code, along with 'Grades Transfer' at the end. The default state of the grades transfer columns is hidden from students - as your students will already have their assessment grades, you can leave these columns hidden.
Please note that if you delete a grades transfer column you cannot create a new one in NILE, even if you give it an identical name, as each column contains metadata linking it to SITS which is necessary for the exchange of grades. If a grades transfer column is deleted, you will need to contact IT Services in order to have it re-provisioned in NILE. To do this, please log a ticket with IT Services at www.northampton.ac.uk/help, selecting 'Log a Request', and choosing 'Log an Issue'. Please log your request for the attention of the Academic Systems Team, and provide the exact NILE course ID (e.g., PHI1001-SUN-2425-S1), assessment code (e.g., ES1), and whether it was the first sit or resit assessment point which was deleted.
If you want to move a grades transfer column so that it is adjacent to the column for the original assessment submission point, under 'Markable Items' in the gradebook simply select the move tool and drag and drop the grades transfer item to a new location. When you then select 'Marks' view in the gradebook the two columns will be next to each other so that you can more easily see that the grades in both columns match up.
Where a student has not submitted a piece of work a grade of 0% will need to be recorded in the NILE gradebook. To record a non-submission in NILE, from the gradebook in 'Marks' view, select the cell with the missing mark, add a 0 and then choose 'Post'. It is essential that the grade is posted as unposted grades are not sent to SITS when using the 'Send Grades to SITS' process.
If you are using a laptop with a smaller screen and need to see more of the screen in NILE at any point, you can use your browser's zoom tool to zoom in and out of the page.
In order to map a single assessment point to a mapped column, check that all grades are correct and have been posted. You will know that all grades have been entered and posted as the top of the gradebook column will say 'Complete'. For first-sit assignments, all students should have received a grade, including those who did not submit any work.
Then edit the corresponding grades transfer column by selecting the column header and choosing 'Edit'.
If there is a default 'AVG ( )' calculation in the grades transfer column, move your mouse over it and select the X to delete it.
The default state of the mark schema should be left as 'Percentage', and the default state of 'Calculate marks based on points earned out of total marked points' should be left as it is, with the box ticked.
To map your grades across, select 'Variable' from the Functions and Variables menu.
Choose which variable to map by clicking on 'Select Item', and selecting the assignment from which you want to map your grades.
This will add your chosen assignment as the variable.
Finally, select 'Save' to validate the mapping process.
A message will show that the mapping process has been successfully validated.
Closing the panel and returning to the gradebook, you will see the grades have been successfully mapped from your assessment to the grades transfer column. This completes the mapping process, and you can now proceed to the transfer process.
• Mapping an assessment point to a SITS grades transfer column in NILE - video demonstration (2m 43s)
This link will take you to a video demonstration. It will open in a new tab.
To view a range of other mapping options, including how to map two or more assessment submission points into one grades transfer column where separate submission points have been set up for on-time and late assessments, or where assessments with multiple sub-components need to be combined, calculated and sent, please see the next page of this guide, 'Transferring grades: additional mapping options'.
To send your mapped grades from NILE to SITS, from the course content area of your NILE course, in the Details & Actions menu, under ‘Books and Tools’, choose, 'View course and institution tools'.
Then select the 'Send Grades to SITS' tool.
The grade approval tool will now open in a new window.
Tick the box next to your module's course ID, and select 'Grade Column Approval and Transfer'.
Next, tick the box next to the assessment for which you want to send your grades, but, do not select more than one assessment item at a time from this screen. Then select 'Grade Approval and Transfer'. If your module has a lot of students enrolled on it, the next screen may take a moment to load.
From the final screen, check that the percentage grades scheduled for transfer are correct. If the grades do not look correct, abort the process by closing the grade approval browser tab and returning to your NILE course.
If you are happy that everything looks correct, select all the grades to send by ticking the tickbox in the header row, which will automatically select all the grades that you mapped across in the previous stage. Finally, scroll down to the bottom of the screen, select 'Approve Grades', and confirm the submission when you see the 'Approve Grades Confirmation' message.
Please note that the 'Comments' and 'Unapproved Message' options do not have a function and any information entered here will not be sent to SITS. Similarly, the 'Unapprove Grades' tool does not have a function and will not remove grades from SITS once they have been sent from NILE.
You will now see your grades marked as 'Approved', along with the time and date of approval, and the username of the person completing the process.
This completes the grades transfer process, and you can now close this browser tab and return to your NILE course. Grades will show as extracted within the hour.
• Sending your mapped grades from NILE to SITS - video demonstration (1m 46s)
This link will take you to a video demonstration. It will open in a new tab.