Talk:Grade import

The instructions on this page are very unclear. They vaguely instruct you to just "export some grades using the corresponding export format", "edit the export file as appropriate and save it" and then "upload your previously saved file". It doesn't have any details. For instance, what fields CAN you include in the export file (what fields are optional), what fields MUST you include (are compulsory) and what fields CAN'T you include (e.g. course totals)?

In http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=85944#p381209 Tim Hunt says: "... please be aware that you cannot import the course total. The gradebook handles the aggregation of grades, and you can edit this aggregation, or even override the course total manually, but you cannot import it using a CSV file." This is valuable information but it seems to have been completely omitted from the import/export documentation.

What makes it more confusing is that the https://docs.moodle.org/en/Grade_export documentation (which is also very vague) says that you can include the Course Total in the export file but the implications thereof aren't explained. If users are exporting data just for the purpose of getting the format of the IMPORT file (as the instructions on the https://docs.moodle.org/en/Grade_import page tell you to do) they should NOT select the Course Total in the export. This should be clarified in the documentation.

Also, the instructions for importing grades are quite vague, e.g.:

Point 2 says: "Edit the export file as appropriate and save it." What is "appropriate" and when is it appropriate?

Point 5 says: "Set options as required." What options are these?

And the Grade_import page also says: "You need two permissions to import grades: (1) general permission to import grades and (2) permission to import grades in a particular format. For example, to import CSV grades you need:

  moodle/grade:import ("Import grades") = Allow
  gradeimport/csv:view ("Import grades from CSV") = Allow"

How and where do you set these permissions? Are they code changes that you have to make?

Finally, no mention is made of what format the grades must be in when you import them into Moodle. Can you import grades as percentages, or MUST they be the actual numerical values? Do users have the option of importing grades as percentages or is it assumed that grades will always be in their numerical form?

I don't know the answers so I can't update the documentation...

Luis de Vasconcelos 02:13, 27 October 2008 (CDT)

I'll be a little more forthright than the above. Without an explanation of the file format this is all a bit useless. --Howard Miller 10:41, 3 February 2011 (UTC)