This article outlines how instructors can take student grades completed in offline activities then recorded in a spreadsheet and publish them into the Canvas gradebook. Once uploaded, students can only view their own grades, and instructors have full control over the format of the displayed grades.

Common examples for this are when instructors are using spreadsheets to perform complex grade calculations or when an exam has been optically scored by IST Test Scoring & Questionnaire Services (TSQS) and they have provided a spreadsheet file containing the test results (which will be demonstrated below.)

New in October 2025: It is now possible to mass import comments from TSQS optically scored tests or any text-based csv into Canvas. Learn more in Bulk Uploading Comments and Grades into the Canvas Gradebook.

New in December 2025: The TSQS scantron export csv files can now be directly imported into Canvas with no reconfiguration.

Grade Import/Export Basics

Grade uploads into Canvas require a specific format of the data in CSV files for import that includes 4 columns to identify students and the grades to be imported. When importing, all of the identifier column headings and the 'Points Possible' row are required to be in the spreadsheet, even if the columns contains no data.

The recommended process to create a model spreadsheet for maintaining grades outside the LMS is to start by exporting the gradebook: go to Grades and click Export in the top right corner. It does not make any difference which option, current view or entire, you choose from the dropdown:

When opened in Excel (or any spreadsheet editor) your CSV file will look like this:

The Student column contains the student's preferred full name in the format 'last name', 'first name'.

The ID column contains Canvas internal user ID for the student.

The SIS User ID column maps to the student's ID number.

The SIS Login ID column maps to the student's CCID.

If adding grades to this spreadsheet for uploadYou can delete any empty downloaded (or previously uploaded) columns for assignments or quizzes. Do not delete any of the first five columns (Student, ID, SIS User ID, SIS Login ID, or Section.)

If working in Excel, be aware that the the program will always attempt to trim any leading zeros in student ID numbers (SIS User ID) which can cause issues when saving the file as csv for import. Changing the formatting on that column to 'text' will resolve this issue.

See the section below for the process to upload spreadsheet files containing grades.

Uploading grades

To upload grades, click Import at the top right of your Grades page:

On the next page, choose the CSV you want to upload and click Upload data:

If you are uploading grades/columns that already existed in the spreadsheet you exported, these should map immediately and you can verify that the grades you wanted to upload are displayed:

If you are repeating a grade upload, grades that have not changed since the last upload will not be displayed. If you are satisfied with the upload preview, click Save changes:

Finally, click OK to acknowledge and complete the upload:

Importing TSQS Grade Files

Files provided to instructors by TSQS after exam scanning can now be directly imported into Canvas without making any changes to the file. Instructors will need to map the 'Grades' column from the spreadsheet to a new assignment (if they have not yet created one for this exam): 

Or select the existing column to map to (if they have already created it):

In both cases, if the 'Version', 'Items Wrong', and 'Scored Responses' columns from the TSQS export should be set to 'Bogus, ignore it'. Comments cannot be uploaded directly using Canvas' built-in processes but instructors can use the Bulk Comment Uploaderto import comments and/or grades into the gradebook.

Clicking Continue will trigger the process and report any changes or issues. In large courses there can sometimes be a delay before all grades are uploaded.

Manually building Import Files

This section describes how instructors can manually build import files that can be imported into Canvas. This process is demonstrated using the steps formerly required to import TSQS grade files into Canvas (but is no longer required as these can now be directly imported.)

When students take a quiz using Scantron bubble sheets, you will receive a csv file from TSQS with the quiz results. Unfortunately, the Scantron CSV file format must be tweaked before it can be imported into the Canvas gradebook.

The Scantron CSV has two fields for student names instead of the one field required by Canvas. It also has different field names for handling student numbers and CCIDs, and no row for 'Points possible':

To prevent mismatches and/or issues with students not present in the TSQS spreadsheet, the recommended practice is to paste the TSQS data into an exported Canvas gradebook file (shown above.) Instructors need to copy only the fields highlighted below from the TSQS csv file:

The data from the Student number and CCID columns should be pasted into the columns for SIS User ID, and SIS Login ID, respectively. The data from the Canvas CSV under Student, ID and Section must be deleted. This will force Canvas to map the scores directly to the users included in the file:

Once saved, this reconstructed TSQS csv file can be imported into the Canvas gradebook as shown below.

Note: Text comments (ie. the 'Items Wrong' and 'Scored Responses' columns) cannot be uploaded into the Canvas gradebook using Canvas' standard import - instructors can use the custom U of A Bulk Uploader tool to meet this need if required.

Usage Notes/Known issues:

• If you are uploading grades into a co-curricular course, if a student hasn't accepted the course invitation and their status is still "Pending", then their grades will not import from a CSV upload.