This article lists the steps instructors need to follow to export their gradebook from Canvas, reformat it correctly, and then import it into Bear Tracks. To use this process, users must be enrolled in BearTracks/Campus Solutions as the instructor of record for a credit course and enrolled in Canvas as a Teacher in the same course.

New in April 2025, instructors can now use a custom tool in their Canvas course to prepare a csv spreadsheet for import into Bear Tracks (instead of manually exporting grades and merging that file with a csv export from there as shown in items 1 - 4.) Instructions for using this tool are available in bullet 5 below.

Getting Started

Before Canvas can export course totals as letter grades, the gradebook needs to be set up to use letter grades. This is configured in the main course settings by enabling a Grading Scheme:

Instructors must ensure that the letter grade scheme meets their college, faculty, program, department, and/or personal needs (with additional guidance available in Using the Canvas Gradebook.)

Please note that there is no requirement that instructors use the Canvas gradebook to record and compute grades or to transfer them from there into Bear Tracks. In cases where there are smaller numbers of students it might make more sense to use Canvas to record and compute scores but then just enter them into Bear Tracks manually. Alternatively if very complex grade calculations are required, the Canvas gradebook may not be able meet instructor's needs so it may make more sense to export scores directly into a spreadsheet, make calculations there, and then reformat for Bear Tracks import. 

Downloading Student Grade Files

Once grades have been assigned for items and tabulated into a final grade in the Canvas gradebook at the end of term, instructors will need to download and combine two files: an export of the Canvas gradebook and a grade roster export from Bear Tracks.

Download the Canvas Gradebook:

1. Enter the gradebook by clicking Grades in the course left nav menu. When working in a combined course, instructors must upload different section's grades into Bear Tracks individually. If this is your case, then filter the gradebook to the specific section you are trying to upload near the top left:

2. Then click Export near the top right and choose Export Current Gradebook View:

Download the Bear Tracks Grade Roster:

1. Login into Bear Tracks and access the Instructor Centre.

2. Access the class and section that you need to upload grades for, then click the Grade Roster icon to the left of its name:

3. Scroll down and click the Download button to the right of the Quick Reference Guides:

You should now have 2 .csv files: the Canvas one with a name like '[date-stamp]_Grades-[course-name].csv' and the Bear Tracks one with a name like '[term number.course code].csv'.

Combining the Files

For this process, elements from both files will be need to be put into one combined spreadsheet that is compatible for Bear Tracks import. The required columns from the Bear Tracks spreadsheet are the Term and the Class Number; and the required columns from the Canvas spreadsheet are the SIS User ID (which is the Bear Tracks Student ID #) and the Current Grade (read only) or Final Grade (read only). Both of these spreadsheets have 2 header rows above the rows of class and student data and these do not need to be edited at all.

This guide will demonstrate how to merge these columns using Google sheets but any spreadsheet tool (Excel, LibreOffice, Numbers, etc) should work. Google sheets is being demonstrated because it is freely available to all U of A faculty and staff and other spreadsheet programs sometimes convert .csv files in unexpected ways (see Additional notes below.)

Merge the files:

1. Drag and drop (or browse and select) both files into a browser tab opened to your google My Drive:

2. Double-click to open the Canvas .csv file preview, then select Open with > Google sheets:

3. Select and delete the grade row for the test student from the very bottom of the sheet. (This row may not be in your gradebook if you have not submitted anything using the test student or reset it recently):

4. Delete all the columns except SIS User ID and Current Grade (read only), then click ctrl/cmd a to select all the data and ctrl/cmd c to copy it:

5. Go back to your Google drive and double-click the Bear Tracks csv to open the preview and then select Open with > Google sheets for that file. (Repeat Step 2 above for the Bear Tracks csv file.)

6. Delete all the columns except Term and Class Number:

7. Place your cursor in the top row of Column C then paste the data copied from the Canvas csv spreadsheet. The resulting file should look like this with the number of students matching the rows in the Bear Tracks spreadsheet:

8. Rename the file to something identifiable and then select Download > Comma Separated Values (.csv) to export the file:

Uploading into Bear Tracks

Take note of where this file was saved because it now needs to be uploaded into Bear Tracks:

1. Login into Bear Tracks and access the Instructor Centre. Access the class and section that you need to upload grades for, then click the Grade Roster icon to the left of its name (see screenshot above.)

2. Scroll down and click the Upload button to right of the Quick Reference Guides. Then click Choose File, select the file you have just created and downloaded from Google Drive, then click Upload:

Note: Below the upload area is an additional box to enter comments and/or additional grade-related files. Instructors should consult their departments for any specific requirements they need to follow for those fields.

3. If there are any issues with student matching, they will be listed below the comments area. Uploaded grades will appear in the Roster Grade column of the Student Grade table:

Additional Notes

• Take care when using Excel that the leading zeros are not automatically truncated from any Student ID #s (the SIS ID column from the Canvas gradebook export.) To get around this issue, the SIS User ID column can be formatted to text.
• Bear Tracks Instructor Resources (Guides)
• Bear Tracks Google Docs Guide

Using the Bear Tracks Exporter tool (beta)

The Bear Tracks Grade Exporter tool creates a pre-formatted csv spreadsheet containing all required grades and student information for upload into Bear Tracks for a course. Note that instructors MUST validate their letter grading scheme and proof check the grades in the produced spreadsheet before uploading into Bear Tracks.

To use the grade exporter, the tool must first be enabled in a course by going to the Settings, then Navigation, then clicking Enable in the 3 dots beside Beartracks Grade Export:

Note: This tool and its link are not visible to students.

Once the tool is visible in the course left nav menu, clicking it will show a details screen in the center panel with a ‘Loading’ alert.

Once the load completes, the csv will be automatically downloaded to your machine and you can upload to Bear Tracks. If you are working from a combined course in Canvas, the primary component for each section will be included in the csv file.

Note: If you set up a grade item to have a Manual Posting Policy, meaning that you have to post the grades before they are visible to students, then if the grades aren't posted, they will be counted as 0, leading to lower course totals and letter grades. If you have a grade item that contributes to the course total, but the grades are not posted, you will have to post the grades.