The IST DLE Product Development and Integration team has built an external tool that can be added to Canvas courses to facilitate the bulk upload of comments into the Canvas gradebook. There are a number of different use cases listed below but note that none of these are required if instructors simply want to do a basic grade upload into the gradebook as the standard Canvas grade import workflow can do that.

This tool has been built to meet instructor's requests to be able to upload comments in bulk and map them to individual students in the gradebook.

Preparing Comments for Upload

The Bulk Feedback Upload Tool requires a .csv file that contains the student identifier and the comments. An example of the file can be downloaded here or it can be obtained from within the Bulk Upload tool itself (once launched in a course, see below):

The .csv file for upload must contain one column identifying the students and one column containing their associated text comments. The column header names must match exactly from the following options to identify students:

- user_id: The student ID number, available from a Bear Tracks course roster export or from a Canvas gradebook export in the column titled SIS User ID; or

- login_id: (recommended) The CCID, available from a Bear Tracks course roster export or a Canvas gradebook export in the column titled SIS Login ID; or

- canvas_id: The Canvas user account id, available from a Canvas gradebook export in the column titled ID; and

- comment: (required) the comments for each student containing any text, number, or symbol with a maximum of 8192 characters.

The downloadable .csv file (linked above) contains ALL these columns as examples so instructors will need to delete any columns that they are not using:

It is also possible for instructors to create their .csv file by exporting their class roster from Bear Tracks, Canvas, or elsewhere. In this case they should rename the identifying column with the correct syntax, delete any additional columns, and add a new column titled 'comment'. This is demonstrated below with an example gradebook export from Canvas being configured for Use Case 1 - a comments-only upload:

Instructors must also delete the 'Points Possible' row and the 'Student, Test' row (if your gradebook export contains it). Then student comments can be added to the appropriate column. Instructors can leave the student 'Name' column in place while adding comments but will need to delete it before uploading: 

The final prepared file should look like this and then be saved as a csv for upload:

Use Case 1: Uploading Only Comments into a Grade Column

This workflow would be used if instructors needed to upload text or numeric data that is mapped to specific students using their CCID or student ID number. An example would be to upload a randomly generated number for each student for participation in a research study or their seating assignment for a large in-person exams.

To bulk upload comments:

1. To create a new grade column, add an assignment to a module or in the Assignments area of your course: 

2. Give it a title and set the submission type to External tool:

3. Then click Find, locate the Bulk Grade-Feedback Upload Tool, then click Select:

4. The rest of the assignment settings can be left at the default values so scroll to the bottom of the page then click Save & Publish.

Important note: bulk uploads will not work in Canvas unless the assignment is published so instructors should warn students that they may receive notifications about the comments upload (even if they have hidden the associated gradebook column.)

5. Once the csv file is prepared, open the assignment you have just created which will open the Bulk Feedback-Grade Upload Tool interface:

6. Next select the student identifier used in your csv. This will expand the form to show the 'Select CSV File' file upload area:

7. Click the paper clip or in the 'Select CSV File' area and then navigate to the prepared file, and click Open:

8. Click Upload to launch the process:

9. Any issues will be identified and if the file is formatted correctly, the comments will be uploaded:

10. Students will see their comments 

Use Case 2: Uploading Comments AND Grades into a Grade Column

It is also possible for instructors to upload both grades AND comments from an existing file into Canvas. A common use case for doing this would be for exams administered through TSQS which produces a single spreadsheet containing a column with grades and a column with the scored responses. To do this, instructors need to follow almost the exact same steps as for Use Case 1 shown above with 2 small differences:

1. The prepared csv file must contain a column titled grades which contains the students scores in numeric format. An example file showing this looks like:

2. Instructors must place a check mark in the box 'Check to upload comments AND grades' when selecting their csv file:

3. Students will now see the uploaded scores and the comments in their view of the gradebook:

Use Case 3: Uploading Only Comments into an Existing Grade Column

Using a different workflow, instructors can also bulk add comments to existing, already-graded grade items in Canvas. A potential use case might be to add additional text-based feedback on long form exams already graded in Canvas. This process is the same in terms of constructing the csv file (which CANNOT include any grades) but the upload is launched in a different way:

1. Access the settings area of the course then click Bulk Feedback Upload Tool near the top right:

2. This will open the bulk upload interface but in this view there is an additional dropdown to select the existing grade column:

3. After that instructors can follow the same process to select their specified identifier and upload the csv file.

Known Issues/Usage notes

• Assignments must be published or the tool cannot function. If you wish to review comments before releasing them, you can switch the course grade posting policy to manual and then show the grades after review. [need to test notifications!!]
• When reviewing their comments, students and instructors will see Bulk Feedback Uploader as the author of the comment, not the instructor's name.
• It is possible to re-upload new comments into the same grade item but these will be appended as an additional comment. It is not possible to delete the previous comments.
• When uploading grades and comments, it is possible to upload letter grade scores for students but this requires that the assignment setting 'Display Grade as' set to Letter Grade: