Best practices for configuring Banner Grades
Define org level grade schemes
Defining org level grade schemes reduces the chance that an instructor will submit invalid symbols to Banner Grades. Although Banner Grades alerts instructors when a submitted grade symbol is not valid, it is better to reduce the chance of this occurrence.
Review language terms
Update references to "Banner" or "SIS" to match your organization's terminology. Review instructional and error language terms to include organization-specific instructions.
Review role settings
Decide if the Access all sections role setting is appropriate for all instructors. This setting allows access to the grade submission page for all sections in a course offering. It can also result in denied grade submissions in Banner Grades if instructors do not have correct permissions in the Banner Grades Student Information System (SIS).
Set appropriate default grade settings for the org
Select the most frequently used grade scheme as your default grade scheme for d2l.Tools.Grades.GradeSchemeId.
Turn the following configuration variables on or off as appropriate for your organization:
- d2l.Tools.Grades.FinalGrade.ReleaseAdjustedGrade
- d2l.Tools.Grades.HasAdjustedFinalGrade
- d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSiS.GradeToSubmit
Set appropriate failing triggers for grades and do not change them
If your D2L site administrator enabled the ability to set last dates of attendance, the D2L site administrator should also set the following configuration variable values as appropriate for your organization:
- d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.LATriggerGrade
- d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.LATriggerPercentage
Set d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.LATriggerPercentage if the final grade has a scheme that does not have one or more of the items defined in d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.LATriggerGrade. Changing the values for either of these configuration variables may cause the Last Date of Attendance value to be null for any learners who are no longer failing according to the redefined triggers.
Provide tailored documentation
After configurations are validated, prepare documentation to communicate the process to your instructor users. Include your language terms and specific settings. You may find it useful to record a short video of submitting grades at the end of term.
Roles and Permissions
The following permissions and role settings are required to make full use of Banner Grades:
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Access all course sections role setting: allows users to see and export grades to the Banner Grades SIS for all sections within a course.
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Grades > Export Grades permission: allows users to see and export final and midterm grades to the Banner Grades SIS from the course offering.
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Grades > Manage Final Grade Properties permission: allows users to see all grade values on the Export Grades to SIS page in the Grades tool.
Configuration Variables
The following configuration variables must be set to make full use of Banner Grades:
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportHandlerPage
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.Banner.Destination
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.Banner.ReplyTo
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.ExportMidtermGrades
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.GradeMustBeReleased
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.GradeToSubmit
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.LAExportHandlerPage
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.LAMidtermRequired
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.LATriggerGrades
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.LATriggerPercentage
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.PollingFrequency
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.SendSymbolOrValue
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.SISPassword
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.SISUri
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.SISUsername
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d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.TransactionTimeout
Customize language terms
You can configure all text and messaging presented in the Brightspace user interface for Banner Grades through Language Management. Review the user interface and update entry points, instructions, and error messages to suit your organization's needs and expectations.
On the Language Management page, within the IPSISGrades tool package, you can customize language terms to provide additional instructions to instructors. For example, Export Grades to SIS may be more intuitive and meaningful to your instructors if you rename it Export Grades to Banner or Export Grades to Registrar. Likewise, your instructors may prefer Submit All Grades to Export All Grades.
Configure Ellucian® components
To correctly configure Ellucian® Learning Management Gateway (LMG) and Ellucian® Luminis Message Broker (LMB), your organization may require changes that are not listed. If you are unfamiliar with the necessary configurations for assigning learner grades in Ellucian components, consult Ellucian Professional Services before making any changes.
Deploy the LMB hotfix
LMB requires a hotfix to ensure that JMSCorrelationId correctly returns to the Banner Grades component after Banner processes the grades export. If you are using LMG version 4.0.x, you can get the hotfix from Ellucian's support website under "Banner-Integration Technologies" version 4.0.1 with the identifier P1_EMZJ9R_LMG_4000101.
LMB 4.2b or higher is required to enable the option to set the last date of attendance. Contact your Banner administrator or Ellucian Professional Services if you need assistance installing the correct version of LMB.
Set up the LMB user
Set the Authorization Username and Authorization Password to the same values entered in the d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.SISUsername and d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportToSIS.SISPassword configuration variables.
Set up the HTTP Client on the LMB
Set the Post to HTTP URL value to the same value as the d2l.Tools.Grades.ExportHandlerPage configuration variable (for example, set it to http://hostname/d2l/im/GradesExport/BannerMessageQueue).
Test your Banner Grades configuration
When testing your Banner Grades configuration, keep the following prerequisites in mind:
- The user who is currently logged into Brightspace is the user who submits the grades. Users cannot submit grades for other users.
- If the currently logged in user was not created using the Banner Integration and does not have an associated entry in the entity_identifiers table, an error appears saying the "Instructor does not exist on the SIS". The user must first have been sent through the Banner Integration to create a unique entry in the entity_identifiers table before they are able to submit grades.
- The course offering section must already exist for the grades to be submitted successfully.