Before uploading final grades using the FSU Grade Upload Tool, it is crucial to ensure the accuracy of your course grade book. These are some important things to keep in mind while preparing your course for final grade submission:

1. A Grading Scheme needs to be enabled and accurately implemented according to the scheme provided in your course syllabus.
   It is crucial that you do this even if you do not intend to use the FSU Final Grade Upload Tool. A standard FSU grading scheme is automatically enabled in your course site, so it is best that you check the grading scheme and make any adjustments needed. You can do this by following the steps in How to set up your course Grading Scheme.

2. If you are dropping the lowest score from an assignment group, in order for it to correctly drop the lowest score, all grades within that group must be graded items.
   Any "ungraded" items (e.g., an item that does not factor into the final grade) will not be accounted for and will not be dropped. So, if you wish to drop the lowest quiz score from your pop-quiz assignment group, you will need to ensure that every item in your pop-quiz assignment group is factored into the final grade. Learn more about how to enable drop rules.
   
   If there is a particular item in the assignment group that you do not want to be dropped according to the drop rule, make sure to list it as an exception to the drop rule. If there is an additional extra credit assignment in the same assignment group, you will need to make sure it is listed as an exception for the drop rule to work correctly, or else students who do not complete the extra credit assignment will be penalized.

3. Ensure that there are no "hidden" assignments and that all grades have been posted for all students.
   Hidden assignments are not visible to your students, giving them an inaccurate view of their overall grade in Canvas. Any grades that have not been posted will not be factored into the final grade in Canvas, so if you have used a manual posting policy and have not posted all grades for all students, then your students' final grades will not be accurate. Find out more about using the "hide grades" for an assignment feature. 

4. Make sure that all grade cells have a value entered in them, including entering in zeroes for unsubmitted assignments.
   The final grade column will not be accurate if any cells are left ungraded. When grade cells are left ungraded (containing a dash), students with ungraded work see their final grade without any unsubmitted assignments factored in, which gives students an inaccurate view of their grades. Students can uncheck the "calculate based only on graded assignments" box on their grades page to see what their real grade will be. However, to prevent confusion and misunderstandings, we strongly recommend that you enter zeroes for all unsubmitted assignments. This way, students will see an accurate view of their grades without having to uncheck anything on their grades page.

   The most efficient way to assign zeroes to unsubmitted assignments is to use the Set Default Grade feature to set the default grade for each assignment to zero at the end of the term. It will allow you to automatically insert zeros for all students that haven't yet received a grade for a specific assignment.

   If you are using the missing submission policy to automatically assign zeroes to missing assignments: Review each column in your gradebook to ensure that the missing submission policy did not skip over any assignments. Remember, this automated tool will not apply zeroes to unsubmitted "on paper" and "no submission" assignments. You must manually add zeroes to these items. We recommend using the Set Default Grade feature described above for any columns that need zeroes assigned.

5. For an excused or optional assignment: Make sure to mark "EX" in the grade cell for any student who was not required to complete the assignment.
   Excusing a grade allows an assignment to be ignored while determining the final grade. You will need to do this for ALL students who were not required to do the assignment. If you do not excuse the grade and instead leave it as a "-" in the grade cell, then your student(s) will be penalized for not completing the assignment. Canvas will calculate the assignment as a zero for each student without a grade or an "EX" in the cell.

6. Make sure the extra credit you want to give students is factored in correctly.
   For clarification about adding Extra Credit to your course, please consult our article on managing extra credit in Canvas.

7. Don't like working in Canvas? You can complete your edits in Excel!
   If you would like to build your grade book outside of Canvas, you can Import a CSV file from Excel.  We advise that you export your Canvas gradebook to excel first, and then make your changes before importing the gradebook file back into Canvas.  Find out more information about uploading changes to the grade book.

Everything looking good? If so, you're now ready to submit your students' final grades. You can do this manually in the Faculty Center in myFSU, or you can access the FSU Grade Upload Tool within your Canvas course site to transfer final grades from Canvas to the Faculty Center.