Memo
FROM
Department Heads, Chairs of Undergraduate Studies,
Departmental Administrators, BISC Administrators
Caroline Teske, Faculty of Arts and Science
DATE
27 October 2015
TO
SUBJECT
Submitting Final & Mid-Year Grades for Fall Term 2015
Undergraduate Courses
FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCE
Dunning Hall, main floor
Queen’s University
Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6
Tel 613 533-2470
Fax 613 533-2467
http://www.queensu.ca/artsci
This document outlines the due dates and grade submission process for final grades in Fall Term
classes, mid-year grades in P- and 100-level Fall-Winter classes, as well as details on the use of special
grade notations.
Please forward as soon as possible to all instructors who are teaching classes this fall.
1. DEADLINES FOR SUBMITTING GRADES (based on 10 calendar days from the end of classes, the
date of the final exam, or the due date of the final assignment)

If there is no final exam or work due
after the end of classes
Monday 14 December 2015

If the final exam is written or the final
assignment is due during the exam period
10 calendar days after the exam is written
or the final assignment is due

Final Deadline - all grades are due
Wednesday 6 January 2016 by 12:00 noon

Grades posted to official transcripts
Tuesday 12 January 2016
2. ELECTRONIC GRADE SUBMISSION
Letter-Based Grading System
Departments in the Faculty of Arts and Science are using the letter-based grading system.
Please consult the Faculty of Arts and Science grading policy at
http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/sites/default/files/grading_policy.pdf and your Undergraduate Chair
on any department-specific protocols that have been developed to support the letter-based grading
scheme. Note that if you submit percentage grades to PeopleSoft, they will be converted to letter grades
automatically based on the Senate-approved conversion scale.
Submitting Grades through PeopleSoft
Instructors will submit final grades through the Faculty Centre in PeopleSoft. Instructors have two
options when submitting grades: (1) they may enter them individually, student by student, or (2) they
may upload a spreadsheet containing all the grades directly to PeopleSoft.
Approving Grades through PeopleSoft
Department Heads will also use PeopleSoft to review the grades submitted by instructors in their
Department, and will approve them electronically. Once the Head has approved a set of grades, an
automatic batch process will run overnight to post the grades to the student record and they will be
immediately displayed to students in SOLUS. Therefore, we would request that you approve grades in a
timely manner so that students’ grades are available as early as possible.
See http://www.queensu.ca/registrar/faculty-staff/PSGradeEntry for PeopleSoft grading and approval
instructions and contact Tricia Acton (x78577; actonp@queensu.ca) or Barbara Emorine (x74053;
emorine@queensu.ca) in the Office of the University Registrar if you require any assistance.
Moodle
Instructors who are maintaining grades in the Moodle gradebook can take the final grades from Moodle,
download them into a spreadsheet and then upload them directly to PeopleSoft. There is a PeopleSoft
tab inside the Moodle Grader Report that allows the user to browse to the PeopleSoft grade
spreadsheet and import the grades directly into the spreadsheet. For instructions, see:
http://www.queensu.ca/registrar/sites/webpublish.queensu.ca.uregwww/files/files/UploadingGradesfr
omMoodle.pdf
Instructors who are submitting percentage grades into Moodle for individual assignments should note
that percentage grades are being automatically converted to letter grades on the basis of the Senateapproved grading system.
OnQ/Brightspace
Instructors who are early adopters of OnQ will need to work with the ITS support team to extract the
grades from OnQ and upload them to PeopleSoft.
3.
MID-YEAR GRADES
In accordance with Academic Regulation 7.3, instructors of full-year classes numbered P01 through 199
are asked to submit mid-year grades to provide students with an indication of their progress in the
class. Note that mid-year grades for students in online courses and online sections of these courses will
not be required, as the component grades should be directly available in Moodle.
Grade Submission
Final grades in the A halves of full-year classes have already been assigned in batch as NG (Not
Graded). Mid-year grade rosters have been created for P- and 100-level full-year classes to enable the
collection of mid-year grades, which may be submitted in the same manner as final grades: either
entering them individually via the Faculty Centre grade roster, or uploading a spreadsheet. In both
cases, instructors should select the Grade Roster Type of Mid-Year, rather than Final. Once the grades
have been entered, instructors must set the status to Ready for Review so that they can be approved.
Note that mid-year grades submitted to PeopleSoft as percentage grades will not be converted to letter
grades automatically. Therefore, best practice is to submit letter-based grades directly. There will be no
grade change process for mid-year grades.
Approval of Grades
Department Heads/designates must approve the mid-year grades in the same manner as they approve
final grades in order for students to view their grades in SOLUS.
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4. NON-EVALUATIVE GRADES
A final grade must be submitted for every student; there can be no “blank” grades. Do not submit a
grade of DR (dropped) because you think a student has dropped the course. If the student is on the
grade roster, the course has not been dropped and a grade must be submitted.
If a final grade cannot be determined at this time, instructors may use one of the following:
IN
(Incomplete)
Indicates that the student has not completed all the work in the course (this may
include the final exam) and if the incomplete work is not submitted, the student
will fail the course. The IN grade will automatically revert to “F” at the end of
the subsequent term, unless the student completes the outstanding work, at
which point the instructor will submit a change of grade.
If the student has not completed all the work in the course but will pass the
course if the incomplete work is not submitted, the instructor should submit an
evaluative final grade based on the work completed to date. Again, if the
instructor agrees to accept the outstanding work, the student has until the end
of the subsequent term to complete this work and receive a change of grade.
GD
(Grade Deferred)
Other NonEvaluative Grades
AG (Aegrotat) and
CR (Credit) grades
Extensions beyond one term are allowed only upon successful appeal to the
Associate Dean (Studies). Instructors are highly encouraged to have the student
sign an Incomplete Grade form – see Section 6. Relevant Web Links.
Indicates that the final grade in the course is not available. This designation is
usually used if there is an outstanding academic integrity investigation. If it is
used for some other purpose, it must be accompanied by an explanation from
the instructor. Please contact Caroline Teske (x79584; f2deans@queensu.ca) for
assistance.
PeopleSoft will not accept any non-evaluative grade other than IN or GD.
Grades of ED (Exam Deferred) and NW (Not Written) are no longer being used.
Assigned only by the Associate Dean (Studies) upon successful appeal by the
student. If a student is appealing for AG or CR status, the instructor should
submit a final grade based on the work submitted to date.
5. TRANSCRIPT NOTES
Transcript notes are not to be entered by instructors, Heads or Administrative Assistants during the
grade submission process. Any notes that are entered display on the student’s official transcript, and
would require Senate approval. Therefore please do not use this field.
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6.
OFFICIAL GRADE CHANGES
Once official grades have been approved, all changes must be submitted on either the current form from
the Faculty of Arts and Science or the current form from the Office of the University Registrar (see links
below). Completed forms should be sent to the Faculty office, Dunning Hall, First Floor.
Notes
 If a form is missing student details, course details, and/or signatures from both the instructor and
the Department Head, it may be returned to the instructor/Department for correction.
 All grade changes should be submitted as letter grades. If you have assessed students using
percentage conversion, please also indicate the associated letter grade.
 The term code is an abbreviated version of the year and term in which the course is offered. For
example, the term code for Fall 2015 courses is 2159, to indicate the millennium (2), the last two
digits of the year (15) and first month of the term (9 for September). If you are uncertain about the
term code, please clearly indicate the year and term. The code can be added by the Faculty Office.
 If the student’s grade is being lowered, the student must be notified by the department. Please
indicate that this has been done.
 If there are more than 5 changes for a particular course for the same reason (i.e. Moodle error),
please submit the Change of Grade form as a cover sheet and attach a spreadsheet to indicate the
student names, student numbers and updated grade information.
Grading Forms
 http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/staff-and-faculty/teaching/grading
 http://www.queensu.ca/registrar/sites/webpublish.queensu.ca.uregwww/files/files/grade_change_
form.pdf
Please contact Caroline Teske (x79584; f2deans@queensu.ca) in the Faculty Office for assistance.
7. RELEVANT WEB LINKS
Guide to PeopleSoft Grade Entry
Grading Forms
(Change of Grade, Permission for
an Incomplete Grade)
Exam Information
(Exam Disruptions, Missed Exams)
Security of Student Grades
http://www.queensu.ca/registrar/faculty-staff/PSGradeEntry
http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/staff-and-faculty/teaching/grading
http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/staff-and-faculty/administration/exam-information
http://www.queensu.ca/registrar/faculty-staff/student-data
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