Upload question detail on a template or assessment via a spreadsheet

Instead of entering assessment details directly into Smartgrade, you can instead upload question detail via spreadsheet.

BEFORE YOU START: in order to be able to create an assessment you need to activate a publisher profile. Also, if you want to use topics to group questions in your assessment, before setting up an assessment you'll need to create a topic library.

Preparing the spreadsheet

1. First, prepare your upload file. At the bottom of this article, you will see an Excel template. Download this and input it with the relevant information, taking care to follow these rules:
   1. Follow the instructions in the column headers to include the necessary information:
      
      

      Column Header	Instructions
      Tier	Leave blank for non-tiered assessments, or complete "Foundation", "Higher" or "Core"
      Part	Enter the part number "Part 1", "Part 2" etc. For a single part assessment, enter "Part 1"
      Question Name	Enter the question name e.g. "1a". Character limit 30
      Marks	Enter the max possible marks for the question
      Topics	Topics must be contained in the topic library selected. If there is more than one topic for the question, they should be separated by a semicolon e.g. "Addition;Subtraction;Multiplication"
      Question Text	Optionally, enter the question text. Character limit 2,500 To bold a word / sentence add  **  either side, e.g. "This word is **bold**", would present in the UI as "This word is bold". To use italics add  _  either side, e.g. "I like to _highlight part of a sentence by using italics_", would present in the UI as "I like to highlight part of a sentence by using italics". To underline a word or words, use ~~ either side, e.g. "This ~~part of the sentence~~ is underlined", would present in the UI as "This part of the sentence is underlined".
      Optional Question?	Leave blank unless the question is optional and linked to another question. Permissible values are "Y" and "N"

   2. Only enter a mark in the Marks column if you are using a standard numeric markscheme. Leave this column blank if using an alternate markscheme.
   3. Save the file in CSV format. Other formats (e.g. XLSX) will not upload.

IMPORTANT: If your spreadsheet contains special characters such as accents for languages assessments, then if using Excel, please save/export your file as a CSV UTF-8 file:

Uploading the spreadsheet

1. Once the file is prepared, you're ready to upload details and create the assessment. To do this, navigate to My Assessments and select the BUILD AN ASSESSMENT button as you would when building an assessment via the User Interface.
2. Before uploading your question detail, fill in the dropdowns on the assessment and select a Topic Library if one is being used. 
3. On the Build a new assessment page, move the Upload question detail? slider to the On position (i.e. move it to the right).
4. You'll notice that the Question Detail box changes to include a file uploader.
5. Click BROWSE FILES and select your saved CSV file. If there are errors during the upload process the system will give you indications of the data that did not import and why.
6. Once the file is uploaded you'll be taken to the Question Detail modal with your spreadsheet information pre-filled. If you would like the answer options for Multiple Choice Questions to be in a consistent order so they can be read aloud to students, follow the instructions in this article.
7. You can make further edits on the modal before clicking CONFIRM to save the data. 
8. Add attachments if required and then publish the assessment as per the normal process.