The instructor of record needs to use the SPIRE grading tool to “approve” the grades that have been transferred from SPARK by noon on the day grades are due (see deadline above).

Blank Grades
You need to fill in any blank grades before you can 'approve' them. Blank grades in SPIRE result if the student is missing from the roster in SPARK or if they received an incorrect grade for their grade basis. In these cases, you can enter a grade manually in SPIRE. To view only those students with a blank grade, select the Display Ungraded Students Only check box on the Grade Roster page.

Other Grades
Students who have dropped the class will automatically receive a W or DR. Students taking a class pass/fail will have their letter grade automatically converted. If you do not recognize a student on your SPIRE list, the Registrar's Office recommends giving them an “F”.

'Approve' your Grades
On the Grade Roster page, the Approval Status drop-down menu has three values:

• Not Reviewed: allows you to modify your grade roster (change or delete grades).
• Ready for Review: ‘locks’ the grades so they will not be overwritten the next night and allows further modifications if you change the status back to Not Reviewed.
• Approved: submits the grades to the Registrar’s Office. When you change the approval status to Approved and click Save, SPIRE will confirm that your grades were submitted.

Note:
To avoid losing your grades, always save the grade roster before changing the Approval Status.
The upload process occurs every night from the start of exams until grades are due. Change the Approval Status to Ready for Review or Approved to avoid your grades being overwritten the next night.

• Approving Grades in SPIRE [Flash Movie, 3.1MB]
• Input & Submit Grades in SPIRE

In SPIRE, the Instructor of Record:

• Updated the grade roster with any missing grades.
• Submitted the grades to the Registrar's Office by changing the Approval Status to Approved and clicking Save.

Contact the Instructional Media Lab (instruct@oit.umass.edu, or 545-2823) with questions or to make an appointment. The Media Lab is open weekdays from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.