Syncing Assessment Data to Brightspace

This article walks through syncing assessment results to Brightspace, explains what data is pushed, and covers re-running and troubleshooting syncs. PaperScorer supports two paths: an automated direct push (recommended) and a CSV download (legacy / manual fallback). It assumes your Brightspace account is already connected — if it isn’t, see connecting your account to Brightspace first.

Automated Sync (Recommended)

The automated path pushes student scores directly from PaperScorer into a Brightspace grade-book item or quiz — no CSV download or manual upload step required.

Step 1: Start the Sync

From the dashboard, click the Assessments main-navigation option.

Find the assessment you want to sync, click its action menu, and select Sync data. The Sync data option only appears once the assessment has scanned student responses associated with it.

A modal will open asking how you want to sync. Select Brightspace sync.

Step 2: Pick a Course

You’ll see a list of Brightspace courses available to sync.

📷 [SCREENSHOT NEEDED] — The course-selection screen showing the list of available Brightspace courses to sync into.

Step 3: Pick a Grade-Book Item or Quiz

Brightspace gives you two destinations to push scores into:

• Grade-book item — pick this when you want PaperScorer scores to land in a specific grade item in the Brightspace grade book.
• Quiz — pick this when the assessment corresponds to a Brightspace quiz and you want PaperScorer to populate quiz attempt scores.

If the grade-book item or quiz already exists in Brightspace, select it from the list. If it doesn’t, the form lets you create a new one as part of the sync.

📷 [SCREENSHOT NEEDED] — The grade-book item / quiz selection screen showing both options and the “create new” affordance.

Step 4: Confirm and Run

Review the confirmation page — PaperScorer will show the assessment, the Brightspace course, and the grade-book item or quiz about to be synced. If everything looks right, click Continue.

📷 [SCREENSHOT NEEDED] — The confirmation screen summarising the assessment, course, and destination grade-book item/quiz.

The completed view shows real-time progress and you’ll receive an in-app alert when the job finishes; you don’t have to stay on the page.

What Gets Synced

Like Canvas (and unlike Google Classroom), Brightspace sync creates a graded entry with an HTML body and optional review link:

• The student’s score is pushed to the chosen grade-book item or quiz.
• An HTML comment summarising the assessment is attached, so the student can see context for the grade in Brightspace.
• If the optional “student review link” setting is enabled on the assessment, the comment also includes a link back to the student’s PaperScorer result page so they can review their scan.
• Only students who exist in both the PaperScorer class roster and the Brightspace course roster will have scores pushed.

Reviewing Sync Results

Once a sync completes, a View Sync Results button appears on the completion screen, taking you to the per-student status for that sync. You can also view past syncs at any time:

1. Open the assessment.
2. Click the Syncs tab on the assessment navigation.
3. The list shows every sync ever performed for this assessment (across all LMS providers), with success/failure/processing counts. Click into any row to see per-student detail.

📷 [SCREENSHOT NEEDED] — App capture: the assessment Syncs tab showing past sync jobs with provider icons and success counts.

Re-Syncing

You can re-run the sync at any time — for example, after correcting a scan, manually updating a score in PaperScorer, or adding new scanned sheets. To re-sync, follow the same Sync data flow and choose the same grade-book item or quiz from the destination-selection step. Each student’s score is updated to the current PaperScorer value.

Troubleshooting Failed Syncs

If a sync fails or shows per-student errors, the Syncs tab will explain why. Common causes:

• “Brightspace course not found” — the course was deleted or made inactive in Brightspace. Confirm the course in Brightspace, then re-sync.
• “Grade-book item not found” / “Quiz not found” — the destination item was deleted. Create a new one via the sync flow.
• Authentication / token errors — Brightspace invalidates refresh tokens on every use. If PaperScorer’s stored token state is lost or stale, you’ll be prompted to reconnect. Reconnect your Brightspace account and re-run the sync.
• Student not found in Brightspace course — the student exists in PaperScorer but isn’t enrolled in the Brightspace course. Add them to the Brightspace course and re-sync, or remove them from the PaperScorer roster if they shouldn’t be there.
• Institution connection deactivated — your administrator may have toggled the institution’s Brightspace connection off. Check with them.

If problems persist, contact PaperScorer support with the assessment name and the sync timestamp.

CSV Export (Legacy / Manual Fallback)

If the automated sync isn’t working for some reason, or you prefer to review and edit scores before uploading them to Brightspace, PaperScorer can still generate a CSV that you upload through Brightspace’s built-in grade import.

Generating the CSV in PaperScorer

From the assessment’s Sync data flow, choose the CSV-export option and enter an assignment title. If a Brightspace assignment with that title already exists in the target course, the upload will map scores to it. If it doesn’t, you’ll have the option to create one during the Brightspace upload step.

Click Export data to process the assessment. Once the file is ready, click Download file to save the CSV.

Uploading the CSV into Brightspace

In Brightspace, open the course and select Grades from the course navigation.

From the grade book, click Import.

On the import grades screen, fill in the form:

1. Import File (required): the CSV file you downloaded from PaperScorer.
2. Item Creation (optional): if the assignment name you used in PaperScorer matches an existing Brightspace assignment, leave this off. If the assignment doesn’t exist yet in Brightspace, turn it on so Brightspace creates it during import.
3. Click Continue to move on.

Review any import errors. If there are none (or you can safely ignore them), click Continue.

The final step is a preview — review the impact on student scores. If everything looks right, click Import to complete the upload.

Brightspace will return you to the course grade book once the import is done.