Gradescope / Nexus Integration

The Gradescope/Nexus integration creates a link in your Nexus site so you can create and manage a Gradescope course for your class.

 It will automatically add students, and you and the students can use the link in Nexus to use Gradescope without needing to log in separately. You can also publish grades from Gradescope back to the Nexus Gradebook.

These are brief instructions for folks already familiar with the Gradescope interface. Separate documentation with more detailed information is available from Gradescope.

On This Page:

Adding Gradescope to your Nexus site
Linking Gradescope Assignments and Nexus Assignments

Adding Gradescope to your Nexus site

The Gradescope Tool is a single “window” into the Gradescope site that is used for all assignments. So the best place for it is in the top section of the course homepage, and you only need to add it once per course:

1. In your Nexus course, turn editing on by clicking the red [Turn Editing On] button.

2. ​​​​​In the section where you want to add the video, click the link  to [Add activity or resource] and then select [External Tool].  Then scroll down and click on the [Add] button.

4.  In the top General section:

• Name your activity.
• Choose Gradescope from the drop down list in the Preconfigured tool list.
• Click on the gray button to [Select content].

5. Leave everything else as-is, scroll down to the bottom and and click [Save and display].

6. Click on the [Open in new window] link.

7. The Gradescope interface will now appear, and you will be prompted to link to a course within Gradescope.

• If you've already created a Gradescope course, click the button to [An existing Gradescope Course]. You will then be provided with a list of your courses from which to choose.

• Otherwise, click the button to [A new Gradescope Course]. You will then be prompted to create a new Gradescope course with information provided by Nexus.
• Click on the green [Link Course] button.

8. In the Gradescope window, in the left-hand list, click [Roster] 

9. In the green bar at the bottom click [Sync Moodle Roster]. If there's enough room, a [Sync Moodle Roster] may also appear in the center of the page. Don't forget that Moodle is the same as Nexus.

10. Check the box if you'd like the participants to be notified via email, and then click the green [Sync Roster] button.

After a few seconds, the roster from your Nexus course will appear in your Gradescope class.

11. Copy the web address at the top of the browser page and paste it into your assignment descriptions in Nexus. Students can then click on that link to come back to this Gradescope activity to submit their assignments.

Linking Gradescope and Nexus Assignments

The Gradescope activity provides its own assignments and its own submission interface but they can't be included in the Gradebook, so it's useful to create assignments in your Nexus site in the appropriate place, providing a description, etc., as usual, and linking them to the Gradescope activity for submission.

Gradescope can feed back grades to Nexus, and in this case it does require corresponding placeholder assignments.

There are a few steps involved to getting this part to work.

1. Create an assignment in Nexus.
   • To collect and display grades in Nexus, an assignment activity can be used as a placeholder.
   • Because the students will upload directly to Gradescope, to avoid confusion it’s advisable when creating the assignment to:
     • Add a description that the assignment is for grade-display purposes only;
     • Provide a link to the Gradescope tool (copied from its page, as described in step 11 above);
     • On the assignment settings screen, in the Submission types section, uncheck File submissions. (Online submissions should be unchecked by default.)
     • For Gradescope to return grades to Nexus, its Feedback features are needed, so don’t turn them off.
   • If you’ve already created an assignment for students to return their work, you can download them from Moodle as a single zipped folder, unzip it, and then upload them as a group to Gradescope. Make sure you select the option “Instructor” for “Who will upload submissions” in the next step.

2. Create the assignment in Gradescope.
   • In the left-hand list, click on Assignments.
   • Click on the button New Assignment.
   • Once it’s created, in the left-hand list, click on Settings and click Link.
     • If you don't see the left side-bar menu, click on the Menu icon to open the sidebar. Or you can simply click on the gear icon at the bottom.

• You will see a drop-down menu of Nexus assignments for the course, select the one you want.

3. Publish Grades

After determining grades in Gradescope click on [Review Grades] in the left sidebar menu, then at the bottom of the page click on the [Post Grades to Moodle] button.

Remember that Moodle and Nexus are the same thing!

FOR MORE DETAILED GRADESCOPE DOCUMENTATION, PLEASE VISIT GRADESCOPE: GET STARTED.

If you are having difficulty or you have unanswered questions, please contact the Help Desk through the ITS Service Catalog or call (518) 388-6400.

Information attributed to UMass Amherst