Managing student grades in European universities often involves highly specific academic policies — ranging from first-attempt preservation to grade compensation rules and transcript formatting. While Ellucian Banner provides a strong foundation, implementing these localized workflows often requires tailored automation. Working closely with Ellucian, ABCloudz developed a suite of solutions that address these region-specific needs while seamlessly integrating into the Banner ecosystem.
In this post, we walk through four of those solutions — each designed to handle complex grading scenarios and improve data accuracy, transparency, and efficiency. You’ll also see how our expertise can help you automate similar workflows in Banner or any other ERP system.
Here are the four solutions we delivered in this project:
- Best Mark automation to automatically record the highest achieved grades for repeated assessments.
- First Attempt automation for accurately preserving and reporting initial student performance after reassessment.
- Grade Compensation automation to systematically apply institutional rules for awarding compensatory credits.
- Promulgation solution providing students immediate, transparent, and detailed access to their academic results.
We developed these solutions using Ellucian Banner and Page Builder, backed by our deep practical knowledge of their capabilities. Designed to be modular and extensible, they offer a flexible foundation that universities can quickly align with their internal workflows and academic policies.
In the following sections, we’ll highlight how each solution helps reduce manual effort, improve grading accuracy, and create a more transparent academic experience for both staff and students.
Best Mark automation
One critical operational challenge faced by the European university using Ellucian Banner was efficiently managing grades when students retake assessments or modules. Traditionally, administrators manually updated grades to reflect the student’s highest achieved mark across multiple assessment attempts. This process was time-consuming, prone to human error, and complicated accurate calculation of academic averages. The university needed an automated, reliable, and repeatable approach to consistently apply the best marks achieved by students, thus simplifying the final grading process and ensuring accurate transcript generation.
Solution
We developed the Best Mark Automation solution leveraging Ellucian’s Banner system. This automated solution ensures that students’ highest marks from multiple assessment attempts are automatically recognized and recorded.
Specifically, the automated solution allows administrators to select modules or exam sessions based on configurable parameters such as:
- Exam diet (i.e., exam session period, formatted as YYMM), identifying modules based on exam session dates.
- Term code, CRN, and Student ID (optional), providing flexibility to handle specific scenarios efficiently.
Once parameters are selected, the system identifies relevant student records (SHRTCKN) and performs comparisons of component marks (Exam vs. Coursework) to determine the best overall mark. The system then automatically creates and stores new academic records (SHRTCKG) only if the newly identified grade surpasses the previously recorded grade, thus ensuring accuracy and integrity in academic reporting.
Key automation steps include:
- Automatic selection of relevant modules based on specific attributes (e.g., modules marked for “Best Mark” evaluation).
- Comparison and conditional updating of grades, ensuring only improvements are recorded.
- Creation of clear audit records, tagging each change with a distinctive code (BM) and timestamp, for full traceability and compliance.
Results
The implemented Best Mark Automation significantly improved administrative efficiency at the university. By automating previously manual processes, our solution reduced human error, streamlined assessment administration, and simplified final grade calculations. With clearly documented audit trails and automated updates ensuring accuracy, university staff could focus on higher-value activities, such as student support and academic advising, instead of repetitive manual grade management.
Furthermore, by seamlessly integrating into existing Ellucian Banner workflows, the university now benefits from consistently accurate, easily auditable academic records — elevating transparency and reliability across the institution’s grading system.
First Attempt automation
In institutions allowing students multiple attempts at assessments, accurately preserving original exam results becomes critical. When students retake exams or modules and achieve passing grades, administrators must ensure original attempts are recorded clearly to support transparency, accurate GPA (Grade Point Average) calculations, and reporting requirements. Traditionally, this process was manual, time-consuming, and prone to inconsistencies, leading to challenges in audit compliance and academic integrity.
Solution
ABCloudz developed the First Attempt Automation solution within Ellucian Banner, specifically addressing the complexity associated with tracking and accurately reflecting original grades after reassessments.
This solution automates the identification and restoration of first-attempt grades by systematically updating the student academic history records. Key steps in the automated process include:
- Configurable selection of affected modules and assessments based on parameters such as:
- Exam Diet (exam session period in YYMM format)
- Exam Diet combined with specific Exam Committees
- Specific Term Code, CRN, and Student IDs for targeted grade restoration.
- Automated validation of existing grades, identifying records where a student’s first attempt is followed by a successful reassessment.
- Automated creation of adjusted (“PASS”) grade codes: If the original attempt resulted in a failing grade, the automation creates a corresponding passing grade by appending “PASS” to the original code. This new grade code accurately reflects the first attempt while allowing credit accumulation based on the reassessment pass.
- Storing updated records clearly marked with a special grade-change identifier (FA) to denote restoration of the “First Attempt” grade, ensuring that both original and reassessed grades are maintained transparently within Banner.
This comprehensive automation ensures accurate and consistent academic histories without manual intervention, clearly distinguishing first attempts from subsequent reassessments.
Results
With the First Attempt Automation implemented, administrators at the university significantly reduced manual overhead, eliminating errors and inconsistencies previously arising from manual record handling. The automated solution streamlined academic record management, improved accuracy in GPA and credit hour calculations, and enhanced transparency for audit and reporting purposes.
Automating academic grade compensation
For universities adhering to strict academic regulations, managing and applying grade compensation is complex. Grade compensation is a policy allowing students who narrowly miss passing certain modules to still receive credit, provided specific conditions are met. Traditionally, identifying eligible students, calculating whether they meet detailed regulatory conditions, and accurately applying compensated grades was an intricate, manual, and error-prone administrative task.
Difficulties arose from the complexity of rules, including precise numeric thresholds (students scoring between 35% and 39%), strict credit load limits (no more than 1/6 of total ECTS credits could be failed), accurate calculation of overall precision marks, and the requirement that compensation apply only to modules attempted for the first time.
Solution
To resolve these challenges, ABCloudz implemented a comprehensive Grade Compensation Automation solution within the Ellucian Banner system. Our solution systematically assesses students’ academic records against clearly defined regulatory criteria to determine eligibility for grade compensation without manual intervention.
Specifically, the solution automates the following processes:
- Eligibility verification: The solution checks that modules were taken as a first attempt, grades fall within the compensable range (35%–39%), failed credits do not exceed one-sixth of the total, the overall precision mark is at least 45%, and each module is confirmed as eligible based on predefined course rules.
- Automated compensation grade assignment: If eligibility criteria are met, Banner automatically generates a new compensated grade (e.g., converting a grade of 37% to 37C) clearly identified by an automated change reason code (AC). The student’s record is updated with timestamps and user/system identifiers for audit compliance.
- Configurability and transparency: Banner’s configuration was updated to include clearly identifiable compensated grades, grade-change reasons, and precise numeric mappings to maintain transparent reporting and auditability.
Results
With Grade Compensation Automation, the university achieved significant administrative time savings, consistently applied compensation policies, improved accuracy and fairness in grading, enhanced transparency through automated audit trails, and allowed staff to shift focus from manual tasks to strategic academic support roles.
Overall, this solution ensured academic policies were enforced consistently and transparently, significantly enhancing trust and efficiency in the university’s grading processes.
Promulgation solution for student grade reporting
For universities, clearly and efficiently communicating academic results to students is critical. However, without an Ellucian Premium Subscription, students faced challenges accessing timely, detailed, and accurate grade reports. The existing processes relied heavily on manual input, lacked clarity, and resulted in delays and increased administrative workload. Additionally, providing comprehensive results, including detailed module components, final classifications, and precision marks, was particularly challenging.
Solution
ABCloudz developed the Promulgation solution within Ellucian Self-Service Banner (SSB) using Page Builder. This tool is typically used to extend SSB when Experience Premium is not available, enabling us to create an intuitive, student-focused “View Grades” portal. Fully integrated with Banner data and delivered through Page Builder, the solution provides students immediate access to detailed academic outcomes through a streamlined interface.
Key features of our solution include:
- Intuitive user experience: Students access their results via a clear interface displaying their name and student number.
- Dynamic filtering and navigation: Students can filter grades based on academic term, course level, and study path, personalizing their grade-viewing experience.
- Comprehensive results dashboard: Students see their final degree classifications, overall results and rankings, curriculum details with direct access to additional course information, and structured tables of module results. Each table includes sortable columns such as earned credits, final grades, terms, and resit information.
- Detailed component view: Students can easily drill down into individual assessment components to view coursework and exam details, including weights and mandatory pass requirements.
- Rapid search and sorting functionality: Search and sorting features enable quick access to specific modules and assessment components.
Results
Implementing the Promulgation solution significantly enhanced the clarity, accuracy, and efficiency of grade reporting. Students gained immediate and transparent access to their academic results, leading to greater satisfaction. Automation reduced manual workload, minimized errors, and improved operational efficiency. The enhanced self-service functionality allowed students to independently manage their academic progress, further decreasing the administrative burden on university staff.
Ultimately, this digital transformation improved both academic integrity and student engagement, creating a reliable, user-friendly platform for accessing critical academic information.
Advanced automation solutions for Banner
With these targeted enhancements, we effectively streamlined complex processes related to student grading, assessment tracking, academic regulations compliance, and transparent grade reporting. Each automated solution reduces administrative overhead, minimizes human error, and significantly enhances the student experience.
ABCloudz’s proven expertise in Ellucian Banner ensures rapid deployment and customization aligned precisely with your institution’s workflows and regulatory environment.
If your institution faces similar challenges or seeks to elevate its academic management processes through automation, connect with us today. Let’s transform your student information management together.
