Your instructor may assign exercises that use FlatWorld's SmartGrader for Excel® in the FlatWorld Homework platform. These assignments are accessed the same way as any other FlatWorld Homework assignment, as described in the Guide to Using FlatWorld Homework here.

SmartGrader exercises may be the only 'question' in an assignment, or there may be multiple questions, including other SmartGrader exercises or more traditional questions. They are accessed using the forward/next and back arrows in the lower right of the screen or the question list on the right of the page, just like any other assignment.

Each SmartGrader assignment begins with the assignment information and instructions. The initial information includes instructions that are important to make sure that you receive full credit for your work, and it's worthwhile to read them in full.

Because the SmartGrader is a computer program, it can only look for what is programmed into it and can't give credit for 'close enough', meaning that if you misspell terms or don't name sheets as instructed, you are likely to lose points.

Most SmartGrader assignments will also give you the name of the file that you'll be downloading, although you can change the file name when saving it to your device or after working on it. Following the initial information, there is often a description of the scenario for the exercise.

Finally, the assignment will include numbered instructions, telling you what to do in Excel once you've downloaded the starter file. We recommend reading through the instructions before starting the assignment, so that you have a sense of what you'll be doing. It is important to follow the instructions in order once you begin work in Excel.

Under the instructions, you will find the button to download the exercise, with the words "Download Exercise" on it, along with an arrow pointing down, a symbol meaning 'download'. Under the button is text reading "Note: If the file fails to download, please refresh this page and try again." Sometimes the downloadable file times out, particularly if you loaded the assignment page a while before you get around to actually downloading the file. If you're unable to download the file, reloading the page should fix the problem.

Clicking on the button will automatically start a download, usually to the "Downloads" folder on your computer, or whatever folder you have set as the default location for downloaded files. In most web browsers, if you right-click (or click with two fingers on the touchpad for Macs/some laptops), you will see a menu, and if you select "Save Link As..." you can choose what folder to save the file in and rename it if you'd like.

Note: Make sure that you know where you have saved the file, as you will need to find it on your device to upload the finished file after completing your work.

When you download the file from the assignment, a marker is added to it that identifies you as the user who downloaded the starter file. This marker is NOT added if you download a starter file from the textbook, and if it is not present in the file you upload, or if another student's marker is present, you will receive no credit for the assignment. You must use the starter file that you downloaded yourself from the assignment.

Once you have saved the file to your device, you should open it in Microsoft Excel. Do not use other spreadsheet programs. Opening the file in a program other than Excel, even if it is one like Google Sheets or Numbers, which can read and open .xlsx files, will corrupt the file in a way that results in a score of zero.

Follow the instructions in the body of the exercise, performing the necessary skills in Excel. Once you are finished, save your file. Make sure to save before uploading; if you don't save after working on the file, then the file that gets uploaded won't have any of your changes. Do not rely on autosave.

You can save the finished file with a new file name if you want to keep the original separately, but the file you submit needs to be the same file that was downloaded or a duplicate of it. If you instead copy and paste the contents of the original file into a new, blank file, that file will not have the marker mentioned above, and you will receive a score of zero.

Once you have finished the exercise and saved your file, return to the FlatWorld Homework assignment.

Near the bottom of the page, under the button where you downloaded the starter file, is the upload box. When no file has been uploaded, there will be a button in the middle of the box that says "Upload Workbook".

Clicking on this button will open a window where you can select the saved file from its location on your device. This is where keeping track of where you've saved the file (and what file name you've used on your completed file if you've saved more than one version) is helpful. Select the file that you want to upload, then click "Open" in the dialog box.

While the file is in the process of uploading to the assignment, the word "Uploading" will appear in front of the file name:

Make sure that you wait for this to finish before moving to the next question or submitting your assignment, or else the file will not be submitted. Once the upload has finished, the word "Uploading" will no longer be present, and the box will just show the file name:

You can now move to the next question or continue to review and submit the assignment if the SmartGrader exercise is the last one in the assignment.

If you have uploaded a file, and then decide that you want to submit a different file, or have made further changes to your workbook and need to replace it with an updated version, you can click the upload symbol in the upper left corner of the submission box, which looks like an arrow pointing up with a line underneath it:

This will open the same upload dialog box as clicking the "Upload Workbook" file does when nothing has been uploaded yet, and you can replace the file as many times as you want until the assignment is submitted. Once it has been submitted, the file can no longer be replaced.

After submitting your assignment, you will be able to view the feedback in the assignment details if your instructor has set the assignment up to allow you to review your submission.

Note: SmartGrader assignments often involve large files, and as a result, sometimes take longer than other assignments to finish scoring. The assignment may say "Calculating" for several minutes. Reloading the page once it has finished will let you see your score on the assignment. Sometimes, if you open the Detail view of the assignment before it has finished scoring, a question that hasn't been scored yet will show as unattempted. If the file was uploaded successfully, then this just means that it hasn't been scored yet, and waiting a few minutes and then refreshing the page should fix it.

Immediately after submitting your assignment, you can click "Details" on the assignment page to view information about your scoring (though as noted previously, the assignment may not yet have finished being scored):

Alternatively, if you are returning to the assignment page later, after having previously completed your attempt, you can click the "Details" button next to the grade:

This will take you to a screen where you can see a list of your attempts, and you can click the "View Details" button on this page to open that attempt and view your feedback:

In the Submission details you'll be able to see your score on each exercise in the bubble on the right of the screen at the top of each question:

Once you're on the Submission Details page, you can scroll to the bottom of the exercise to see any feedback that is available. There will only be feedback for rules that were marked incorrect, and most rules have hints that point you to the step in the exercise where the relevant work was done and/or which give advice on how to fix common errors:

The feedback in the image above reads:
In Sheet1 cell I13 "cell formula" is incorrect. Deducted 1 point. Hint: Steps 3-4.

In Sheet1 cell F18 "cell formula" is incorrect. Deducted 1 point. Hint: Steps 16-18.

In Sheet1 cell J8:J13 "conditional formatting" is incorrect. Deducted 1 point. Hint: Steps 48-49, make sure the rule covers the correct range.

In Sheet1 cell E13 "cell value" is incorrect. Deducted 1 point. Hint: Step 57.

This feedback can be used to understand your errors and to make corrections on later attempts if permitted by the assignment.

Note that the feedback is not specific to particular errors made by students, and the same information will be displayed regardless of the particular error that has been made. The hints do not necessarily correlate with your specific error, and are instead based on the most common mistakes that result in problems for a given rule.

Upon uploading my file you received an error message with the text "The submission file is much larger than the question template, which might cause grading issues. Please check for any unnecessary rows / columns / data."

First, make sure that the instructions for the assignment do not include a note that the file is expected to end up triggering this warning. There are a small number of exercises where enough information is added to the workbook that the correctly completed file will give this warning, in which cases the assignment will have a note about it.

In cases where the "much larger file" warning is not expected, it most often appears because a formula was copied down to the end of the spreadsheet instead of to the end of the data. Since Excel spreadsheets have more than 1 million rows in them, this will result in a very large file which the system cannot process. Unless there are explicit instructions in the assignment saying to ignore the warning and submit your file anyway, you should not do so, as it will almost certainly result in a score of zero.

Instead, return to your Excel file and check the row after the last row of data to see if anything has been copied down past the end of the rest of the data. Remember that if there is a function in a cell, then there may be no visual information displayed depending on the function, so you should select each cell in the row below the last row of data and check the formula bar to be sure that there is nothing in those cells. If you find a formula that has been copied to the bottom of the sheet, delete the extra rows and save your file, then follow the instructions above to replace the file you uploaded previously.

The feedback field displays a message saying that your file could not be read:

The text in the image above reads:

The file could not be read, which may be caused by Excel add-ins and/or invalid references (e.g. in Pivot Tables). Please remove any Excel add-ins and verify all references. If the issue persists, perform the following workaround:

Please reach out to your instructor if you need an additional attempt.

Follow the instructions given. Open your file in Excel, and save it as a .xls file, then close it and open the .xls file. Then, resave the file as a .xlsx file. Finally, return to your assignment and upload the new file to the assignment.

You must follow all of these steps, including closing the .xls file before resaving it as a .xlsx file, or else this fix will not work.

You have received a score of zero, and the feedback field shows the message "Integrity Concern: Incorrect file uploaded."

This warning is shown if the file you upload does not have the marker that is added when you download the file from the exercise page. This can happen if you use a file that another student downloaded while logged in to their own account, if you use a file from the online textbook instead of the assignment page, or if you open the file using a program other than Excel. A file that does not have the marker will always receive a score of zero, as will a file that has the marker for another student. If your assignment allows multiple attempts, you can begin a new attempt. Make sure to download the starter file from the assignment and to open it in Excel. If your assignment only allows one attempt, you can reach out to your instructor and see if they are willing to grant you an additional attempt, but FlatWorld is not authorized to do so.