PLEASE READ: Integrated Excel Best Practices for Students

  • Do not cut/paste or drag and drop cells, as this can cause grading issues. 
  • Empty fields for normal graded cells will default to 0. Empty drop-down fields will remain empty or default to N/A (if listed as a drop-down answer).  
  • Questions autosave when any update is made in Excel. 
  • Excel tutorial videos are available for your students in your course. To access them, they can go to Course Content and select Excel Basics and Time Value of Money in Excel.

Graded Cell Types

There are two types of graded cells: Normal Graded Cells and Drop-down Graded Cells.

  • Normal Graded Cells require students to enter a formula (#3 in the image below).
  • Drop-down Graded Cells require students to select an answer from a drop-down list (#4 in the image below).

A screenshot of a computer Description automatically generated

How to Enter Answers

See below for instructions on how to successfully enter or select answers.

Numeric/formulas:

  • Students must enter an acceptable formula to get credit.
  • If a number needed for the formula is provided in a cell, students must reference that cell in their formula. (Example: =G53+G52, not =60000+5000).
    • Even if the answer is a single number, the answer entered in the cell must be a cell reference (Example: =G53, not 65000 or =65000 or =60000+5000).
  • There may be an occasion where students need to use a number in their formula (Example: divide by 2 for average, divide by 365 to convert to "days", etc.). If the number is not provided in a cell that can be referenced within the question, the student should use the actual number in their formula (Examples: =G52+G53/2, =G54/365, etc.)

Drop-down answers:

  • Students will click the arrow and select the correct answer from the drop-down menu (#4 in the image above).

Other important notes about entering answers:

  • Students should not use cut and paste or "drag and drop" to move or remove answers. Instead, they should delete the answer in the incorrect cell and re-enter it in the correct cell. Using copy and paste to duplicate formulas is ok.
  • If the question has multiple worksheet tabs, a student’s formula answers must reference cells within the same worksheet (tab). If they reference a cell from another worksheet to arrive at the correct answer, their answer will be marked wrong.
  • Using “+” instead of an “=” at the beginning of a formula will work.

Show Formulas

If you would like to see the formulas that students have entered when previewing their attempt, follow the steps below.

  1. Select the Formulas tab.
  2. Select Show Formulas.


NOTE: There is a list of correct formulas programmed for each answer. This list includes various (but correct) formulas that could be used to compute every answer. Additionally, we have logic built in to accept formulas when the components are entered in any order (if order isn’t required to compute the correct answer) and for components that may be the result of preceding computations. If you find a correct formula that is being marked incorrect, please report it to us by using options outlined in How to Report an Error guide or by clicking Request Help in the left navigation menu.