Each participant in a UW PCE program will be graded in each course by standards established by the instructors and/or advisory board and approved by the academic units. For certificates and multi-course specializations, students must successfully complete all courses in the program to receive a certificate or specialization badge. Because certificate courses are often arranged sequentially and are many are offered only once each year, students are required to successfully complete all courses in the previous term before they advance to the next term.
Grade Submission
Every student who has enrolled in your course must receive a grade—even students who don’t complete the course. Submit your grades within five calendar days of the conclusion of the course. Many students need proof of the grade in an unofficial transcript for employer reimbursement.
Questions about the submission of grades should be directed to: c2rcrds@uw.edu.
Students can access an unofficial version of their transcript here: Records & Transcripts
The section below explains how to submit grades, depending on the type of course you’re teaching.
Note: For security reasons and to avoid FERPA violations, you may not submit final grades by e-mail.
Grading Options
There are different grading systems for credit and non-credit courses.
Non-Credit Courses
Non-credit courses are graded Successful Completion/Unsuccessful Completion (SC/USC) and participants earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs). Numerical grades are not recorded for these courses.
Students who demonstrate competence by the course standards are awarded a grade of SC for the course. To earn Successful Completion, a participant must:
- Participate in the course according to the standards outlined in the syllabi. Attendance is no longer included in non-credit grading criteria. Please monitor participation through individual, break-out or large group work so you can verify student participation at the end of the course.
- Meet the assessment criteria you establish for proficiency of the content. There are a variety of grading standards you might use. UW PCE recommends using a B grade or better as a guideline for determining satisfactory completion. Many employers who reimburse participants for their participation expect that standard for SC. It is important to clearly communicate grading and assessment standards to the participants in your syllabus. Assessment criteria might include some combination of homework assignments, project work, presentations, and/or quizzes.
Students who do not demonstrate competence are awarded a grades of USC and do not earn CEUs.
Credit Courses
Credit courses grant students academic credit from the University of Washington that appears on student transcripts. UW uses a numerical grading system for credit courses. Instructors may report grades from 4.0 to 0.7 in 0.1 increments and may also report a grade of 0.0 (failure, no credit). To understand the letter grade equivalents of numerical grades, consult the University of Washington Grading System.
- Submit your grades into the online system using GradePage and your UWNetID. Learn more about GradePage and the grade submission process.
- Inform your Program Manager about students who are receiving incomplete grades.
- Submit final grades for any incompletes by the last day of the following quarter.
With appropriate departmental review and approval, a credit course may be offered on a Credit/No credit basis by the department. This grading method is determined by the department offering the course and is not a student option. The standard for granting credit in a Credit/No Credit course is the demonstration of competence in the course to the instructor’s satisfaction. Only grades of “CR” or “NC” are assigned to these courses.
Information on how students can schedule final exams can also be found on the UW Online Dashboard.
Non-Credit Courses in Sequential and Non-Sequential Certificates
Most non-credit certificate programs are designed as a series of sequential courses. However, some are non-sequential. Grading guidelines vary slightly by sequence type.
Non-Credit Courses in Sequential Certificates
Because courses are often arranged sequentially and are normally offered only once each year, students are required to successfully complete all courses in the previous term before they advance to the next term. Students must successfully complete all courses in the program to receive a certificate of completion.
There are three possible grades for each course in a certificate:
- Successful Completion (SC) –
Students are required to successfully complete all courses in a term to continue in subsequent terms in the program and receive the certificate of completion. - Unsuccessful Completion (USC) –
A grade of unsuccessful completion disqualifies a student from a certificate program and from receiving a certificate of completion. A student receiving a USC must discontinue participation in subsequent courses of the program. - Incomplete (I) –
If a student requests an incomplete for a sequential course in a certificate program, the student may enroll in the next course in the program, regardless of whether the incomplete has been resolved before that next course begins. If the incomplete is converted into a SC, no further action is needed. If the incomplete is converted into a USC, the student may not continue in the current certificate program offering. In that case, the student will be withdrawn from the current certificate program offering and will receive a full refund (including a refund of the otherwise nonrefundable quarterly registration fee) for the program course in which the student is currently enrolled. The student may re-enroll in a subsequent offering of the certificate program, but in order to earn the certificate, the student would need to re-take the course in which an incomplete was previously received. Direct students to contact Enrollment Services for assistance.
Non-Credit Non-Sequential Courses
All sequential grading and completion guidelines apply to non-sequential courses with the following exceptions:
- Students are not required to successfully complete all courses in the previous term before they advance to the next term. However, students must successfully complete all courses in the program to receive a certificate of completion.
- An incomplete does not prohibit a student’s enrollment in subsequent courses of the certificate program. However, to receive a certificate of completion in the program during the current certificate cycle, the student must convert the incomplete to a successful completion within two weeks (14 days) of the last session of the uncompleted course. A grade change form may be found at the Student Systems Help Center. Once the student has completed the required course work to earn a successful completion, the instructor must immediately notify UW Professional & Continuing Education in writing.
If a student is unable to complete coursework on time due to a disability, the student should contact Disability Services to discuss needs and accommodations.
More information on disabilities and accommodations in the classroom is available as part of the UW Student Governance and Policies.
Non-Credit Grading FAQ’s
Why is grading important in a non-credit course or program?
You might be wondering, “Do I really need to worry about grading if my course is offered successful/unsuccessful completion (S/NS)?” The answer is YES. Here are four reasons why having a system for grading, that is, a way of communicating the measure of student achievement, is important.
- When UW PCE awards a student a certificate at the end of a program, there is an assumption that the student has achieved an expected level of competence in relationship to the goals of the program.
- Current and/or future employers expect that the certificate awardee has met specified standards for the program and can demonstrate knowledge and/or skills.
- For students the certificate is the culminating feedback that they performed at acceptable levels as recognized by the field or industry.
- The content is sequenced in many certificate programs. If you are teaching in the first or second course, you need to be able to assure that the students have the sufficient knowledge and/or skills to move on to the next course.
For more information on grading, visit the UW PCE Grades page.
Should I consider attendance and class participation in my grade plan?
Non-credit programs at UW PCE no longer track attendance. If grading is about evaluating performance, attending class does not necessarily translate into a level of achievement. Class participation is the appropriate way to assess student performance at UW PCE. However, it should not be the only way. If you use participation, keep weekly notes of the students’ involvement as it will be difficult to recall at the end of the course, or create activities that will specifically allow you to award participation points. Instructor Coaches and your Program Manager can support you in making decisions about grading participation.
How do I develop a plan for grading a course in a certificate program where the grade is S/NS?
Unless you are hired for development of a course, grading norms and rubrics should be pre-established in your course via Canvas and other documentation. However, if you do have to develop a plan, contact your Program Manager and consider consulting an Instructional Coach about these steps:
- Determine what to measure. Your objectives should help you answer this question. For example, if your course is responsible for addressing specific objectives in the entire program and/or ensuring certain competences, then the other instructors are counting on you to determine the students’ level of proficiency regarding these objectives.
- Decide on an acceptable level of performance regarding the objectives. Imagine that you are an employer interested in either promoting the individual earning the certificate or hiring the individual with the newly earned certificate. What level of performance would you expect from the individual? It is important that you and your colleagues who are teaching in the certificate program agree on what “satisfactory” performance looks like for the certificate program. The advisory board and your Program Manager can also help in determining what will count as satisfactory performance. UW PCE recommends that you and your colleagues use criteria-referenced grading, that is, that achievement be measured in terms of specified standards. In a criteria-referenced grading system, there is a fixed performance level and it is possible for all students to receive a “satisfactory” grade. Students are not competing against each other.
- Create components to measure the acceptable level of performance. Given the variety of fields of study represented by the UW PCE programs, there is not one easy answer to the question of how to measure. Some instructors might find that weekly assignments or projects can be used as measures. Others might want to assign one large project or written paper. Still others might find that quizzes and exams can be used as ways to measure. Again, a conversation with your teaching colleagues and Program Managers will assist in developing appropriate measures.
- Determine weight and level of each grading component. One component can measure satisfactory performance for more than one objective or it may be necessary for several components to measure one objective. In any case, it is important that the weight of a component be proportional to the overall emphasis of the objective in the course. The components for measuring should also evaluate the students’ performance on different levels as outline in Bloom’s Taxonomy, that is, knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, syntheses and evaluation.
- Communicate the plan in your syllabus. Students need to know at the beginning of the course what is expected of them. Clarity in terms of when and how they will be evaluated and graded will enable them to become responsible for their own learning.
How do I create and use grading rubrics?
These may be pre-established in your course content. However, if you revise or create an assignment you will also have to create a rubric to assist you in evaluating assignments or exams. A rubic is a tool that you (or other instructors teaching the same course) use to outline criteria for different levels of performance. If you are interested in learning more about rubrics, visit the Grading and Performance Rubric webpage from Carnegie Mellon University.
Rubrics (Instructional Podcast Length 4:22)
For more Instructor Podcast episodes and transcripts, visit our Instructional Podcast page.
Updated 07/21/25