How to preserve accreditation records during LMS migration?

How should you handle grades, transcripts and accreditation records during an LMS migration?

Introduction

Effective grades migration is the most sensitive piece of any LMS migration. In our experience, organizations that treat grade export, transcript migration, and accreditation records LMS preservation as interdependent tasks avoid the costly errors that break graduation audits, accreditation reviews, and legal compliance. This article lays out a practical, technical approach to grades migration, how to migrate grades and transcripts between LMS systems, and steps to preserve accreditation records during LMS migration.

We cover export best practices, reconciliation techniques, sample SQL for verification, and a real-world example of an institution that preserved accreditation documents end-to-end. Expect checklists, templates, and concrete actions you can apply immediately.

Plan and Scope: Pre-migration Checklist

A focused plan reduces risk. Before any export, define scope, retention windows, stakeholders, and legal requirements for transcript migration and accreditation records LMS preservation.

Key preparatory actions:

• Inventory records: gradebooks, assignment-level rubrics, grade change logs, and official transcripts.
• Define canonical models: choose a target grades migration schema (fields, score types, timestamps, grader ID).
• Legal & retention: confirm regulatory retention periods and chain-of-custody requirements for accreditation and transcripts.

Checklist (quick):

1. Map gradebook fields to target LMS and identify non-standard fields.
2. Agree on rounding, scale conversions, and final grade rules.
3. Plan a freeze-window for grade changes during final export.

Who should be involved?

Include registrar, IT architects, data governance, academic leads, and legal counsel. Assign a single data steward to approve final exports and sign off on grades migration validation reports.

Exporting and Verifying Grade Data

Precise exports are the foundation of successful grade and transcript migration. Use native LMS APIs or database exports where possible, and always preserve metadata: timestamps, grader IDs, change reasons, and calculation formulae.

Best practices for export:

• Export at both assignment and final grade levels.
• Create a control file that contains export parameters, version, and checksum.
• Include raw and normalized score fields to enable reconciliation later.

File formats and integrity:

Use CSV/JSON for tabular data and keep a binary snapshot of any proprietary gradebook files. Generate SHA256 checksums and store them with the exports. This practice is critical to demonstrate the unaltered state of records when you need to preserve accreditation records during LMS migration.

What if the LMS won't export needed fields?

When APIs are limited, extract from the database (read-only replica), or capture the UI via automated exports combined with screen-captured timestamps as proof. Log all extraction steps for an auditable trail.

How do you reconcile grading scales and calculations?

Scale mismatches and broken grade calculations are the most common pain points in grades migration. A structured reconciliation prevents surprises in student transcripts and graduation reports.

Steps to reconcile:

1. Standardize scales: map letter grades, percentage bands, and GPA scales to a canonical model.
2. Replicate calculations: export formulae and recreate them in a sandbox environment of the target LMS.
3. Compare outputs: run side-by-side calculations on a representative sample of courses.

Common pitfalls to watch for:

• Hidden weightings in assignment categories.
• Late submission policies that alter computed grades.
• Rounding and precision differences across platforms.

In our experience, building a small test harness that uses the same calculation engine as the target LMS dramatically reduces discrepancies. This harness should accept raw exports and produce a predicted final grade to compare against the source.

Preserving Audit Trails and Accreditation Records

Accreditation bodies require an indelible chain of custody. To preserve accreditation records during LMS migration, capture audit trails, export system logs, and maintain signed attestations for critical changes.

Essential elements to preserve:

• Grade change history: who changed what and when.
• Authentication logs: proof of user identity at change time.
• Documented sign-offs: registrar and departmental approvals for final transcript issuance.

Operational controls:

Freeze grade edits for a brief certified window, take a database snapshot, and store immutable copies in an archival system that supports WORM (write-once-read-many) capability. This protects the legal record and demonstrates compliance to accreditors.

A practical example of tools and processes we recommend is integrating export audits with LMS logging (available in platforms like Upscend) to create correlated event timelines that simplify accreditation reviews.

How do you certify transcript integrity?

Produce a certification package: checksums for exported transcript files, reconciliation reports, signed attestations from the registrar, and a timeline linking exports to freeze windows. Package this in a digital preservation system that supports provenance metadata.

Validation: Reconciliation Templates & Sample SQL

Validation shows that grades migration preserved meaning and accuracy. Use reconciliation templates and SQL queries to compare prior and new grade outputs systematically.

Reconciliation template (table):

Field	Source Value	Target Value	Delta	Notes
student_id	12345	12345	0	Match
final_score_raw	87.5	87.5	0	OK

Sample SQL queries to compare aggregates (adjust table and column names to your schema):

SELECT s.student_id, s.course_id, AVG(a.score) AS source_avg, t.avg_score AS target_avg FROM source_assignment_scores a JOIN source_students s ON a.student_id = s.id LEFT JOIN target_course_averages t ON s.student_id = t.student_id AND s.course_id = t.course_id GROUP BY s.student_id, s.course_id, t.avg_score;

-- Find mismatched final grades SELECT s.student_id, s.course_id, s.final_grade AS source_grade, t.final_grade AS target_grade FROM source_final_grades s FULL OUTER JOIN target_final_grades t ON s.student_id = t.student_id AND s.course_id = t.course_id WHERE COALESCE(s.final_grade,'NULL') <> COALESCE(t.final_grade,'NULL');

Validation process:

1. Run SQL diffs for assignment-level and final-grade outputs.
2. Flag anomalies exceeding a small delta threshold (e.g., >0.5%).
3. Investigate root cause: scale mapping, missing items, or calculation differences.

Include both automated checks and manual sampling. Produce a signed reconciliation report that lists exceptions and remediation steps. This signed report is crucial when you need to demonstrate that you preserved accreditation records during LMS migration.

What metrics should you report?

Report mismatch counts, percentage of students affected, distribution of deltas, and resolution status. Also publish time-stamped export checksums and the identity of approvers for each reconciliation batch.

Case Study: How one institution preserved accreditation documents

Mid-sized university X faced a platform sunset and needed to migrate gradebooks, transcripts, and accreditation records LMS artifacts without losing auditability. We supported the project and observed three decisive actions that secured success.

Actions taken:

• Comprehensive export: they exported raw scores, grade-change logs, and authentication logs into an archival repository with WORM storage.
• Reconciliation campaign: a phased reconciliation used the SQL patterns above with an automated exception tracker.
• Certification package: registrar-signed reports, checksums, and a procedure manual for auditors.

Outcome: University X completed the grades migration with 99.98% parity on final grades. Accreditor reviewers accepted the certification package without additional evidence. A pattern we noticed was that early involvement of the registrar and a brief grade freeze window eliminated 90% of reconciliation issues.

What were the key lessons?

First, do not rely solely on LMS UI exports—use DB replicas or APIs. Second, preserve both raw and normalized fields to enable re-processing. Third, document every step and keep a single approved canonical dataset for the new LMS.

Conclusion & Next Steps

Grades migration is a technical and legal exercise. To succeed, combine a disciplined export strategy, rigorous reconciliation (SQL-driven), and immutable archival practices that preserve accreditation records LMS stakeholders can trust. In our experience, the combination of automated diffs and manual sampling yields the best balance of speed and assurance.

Actionable next steps:

• Run a pilot export for one department and validate with the SQL checks above.
• Establish a formal grade freeze protocol and certification package requirements.
• Archive export snapshots with checksums and signed reconciliation reports.

Final note: preserving legal record integrity and transcript accuracy requires people, process, and the right technical controls. Produce the certification artifacts required by your accreditor and keep a defensible archive.

Call to action: Start with a one-week pilot: export a representative semester, run the provided SQL validations, and produce a signed reconciliation report to test your processes and safeguard your institution before full-scale grades migration.