Re: [seul-edu] What do teachers want in admin software?

[Corky Stout <gathring@dragonpack.com>]

At 03:24 PM 8/29/00 -0400, you wrote:

For a long time what I used for recording my grades was spreadsheets.  I
prefer a database, but I didn't always have access to that at school, and
all the computers there did support the spreadsheets.

Because of the way our administration works, different courses are broken
down into three  basic catatogies:  Projects and assignments, Exams, and
Participation.

I linked my attendance sheet into the participation, as well as
occasionally adding special participation assignments.

We now have a custom built database for attendance and grades.  If the
interface was designed better it wouldn't be bad.  My major  gripe now is
that I can't print out customized reports, I have to use the canned ones
and they frequently don't meet my needs as an instructor.  Also, I am more
limited on breaking down the structures on grade weights.  In a spreadsheet
it is easy to give a major assignment a heavier weight then the simple lab
that you held the students hand through.

I have to confess I have not looked at Norbert's gradebook since the first
references I saw came on the heels of our new database.

I guess my major gripe is why they hired programmers who didn't have any
experience in gradekeeping.  I could live with a gui interface, but this
one is downright unfriendly.  I've been in the computer field for more than
20 years and seen some ugly programs, but this is the worst I've ever seen.

Corky Stout
Instructor
Heald Colleges, Fresno CA

>Norbert Dejonge, who wrote Ggradebook
><http://ggradebook.sourceforge.net>, has expressed a concern that
>his software is getting virtually no downloads.  I confess that I
>don't have an answer for this, but I want to ask some questions
>about it.
>
>This is a stand-alone gradebook program for Linux.  How do the
>teachers on this list record student grades?  Do you use a computer
>for this purpose?  If so, do you use a stand-alone program or an
>integrated package that provides other functions (attendance,
>etc.)?  What might be the reason for the perceived lack of interest
>in this application?  Norbert is interested in making this program
>more desirable to teachers, but he's not sure just what features
>would do that.  Let's try to come up with those features.
>
>--
>Doug Loss                 God is a comedian playing
>Data Network Coordinator  to an audience too afraid
>Bloomsburg University     to laugh.
>dloss@bloomu.edu                Voltaire
>