Gradebook features

[Tim Wilson <wilson@chemsun.chem.umn.edu>]

Hi everyone,

Please excuse the large forwarded message, but I thought this was probably
the easiest way to reintroduce new subscribers to the brief discussion
that took place last December. The comments below are from Eric Sandeen
with some additions from me. We were discussing features that we felt
would necessary in a good electronic gradebook progam.

I'd be happy to hear comments from others on the list about this topic. I
realize that many of the developers are not themselves teachers. Good
communication will be crucial to developing a gradebook program that will
finally accomplish "world domination." :-)

I will put together an html version of what results over the next few
days. I've got a web server, but our sys admin is having DNS trouble so
it's not always reachable. Doug, perhaps SEUL could host it.

Later,
Tim

--
Timothy D. Wilson			"A little song, a little dance,
University of MN, chem. dept.		a little seltzer down your 
wilson@chem.umn.edu			pants."   -Chuckles the Clown
Phone: (612) 625-9828                       as eulogized by Ted Baxter

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 09:41:11 -0600 (CST)
From: Tim Wilson <wilson@chemsun.chem.umn.edu>
Reply-To: seul-edu@seul.org
To: seul-edu@seul.org
Subject: Re: Gradebook definition - first try

On Thu, 10 Dec 1998, Eric Sandeen wrote:

> Here's my first shot at a definition for the gradebook app.

This is something I've been thinking about too. You beat me to it. :-) I'd
like to add a few ideas of my own.

>   1.2.3 Student data
>    The following data should be stored for each student:  Name, ID#,
> parents'
>    names, home address, home phone, email address, parents' email
> address.
>    It would probably be beneficial to have double fields for parents in
> the
>    event that they are separated?   Space for notes.
> 
>   1.2.4 Assignment data
>    The following data should be stored for each assignment:  Assignment
> name,
>    assignment date, assignment description, assignment category
> (homework,
>    test, etc.), perfect score, assignment weight.

This is actually an important UI issue. Here's how I've envisioned
organizing student and assignment info:

I'll describe my personal situation to provide some context. I teach 5
classes per day, 2 physics and 3 physical science (essentially a 9th
intro. to chemistry). Our students are rescheduled at semester time which
results in the need to reorganize my gradebook. I try to syncronize the
assignments for my courses, but it's not always possible. The point is
that it should be simple to move students between sections and put
different assignments in different sections. I'll be more specific and
define some terms.

Course -- a particular subject (e.g., physics)
Section -- a particular group of students in a course (e.g, 4th period
physics, 9th hour physical science, etc.)

Let's say our gradebook allows that teacher to define a "course" and a
list of students that are enrolled in that course. Then, the teacher would
define the "sections" that comprise the course. The gradebook could
present a screen with the list of students enrolled in a particular course
down the side, and a series of columns with radio buttons for each section
of that course. The teacher would then simply go down the list, selecting
a section for each student in the course. Moving a student to a different
section would be as simple as clicking on a different radio button (since
a student can only be enrolled in one physics section at a time). Clunky
ascii diagram follows:

   Student     | Per1 | Per2 |
==============================
Raymond, Eric  | ( )  | (*)  |
Stallman, R.   | (*)  | ( )  |
Torvalds, Linus| (*)  | ( )  |

A similar model could be employed for assignments. Assignment should be
made in a course, not a section. The diagram above would be modified to
show assignments in the left column. Assignments would be placed in
specific sections using the radio buttons. This is not without problems,
however, because it's possible that a student would change sections in the
middle of a term and the assignments for the two sections may not be in
sync. Some way of working out those conflicts would be necessary.

Here's a possible solution. Let's say that two physics sections have
identical assignment lists except for one extra quiz in Per. 2 physics. A
student moving into per. 2 from the other section would automatically have
that assignment "excused," meaning that it would not factor into her
grade. A student moving from Per. 2 would have the quiz removed from his
record.

>   1.2.5 Grade data

This is a small point, but I would like to have some way to indicate that
a particular assignment was submitted late. Parents often want to know if
their kids are turning their work in on time, and it would be nice to have
a way to see that in a grade report.

>   1.3.2 Data reuse
>    Allow assignments and/or students to be dragged (or cut and pasted)
> from one
>    class to another.  Default for assignments would be "copy" and for
> students
>    would be "move."  Allow new classes to be created with old classes as
>    "templates" either for assignments or for student rosters.

The last statement here is especially interesting. Creating a new course
from scratch can be a pain. I'd love to be able to create the basic
features using some sort of template.

>   1.4.2 Report Types - Reporting Medium
>    Allow reports to be printed, emailed, or exported to XML or HTML.

We need a way to create customized reports. For example, we just finished
mid-quarters at my school. All students who are currently getting a D or
lower get a report mailed home from the school. I would like to create a
"mid-quarter" report that would automatically generate a report in a
particular format for those students getting <= a D in all of my current
courses. The report, once created, could be saved for later use. This
would be a huge time saver. Also, some sort of batch printing is a must. I
shouldn't have to open each file, generate, and print the mid-quarter
reports one at a time. Instead, I could simply choose for which courses
(or sections) I'd like to create a given report and have the computer do
all of the work.