Use of Electronic Gradebook in Esis

Use of Electronic Gradebook in eSIS

To be able to use the gradebook you must first set up your classes.

Setting up Preps

Go to Action (on menu bar) and select “My Preferences”.

Four tabs are available:

· My Options

· My Preps

· My Comments

· School Mark Scale (or My Mark Scale)

“My Options”

At the bottom left set failure threshold. If you look on the right side you can see “Other Settings” and delete any of those you don’t want.

This next step is important. There is a pull down menu on the left under Mark Calculation methods. You need to make a decision BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE. Make sure it says Total Points (Equation 2).

You also have a choice at this point to choose Posting Type. Report Cycle is the default. This choice will apply a weight to each 6 weeks so the 1st six weeks might by 50% of the grade and the second 6 weeks is the other 50% of the grade. If you wish the 1st six weeks to be a check point and will just continue adding more assignments then you want to choose Cumulative.

You can set up weighted grading. If you weight by type of assignment (test, homework, etc) then select “Use Assessment Type Weights”. You will be able to set up your percentages when you set up your Preps.

“My Preps”

Click on “My Preps” and a new window pops up. In this window you need to ADD a “Prep Description”. Click on ADD. Another window opens up. At the top you need to type in next to “Description of Prep”. Below that the window has four areas:
· Prep Classes
· Prep Categories
· Prep Classes report cycles (You will not need to do anything with this area)
· Prep Assessment Types (If you are weighting your assignments based on type (test, homework, etc) and you checked that box in the “My Options” tab, there will be a column where you can input your weighting.)

Prep Classes

Select classes that fit that prep by clicking on “Select Classes” which will then show you your list of classes. Put a check in front of the classes you want assigned to this prep. /

Prep Categories

These are like units or chapters. You MUST put something here even if it is “General”.

Prep Classes Report Cycles

This information will automatically fill in when you select classes for the prep. /

Prep Assessment Types

Click on add and select any from the list you think you might use then click “Okay”. You MUST have at least one assessment type or you will get an error message.

Exiting out of this window brings you back to the original “My Preps” screen. At this point you can edit any prep by clicking on it and selecting “Detail” at the bottom. If you wish to add another Prep then select ADD or if you wish to get rid of a Prep then select Del.

My Comments

This section allows you to create a bank of comments for use in Mark Entry.

My Mark Scale

This is where you set up your grading scale. If the class is pass/fail then set up ranges for those and leave all other areas blank. If the class is A-F then place ranges next to those letters and leave all other areas blank. If you wish to use the +/- letter grades then place ranges there. You may not have overlapping ranges. For example you cannot set up an A as 90-100 then set up A- as 90-92.

Exit out through the door and back to the main screen.

Using the Gradebook

Now you are ready to begin using the “Electronic Gradebook”. There are two buttons at the lower left. One is Spreadsheet and the other is Single. Click on Spreadsheet. It is located in the lower left area of the main window. A new screen opens showing your gradebook. There are several buttons along the bottom.

· Color Legend: used to highlight different information like extra credit

· Post Mark to Report Card

· Missing Mark

· Reporting Term Marks

· Enter Mark/Comments

· Condensed Mark Entry

· Add Assessment

· View/Change Assessment

I’ll go through them in the order you will need them to begin with.

Add Assessment

1st make sure you have a Reporting Period that is NOT all. Then click on this button. Begin typing in information. Below is a description of each of the items in this window.

Name

This is the name of your assignment /

Assign Date

Date you assign the work.

Short Name

It will choose the first 4-5 letters of the assignment name but you can type in your own.

Due Date

Date the assignment is due.

Score Type

The default is numeric type but you may choose Alpha (for a letter grade), pass/fail, or complete/incomplete.

Create Date

With this program you will be able to use assignments from year to year. The create date lets you see when you first entered it into the gradebook.

Score Max

This is the value of the assignment.

Extra Credit

Will not add points to total points but will add the points to the student’s total.

Assessment Type

If you set a default it will already be listed. If you wish to change the assessment type then click on pull down arrow and choose a different one.

Narrative

You can write a description of the assignment.

At this point you can attach this assignment to other classes. Click on “Ádd this Assessment to other Classes . . .” If you wish this assignment to be applied to all classes with this prep then click on “Copy Selected Information to All”.

If most of the classes will have this same assignment, do the Copy … then unselect those classes you don’t want to use this in. If you unclick one by mistake, then make sure the reporting term is filled in. Then click on one of the other dates and do the Copy again. Save. When you save two new buttons show up, Add and Copy. Add will allow you to create another assessment. Copy will copy all the information except the title and short name of the assignment. You can enter grades for this assignment by clicking on “Enter Grades/Comments”. If you want to enter scores for multiple assignments you may exit out the door, which will bring you back to your main gradebook where you can directly enter grades.

Enter Mark Comments

From the main gradebook screen click on Enter Mark Comments. If you click on this button in another screen the steps are basically the same with minor differences. The screen is blank if you entered from the main gradebook screen. There are several items at the very top. In order to have anything come up you must select an Assessment by clicking on the pull down arrow and selecting the assessment you wish to enter scores for. If you entered from one of the other screens it will already have the names of the class and the assignment you were working with. There are several headings:
· Pupil number
· Student Name
· Mark
· % / · Late
· Exempt
· Grade Comment

Pupil Number

This is assigned by the office. /

Student Name

Shows the students from the class you are working on.

Mark

The grade the student earned on the assignment. This is where you can type in the scores. /

Late/Exempt

These are boxes that you can check. Late will let you know the assignment did not come in on time. Exempt lets you keep the assignment from affecting the student’s grade. New students are auto-exempt from prior

Grade Comment

There are several buttons along the bottom.

· Condensed Mark Entry
· Missing Marks
· Add Assessment
· Copy First Mark Down / · Delete Mark
· Spreadsheet
· Copy First Comment Down

· Delete All Comments

Condensed Mark Entry

This takes you to another screen that only shows the student name and Mark column. You may enter scores from here.

Add Assessment

Takes you to the screen where you can create another assignment.

The other four items are just what their titles indicate

If you wish to make a student’s score exempt or mark it late you will have to go to “Enter Mark Comments”.

Printing Reports

There are several different reports you can type. Here are the ones you will probably use related to the gradebook. You can also access these same reports from the main eSIS screen under the button called Reports located under the spreadsheet button.

Spreadsheet: While looking at your spreadsheet, click on the printer icon in the lower right. A window pops up asking if you wish to display student names. If you wish to post grades for students to view without their names, do not click. It will then print the spreadsheet with student numbers only. Click on the printer icon in this window. It will send the report to Acrobat Reader. It however doesn’t always print the columns in the order you might wish.

Missing Assignments: From the spreadsheet screen, click on Action in the menu bar and select reports. Then select Missing Assignments. A window pops up with information to fill in. Select one or all of your class to print reports for by clicking on “Multiple” next to “Select Classes”. Click on a class you wish (which highlights it in blue) and click the add button. Continue for each class you want to print the reports for. If you leave Assignment dates out it will do so for all the assignments. Next you need to select students. Click on the first student to highlight he/she in blue then click add until all the students you wish to print reports for have been added. If you leave sort order as class, they should sort by class. Click on the printer icon to have it set up the report in Acrobat Reader.

Note: Missing Assignments only works for blanks and only if blanks count as zero (which you made a decision in under “My Preferences” and the “Options” tab. If the assignment is Exempted it will not be included and zeros are not missing since they are a scores.

Progress Reports: While looking at the spreadsheet view go to the menu bar and choose “Action” then “Reports”. A window like the Missing Assignments window pops up. Select the class you wish to print reports for. Select Multiple for students and click and add each of the students you wish reports for. Click on anything else you wish to include. Again you don’t have to do anything with assignment date if you want all of the assignments. If you wish to print absences you do need to put in the starting and ending dates. You can type a short note to the parents. Then click on the printer icon. Then print out of Acrobat Reader. Note that the default printing direction is landscape. Change to portrait if you wish more to fit on a page.

Lynda Sanders

Sunset Middle School

Lynda Sanders Page 5 8/29/2004