Campuscruiser Custom Edition

CampusCruiser Custom Edition

Faculty Tools Guide

Gradebook & Assignments

Document Version 4.3

January 2006

Timecruiser Computing Corporation CampusCruiser Custom Edition

Faculty Tools Guide – Gradebook & Assignments This copy printed on 2006-Mar-16

CampusCruiser Custom Edition – Faculty Tools Guide – Gradebook & Assignments

Use of, copying, modifications to, and distribution of this software and its documentation without Timecruiser Computing Corporation’s written permission can result in the violation of U.S. Copyright and Patent laws. Violators will be prosecuted to the highest extent of the applicable laws.

TCC makes no representations or warranties about the suitability of the software, expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

Timecruiser Computing Corporation

9 Law Drive

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel. (973) 244-7856

Fax. (973) 244-7859

9 Law Drive, 2nd Floor Fairfield, NJ 07004

Phone: 973.244.7856 Fax: 973.277.7859 http://www.timecruiser.com

Timecruiser Computing Corporation CampusCruiser Custom Edition

Faculty Tools Guide – Gradebook & Assignments This copy printed on 2006-Mar-16

Revision Record

V. / Date / Details
1.0 / 10/30 / Initial version, dist. for early feedback
1.1 / 11/03-11/07 / First draft
1.2 / 11/10 / Revised Troubleshooting; added “Additional Customizing for Welcome Channel;” adding images for Departments; corrections to Edit Calendar; additional image for Journals
1.3 / 11/13 / Adding text about Edit Calendar, Set as Favorite, first public distribution for preliminary feedback
1.4 / 11/17 / E-mail Members for Department; correction to customizing class Welcome page; correction to cross reference.
1.5 / 11/21 / Import From Class
1.6 / 11/26 / Member detail page added
1.7 / 12/03 / Picture for customizing Mini-Calendar channel
1.8 / 12/04 / Minor edits to creating classes, changes to searching for classes
1.9 / 12/09 / Addition of Importing Files; addition of Retrieving Submissions; addition of Deleting an Assignment
1.10 / 12/30 / Minor edits
1.11 / 1/5/04 / “Is Favorites” for Calendar Manager now “Publish to Members”
1.12 / 1/16/04 / Minor correction for p2
1.13 / 2004-Apr-22 / Class Announcements use the HTML editor; previous instructions referred reader to Community Tools – Host guide for instructions, but other community Announcements don’t employ HTML editor. Pgs81-83 are new.
2.0 / 2004-May-06 / Changes for 3.2: Final Grades workflow
2.1 / 2004-Aug-13 / Revised method of using Edit Syllabus (pp80-84); revised info for using Import From Class (p76-77)
2.2 / 2004-Sep-17 / Notes about Coursework Due Dates appearing on default Class Calendar (p35 & 41)
2.3 / 2004-Oct-18 / Extra Credit details in GB (pp31-32, 107)
2.4 / 2004-Oct-26 / New image on p10 under "Customizing Individual Channels", "Class Welcome Channel" now "Class Info channel", and can edit label of "Teaching Assistant" (pp12-13); New "Department Information" channel updates (p98); new images in Import From Class + new data for Bookmarks & Message Boards (pp76-84); new information for Journals (pp66-75); new image for My Classes pg (pg2)
2.5 / 2004-Nov-10 / New custom grade scheme (p25-26); revised "Retrieving Coursework Submissions from Students" + "Notifying Students about Submissions" (49-50)
3.0 / 2004-Nov-30 / Break up of document; also, new "Settings" tab of Admin side in Export Gradebook now may alter workflow for Faculty using Final Grades
3.1 / 2005-Jan-04 / Discussion of Drop Worst (new sections 12.3, 12.4, and 12.5), plus new images (p3-1); faculty can delete files that have been submitted by students, individually OR with "Clear Checked Submissions" (reprint section 9)
3.2 / 2005-Feb-01 / Changes to default coursework page ("Manage Coursework")
3.3 / 2005-May-24 / Copyright text on all pages
4.0 / 2005-Aug-26 / “Coursework” is now “Assignments” everywhere + restructuring of document: reprint entire guide
4.1 / 2005-Nov-1 / Note about dropped members' grades (inserted new 8.1 section); changes to how the "From My Computer" and "From MyFiles" tabs are displayed (10.1) ; change to how My Classes channel appears w/Final Grades alert for students (pg 9-3); change to how My Classes channel appears w/New Submission alert for faculty (section 7.1) Minor typos corrected.
4.2 / 2005-Nov-13 / "Show Dropped Members" button in Gradebook - note added on p2-3, and section 8.1 recreated.
4.3 / 2006-Jan-1 / Final Grades: the Academics Manager > Export Final Grades feature has been changed so that the "Save & Publish" button may be available for only a limited time (new section 9.1.2, other minor adjustments throughout section 9); updated information on Student Statistics > Student Grades Page (8.10.3); new section, 8.10.4 - written to student's POV for understanding the Summary table seen in "My Grades" pg

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 1-1

2. Overview 2-1

2.1. Assignment Settings Feature 2-1

2.1.1 Assignment Settings: Campus Defaults 2-1

2.2. Assignment Feature 2-2

2.3. Gradebook Feature 2-3

3. Assignment Settings: Set Grade Schemes 3-1

3.1. Make a Percentage Grade Scheme 3-3

3.2. Make a Point Grade Scheme 3-4

3.3. Make a Pass-Fail Grade Scheme 3-5

3.4. Make a Custom Grade Scheme 3-6

3.5. Editing a Scheme 3-8

3.6. Deleting a Scheme 3-8

3.7. Setting an Overall Grade Scheme 3-8

3.7.1 A Note about the “Grades” column: 3-9

4. Assignment Settings: Set Submission Defaults 4-1

4.1. "What are Submission Settings?" 4-1

4.2. "What happens if I don't ever set Submission Settings?" 4-1

4.3. "I want ALL assignments to have Submission Settings!" 4-1

4.3.1 Editing Default Submission Settings 4-3

4.3.2 Editing the Submission Settings for a Single Assignment 4-3

5. Assignment Settings: Make Assignment Categories 5-1

5.1. Editing a Category 5-3

5.2. Deleting a Category 5-3

6. The Assignments Feature 6-1

6.1. Accessing the Assignments Tool 6-1

6.2. Creating a Single Assignment 6-3

6.2.1 Basic Information 6-4

6.2.2 Additional Data 6-6

6.3. Viewing Details of an Assignment 6-7

6.4. Assignment Wizard: Create Items in Bulk 6-8

6.4.1 Prepare the Assignment Wizard 6-8

6.4.2 Finalize Items with the Assignment Wizard 6-9

6.5. Viewing Your Assignments with Filters 6-11

6.6. Changing the Assignments Sort Order 6-11

6.7. Edit Details of Assignments 6-12

6.7.1 Edit Basic Info of Multiple Assignments 6-13

6.7.2 Edit Full Details of One Assignment 6-13

6.8. Edit Submission Settings of an Assignment 6-14

6.9. Deleting Assignments 6-14

6.9.1 Deleting Assignments in Bulk 6-14

6.9.2 Deleting an Assignments Individually 6-15

7. Assignments: Retrieving Assignment Submissions 7-1

7.1. Submissions Received 7-1

7.2. Retrieving Assignment Submissions from Students 7-1

7.2.1 Using Clear Checked Submissions to Delete a Student's Files 7-3

7.3. Sending Students Reminders 7-3

8. The Gradebook Feature 8-1

8.1. Grades of Dropped Students 8-2

8.2. Viewing Your Gradebook with Filters 8-2

8.3. Your Style of Grading 8-3

8.4. Grading in Spreadsheet Mode 8-3

8.5. Grading in Item Mode 8-5

8.6. Grading in Student Mode 8-7

8.7. Grading in Enter a Grade Mode 8-9

8.8. Publishing / Unpublishing Grades 8-11

8.8.1 Publishing / Unpublishing Grades for One Item 8-11

8.8.2 Publishing / Unpublishing Grades for Multiple Items 8-12

8.9. Exporting Grades 8-12

8.10. Student Statistics 8-13

8.10.1 Statistics 8-13

8.10.2 Distribution Chart 8-13

8.10.3 Student Grade Table 8-14

8.10.4 What Your Students See 8-15

8.10.4.1 Understanding Columns 8-15

8.10.4.2 Do the Math 8-15

9. Final Grades 9-1

9.1. Final Grades Workflow 9-2

9.1.1 Final Grades Workflow - Modified 9-5

9.1.2 Final Grades Workflow - Publishing Time Expired 9-5

9.2. Save (and Edit) Final Grades 9-6

9.3. Save & Publish Final Grades 9-6

10. Appendix 10-1

10.1. Add an Attachment to Your Assignment 10-1

10.2. Troubleshooting Your Grades 10-3

10.3. Why do 2 students have the same pts, but different grades? 10-4

10.4. A student got less points, but a better grade. How? 10-7

10.5. When there is "0.0/5.0" and "0.0/20.0," which gets dropped first? 10-9

Timecruiser Computing Corporation CampusCruiser Custom Edition

Faculty Tools Guide – Gradebook & Assignments This copy printed on 2006-Mar-16

1. Introduction

This is the Faculty Tools Guide for Gradebook & Assignments. Only the following Faculty Tools are discussed in this document:

· Assignments

· Gradebook

Please see the Faculty Tools Guide: Basic Features document for the remaining features:

· Journals

· Customize Welcome

· Edit Syllabus

· Edit Members

· Import From Class

· Editing Class Calendars

Any tools that are available to assistants are available to Faculty. Thus, it is your responsibility to share pertinent knowledge about those tools to your assistants.

This guide should not be distributed to class members. Instead, the Academic Tools Guide for Student Members is available, where the following topics are covered:

· Syllabus

· My Assignments (how students view assignments you post)

· My Grades (how students retrieve grades you publish)

· My Journal (how students use Journals to communicate with you)

1-1

Timecruiser Computing Corporation CampusCruiser Custom Edition

Faculty Tools Guide – Gradebook & Assignments This copy printed on 2006-Mar-16

2. Overview

There are three main tools you’ll use when dealing with assignments and grades:

· The Assignment Settings feature

· The Assignment feature

· The Gradebook feature

Note:

In some of these features, you may find settings that have been created at a default level by your administrators.

2.1. Assignment Settings Feature

The Assignment Settings feature is where you do your preliminary set-up work, such as:

· Set up Grade Schemes

“A score of 92.1 should be an ‘A’” or “A score of 150 points out of 200 should be a ‘B+’”

· Set up Assignment Categories

“There are 10 quizzes, only the top 9 should count, and the summation of all 9 quizzes is equal to only 25% of the overall grade.”)

· Set up Default Submission Settings

“For all assignments I set up, I want to grant ONLY 2 chances to students to submit files, AND I want all opportunity to submit work to close 1 day after the assignment’s due date.”

You can’t place an assignment as part of a category until you’ve created categories.

AND

You can’t have a grade scheme employed when you grade an assignment until you’ve created grade schemes first.

It’s recommended that you take time to set up these settings, BEFORE jumping into creating assignments and grading right away!

/ When you create an assignment, you are asked if any specific grading scheme should be associated to it. You are also asked if the assignment belongs to any special category. Therefore, you may find it easier to create your desired grading schemes and your assignment categories before creating any gradable assignments.

2.1.1 Assignment Settings: Campus Defaults

At your institution, your administrators may have set up default Grade Schemes and default Submission Settings. Perhaps when it comes to overall grades for the class, no "+" or "-" letter grades are desired. If either of these settings have been set a default campus level, you will find that they are automatically available in the Grade Scheme / Default Submission Settings feature:

· Any campus-default Submission Settings will be seen when first accessing the Submission Settings link from the Assignment Settings feature. You'll be able to change them to set them to your preference; you'll also be able to reset them back to the campus-default.

· Any campus-default Grade Schemes will be seen as the top-most displayed schemes; it is not able to be deleted. There will also be a Copy Scheme button. Be sure to pay attention to any descriptions to these schemes, as they may contain instructions for you.

2.2. Assignment Feature

The Assignments feature is how you create and track any assignments, tests, exams, or any gradable items in your class. Whenever you create a gradable item with the Assignments tool, your Gradebook tool automatically knows to track that same item for the sake of grades; hence, the two features are closely tied.

You do the following with the Assignments tool:

· Create an assignment that is gradable

· Create an assignment that does not get graded

· Create an item like an exam / test / quiz that is gradable, but not an assignment

· Create a series of recurring assignments, like weekly essays or daily quizzes

· Create a series of recurring items that are gradable but not assignments (like class attendance or participation)

· Retrieve any files from students who have been uploaded files to your assignments as submissions

Q: I want attendance to be gradable, but my class meets a total of 45 times. Do I have to create 45 individual assignments?

A: No, let the Assignments Wizard do it for you. You can enter basic information about the item, and the Wizard will generate as many iterations of the item as you need. You are also given a chance to edit each iteration before they are committed to your Assignments tool.

2.3. Gradebook Feature

The Gradebook feature is versatile enough to handle your individual grading schemes; perhaps you grade quizzes differently from tests, or you wish to grade attendance of each session with a pass or fail system instead of a percentage system.

You can set up as many schemes as desired, assigning your own point values or percentage scales to correspond to letter grades. The Gradebook tool also accommodates special rules, such as dropping lowest / keeping highest grades.

Q: On each day of my class, there is a pop-quiz. But I only want these quizzes to be worth 10% of the over-all grade. Does Gradebook take care of that?

A: You want to assign a weight of 10% to the summation of your pop-quizzes. Weights are not assigned in the Gradebook tool, but in the Assignment Settings using the Assignment Categories link.