FAWEB+grade+book+tips

4/1/09 Blackbaud/Faweb Gradebook Session led by Erika Drezner

Erika Drezner walked several participants through setting up a grade book. In particular, we covered establishing categories and weights for assignments, setting up assignments themselves, entering grades, and printing reports. Erika would be happy to help anyone with any aspect of the grade book, though she’s still figuring it out herself.

Some tips that came up in the meeting: Things get very complicated if you’re using more than one of these weight systems at the same time (can be done—e.g., quizzes count 25% of the grade, but this quiz is worth twice as much as that quiz).
 * You can only enter grades or otherwise set up the grade book while at school, which requires planning ahead. Eventually we should be able to get access from home.
 * There are a number of different controls that determine which screen you’re on. If your screen doesn’t look right, make sure that you’re in “grade book,” that you’ve selected the right “marking column,” and that you’re in the right class.
 * If you hit the “customize” button while you’re in your grade book, you can choose which assignments and averages you want to be visible when you view your grades.
 * Hit save frequently. The program sometimes neglects to remind you, and you can lose data.
 * If you create a category or assignment and want to delete it, pull the arrow all the way to the left and click in the box to the left of the row. Then the “delete” button will become operative and you can choose it.
 * There are at least three different ways to give different assignments different weights:
 * you can choose to use “total number of points” in the category screen and then assign different point values on the assignments screen.
 * you can choose “percentages” and then give different categories different factors.
 * you can choose “percentages,” create a single category and call it something like “all work,” and then give the assignments different factors when you’re on your assignments screen.
 * We’re not sure how best to use the grade book for daily checks, or simply to mark that a student has done an assignment. Some of us still use paper on a clipboard for that kind of checking. Others of us make intermediate notes using “comments” in the grade book—that is, if a student doesn’t hand something in, you can note to yourself, “So far, 10 days late” or whatever.