Gradebook
Gradebook Help for Staff
Gradebook Help
- Gradebook Overview
- Overview Screen
- Mark Entry
- Grade Entry
- Grade Distribution
- Scaling
- Grade Recommendation (or Recommending Grades)
- Class List
- Upload/Export
- Student view
- Merged Sites
- Roles & Permissions
To run the online demonstrations you will need Flash Player for Windows XP this can be found at the DIT link below. Look for the sub-heading 'Plugins, Add-Ons and Miscellaneous' about half way down the page.
Gradebook Overview
Context
Gradebook is a mandatory tool for Subject Coordinators to manage student marks and grades for a subject. It provides the ability to enter marks, export marks, scale marks, import marks, override grades, view the grade distribution, sign-off grades ready for transferring to the Student Administration system, Banner.
Students can also see their raw marks for an assessment item once the assessment item has been ‘released’ to students.
The following diagram provides an overview of the Gradebook system:
Gradebook will be automatically provisioned in your site 3 days before start of session.
If the Gradebook tool is required early than the automatic scheduled provisioning, for example for pre-session residential schools, the subject coordinator can make the Gradebook tool visible at any time after the subject site has been created. Click on ‘Site Info’ in the left hade menu, then click on ‘Edit Tools’ in the top menu bar. For the ‘Gradebook’ tool, click on the box ‘Avail to All’, press Continue, then press Finish.
Gradebook obtains its assessment items for the subject from the Assessment items defined in the Subject Outline. Only published Subject Outlines are used.
Gradebook obtains the student list from the Student Administration system, Banner.
Key Features
- Add, view, edit marks and grades
- Auto-calculating of subject grades, with the ability to override a grade;
- Ability to release marks(and comments) for assessments items to students;
- Ability to import assignment marks from the spreadsheet
- Ability to export the class list (including any entered marks and grades) into a spreadsheet(Microsoft excel) or CSV format;
- Ability to scale the cumulative mark in the spreadsheet;
Things to consider
Subject Coordinators can view information in the Gradebook in different ways, including:
- a general Overview for each subject,
- Mark Entry screen,
- Class List,
- Grade Override screen,
- Grade Distribution,
- Grade Recommendation,
- Import/Export options.
Gradebook Overview Screen
Click on this link for an online demonstration of the Overview Screen.
- The Subject Offering Overview screen contains links to entering a mark or overriding a grade
- To access Mark Entry, you click on the Assessment Item you wish to add a mark for. The Mark Entry screen will be displayed
- To override a grade, you click on the ‘Subject Grade’ link . The Grade Entry screen will be displayed.
- A Gradebook spreadsheet is provided for those who wish to work in a spreadsheets for tracking their marks. Simply click on the ‘Export Excel’ button on the Class List,Mark Entry or Grade Override screen to obtain a copy of the Gradebook Spreadsheet pre-populated with your class list and any marks already added in Gradebook
- Subject Coordinators can import, export and scale grades. For more information instructions, see Import/Upload
- Optional assignments are signified by *** displayed on the screen
- Optional assignments can influence the grading in multiple ways.
- They can count towards the cumulative mark and grade and decrease the maximum value of the test exam;
- Students can also choose between two optional assignments, of which one can count towards their cumulative mark and grade; failing to complete both of these assignments effects the cumulative mark and grade.
Gradebook Mark Entry
Click on this link for an online demonstration of the Mark Entry.
In the menubar of the relevant subject site, click Gradebook, and then click on the Overview screen. In the Overview screen, click on the assessment item for which you want to enter marks.
- This screen allows you to add, edit and delete marks
- A viewable audit log is maintained for each update
- An assessment can have two marking schemes (as defined by CSU Assessment Regulations):
- Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (SY/US);
- Numeric
- Basic validation occurs on mark entry. This includes checking the type of mark entered, and the maximum value.
- After the marks have been entered for the assessment item, click 'Save' to store the data, or 'Cancel' the leave the screen without saving the data.
- To release the marks to students, tick the checkbox labeled 'Release assessment marks to students'
- Comments can be added against the mark. Students WILL SEE these comments after marks have been release to students
- A Gradebook spreadsheet is provided for those who wish to work in a spreadsheets for managing their marks. Simply click on the ‘Export Excel’ button on the Class List or Mark Entry screen to obtain a copy of the Gradebook Spreadsheet pre-populated with your class list and any marks already added. Refer to the Class List and Export for more details about the spreadsheet
- Student grades are automatically calculated as marks are added for each assessment item
- Optional assessment items don't necessarily contribute to the cumulative mark and hence the grade. Optional assessment items can effect the maximum value of other assessments.
- Note: After grades have been recommended and sent to the Student Administration system (Banner), the marks are frozen and cannot be updated.
Gradebook Grade Entry
Click on this link for an online demonstration of the Grade Entry.
In the menubar of the relevant subject site, click Gradebook. In the Overview screen, click on 'Subject Grade'. This displays the Grade Entry screen.
- A student’s grade is calculated automatically based on the cumulative mark.
The grade is automatically updated each time an mark is added for an assessment item. Therefore before any assessment items are added, the calculated grade is set to FW. The calculated grade will not necessarily be useful until all assessment items are added for a student. - The Subject Coordinator may wish to override a grade based on academic judgement.
- In the Override Grade column,you can select a new Grade that overrides the scaled calculated grade.
- The following grades are valid:
- For the Normal grading scale: HD, DI, CR, PS, FL, FW, AA, AE, AW, GP, IP, TA, SX
- For Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory grading scale: SY, US, AA, AE, AW, GP, IP, TA, SX
- Click on 'Save' to save the changes or 'Cancel' the leave the screen without saving the changes.
- A comment can be added next to the grade. This comment is NOT visible to students.
- The Scaled Calculated Grade is calculated automatically based on the cumulative scaled mark. This value is only updated through the spreadsheet import function.
Gradebook Grade Distribution
Click on this link for an online demonstration of the Grade Distribution.
In the menubar of the relevant subject site, click Gradebook. To access the Grade Distribution View, click on Grade Distribution. This screen gives you an overview of how the grades are distributed amongst the students.
- The Grade Distribution uses the following grade hierarchy:
- The override grade if an override grade exists
- If there is no override grade the scaled calculated grade will be used. Note: the scaled calculated grade will always equal the calculated grade if no scaling has occurred.
- The system calculates the number and percentage of students for each grade type (e.g. PS, CR, etc)
The following data is shown on the screen:
- Grade (Passing Grades,Failing Grades, Other Grades)
- Scale (the scale upon which the grades are calculated)
- Count (the number of grades in this sale)
- Percentage (the count asa percentage of the total grades)
- Exception. Exceptions are flagged according to the CSU Regulations on Principles of Assessment. If an exception is flagged, the distribution of student grades may need to be reviewed and scaling may need to occur. Two exceptions are catered for in Gradebook:
- Passing Grades; an exception is flagged when the number of students who pass does not decrease from PS through to HD as per 2.1 in G1.2 Principles of Assessment
- Failing Grades; an exception is flagged when the number of students who pass the subject (PS to HD) is fewer than those who failed (FL to FW).
Scaling
Scaling is not being built into Gradebook, so a spreadsheet(called the Gradebook spreadsheet) has been developed to provide staff with a simple method of scaling.
- The spreadsheet uses “Piecewise Linear Interpolation” (otherwise known as “scaling between the boundaries”) for the scaling formula. However you can use your own method if you prefer.
- The ‘scaling’ tab in the spreadsheet gives a count of each grade, and the grade range parameters.
- AA/AE grades will be entered in the grade override area, and thus are not part of the scaling range.
The expected method of scaling is:
- Complete all mark entry
- If necessary, synchronise Gradebook and the Gradebook spreadsheet (by performing the necessary import/ export).
- Generate grade distribution report in Gradebook or by the faculty prescribed method
- Sort Master tab in the Gradebook spreadsheet in descending total mark order
- Click on a cell on the master tab
- Click on the Data tab in the menu bar
- Click on Sort
- Click on “my data has headers”
- Sort by “Cumulative Mark / 100, with the order from “largest to smallest”
- Click on OK
- Determine if scaling is required (check faculty criteria for this)
- Apply academic judgement to determine where the grade boundaries should be:
- Examine the descending list of total marks
- Determine where the grade boundaries are (either natural breaks, faculty criteria, etc)
- Go to the Scaling tab in the Gradebook spreadsheet & enter the lower ranges of each grade into the Scaling tab. This will automatically adjust the upper boundaries for you, and
- Spreadsheet calculates a new scaled mark total based on the boundary values in the scaling tab & the cumulative raw marks.
- Import marks/grades into Gradebook, or provide spreadsheet to your assessment processes
These steps can be repeated as often as necessary.
How the Scaling information will work with Gradebook
- Scaled cumulative marks for a subject site (on the master tab in the Gradebook spreadsheet) are imported into Gradebook but the scaling information that you used (on scaling tab) will not be imported into Gradebook
- The scaled calculated grade is based on this scaled cumulative marks
- If an override grade exists, then this will be the determined grade for the student
- If re-export after scaling, it will reset the sheet to pre-scaling with the standard piecewise interpolation formula. You will need to keep the original sheet in which scaling was performed
- As Gradebook has no scaling functionality, the scaled cumulative marks will be only be able to be modified via the spreadsheet and the import function. ie. Scaled Cumulative Mark will be protected from modification within Gradebook.
Gradebook Grade Recommendation
Click on this link for an online demonstration of the Grade Recommendation.
In the menubar of the relevant subject site, click Gradebook. To access the Grade Recommendation View, click on Grade Recommendation.
- Grade Recommendation is performed at the end of the teaching session.
- This process ensures that the Subject Coordinator, Assessment Consultant and Head of School (or delegate) has recommended and reviewed the grades and certified that the grades are ready for the School Assessment Committee.
- This screen displays who has performed which action and when this occurred.
- Student Administration will trigger the Grade Transfer from Gradebook to Banner when required (the agreed Grade Transfer date for the session). This is triggered from within the Student Administration system, Banner
- If the Head of School checkbox is not ticked for the cohort and the Grade Transfer run is triggered by Student Administration, a TA grade will be transferred for all students in the subject. The original calculated grades will remain but the subject cohort will be frozen preventing further updates to grades and marks.
Three steps are required to approve:
- The Subject Coordinator can recommend the grades by ticking the first box
- The Subject Coordinator/Assessment Consultant can QA the grades by ticking the second box
- The Grade Sign Off (GSO)can recommend the grades by ticking the third box. The GSO can be the Head of School or delegate
- Click on 'Save' to save the changes made.
Note:
- After grades have been certified by the Head of School (or delegate) the marks and grades are frozen and cannot be updated. If you have approved these grades accidentally,a Service Desk job will need to be lodged to ‘un-freeze’ the marks and grades. The subject site will need to be quoted e.g. “HLT508_200970_W_D”. The Service Desk can only ‘un-freeze’ the marks and grades if they have not already been sent to Banner.
- If the Grade Transfer job is run and the grades have not been certified, then the subject site is still frozen, and a TA grade sent to Banner.
Gradebook Class List and Export
Click on this link for an online demonstration of the Class List.
In the menubar of the relevant subject site, click Gradebook, and then click on the Class List screen. The Class List will be displayed.
This screen provides a summary of the marks for each assessment item for each student, and the calculated grade. You also have the ability to save the contents to a spreadsheet or a CSV file
The Gradebook class list is sourced from the subject enrolments in Banner. Any changes to a student’s enrolment in Banner will be reflected in Gradebook overnight.
| Data Item | How derived |
|---|---|
| cumulative mark | automatically calculated as the sum of the individual assessment marks |
| calculated grade | automatically calculated based on the cumulative mark At the beginning of session, when no marks have been entered, the automatic grade calculation will be FW for normal grading scale, and US for SY/US grading scale |
| scaled cumulative mark | will be equal to the cumulative mark unless scaling has been conducted in the Gradebook spreadsheet. If scaling has been undertaken in the Gradebook spreadsheet the scaled cumulative mark may be different to the cumulative mark. |
| scaled calculated grade | will be equal to the calculated grade unless scaling has been conducted in the Gradebook spreadsheet. If scaling has been undertaken in the Gradebook spreadsheet the scaled calculated grade may be different to the calculated grade |
| override grade | A grade can be overwritten from within either the Gradebook tool or the Gradebook spreadsheet |
- When attributing a final grade for a student , the hierarchy of grades is as follows:
- The override grade will be the final grade if an override grade exists
- If there is no override grade then scaled calculated grade will be the final grade. Note: the scaled calculated grade will always equal the calculated grade if no scaling has occurred.
- The class list can be exported in either a CSV or Excel format by clicking the appropriate button. You can open or save the file as per the standard Windows prompts.
The Gradebook Spreadsheet
The Gradebook spreadsheet has been designed to work with Interact Gradebook. The Subject Coordinator can export a formatted class-list of marks from the Gradebook tool.
It is recommended that you export your class list after Census.
The system exports the following data onto a tab called Master:
- student id (including A & B student-ids)
- student name
- for each assessment item
- mark
- comment for each mark
- cumulative mark
- calculated grade
- scaled cumulative mark
- scaled calculated grade
- override grade
- grade comment
- course record number (crn)
- subject code
- campus
- mode
- course code
- site information
- faculty & teaching school
The system exports the following data onto a tab called scaling if the grading scale of the subject is “Normal”
- Grade
- Current Lower Boundary
- Current Upper Boundary
- Current Grade Count
- Current Grade Percentage
- Exception Flag
- New Lower Boundary
- New Upper Boundary
- New Count
- New Percentage
- New Exception Flag
Users may sort the spreadsheet in the following orders:
- Subject Coordinators will require list in an ascending student name, ascending student-id order. This will be the default order of exported data
- Assessment Committees will require student list sorted by cohorts, then in descending grade & total mark order
- Student Administration will require the list in ascending course record number (crn) order followed by student surname order.
Some other things to consider when using the spreadsheet are:
- If the Subject Coordinator specifies the same name as an existing file name, then the existing file is overwritten with the new information.
- There is no defined CSU scaling methodology. The default scaling formula used in the spreadsheet will be “piece-wise linear interpolation” (otherwise known as“scaling between the boundaries”). For every export, the spreadsheet formula will be reset. There is no mechanism to store scaling parameters.
- A null mark means that no mark has been entered, and this is not included in the final mark calculation.
- Exporting the class list into Excel may be required in the following instances:
- Scaling marks and grades
- Records to be sorted in descending total mark order
- When presenting marks/grades to the School or Faculty Assessment Committee.
- Records to be sorted in descending grade, descending total mark order
- For collating marks from external markers without access to Gradebook, or where there is a large cultural attachment to Excel. The default sort order is ascending student name, ascending student-id.
- Creating grade sheets for Student Administration
- Records to be sorted in ascending crn, ascending student name order
Upload / Import
Click on this link for an online demonstration of Upload/Import.
In the menubar of the relevant subject site, click Gradebook. To access the Upload/ Import, click on Upload/ Import.
The Subject Coordinator can import marks and grades from the Gradebook spreadsheet. The spreadsheet has to be in the correct format for Gradebook otherwise you will receive import validation errors.
Note: The Gradebook spreadsheet can be created by exporting from the Class List screen.
What will Gradebook check when Importing the Data?
- The spreadsheet must have a “Master” tab containing the data in the correct order.
- The correct order of spreadsheet columns is:
- Student-id, student name, mark (s) & comment (s) for each assessment item in the Subject Outline, Cumulative Marks, Calculated Grade, Scaled Cumulative Marks, Scaled Calculated Grade, Override Grade, Grade Comment, crn
- Any of the columns after this are informational and are ignored (ie. subject code, campus, mode, course code, site code, FAC/Teaching School)
- The Course Record Number (crn) will be used to validate that you are loading the spreadsheet that matches the subject site.
- The import will validate the following values:
- Mark values: must be numeric or SY/US marking schema and must not exceed maximum value for assessment item
- Grade values: the grade is valid for that subject.
- Student-id: student id must exist in Gradebook.
- If the student id is not active or inactive in Gradebook, then the import will report an error (vs warning)
- If a student has withdrawn prior to Census, the import will still load the mark & give a warning message that student has withdrawn, or is not currently active in the subject for any reason. Students that withdraw after Census are considered active in the subject for the purposes of grading.
The data that will be updated in Gradebook are:
- Any assessment mark & their comment that is different from Gradebook
- Scaled cumulative marks
- Override grade
- Grade comment
- Any audit log
The steps required for importing are as follows:
- The Subject Coordinator selects the spreadsheet for loading by clicking the ‘browse’ button to locate the desired spreadsheet
- Click the ‘import’ button. One of 2 things can occur:
- Structural issues. This occurs when the spreadsheet does not match the expected Gradebook spreadsheet format. Eg a column is missing or you are attempting to import a non-Gradebook spreadsheet.
- A preview screen will be displayed allowing you to confirm you are uploading the correct spreadsheet.
- Click the ‘commit import’ button if the spreadsheet is correct and you wish to continue the import. If the spreadsheet is not correct click a different menu item to navigate away form the screen.
- An import status screen will be displayed stating the number of records you have imported. Note: only changed records are imported.
- The system records an audit log entry for each updated mark and grade
Validation errors. Data validation occurs once you click the import button after the import preview. These errors refers to data that is incorrect, for example, if you have entered a mark of 40 for an assessment item worth 30. These errors need to be fixed in the spreadsheet and the spreadsheet re-imported. There is no validation in the spreadsheet
Student View
Click on this link for an online demonstration of Student View.
Merged Sites
- Merged sites operate similar merged sites in the Subject Outline tool (MSI). You choose the subject offering you wish to work on
- Each offering will still have its own screens i.e. its own class list, recommendation, grade distribution etc.
Gradebook Roles and Permissions
Gradebook has the following roles:
- Subject Coordinator
- Marker
- School Administration (SA)
- Grade Signoff (GSO)
- Confidential Read (Confread)
All roles are assigned through the Subject Coordinator’s Database (also known as Subject Coordinator’s Maintenance Form SCMF) either through the single subject offering or the bulk entry facility. The teaching School manages the roles for each subject offering.
Subject Coordinator
A Subject Coordinator can:
- Add marks and comments
- Override a grade
- View the grade distribution
- Recommend grades to the Head of School (grade recommendation screen)
- Review or QA grades(grade recommendation screen)
- Release marks to students
- Export marks and grades to the Gradebook spreadsheet
- Import marks and grades from the Gradebook spreadsheet
- Read the class list
Marker
A marker can:
- Add marks and comments
- Read the class list
- Export marks and grades
School Administration (School Admin)
A school administration officer can:
- Export marks and grades
- View the grade distribution
- Add marks and comments
- Read the class list
- Import marks and grades
Grade Sign Off
The Grade Sign Off person is the Head Of School or their delegate. The Grade Sign Off person can:
- Recommend grades to the School Assessment Committee, and indicate that the grades are ready to transfer to Banner (grade recommendation screen)
They also have the authority to:
- Add marks and comments
- Override a grade
- View the grade distribution
- Release marks to students
- Export marks and grades to the Gradebook spreadsheet
- Import marks and grades from the Gradebook spreadsheet
- Read the class list
CONF READ
This role will be used by staff who need a read-only view to confidential marks and gradesA CONFREAD can:
- View grade distribution
- Read the class list
Read Only
This role is not used for Gradebook.
Other Staff
This role is not used for Gradebook.
Please note the standard ‘read-only’ role cannot be used for Gradebook due to the sensitive nature of the information. For example Subject Coordinator A may grant Subject Coordinator B as a ‘read only’ site user. Subject Coordinator A may want to show Subject Coordinator B how they have used the wiki tool in the site. Subject Coordinator B should not then automatically be granted access to read student marks and grades.