Gradebook Staff Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions for staff
General
- “Where do I find Gradebook” and will students also see it?
- What do students see?
- What happens with Gradebook if the Subject Outlines is not published 3 days prior to session starting when Gradebook is set up?
- When is my Gradebook frozen and locked down?
- When and how would electronic grade transfer to Banner occur?
- How long are marks and grades visible in Gradebook?
- What happens if we have 6 pracs can they be entered into grade book separately?
- What sort of comments should be added in the Comments field?
- Is a comment mandatory?
- How long is the comment field?
- How often is the class list updated in Gradebook?
- Can a student who has been withdrawn be seen again?
- What if you export your class list before the census date?
- What if you don’t have a published outline?
Marking
- If I enter assignment marks and comments into EASTS online marking do they appear in Gradebook and vice versa?
- What if I have a student with an extension on their assignment? Should I release the marks for that assignment anyhow?
- What if I have released the marks, and now I have a mark for a student previously without a mark. Do I have to re-release the marks?
- Why can’t I use a zero to indicate that the student did not submit the assessment?
- Does the mark have to go on the assignment and into Gradebook or just straight into Gradebook?
- When marks are released for an assessment item, are they released to the whole cohort?
Grading
- What if I don’t have a grade for a student but the rest of the class is in?
- Can persons in other roles tick or “signoff” as Head of School (HOS) or delegate?
- Are there flags when the final grade is overwritten?
- Can grades in Banner be overwritten from Gradebook?
- I have ‘locked’/‘frozen’ my grades too early. How can I ‘unlock’/‘unfreeze’ so I can make a modification?
Spreadsheet
Other
- In a merged site, how do I return to the Cohort Selection screen or get into another cohort?
- Is there notifications? e.g. to the assessment consultant or the Head of School?
- If the student owes money to CSU, will they see their marks & grades? Or In Gradebook what will students see if their grade is withheld?
- Attendance at residential schools is compulsory how do we put this in?
- What is a moderated raw mark?
- I have assessment items due before start of session. How can these be recorded in Gradebook?
General
“Where do I find Gradebook” and will students also see it?
Gradebook will be a link (‘tool’) in the left hand menu of your Interact site.
Students will see the Gradebook link (‘tool’) but when they click on the link, they will only see their marks for the subjects and only when the marks have been ‘released’ by the Subject Coordinator.
What do students see?
- Only their own marks
- Only when marks are released by the Subject Coordinator
- The student screen is Read Only
- There is a disclaimer on Screen stating that “Marks may change because of scaling”
- Grades cannot be seen in Gradebook
- Grades still accessible via Banner
What happens with Gradebook if the Subject Outlines is not published 3 days prior to session starting when Gradebook is set up?
The Gradebook tool will not be automatically provisioned in the subject site. Once the Subject Outline is published, the Subject Coordinator (or School representative) will need to phone the DIT Service Desk and request that Gradebook is manually provisioned in their subject site.
When is my Gradebook frozen and locked down?
Gradebook is locked down when the Grade Signoff Officer “signs” the subject offering. This “signoff” indicates that the grades are ready to transfer to the Student Administration system Banner.
If the subject is not “signed” by the time of Grade Transfer, then the subject site will be locked down, and a “TA” grade transferred for each student.
When and how would electronic grade transfer to Banner occur?
This transfer will generally be on a pre-determined day advertised by Student Admin prior to the start of the grading period.
How long are marks and grades visible in Gradebook?
Gradebook is available as read-only for as long as the subject site is available. The site is removed from students 70 days after end of session. The site is removed from the Subject Coordinator and Grade Signoff Officer 18 months after end of session.
What happens if we have 6 pracs can they be entered into grade book separately?
Gradebook reflects the assessment items that are documented in the Subject Outline. If you want the 6 pracs as separate assessment items, you need to enter the 6 assessment items in the Subject Outline.
What sort of comments should be added in the Comments field?
There are 2 ‘comments’ fields:
- The Mark comment
Any comments added on the Mark Entry’ screen are visible by students. - The Grade Comment
Comments added on the ‘Grade Entry’ screen are not visible by students.
The school may want to develop a policy or protocol about the comments that should be added in each instance.
Is a comment mandatory?
No
How long is the comment field?
The comment field can take up to 256 characters
How often is the class list updated in Gradebook?
Gradebook reflects enrolment changes in Banner shortly after they happen.
Ie. When a student enrols, the change will then occur in Gradebook, likewise, if a student withdraws before Census, then the student will disappear from your class list in Gradebook.
The student’s Gradebook record is not deleted, only made inactive. That way if the student re-enrols in the subject, then the student’s Gradebook record will be made visible again.
Can a student who has been withdrawn be seen again?
When a student withdraws from a subject before Census, the Gradebook record is made inactive. It can only be seen again if the student re-enrols in the subject offering.
If a student withdraws after Census, the student will stay in the class list as the student needs to be graded.
What if you export your class list before the census date?
If you export your class list from Gradebook before census date you may have enrolments that will change in your spreadsheet, (eg. new enrolments or withdrawals may still be occurring) and you may need to export your class list again after census date. It is recommended that you wait till after the census date to export your class list.
What if you don’t have a published outline?
If there is no published Subject Outline for a subject, Gradebook cannot be provisioned in the Subject Site.
Marking
If I enter assignment marks and comments into EASTS online marking do they appear in Gradebook and vice versa?
No, there is currently no integration between EASTS and Gradebook
What if I have a student with an extension on their assignment? Should I release the marks for that assignment anyhow?
If there are no marks for a student, then the student will see only blanks for that assessment task when the marks are released. Whether you release the marks for that assessment is up to the protocol in the School. After the marks are released, students who have no marks entered will continue to see blanks until there is a mark available for them
What if I have released the marks, and now I have a mark for a student previously without a mark. Do I have to re-release the marks?
No, you don’t have to re-release the marks. If a student has no marks entered, they will simply see a blank. If you enter new marks after the marks for that assessment have been released, the new mark will simply be available to the student straight away.
Why can’t I use a zero to indicate that the student did not submit the assessment?
There is a difference between a blank mark and a zero mark in Gradebook.
A blank mark in Gradebook indicates that the student has not submitted the assessment.
A zero is a valid mark for the student. This can occur if the student has received a penalty for academic misconduct or submitted the assessment very late and incurred substantial late penalties.
There is a difference between a student not submitting an assessment, and a student submitting an assessment but receiving a zero mark for that assessment. Gradebook needs to be able to record both circumstances, and this distinction is needed for the FL/FW grade calculation.
If a student has not submitted the assessment, then do not enter any marks for the student.
Does the mark have to go on the assignment and into Gradebook or just straight into Gradebook?
This is dependent on your school practices. The student has access to the assignment marks when they released by the Subject Coordinator.
When marks are released for an assessment item, are they released to the whole cohort?
Yes, marks are released to all the cohort at the same time. If a student does not have a mark for an assessment item, they will see a blank.
Grading
What if I don’t have a grade for a student but the rest of the class is in?
Gradebook constantly calculates student grades based on the cumulative total of the assessment marks. If there is a missing assessment (from the marker side), then the subject coordinator will need to override the calculated grade with a “TA”, “GP” or other appropriate grade for that student
Can persons in other roles tick or “signoff” as Head of School (HOS) or delegate?
Gradebook has a new role called ‘Grade Sign off’. The school can assign the appropriate person to ‘Grade Sign Off’ role via the Subject Coordinators Maintenance Form/ Bulk Upload. This person will have ‘Grade Sign Off’ privileges for all subjects in the school.
Are there flags when the final grade is overwritten?
No.
There is an audit log showing who changed the grade and when.
Can grades in Banner be overwritten from Gradebook?
The grade transfer utility will transfer grades from Gradebook to Banner according to specified rules. If there is a pre-existing grade in Banner, then the Gradebook grade will not over-write the Banner grade. If this occurs, then the mismatch will be recorded in an error report for the School to reconcile.
The exception to this rule is if there is a pre-existing TA grade in Banner, then the TA grade will be over-written with the Gradebook grade.
The error report will be sent to your Gradebook contact for the School.
I have ‘locked’/‘frozen’ my grades too early. How can I ‘unlock’/‘unfreeze’ so I can make a modification?
You can only ‘unlock’/‘unfreeze’ the student’s marks and grades if they have not already been transferred to the Student Administration System (Banner). You will need to submit an IT Service Desk request stating the subject site eg “EEA304_201130_A_D”.
Spreadsheet
How do I add a new student into the spreadsheet?
If entering a new student row in the spreadsheet you need to set the formatting of the student-id cell as text.
When uploading the spreadsheet the student id (column A) needs to be formatted as text otherwise you will receive the error message “A system error occurred. The error message is Adding text to an XML document must not be null.”
To work around this put an apostrophe in front of the student id when entering the number in to the cell.
Other
In a merged site, how do I return to the Cohort Selection screen or get into another cohort?
To return to the Cohort Selection screen, click on the little green arrows 
next to the title “Gradebook”.
Is there notifications? e.g. to the assessment consultant or the Head of School?
Gradebook does not generate any automated emails.
If the student owes money to CSU, will they see their marks & grades? Or In Gradebook what will students see if their grade is withheld?
Students will be able to see their marks in Gradebook if they owe money to CSU. Gradebook only allows students to see their marks. Final Grades are available only via the existing method after end of Session.
Attendance at residential schools is compulsory how do we put this in?
Gradebook only tracks items that are recorded on the Subject Outline. If you wanted to make attendance a compulsory item in Gradebook, you would need to ‘Attendance at Residential School’ (or similar wording) an explicit assessment item on your Subject Outline with an SY/ US mark. You could then record an SY or US in Gradebook for Residential School attendance.
What is a moderated raw mark?
As the student sees the mark in Gradebook, there will be an expectation from the student that this mark matches the one received on the assessment.
Sometimes this will be the raw mark. At other times, there will be a moderated mark for the assessment.
Which mark appears in Gradebook, will be dependent on the School, and the timing of the moderation.
I have assessment items due before start of session. How can these be recorded in Gradebook?
Gradebook is provisioned 3 working days prior to the start of session.
If there is a need to have Gradebook earlier, then a service desk request needs to be submitted once the subject outline is published (and the subject site has been created)