Grading Software

Grading is inevitable for most teachers. It is a way not only to record progress and ability, but also to motivate or punish students. Grading software is a wonderful tool to help teachers manage their records and communicate graded performance back to their students.

MicroGrade Workshop 1 To prepare you for the real experience of tracking grades, a simulation exercise has been provided using MicroGrade. MicroGrade can be found under the Program menu on the Language Center computers, in the 302 Assignments folder on your flash drive, or a free trial version can be downloaded from MicroGrade. For additional help see Tech Support on the MicroGrade website or browse this MicroGrade Tutorial PowerPoint. Input the data below into MicroGrade.

Category Weights Homework 10% Quizzes 25% Midterms 30% Final Test 35% Total 100%

Fill in the blanks by using MicroGrade in these various senarios.

1. Using the Percentage grades. Students Carlton, Simon Fakaofaofa, Appleton Jones, Tom Pagulian, Sheena Smith, Mu Jung ZMike Kang

Weight of Cats and Assigns method where the category percents are listed below and each assignment is weighted by points. Give the final
Letter Grade AB+ B+ B+ B A Percent Grade 92.5% 87.5% 87.9% 86.6% 83.6% 100%

Start you name with a Z so it will always be last)

2. Keeping the same grading method as above, this time drop 1 Homework assignment, 1 Quiz, and 1 Midterm. Give the final grades below. Students Letter Grade Percent Grade Carlton, Simon A 94.2% Fakaofaofa, Appleton Jones, Tom Pagulian, Sheena Smith, Mu Jung Your Own Name B+ AAB A 89.6% 92.1% 90.4% 85.4% 100%

3. Using the total point method, what is the final grade for each of the students? (Remember to undrop the dropped assignments) Students Letter Grade Percent Grade Total Points Carlton, Simon A 93.5% 417/448 Fakaofaofa, Appleton Jones, Tom Pagulian, Sheena Smith, Mu Jung Your Own Name B+ AB BA 89.0% 90.3% 85.5% 81.9% 100.0% 398/448 400/448 380/448 366/448 446/448

MicroGrade Workshop 2 Recycling skills is an important part of learning. Sometimes this happens naturally. Other times it is by design. In this simulation, it is by design. Often times a class begins and a few days or weeks later a new student arrives and is enrolled in your class. Delete or remove the Green box below and then the Red box to reveal the new students information. Add the new students information. Calculate his grade under the different methods listed in MicroGrade Workshop 1.

MicroGrade Quiz Once you have calculated the grades for the students in Workshops 1 & 2, use your answers to help you as you take the MicroGrade Quiz on Canvas.

MicroGrade Quiz Score:

MicroGrade Workshop 3 MicroGrade has several other features besides grading. It can be used to setup attendance, arrange a seating chart, or make reports. Setup attendance using the information as follows: a. First day of class is Jan 11, 2006 and last day is April 19, 2006 b. The class meets only on Tuesdays and Thursdays c. Holidays (Non-School Days) i. Jan 16, Human Rights Day ii. Feb 20, Presidents Day iii. Mar 27, Kuhio Day

After you have input the above information, go to the Reports menu to Attendance Grid. Set the output to Screen. Take a screen shot of the Attendance Grid window.

Attendance Grid Screen Shot:

Make a seating chart in MicroGrade. Use the following information.

Arrange the seats to how you would like your classroom and put a picture of your seating chart here.

Seating Chart Screen Shot:

Many different reports can be generated in MicroGrade such as a student roster, overall class grades, or grades by assignment. One useful report is a statistical report. Below is a sample of a statistical report showing a class overall grades for the grading period:

Make a statistical report for the Final Test and past a copy of that report below.

Statistical Report

MicroGrade is only one of the various grading programs available. It is hope that by using MicroGrade, you have now become a more informed consumer. You know a little bit more behind the principles of using a grading program and what features you like. As for me, MicroGrade meets my needs. However, I would like to have the option of automatically lowering a score by 10% or so when I mark an assignment as turned in late. I would also like to tie in the attendance grid to the final grade. For example, each tardy would lower the final grade by 0.5%. This would help me as a teacher so that I didnt feel like it was me taking off points, but rather the grading program was doing it, based on the students action. That way I can still be the nice teacher and blame all the bad on the grading program.

Do a web search to find out what other Grading Software is available. Report your findings with links, prices, and what features you like. An example has been done for you.

Findings:
ex. MicroGrade http://www.chariot.com/micrograde/index.asp costs around $90. Site

licenses are also available for schools or departments, bringing the cost down to

about $35 per computer if 10 or more programs are ordered. I like that low scores can be dropped or excused and it has email capability.
https://www.thinkwave.com/store/

ThinkWare offers online school management system that has grading system included. The price of the service varies depending on numbers of students in your classroom. The screenshot shows the different price of the service.

http://www.gradekeeper.com/download.htm

Gradekeeper offers free version of its software. There also is an iPad version available at Appstore. Finishing Touches
Blog after every class to discuss the questions in red above and tell what you learned. Add a background color to this document, but make sure it is still easy to read. Name this document Grading Software and save it as a PDF or Word Document in your portfolio folder. Link the file to your Home Page.