ShareWare OnLine 2

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ ShareWare OnLine 2 / ShareWare OnLine Volume 2 (CMS Software)(1993).iso / educate / gg41b.zip / GG41B.EXE / MANUAL1.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1993-03-24 | 123KB | 2,479 lines

GRADE GUIDE VERSION 4 INSTRUCTION MANUAL (C) Copyright 1993, Jon Kane All Rights Reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1 CHAPTER 1 -- INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 What is GRADE GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Copyright and Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 User Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Starting GRADE GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 How to Use this Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 CHAPTER 2 -- TUTORIAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Starting GRADE GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Choose a Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Choose a Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Enter Some New Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Enter Some Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Enter Some Grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Display the Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 List Grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Accessing Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 A Statistical Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 A Roster Listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 CHAPTER 3 -- BASICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Menu System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Keyboard Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Mouse Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Grade Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 NONE Grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Averages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Selected Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Grade Periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 PART 2 CHAPTER 4 -- FILE MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Reading the FILE MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Changing the Default Drive and Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Choosing a Class File and Using Command Line Parameters . . . . . 40 Going on to the MAIN MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Going on to the DEFAULT MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Combining Two Class Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Recovering from a Back-up File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Copying Class Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Archiving Class Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Changing Between Color and Monochrome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 CHAPTER 5 -- MAIN MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Entering New Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Entering New Grades and Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Reading Grades from Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Reviewing None Grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Generating New Grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Establishing New Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Dropping Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Dropping, Adjusting, Copying, and Deleting Grades . . . . . . . . 65 Dropping Lowest Grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Adjusting Grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Copying Grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Deleting Grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Dropping Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Displaying and Changing Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Displaying and Changing Grades and Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Displaying and Changing Grade Weights, Limits, and Labels . . . . 79 Displaying and Changing Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Statistical Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Roster Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Writing Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Special Codes for Letter Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Selecting Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Grade Periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Changing the Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 CHAPTER 6 -- DEFAULT MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Defaults for Drives, Directories, Back-ups, and Mouse . . . . . . 110 Defaults for Grade Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Input Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Output Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Keyboard Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Color Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Saving and Reading Default Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 CHAPTER 7 -- TECHNICAL CONCERNS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Memory Concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Input/Output Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Running Under WINDOWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Running On a Computer Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 LICENSE ORDER FORMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 CompuServe is a registered trademark of Centroinics Data Computer Corp. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp. Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corp. CHAPTER 1 -- INTRODUCTION >>>What is GRADE GUIDE GRADE GUIDE is a versatile and flexible program used for the storing, retrieving, analyzing, and reporting of students' grades. The program not only provides all the functions available in a traditional teacher's gradebook, but its selection, reporting, and statistical features allow a teacher to perform with ease useful and important gradebook tasks that would be too cumbersome using a traditional gradebook. The program is available for MS-DOS computers. Some of its features include: -displaying easy-to-follow menus showing users all available options. -selecting any option by touching one keyboard key or mouse button. -instructing with an on-line help facility. -listing names, ID's, grades, and statistics in several formats. -separating grades into categories such as EXAM, QUIZ, or HOMEWORK. -recording grades as either numbers, letters, or user-supplied words. -giving grades of NONE to students whose grades are not yet available. -evaluating NONE grades as either zero grades or ignored grades. -basing number grades on any maximum value, not just 100 points. -weighting each grade and each category when calculating averages. -saving NOTES, such as addresses, comments, or special grades. -letting you change any of the stored information. -accommodating up to 6000 grades per student. -putting no limit on the size of a class until memory is full. -allowing names and grades to be read from a DOS text file. -having information displayed on screen or sent to a printer or file. -printing grade reports in a form convenient for handing to students. -supplying statistical reports and graphs of students' performances. -writing letters that include information about the students' grades. -creating grade report tables designed by the user. -selecting students for special processing based on a user's criteria. -providing up to ten grade periods for storing grades. -protecting grade information with passwords. -backing up disk files at regular intervals to avoid lost work. -configuring the program to function as you want it to function. These instructions are provided for GRADE GUIDE Version 4.0 and related versions. Site license versions will be numbered 4.0xxx. Program revisions which use these same instructions will be numbered 4.01, 4.02, and so forth. GRADE GUIDE requires an IBM or compatible computer with at least 256K of internal memory. >>>Copyright and Licensing GRADE GUIDE Version 4 is a software package written and produced by Jon Kane 2814 Regent Street Madison, Wisconsin 53705-5218. GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 1 The programmer maintains a copyright on this program, its displays, and its documentation. The program is marketed as SHAREWARE. This means that any person may copy and distribute computer diskettes containing GRADE GUIDE, its instructions, and any supporting files, although distribution of printed copies of the instructions without written permission from Jon Kane is prohibited. Any person may use this program at no cost for a trial period not to exceed six months. After six months, a person who wishes to continue using the program must register the program to obtain a license for continued use. If you are using GRADE GUIDE and have not sent a registration fee to Jon Kane, you do not have a license for continued use of this program. Users who obtained a copy of this program from a third party are not registered users. Fees paid to such a third party do not constitute payment toward a registration fee. Registered users receive a printed copy of these instructions, a diskette containing any recent improvements in GRADE GUIDE, information and discounts on future versions of GRADE GUIDE, and users support (see "User Support" in the next section.) All users, whether licensed or not, should feel free to give this program to others as long as the copyright notices within the program, on the display, and in the documentation remain unchanged. All copies distributed should include the files "GRADEGID.EXE", "GRADEGID.OVR", "GRADEGID.HLP", and "GRADEGID.DOC". Businesses may distribute diskettes containing copies of this software under the condition that purchasers are informed that payment made for the copy does not grant them a license for continued use. In particular, any business following the guidelines of the Association of Shareware Professionals may distribute copies of this software. Two types of GRADE GUIDE licenses are provided: individual and site. An INDIVIDUAL LICENSE is granted to one individual who may use the program on any number of computers and make as many copies of the program as desired for personal use. Payment for an individual license is $40 (US) and should be sent to Jon Kane. Persons outside the United States, Canada, and Mexico should include an extra $5 (US) for shipping. An order form is provided at the end of these instructions. GRADE GUIDE itself can print order forms as part of its on-line help facility. If your payment is being sent by a third party (such as the school purchasing agent), send notification of your payment to Jon Kane so the license can be registered in your name. Each user of GRADE GUIDE is required to register. Registration is not automatically extended to a user's spouse or other family members. If a household has one registered user, a second person at that household may be licensed to use the program by sending the name of the second person and an additional $10 fee. This second license entitles the second person to use the program, but it does NOT entitle the second person to an additional copy of the program or an additional copy of the documentation since adequate access to these materials should already be available. The second person license cannot be extended to a third person and is not available to persons not sharing the same home address. GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 2 A discount of twenty percent is offered when five or more individual licenses are ordered at the same time in one package. Names and addresses of each of the individuals ordering must be included in the package. A SITE LICENSE is also available for any organization (department, school, college, university, school district, and so forth). A site license grants a specified number of people at that site or institution the right to use the program as long as they remain employed at that institution. It also can include the making of minor modifications to GRADE GUIDE for special use at that site. Site licenses are offered to groups of 10 or more users. The cost of a site license depends on the number of GRADE GUIDE users at the site according to the following table. Organizations wanting a site license independent of the number of users at that site should contact Jon Kane to obtain pricing information based on the number of employees at the organization. Two instruction manuals are provided with each site license. Additional instruction manuals may be purchased for a charge of $10 each. Applications for site licenses should include a site name (up to 75 characters) which is displayed as a title on all printed GRADE GUIDE reports. A site license order form appears at the end of these instructions and can be printed by the GRADE GUIDE help facility. SITE LICENSE COSTS (US Dollars) ............................................................ : up to 10 users : $250 : up to 40 users : $800 : :.................:...........:..................:.........: : up to 15 users : $350 : up to 50 users : $950 : :.................:...........:..................:.........: : up to 20 users : $450 : up to 75 users : $1200 : :.................:...........:..................:.........: : up to 30 users : $625 : up to 100 users : $1400 : :.................:...........:..................:.........: The cost for each additional 10 user over 100 users is $50 (US). >>>User Support Jon Kane provides assistance with all aspects of using the GRADE GUIDE program. User support for a person who has not yet purchased a license is limited to information that would help that person evaluate the program. For registered users, user support includes (but is not be limited to) answering questions on any aspect of running GRADE GUIDE, configuring GRADE GUIDE to your teaching specifications, and discussing GRADE GUIDE's compatibility with other computer programs. For registered users, full user support is granted for a period of one year beyond the date of registration. Users with questions after one year should include a payment of $10 (US) with their questions to obtain support for an additional year beginning on that date. Users may send questions to: GRADE GUIDE c/o Jon Kane 2814 Regent Street Madison, Wisconsin 53705-5218. Persons having access to electronic mail may send mail to the Internet address: GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 3 kanej@uwwvax.uww.edu From CompuServe, mail can be sent to the address: >internet:kanej@uwwvax.uww.edu Telephone calls are not encouraged, and GRADE GUIDE users leaving telephone messages for Jon Kane should expect to receive responses by mail or collect telephone call. Users who protect their class files using a password could conceivably forget their password making it impossible for GRADE GUIDE to read their records. Jon Kane provides a service to registered GRADE GUIDE users that will change the password on any class file to the blank password so that the file can again be read. Any registered user of GRADE GUIDE may send a floppy disk containing copies of class files and payment of $10 (US) to GRADE GUIDE at the above address. The passwords on each of the class files on the disk will be changed to the blank password and the disk will be returned. The GRADE GUIDE instruction manual and help screen information are provided in English. At the time of release of this program, this information has not been translated into other languages. Any user interested in translating either the GRADE GUIDE instruction manual or the help screen information can write to GRADE GUIDE in care of Jon Kane for information. Users interested in obtaining the translations which other users have provided may send inquiries to GRADE GUIDE in care of Jon Kane. Translations which have been approved will be supplied at a modest fee. If you discover a technical problem with GRADE GUIDE, that is, a problem where the program does not function as it should, you may have uncovered a "bug" in the program. Please send to Jon Kane as much information as you can concerning what you were doing with the program when the bug occurred. In particular, tell whether you can repeat the occurrence of the bug, error messages, if any, that were displayed by the program, and the program's version number. Bugs will be fixed as soon as possible after their existence becomes known. Occasionally, you may need to send a disk containing the class file with which you were working when the bug occurred. Registered users who help to find new bugs will always be sent a revised copy of the program as soon as the bug is fixed. Other users may order revised copies of the program by sending the shipping and handling fee of $5 (US). Users needing special features added to GRADE GUIDE can usually purchase programs supplying these features from GRADE GUIDE. The most common features are the ability to read or write special grade reports. Such special companion programs generally cost between $50 and $600 (US) depending on their difficulty. GRADE GUIDE site license programs are often provided with minor modifications required by the site as part of the site license fee. GRADE GUIDE source code is kept as a trade secret and is not available for purchase. GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 4 Jon Kane is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. >>>Files The following four files are distributed with GRADE GUIDE. INSTALL.EXE This file contains a program which will install GRADE GUIDE on your computer system. (See "Installation" later in this chapter.) GG40.EXE, GG40A.EXE, GG40B.EXE These files contain archived versions of other GRADE GUIDE files. The INSTALL program reads these files to install GRADE GUIDE on your system. GRADEGID.EXE This file contains the program code for GRADE GUIDE. It must be present when GRADE GUIDE begins but need not remain after it has been read. (See "Installing" and "Starting GRADE GUIDE" later in this chapter.) GRADEGID.OVR This file contains overlay code needed for most GRADE GUIDE functions. With few exceptions, this file must be present at all times when GRADE GUIDE is running. GRADEGID.HLP This file contains text information displayed by GRADE GUIDE when the on- line help facility is used. It must be present for the help facility to work. MANUAL1.DOC and MANUAL2.DOC These files are text files containing instructions for the use of GRADE GUIDE. They can be read by any text editor or can be printed using the DOS PRINT command. Chapters 1 through 3 of the GRADE GUIDE instruction manual appear in MANUAL1.DOC and the remainder of the instruction manual appears in MANUAL2.DOC. EXAMPLE?.* Many example files are distributed with GRADE GUIDE as instruction aids. GRADEGID.PIF and GRADEGID.ICO These two files are supplied to aid Microsoft WINDOWS users. (See "Running Under WINDOWS" in the chapter "TECHNICAL CONCERNS.") GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 5 The following files are created by GRADE GUIDE. *.GRD Files with file type GRD are class files containing information about students and grades. Information for each class that you process using GRADE GUIDE will be recorded on a GRD file. *.BAK Each time GRADE GUIDE updates a class file the previous version of the class file is recorded in a file of type BAK. This provides back-up security in case you make an error in processing a class file. ARCHIV??.OLD GRADE GUIDE provides a facility to save class files for classes that have ended and are no longer actively being referenced. These archived files are stored in files named ARCHIV00.OLD, ARCHIV01.OLD, and so forth. (See "Archiving Files" in the chapter "FILE MENU.") *.DFT GRADE GUIDE has a DEFAULT MENU with which you can configure the program to suit your special needs or style. The choices you make from this menu are stored in a file of type DFT. In particular, when GRADE GUIDE begins running, it looks for the file GRADEGID.DFT in the default directory. If it is found, the file is read and the appropriate default settings are changed. When GRADE GUIDE reads a class file (with file type GRD), it looks in the current directory for a file with the same file name as the class file but with file type DFT. If such a file is found, it is a default file containing DEFAULT MENU settings specific for the class being read. GRADE GUIDE will read that default file, use it to change the default settings, and apply the new settings to the class being read. In this way, you can have different default settings for different classes. (See the chapter "DEFAULT MENU.") GRADEOUT.* Whenever you list information using GRADE GUIDE, you can choose whether to view the information on the screen, print the information on your printer, or store the information in a file. If you send information to a file, GRADE GUIDE names the file GRADEOUT.001, GRADEOUT.002, and so forth. *.LTR GRADE GUIDE has a letter writing facility that lets you create a form letter with special codes that instruct the program to insert information about a student into the letter. The form letters are stored on files with file type LTR. (See "Writing Letters" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") *.ROS GRADE GUIDE has a roster listing facility for the generation of reports which list one line of information for each student. You can choose what information is to be printed in each column of such a report. Different report formats can be stored on files with file type ROS. (See "Roster Reports" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") *.GEN GRADE GUIDE lets you generate a new grade based on the averaging of old grades. The definitions of such averaging processes are stored on files GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 6 with file type GEN. (See "Generating New Grades" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") *.SEL GRADE GUIDE lets you select students based on your own criteria. These selected students can be set aside for special processing. Your selection criteria can be stored on files with file type SEL. (See "Selecting Students" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") >>>Installation GRADE GUIDE is distributed either on one 3 1/2 inch disk containing the files INSTALL.EXE and GG40.EXE (or similar name for later versions) or on two 5 1/4 inch disks, one containing the files INSTALL.EXE and GG40A.EXE and the other containing the file GG40B.EXE. To install GRADE GUIDE on your computer system, place the disk containing the INSTALL.EXE program into a floppy drive (for example, drive A:). Type A: to make that floppy drive your default drive. Then enter the command INSTALL and follow the directions displayed by the INSTALL program. The INSTALL program will ask you onto which disk drive you want to installing GRADE GUIDE. If you install the program onto 720K 3 1/2 inch floppy disks, you must have prepared two formatted disks to install all of the program files. If you install the program onto 360K 5 1/4 inch disks, you must have prepared four formatted disks to install all of the program files. GRADE GUIDE can be run from either a floppy disk drive or fixed disk drive. The program is stored on two files named GRADEGID.EXE and GRADEGID.OVR. To run GRADE GUIDE on most computer systems you will want to store the files GRADEGID.EXE, GRADEGID.OVR, GRADEGID.HLP, and GRADEGID.DFT (if it has been created) on the same disk in the same directory. This method does not work if your computer system is equipped with only 360K floppy disk drives (drives using double-sided double-density (DSDD) 5 1/4 inch floppy disks). The files GRADEGID.EXE and GRADEGID.OVR are too large to fit on one 360K floppy drive. Users running GRADE GUIDE on such systems will need to take care when considering the placement of their GRADE GUIDE files. For those users the GRADEGID.EXE and GRADEGID.HLP files can be placed on one disk while the other two files are placed on a second disk. (See "Starting GRADE GUIDE" in the next section.) While running GRADE GUIDE, you can tell the program to store and retrieve information on any of your computer system's disk drives or directories. This becomes important for computer systems using floppy disks limited in capacity. Even on systems using large fixed disks, some users choose to store different class files in different directories or grades from different semesters in different directories. >>>Starting GRADE GUIDE There are three possible arrangements of the GRADE GUIDE program files on your computer disks. The first possible arrangement (and the most likely one) results when you have at least one disk with enough memory to store the files GRADEGID.EXE, GRADEGID.OVR, GRADEGID.HLP, and GRADEGID.DFT (if it exists). A 5 1/4 inch disk with high density, 1.2 megabyte disks, any 3 1/2 inch disk, or a fixed disk would be sufficient. Make sure that the GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 7 directory where the files are stored is the current default directory on the default disk drive. This can be checked by entering the DOS command DIR to confirm that the three files are listed in the current directory. Now begin GRADE GUIDE by entering the command GRADEGID The second possible arrangement is to have two 5 1/4 inch 360K floppy disk drives with two standard double-sided double-density disks (DSDD). In this case, the files GRADEGID.OVR and GRADEGID.DFT (if it exists) will be stored on one disk and the two files GRADEGID.EXE and GRADEGID.HLP will be on the second disk. For example, GRADEGID.OVR and GRADEGID.DFT might be on the disk in drive A: with the other two files on the disk in drive B:. In this case you would have the default disk drive be the A: drive and enter the command B:GRADEGID The third possible arrangement is to have only one disk drive with 5 1/4 inch double-sided double-density disks (DSDD). Even in this case you can run GRADE GUIDE. You again place the files GRADEGID.OVR and GRADEGID.DFT on one disk and the GRADEGID.EXE and GRADEGID.HLP files on a second disk. Place the disk with the GRADEGID.EXE file into the drive and enter the command GRADEGID /2 After the file is read, the program will prompt you to change disks. Remove the disk from the drive and replace it with the disk with the GRADEGID.OVR file and press the <Enter> key. The program will continue. Your computer's default directory at the time you begin running GRADE GUIDE is GRADE GUIDE's "home" directory. This is the directory where you store the GRADEGID.OVR file which the program needs to reference frequently. If you use the DEFAULT MENU to create the file GRADEGID.DFT, that file is also stored in the "home" directory. (See the chapter "DEFAULT MENU.") The file containing GRADE GUIDE help information, GRADEGID.HLP, will usually be stored in the "home" directory. (See "Help" in the chapter "BASICS.") Other files that the program uses or creates can be stored in any directory (including the "home" directory if there is room). GRADE GUIDE allows you to select the directory where you want to store other files. (See "Changing the Default Drive and Directory" in the chapter "FILE MENU.") This ability to store files on any disk or in any directory becomes important for computer systems using floppy disks that are limited in capacity. Even on systems using large fixed disks, some users choose to store different class files in different directories or grades from different semesters in different directories. >>>How to Use this Manual Chapter 2 of this manual is a tutorial. Users who are unfamiliar with GRADE GUIDE may find it instructive to sit down at the computer and run GRADE GUIDE while reading the instructions in that chapter. It will give a brief overview of how GRADE GUIDE functions and introduce some of its capabilities. GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 8 Chapter 3 contains some basic definitions and examples needed for a full understanding of GRADE GUIDE. Chapter 4 gives a detailed description of the FILE MENU options. Chapter 5 gives a detailed description of the MAIN MENU options. Chapter 6 gives a detailed description of the DEFAULT MENU options. Chapter 7 contains some technical information concerning memory, input/output problems, and use on computer networks. Copies of individual and site license order forms appear at the end of this manual. Most users will find that reading Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of this manual will be all the instruction they need for most of the everyday operations of GRADE GUIDE. The other chapters can serve as a reference or as instructions to the more advanced user. Information that must be added to this instruction manual after its publication will be placed in a help screen entitled "MANUAL CHANGES." GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 9 CHAPTER 2 -- TUTORIAL >>>Starting GRADE GUIDE This chapter is designed to be read while you are running GRADE GUIDE. It will serve as an introduction to GRADE GUIDE's menu system and show you some of the program's capabilities. Many of GRADE GUIDE's more advanced features are not covered in this chapter. If you are already familiar with GRADE GUIDE, you may wish to skip this chapter. If you follow the directions in this chapter, you will enter data for one class called EXAMPLE3. The class will have ten students with five grades assigned to each student. You will generate and print a few reports. Begin the tutorial by starting the GRADE GUIDE program. (See "Starting GRADE GUIDE" in the chapter "INTRODUCTION.") You can use a mouse input device with GRADE GUIDE. (See "Mouse Usage" in the chapter "BASICS.") This chapter does not include any reference to the use of a mouse to simplify the tutorial explanations. >>>Choose a Class When the program begins it displays an introductory screen giving the program name, explains where to obtain information about the program, and tells how to become a licensed user of GRADE GUIDE. Press the <Enter> key to continue beyond this point. The program then displays its FILE MENU. This menu shows 9 choices (8 if you have a monochrome adaptor card) each preceded by an upper case letter A, B, C, ... I. As is true with every menu in GRADE GUIDE, you also see that the <Esc> key can be used to exit from the menu (in this case exit from the entire program), and the <F1> key can be used to access the GRADE GUIDE help facility. Also displayed on the screen is the name of the current default directory and a list of all the classes whose information is stored on the default directory. If this is your first time using GRADE GUIDE, the list may be empty or contain the example classes EXAMPLE1 and EXAMPLE2. Let us create a new class containing ten students. Press the letter B. A highlighted area appears near the "B: choose class :" statement of the menu with a second highlighted area at the beginning of the (possibly blank) list of classes. Also, a message appears at the bottom of the screen. Type the name of our new class, "example3", and press the <Enter> key. All the grading functions of GRADE GUIDE are found on the MAIN MENU. You can go on to the MAIN MENU by pressing the letter C, so press the letter C now. GRADE GUIDE looks for a class stored on the disk where we may have previously stored information about the class named "EXAMPLE3." Since no such file is found, the program tries to confirm that you did not just mistype your class name by asking "Is this a new file (Y/N) ?" Press the letter Y for a yes response. GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 10 >>>Choose a Password At this point you have the option of protecting the information in class "EXAMPLE3" form unauthorized use by assigning the class a password. The program prompts with "Type the password ending with <Enter>:" If you do not wish to use a password, just press the <Enter> key. If you do wish to use a password, select a word with up to ten characters that will be easy for you to remember but difficult for others to guess. For our example, type the word "MOZART" followed by the <Enter> key. It does not matter whether you type using upper or lower case letters. GRADE GUIDE does not display the characters that you type so that others watching you will not see the password you have chosen. To confirm that the word you typed was entered correctly (you would certainly not want to have mistyped your password and, therefore, not know what the correct password is) GRADE GUIDE prompts with "Verify the password ending with <Enter>:" Enter the word "MOZART" a second time. >>>Enter Some New Students GRADE GUIDE now displays the MAIN MENU. This menu has 16 choices labeled by the upper case letters A, B, C, ... P and the ever-present <Esc> to return to the previous menu (the FILE MENU in this case) and <F1> to access the help facility. Also displayed is a box showing the name of the class, "EXAMPLE3," the current grade period, 1, the number of students in the class, 0, and the number of students marked as selected, 0. Press the letter A so you can add students to the class. GRADE GUIDE responds by displaying the ENTER NEW STUDENTS menu. This menu shows 4 choices denoted by the letters A, B, C, and D, and the choices <Esc> to return to the previous menu, <F1> for help, and <Enter> for beginning the process of entering students. The choices A, B, C, and D are there in case you need to change the way new students will be entered. For now, just press the <Enter> key. GRADE GUIDE next shows you a screen for entering students' names and aliases. For this example, use a short student number for the alias. The screen shows that the class currently has zero students. A highlighted area is displayed on the screen showing where to enter the name of the first student. Type the name "Johnson, William" and press the <Enter> key. A highlighted area now appears to the right of the name showing where to enter the alias (student number) for William Johnson. Type the number "17845" and press the <Enter> key. Notice that if you make an error while typing, you can use the <Backspace> key to delete characters. The bottom of the screen displays a list of all the keys you might press to aid your editing. GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 11 Continue to enter the names and student numbers of nine more students: Olson, Brenda75209 Smith, Timothy56281 Wilson, Bradley82205 Gordon, Jane55429 O'Brian, Greg73441 Jones, Paul60013 Van Zander, Sandra89329 Bestman, Michele27378 Lake, Marcia99376 After entering the ten names and ten student numbers, GRADE GUIDE highlights an area so you can enter the name of an eleventh student. At this point you might want to proofread the names and numbers you entered. If you detect an error, you can use the <up> key (up arrow) to move the highlighted area to one of the ten names already typed. The <Tab> key will move the highlighted area to an alias. When one of these areas is highlighted, you can change it by using the <Backspace> key or <Del> key to delete characters. If you wish to enter new characters into a name that is highlighted, just make sure that the first key you press after the name is highlighted is not a character key. You could use the <Home>, <End>, or <right> (the right arrow) keys first. If the first key you press is a character key, the name in the field disappears, and you have to reenter the entire name. When you are through entering, proofreading, and changing the names and student numbers, press the <Esc> key to return to the previous menu. Since you may have pressed <Esc> by accident, GRADE GUIDE prompts you for confirmation at this point with "Do you want to quit entering students (Y/N) ?" Press the letter Y for yes. The ENTER NEW STUDENTS menu is displayed again. Since you do not need to enter any new students at this time, press the <Esc> key to return to the MAIN MENU. >>>Enter Some Categories Before you can assign grades to students, you must establish one or more grade categories. In this example, you want to set up categories for test grades, homework grades, and project grades. Press the letter C. GRADE GUIDE displays a screen titled ADD NEW CATEGORIES, and informs you that there are no previously established categories. If there had been some previously entered categories, their names would be displayed. There is a highlighted area where you can enter a category name, so type the name "TEST" and press the <Enter> key. At this point, one of GRADE GUIDE's many pop-up menus appears on the screen, showing you the names of the eight different grade types available in GRADE GUIDE. You can select an entry from this menu either by pressing the letter corresponding to the choice you want or by pressing <down> key (down arrow) until the entry you want is highlighted and then pressing the <Enter> key. Choose the WHOLE-CUTOFF grade type by pressing C. GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 12 Now you can tell GRADE GUIDE that TEST grades should make up 60% of a student's final grade. In the highlighted area, type the number 60 and press the <Enter> key. Next, a highlighted area appears under the LABELED title, and GRADE GUIDE asks "Do you want grades in this category labeled (Y/N) ?" Press the letter Y for yes. You have now established one category. Enter the other two categories in a similar manner so that the screen reads ......................................................................... : CATEGORY NAME GRADE TYPE PERCENT GRAND AVERAGE LABELED : : : : 1 TEST Whole - Cutoff 60.000 % LABELED : : 2 HOMEWORK Whole 20.000 % NOT LABELED : : 3 PROJECT Letter 20.000 % NOT LABELED : : 4 : :.......................................................................: If you make a mistake while entering a category, pressing the <Esc> key will allow you to remove the category and start again. Note that you could enter as many as 30 categories. Now a highlighted area appears showing where you can enter the name of a fourth category. Since you do not wish to do that at this time, press the <Esc> key to return to the MAIN MENU. >>>Enter Some Grades Back at the MAIN MENU you are ready to enter some grades for your ten students, so press the letter B. GRADE GUIDE displays the ENTER STUDENT GRADES AND NOTES menu which shows eight choices proceeded by the upper case letters A, B, C, ...H, the <Esc> choice to return to the MAIN MENU, the <F1> choice to access help, and the <Enter> choice to begin entering new grades. Press the <Enter> key. At this point GRADE GUIDE needs to know which grades you need to enter. You can enter up to ten grades or NOTES for each student each time you enter grades. This time you will enter five grades for each student. Assume you have accumulated the following grades so far in the course. NAME HOMEWORK 1 HOMEWORK 2 TEST 1 HOMEWORK 3 HOMEWORK 4 Bestman, Michele 8 9 91 B 5 7 Gordon, Jane 7 6 82 C Johnson, William 10 10 97 A 9 10 Jones, Paul 8 85 C 9 10 Lake, Marcia 9 7 94 A 8 7 O'Brian, Greg 9 7 74 F 7 5 Olson, Brenda 8 8 90 B 6 7 Smith, Timothy 10 9 104 A 6 6 Van Zander, Sandra 8 6 83 C 7 8 Wilson, Bradley 10 92 B 9 9 GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 13 You will find it easiest to enter these grades in the order that you have them written down. For each student, you will want to enter two homework grades, followed by a test grade, followed by two more homework grades. GRADE GUIDE has displayed a screen where you can list these five grades. A pop-up menu shows the names of the three categories you established and the word NOTE. Since you want two homework grades, one test grade, and two more homework grades, press the letter keys BBABB. GRADE GUIDE responds by displaying the list ............................ : NEW GRADES TO ENTER : : 1 HOMEWORK 1 : : 2 HOMEWORK 2 : : 3 TEST 1 : : 4 HOMEWORK 3 : : 5 HOMEWORK 4 : : 6 : :..........................: Press the <Esc> key to indicate that you have finished listing grades to enter. GRADE GUIDE asks for confirmation with "Are these grade types correct (Y/N) ?" Press the letter Y for yes. Now you see the ENTER INFORMATION ABOUT GRADES screen. GRADE GUIDE needs to have some information about the grades you are about to enter. All of the GRADE WEIGHTS are listed as 1.000, the MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORES as 100, the GRADE CUTOFFS for the test grade as NONE, and the label for the test grade as .unset. You will want to change some of these values. You can move the highlighted area around the screen by pressing <up> and <down> keys (up and down arrow) and the <^left> and <^right> keys (control left arrow and control right arrow. The <^left> and <^right> keys are pressed by holding down the <Ctrl> key while pressing the left and right arrow keys, respectively.) Move the highlighted area to the MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE column by pressing the <^right> key. Suppose your homework is graded on a scale of 0 to 10, so you want homework grades to have a MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE of 10 rather than 100. Notice the message at the top of the screen under the screen title which tells you that the highlighted area is on the row of the screen for the HOMEWORK 1 grade. To change the 100 to a 10, just type the number 10. Since the first key that you pressed while editing that highlighted area was a character, the value that had been displayed, 100, disappeared and was replaced by the number you typed. Now press the <down> key. The highlighted area moves to the row of the screen for the HOMEWORK 2 grade as shown by the note at the top of the screen. You could change this highlighted area to read 10 by typing 10, but, instead, change the number by editing the field. Press the <right> key (this time without the <Ctrl> key being pressed). This moves the cursor to the right one space so it is under the first 0 of 100. Press the <Del> key, and the 0 disappears leaving the highlighted area reading 10 as you want. Press the <down> key twice more and change the MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE for HOMEWORK 3 to 10. Then press the <down> key one more time and change the MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE for HOMEWORK 4 to 10. You want the MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE for TEST 1 to be 100 so that number on the screen does not need to be changed. Press the <up> key twice and then GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 14 press the <^left> key twice so the highlighted area moves to the GRADE LABEL column for TEST 1. Type "CHAPT. 1 Sep 14." This enters a label for the TEST 1 grade. Press the <^right> key three times to move the highlighted area to the GRADE CUTOFF A column for TEST 1. Type the lowest score to which you want to assign the grade A, 93. Then press the <^right> key and type the lowest B score, 87. Then press the <^right> key and type the lowest C score, 81. Finally, press the <^right> key one more time and type the lowest D score, 75. The screen should now read ................................................................. : MAXIMUM GRADE CUTOFFS : : GRADE GRADE POSSIBLE : : LABEL WEIGHT SCORE A B C D : : : : 1.000 10 : : 1.000 10 : : CHAPT. 1 Sep 14 1.000 100 93 87 81 75 : : 1.000 10 : : 1.000 10 : :...............................................................: Press the <Esc> key to indicate that you have finished entering this information. GRADE GUIDE prompts with "Is the entered information about grades correct (Y/N) ?" Press the letter Y for yes. You are now ready to enter grades for your ten students. One screen will appear for each of your ten students. There will be a space to enter each of the five grades for each student. Begin with Michele Bestman. Note that Michele Bestman was not the name of the first student you entered; William Johnson was. GRADE GUIDE has alphabetized the names for you. Type 8 and press the <Enter> key. Type 9 and press the <Enter> key. Type 91 and press the <Enter> key. Type 4 and press the <Enter> key. Oops! That was supposed to be a 5. Press the <up> key. Type 5 and press the <Enter> key. Finally, type 7 and press the <Enter> key. Grades have been entered for Michele Bestman. Now GRADE GUIDE displays a screen for Jane Gordon. If you need to recheck the numbers you typed for Michele Bestman, press the <PgUp> key to see the screen of the previous student. ................................................ : Enter grades for Bestman, Michele (27378) : : : : : : HOMEWORK 1 : 8 (Number) : : HOMEWORK 2 : 9 (Number) : : TEST 1 : 91 (Number) : : HOMEWORK 3 : 5 (Number) : : HOMEWORK 4 : 7 (Number) : :..............................................: Press the <PgDn> key to see the screen of the next student, Jane Gordon. Enter the five grades for Jane Gordon. Type 7 and press the <Enter> key. Type 6 and press the <Enter> key. Type 82 and press the <Enter> key. Jane Gordon has not yet completed work on HOMEWORK 3 or HOMEWORK 4. You would like to assign her a grade of NONE for those two assignments. Just press GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 15 the <Enter> key twice. When a grade is entered without typing any characters, a NONE grade is automatically assigned. Continue in this way entering grades for the other eight students. Notice that Timothy Smith received a grade of 104 out of 100 points on TEST 1. Perhaps he got the extra credit problem correct. GRADE GUIDE flashes a warning message showing you that you entered a grade larger than the MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE for TEST 1, but it lets you enter the grade. When you have finished with the grades for Bradley Wilson, GRADE GUIDE prompts with "Are you ready to return to the ENTER NEW GRADES menu (Y/N) ?" If you want to check your work some more, press the letter N for no. You can always return to the ENTER NEW GRADES menu while entering grades by pressing the <Esc> key. Press the letter Y for yes. At the ENTER NEW GRADES menu press the <Esc> key to return to the MAIN MENU. You have now successfully entered ten students, established three categories, and assigned five grades for each student. >>>Display the Students You are again back at the MAIN MENU. To look at your list of students, press the letter G to display/print/ change students. GRADE GUIDE displays a DISPLAY/PRINT/CHANGE NAMES, ALIASES,SECTIONS menu with three choices preceded by upper case A, B, and C, and the now familiar <Esc>, <F1>, and <Enter>. Press the <Enter> key to see a list of your students. The name of the first student in the list, Michele Bestman, is highlighted. To change the name or to correct a spelling error, use the <right> key to move to the position of the correction and add or delete characters to make the change. You also could use the <up> and <down> keys and the <^left> and <^right> keys to move the highlighted area to another name or alias on the screen so that entry could be changed. (Recall, ^ before a key means hold down the <Ctrl> key while pressing the key.) When you have finished viewing or changing this list of students, press the <Esc> key to return to the DISPLAY/PRINT/CHANGE NAMES,ALIASES,SECTIONS menu. Suppose you would like to print a copy of your class list rather than look at the names on the screen. Menu choice A reads "list information on the _____." The option chosen is SCREEN. Press the letter A. The option chosen changes to PRINTER. To print your class list, press the <Enter> key. Since it is the first time you are using the printer during this session with GRADE GUIDE, you are prompted with "Is the printer on and ready to go (Y/N) ?" Check that your printer is turned on and properly connected to the computer. If you try to print with the printer turned off, the program could halt. Press the letter Y if you are ready to print. There are several options you may choose when viewing or printing a list of your students. To see these options, press the letter C. GRADE GUIDE displays a NAME OUTPUT FORMAT menu with choices A, B, C, and D. The menu choice "A: list student" is followed by the selection BOTH. Press the letter A to change the selection to NAMES. Now GRADE GUIDE will list only names when you ask for a list of students. The menu choice "C: lines end (if printing)" is followed by the selection BLANK. Press the letter C twice to change this selection to BOXES. Now when you print a list of your students, each student's name will be GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 16 followed by a row of boxes. This makes a table much like a page of a traditional gradebook which is convenient for recording grades. Press the <Esc> key to return to the DISPLAY/PRINT/CHANGE NAMES,ALIASES,SECTIONS menu. Now press the <Enter> key to print a class list with boxes. Press the <Esc> key to return to the MAIN MENU. >>>List Grades Back at the MAIN MENU you now want to take a look at the grades you have assigned. Press the letter H. GRADE GUIDE displays the DISPLAY/PRINT/ CHANGE GRADES,NOTES menu which shows nine choices labeled by the letters A, B, C, ...I and the usual <Enter>, <Esc>, and <F1> choices. Press the <Enter> key to see a listing of your students' grades. This report displays all the grades for each student, one student at a time. The first student displayed is again Michele Bestman. The screen's top line gives the student's name, a GRAND TOTAL of all the grades assigned to the student, and a GRAND AVERAGE of all the grades assigned so far. You assigned grades in two categories, TEST and HOMEWORK. For each of these categories, the screen shows one line with category name followed by a TOTAL of all the grades in that category and an AVERAGE of all the grades in that category. After the line with the category name there is a listing of all the grades given in that category. The two lists shown on this screen are short, only one line each. You could have entered as many as 200 grades into each category, so these lists can, in general, take many lines. Below the listing of all the grades is a list of NOTES. All the NOTES are blank since you have not yet entered any NOTES. Press the <down> key five times to move the highlighted area to the position of the first NOTE. Now you can enter a message of your choice, perhaps Michele Bestman's parents' names. By moving the <up> and <down> keys and the <^left> and <^right> keys, you can move the highlighted area around the screen. You can change any of the grades or NOTES by moving the highlighted area to that grade or NOTE and editing that entry. Press the <^Home> key (hold down the <Ctrl> key while pressing the <Home> key.) The highlighted area jumps to the top line of the screen. Press the <^End> key. The highlighted area jumps to the bottom line of the screen. Press the <down> key. The screen scrolls up one line to reveal NOTE 16 which was hidden below the bottom of the screen. There are 20 NOTES in all. Press the <^End> key again and the screen scrolls down again to reveal the remaining NOTES for Michele Bestman. Press the <^Home> key to move the highlighted area to the top of the screen (NOTE 1). Press the <up> key to scroll the screen down one line. When you have finished viewing Michele Bestman's grades and NOTES, press the <PgDn> key. GRADE GUIDE will move to the next student, Jane Gordon. Note that after pressing the <PgDn> key, the highlighted area is in the same location on the screen for Jane Gordon as it was for Michele Bestman. This feature makes it easy for you to check quickly one particular grade for each student. Move the highlighted area to the HOMEWORK 3 grade of Jane Gordon. Near the bottom of the screen there is an indicator telling you exactly where the highlighted area (the cursor) is located. Suppose that Jane Gordon has completed her HOMEWORK 3 assignment. Note that her current HOMEWORK TOTAL GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 17 is 13 and her current GRAND TOTAL is 95. Type 8 and press the <Enter> key. The grade changes from NONE to 8, the HOMEWORK total changes from 13 to 21, and the GRAND TOTAL changes from 95 to 103. Press the <PgDn> key to move to the next student or the <PgUp> key to move to the previous student. When you have finished viewing grades, press the <Esc> key to return to the DISPLAY/PRINT/CHANGE GRADES,NOTES menu. Again you get a prompt "Are you ready to return to the DISPLAY GRADES & NOTES MENU (Y/N) ?" Press the letter Y for yes. GRADE GUIDE gives you considerable variety in choosing what information is displayed on a report of students' grades. For example, press the letter D and the choice "D: list notes" selection changes from YES to NO. Now your grade lists will not display NOTES. Press the letter A so the grade report can be printed. Press the <Enter> key to print the grades. Notice that the report is listed on the printer just as it was on the screen except there are no NOTES since you told GRADE GUIDE not to print NOTES. Each report is separated by two lines. You will find the reports easy to cut apart and hand out to students in your class. A paper cutter will help to do the cutting very quickly. Press the <Esc> key to return to the MAIN MENU. >>>Accessing Help Throughout GRADE GUIDE you have seen the message that the <F1> key can provide help. The help is context sensitive, which means no matter what you are doing when you press the <F1> key, the help information displayed pertains to the activity that you are currently doing. For example, you are now viewing the MAIN MENU. To see the help information about the MAIN MENU Options, press the <F1> key. GRADE GUIDE displays a screen full of information about the various options on the MAIN MENU screen. You can use the <up> and <down> keys and the <PgUp> and <PgDn> keys to go back and forth to see all the information available concerning the MAIN MENU. Press the <F1> key again. GRADE GUIDE displays an index of all available help information. The highlighted area shows that you are currently viewing help concerning the MAIN MENU. If you wish to see help on any other topic, use the cursor keys (<up> <down> <left> <right>) to move the highlighted area to the name of another help topic. Then press the <F1> key to view the help information. When you have finished using the help facility, press the <Esc> key to return to the point where you asked for help, the MAIN MENU. >>>A Statistical Review How are your students doing as a class? Let us take a look at all ten GRAND TOTAL calculations for the ten students in the class. Press the letter K to access the statistical routines of GRADE GUIDE. The program displays the DISPLAY/PRINT CLASS STATISTICS menu which shows 10 choices A, B, C, ...J, with <Esc>, <F1>, and <Enter>. To see a statistical review of the ten GRAND TOTAL grades for the class, press the <Enter> key. The first screen displayed gives eight standard descriptive statistics for the set of GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 18 ten GRAND TOTAL grades including the maximum value, the minimum value, the maximum possible, the mean value, median value, and the standard deviation. Press the <PgDn> key to see the next portion of the report. Displayed are the ten GRAND TOTAL scores sorted in ascending order. Also given is the Z- score associated with each GRAND TOTAL value. The Z-score is a measure of the number of standard deviations a data item is from the mean data value. Some teachers use these values to determine a class curve. Press the <PgDn> key again to see the last portion of the report, a chart called a histogram. This shows a picture of how the ten GRAND TOTAL scores are distributed. The histogram is a useful tool when the class size is large, because it shows at a glance the range of values and which values are the most common or most unusual. You can use the <PgUp> and <PgDn> keys to go back and forth between these three parts of the statistics report. When you have finished viewing the statistics report, press the <Esc> key to return to the DISPLAY/PRINT CLASS STATISTICS menu. You just saw GRADE GUIDE calculate a statistical report based on a combination of all the grades, the GRAND TOTAL. You also can get a statistical report based on all the grades in one category or based on just one grade. Press the letter D twice so the "D: statistics for" menu choice reads 1 CATEGORY. Let us get a statistical report of the ten students' HOMEWORK TOTALS. Menu choice H displays the choice of category, TEST. Press the letter H to change the category. Again a pop-up menu showing the established categories appears. Press the letter B to choose the category HOMEWORK. Press the <Enter> key to generate the report. Again you can use the <PgUp> and <PgDn> keys to view the three parts of the reports. Press the <Esc> key to return to the DISPLAY/PRINT CLASS STATISTICS menu. Press the <Esc> key again to return to the MAIN MENU. >>>A Roster Listing Now you can create another report that gives you a class list along with your students' grades and averages. Press the letter L to access GRADE GUIDE's roster listing feature. The program displays the DISPLAY/PRINT CLASS ROSTER menu. Press the letter K to set the roster format. The program displays the SET ROSTER FORMAT menu. Here is where you can tell GRADE GUIDE what entries you want to appear on each line of your roster listing report. Let us create a report where each line shows a line number, a student's name, the student's TEST 1 grade, the student's HOMEWORK average, and the student's GRAND TOTAL. To make the first roster entry the LINE NUMBER, press the letter A. To make the second entry the student's name, press the letter B. To make the third entry the TEST 1 grade, press the letter E for 1 GRADE. GRADE GUIDE responds by displaying a pop-up menu from which you can choose a category. Press the letter A to choose the TEST category. Since there is only one grade in the TEST category, GRADE GUIDE knows you want the TEST 1 grade. Now it needs to know how to display the TEST 1 grade, so GRADE GUIDE displays another pop-up menu giving a choice of six different display formats. Press the letter A for listing the TEST 1 grade's value. GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 19 To make the fourth entry the HOMEWORK average, press the letter F for 1 CATEGORY. Choose HOMEWORK from the pop-up menu list of categories by pressing B. Again there is a pop-up menu list of formats; this time there are seven choices. Press the letter B for Average. To make the fifth and final entry the GRAND TOTAL, press the letter G for ALL GRADES. Choose the format Total by pressing A. Now the roster entries look like this .................................. : ENTRIES YOU HAVE CHOSEN : : Entry Spaces : : Number Before Information : : 1 0 LINE NUMBER : : 2 2 NAME : : 3 2 TEST 1 : : 4 2 HOMEWORK AVERAGE : : 5 2 GRAND TOTAL : : 6 : : 7 : :................................: The "Spaces Before" column shows how many blanks GRADE GUIDE will put just ahead of each roster entry when the roster report is printed. By default, GRADE GUIDE puts two blanks between each entry. You can change this spacing. For example, press the <up> key twice so the highlighted entry number is 4. Press the <right> key three times. This increases the "Spaces Before" column from 2 to 5. This will add more space on the printout between the TEST 1 grade and the HOMEWORK AVERAGE. Press the <Esc> key to end entering roster entries. Press the letter Y to answer the prompt "Is this roster format correct (Y/N) ?" When GRADE GUIDE prints a roster report, it can list the students in many different orders. For example, it can list the students alphabetically by name or alphabetically by alias. It also can list the students in an order determined by one of the entry columns of the roster. On the screen now is a menu from which you can choose two of the entry columns which could serve as the entries determining the students' order. Press the letter A to set the first of these sort entries. Type 5 and press the <Enter> key to set sort entry 1 to the fifth roster entry, GRAND TOTAL. Press the letter C to indicate that you want the entry sorted in DECREASING order. Now press the <Esc> key to return to the "DISPLAY/PRINT CLASS ROSTER" menu. Now you are ready to list the class roster. Notice that menu choice E "sort list by" shows "SE 1." This means that GRADE GUIDE is ready to sort the roster by the sort entry number 1 which you just set to be the GRAND TOTAL. Press the <Enter> key to generate the roster report. The following is displayed. GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 20 .................................................... : LI CHAPT : : NE . 1 S HOMEWORK GRAND : : # NAME ep 14 % TOT : : : : 1 Johnson, William 97 A 97.50 136.00 : : 2 Smith, Timothy 104 A 77.50 135.00 : : 3 Lake, Marcia 94 A 77.50 125.00 : : 4 Wilson, Bradley 92 B 93.33 120.00 : : 5 Bestman, Michele 91 B 72.50 120.00 : : : : 6 Olson, Brenda 90 B 72.50 119.00 : : 7 Van Zander, Sandra 83 C 72.50 112.00 : : 8 Jones, Paul 85 C 90.00 112.00 : : 9 Gordon, Jane 82 C 70.00 103.00 : : 10 O'Brian, Greg 74 F 70.00 102.00 : : ------------------------------------------------ : : POSSIBLE 100 100.00 140.00 : : MAXIMUM 104 97.50 136.00 : : MINIMUM 74 70.00 102.00 : : MEAN 89.20 79.33 118.40 : : ST. DEV. 8.52 10.33 11.65 : :..................................................: Notice the order of the students. The GRAND TOTAL column is in decreasing order. Notice also the extra spacing between the TEST 1 grades and the HOMEWORK averages. Each column has a column title. GRADE GUIDE has placed the titles there the best it can given the room available. Notice that it had no trouble writing out the word "HOMEWORK" in the fourth title. This is because you added some extra spacing before that column. You could, if you wanted to, return to the "SET ROSTER FORMAT" menu and increase the amount of space between some of the other columns. That would allow more room for the titles. Notice also that the three columns of numbers have some statistics listed below them. This is done for each of the number columns (except for LINE NUMBER, of course.) Press the <Esc> key to return to the "DISPLAY/PRINT CLASS ROSTER" menu. To get a roster listing sorted alphabetically by student name, press the letter E three times. Then press the <Enter> key to display the roster listing. If the time has come to assign final grades in a course, you may wish to get a listing of all your students' grades with MAIN MENU Option H, get a listing of the maximum possible scores and grade cutoffs with MAIN MENU Option I, and get one or more statistical reports using MAIN MENU Option K. Together, these lists will give you as much information as possible to aid in your final grade assignments. Press the <Esc> key three times to return to the FILE MENU. Press the <Esc> key one more time to exit GRADE GUIDE. The program will prompt you with "Do you want to quit GRADE GUIDE (Y/N) ?" Press the letter Y to exit. GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 21 There are several example files distributed with GRADE GUIDE. EXAMPLE1.GRD and EXAMPLE2.GRD are class files which you can look at as examples of how your classes can be set up. There are two example files of the type "GEN" which can be used to generated new grades based on the values of old grades. (See "Generating New Grades" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") There are two example files of the type "ROS" containing roster report formats. (See "Roster Reports" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") There are two example files of the type "SEL" containing selection criteria. (See "Selecting Students" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") Finally, there are several example files of the type "LTR" containing form letters. (See "Writing Letters" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 22 CHAPTER 3 -- BASICS >>>Menu System GRADE GUIDE is a menu driven program. This means that whenever it is time for you to choose the next step you want the program to perform, all available options are displayed on the computer screen. You can select the next choice by pressing the appropriate keyboard key or by clicking the button of a mouse. Often selecting one choice from a menu will cause the program to display a second menu. When you have completed work with the second menu, GRADE GUIDE will return to the original menu. You can always quit working with any menu by pressing the <Esc> key. The <Esc> key returns you each time to the previous menu. The <Enter> key is often used to continue with the main processing at a menu. When GRADE GUIDE begins running, it displays an introduction screen that gives the name of the program, documentation information, copyright, and licensing instructions. Pressing the <Enter> key clears that screen and presents the FILE MENU. That menu allows you to choose which class to consider and lets you perform some basic file manipulations. From the FILE MENU you can proceed to the MAIN MENU (FILE MENU Option C) to perform the main gradebook operations with the chosen class. From the FILE MENU you can also proceed to the DEFAULT MENU (FILE MENU Option D) to change settings which allow you to tailor the program to your own grading style. The FILE MENU, the MAIN MENU, and the DEFAULT MENU are each covered in detail in individual chapters of this instruction manual. Most of the selections that you can make while viewing the MAIN MENU or DEFAULT MENU cause GRADE GUIDE to display another menu. The format of those menus is usually similar. The top portion of the menu displays a list of letters beginning A, B, C, .... Each letter represents a menu switch which determines how GRADE GUIDE is going to perform an activity. You choose to change one of the switches by pressing the letter key (upper case or lower case) for that switch. When you have finished setting the switches the way you want, you can press the <Enter> key to proceed with the processing or press the <Esc> key to quit processing and return to the previous menu. The values of all of the menu switches are saved along with the grading information for your class in a class file. These menus are all written in the same format. At the left of the screen is a list of letters each followed by a description of the corresponding menu entry. In the center of the screen is a list of the menu switches currently chosen for the various menu entries. On the right side of the screen there is often a list of the possible choices for that menu entry. When the list of choices is small (for example, sometimes the choices are just "YES" and "NO"), pressing the keyboard letter corresponding to the menu choice changes the value of the choice (for example, from "YES" to "NO.") When the list of possible values is not small (for example, any number between 0 and 250), pressing the keyboard letter corresponding to the menu choice allows you to enter the value you want. GRADE GUIDE often displays a message bar occupying the bottom three lines of the screen. This bar displays messages, asks you to enter needed GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 23 information, warns you about unusual situations, or just reminds you about various keyboard keys you can use. Get use to watching this message bar. When GRADE GUIDE needs you to select an item from a small list of items (for example, to choose an archived file or a particular grade), it often will display a pop-up menu. The menu lists the ten letters A, B, C, ...J on its left side. There are three ways to select an item from the pop-up menu. If the item you want is displayed as one of the ten choices, you can press the keyboard letter corresponding to the line where your choice is listed. One of the menu choices is always highlighted. You can use the <up> and <down> keys as well as the <PgUp> and <PgDn> keys to change which choice is highlighted. (See "Keyboard Use" in the next section.) If you press the <Enter> key, the highlighted choice is selected. You can also select choices by using a mouse input device. (See "Mouse Usage" later in this chapter.) To indicate how far into the list of choices the highlighted choice is, a scroll bar is displayed on the right side of the pop-up menu. The farther down the scroll bar indicator is, the closer the highlighted choice is to the end of the list. >>>Keyboard Usage When entering information from the keyboard in GRADE GUIDE, a highlighted area is displayed on the screen showing you where to enter the information. Sometimes, the displayed area already has a value in it for you to accept or change. If the first key you press is a character (for example, a letter, a digit, or punctuation), the displayed field vanishes and your new character appears. On the other hand, if the first key you press is an editing key (cursor key, <Home>, <End>, and so forth), the previously displayed value will remain, and you can change it by inserting or deleting characters. While editing a highlighted area you can use the following keyboard keys: ......................................................................... : KEY : USAGE : :................:......................................................: : right or F9 : move the cursor one character to the right : :................:......................................................: : left or F10 : move the cursor one character to the left : :................:......................................................: : HOME or F7 : move the cursor to the first character in the field : :................:......................................................: : END or F8 : move the cursor to the last character in the field : :................:......................................................: : Backspace : delete the character to the left of the cursor : :................:......................................................: : Del : delete the character at the cursor : :................:......................................................: : F2 : clear the entire field : :................:......................................................: : Enter : accept the field entry : :................:......................................................: GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 24 The <Esc> key also will cause the program to accept the current value. When entering numbers, pressing the space bar is equivalent to pressing the <Enter> key. When editing lists of students' names, NOTES, or grades, you can move the cursor from one field to another by using the following keys. Here the character ^ appearing before a key name refers to a key being pressed while holding down the <Ctrl> key. For example, to press the <^PgUp> key, hold down the <Ctrl> key while pressing the <PgUp> key. ......................................................................... : KEY : USAGE : :....................:..................................................: : ^right or Tab : move the cursor to the next field to the right : :....................:..................................................: : ^left or Back-Tab : move the cursor to the previous field : :....................:..................................................: : up or F5 : move the cursor up one line : :....................:..................................................: : down or F6 : move the cursor down one line : :....................:..................................................: : ^Home : move the cursor to the top of the screen or : : : to the top of the previous screen if at top : :....................:..................................................: : ^End : move the cursor to the bottom of the screen or : : : to the bottom of the next screen if at bottom : :....................:..................................................: : PgUp or F3 : move back to the previous screen or the previous : : : student when entering or viewing grades : :....................:..................................................: : PgDn or F4 : move forward to the next screen or the next : : : student when entering or viewing grades : :....................:..................................................: : ^PgUp : move to the very first item listed : :....................:..................................................: : ^PgDn : move to the very last item listed : :....................:..................................................: The <^Break> key (the key obtained by holding down the <Ctrl> key while pressing the <Break> key) has a special function in GRADE GUIDE. If you press <^Break>, GRADE GUIDE will stop what it is doing and give you the option to halt the program, returning you to DOS. It will also give you the option to perform a "jump to DOS" which temporarily suspends GRADE GUIDE execution and allows you to execute DOS commands such as FORMAT, DIR, or execute another program. When you have finished executing DOS commands, you can type EXIT and GRADE GUIDE will begin running where it left off. Note that the <^C> key usually functions in the same way as the <^Break> key. If you press <^Break> while working with a class, GRADE GUIDE will display the name of the file and give you the option to save the class information to a class file. GRADE GUIDE automatically saves your class file whenever you stop processing a class by returning to the FILE MENU from the MAIN MENU. It also automatically saves your class file every ten minutes while you are working with the class. The <^Break> key just gives you a chance GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 25 to save the class file at other times. Note that you can change the time interval between GRADE GUIDE's automatic attempts to save your class file. (See "Default Drives, Directories, and Back-up" in the chapter "DEFAULT MENU.") >>>Mouse Usage If your computer has a mouse input device installed and you move the mouse, GRADE GUIDE will sense the mouse's presence and display a rectangular mouse cursor on the screen. There are several different uses of the mouse. First, you can make selections from any menu by moving the mouse cursor to the letter labeling the menu choice and clicking any mouse button. This has the same effect as pressing the corresponding keyboard letter key. You can also click the mouse while the mouse cursor is on the listing of that menu entry choice in the center column on the screen. For example, if a menu entry has the three options "SCREEN," "PRINTER," and "FILE," and "SCREEN" is the currently displayed choice, clicking a mouse button while the mouse cursor is on the displayed option "SCREEN" switches the choice to the next option, "PRINTER." Second, if you wish to select one of several options in a list of options for a menu entry, you can move the mouse cursor to the option you wish to choose and click any mouse button. For example, if the three options are "SCREEN," "PRINTER," and "FILE," locating the mouse cursor at "FILE" in the list of options and clicking a mouse button changes the current selection to "FILE." Third, if you are editing a highlighted area on the screen, you can move the cursor within the highlighted area by moving the mouse cursor to the desired position and clicking any mouse button. Clicking the right mouse button is equivalent to pressing the <Enter> key. Fourth, instead of using the cursor keys (<up>, <down>, <^left>, and so forth) to move a highlighted area around the screen, you could move the mouse cursor to the location you want to be the highlighted area and click a mouse button. Fifth, if you need to make a choice from a pop-up menu, you can use the mouse to aid your selection. If you move the mouse cursor to the choice you want on the pop-up menu and press a mouse button, the highlighted choice moves to that selection. If the button you pressed is the RIGHT mouse button (rather than the LEFT or CENTER mouse button), the highlighted choice will not only move, but you will select that choice without having to press the <Enter> key. If you move the mouse cursor to the scroll bar and click a mouse button above the scroll bar indicator, the pop-up menu choices will scroll upward. Similarly, if you click a mouse button while the mouse cursor is on the scroll bar below the scroll bar indicator, the pop-up menu choices will scroll downward. Finally, if the name of any cursor key, function key, or letter key appears on the screen, moving the mouse cursor to the key's name and clicking any mouse button has the same effect as pressing the corresponding keyboard key. GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 26 If you have a mouse input device but do not want GRADE GUIDE to use the mouse, you can turn off the mouse. You can also change the mouse button having the roll of "choose and select" from a pop-up menu choice. If you would prefer to have the LEFT mouse button serve that roll rather than the RIGHT, that can be changed. (See "Defaults for Drives, Directories, Back- ups and Mouse" in the chapter "DEFAULT MENU.") >>>Students The maximum number of students GRADE GUIDE can store in one class is determined by your computer's internal memory. The number of students allowed will vary with the number of grades and NOTES stored. On a system with 640K internal memory, GRADE GUIDE would have no trouble storing a class containing 1200 students. Classes with only a few grades per student could easily be much larger. Each student in your class can be given a NAME up to 20 characters in length. The student also can be assigned an ALIAS up to 12 characters in length. Student ID numbers, nick names, or even student chosen secret identifying names are commonly used for the ALIAS. One advantage of entering students' ALIASES is that they enable you to list students' grades by ALIAS rather than by name. Some teachers prefer listing students' grades by ALIAS so that the grade lists can be posted without permitting any student to learn the grades of another student. Note that when GRADE GUIDE sorts students by ALIAS, it does it alphabetically and not numerically. This means that the ALIAS "10" would appear before the ALIAS "2", since the character "1" comes before the character "2" when sorting alphabetically. This problem can be avoided by arranging for all ALIASES to have the same length. For example, the ALIAS "02" would appear before the ALIAS "10". No two students may be given the exact same NAME and the same ALIAS, but two students could have the same NAME with different ALIASES or different NAMES with the same ALIASES. You can instruct GRADE GUIDE to prevent two students from sharing the same NAME or sharing the same ALIAS. This can be important in some applications. (See "Reading Grades from Files" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") The word "ALIAS" can be changed in the program so it is displayed with another word of your choice such as "ID" or "STUD#." (See "Output Defaults" in the chapter "DEFAULT MENU.") Students can also be assigned SECTION NUMBERS. When students are entered into a class, they are automatically sorted in alphabetical order within their SECTION. For example, if you are teaching three sections of GEOGRAPHY, say section 3, section 5, and section 13, you can store the students from all three sections together in one class. If you enter the correct SECTION NUMBER for each student, when listing students, GRADE GUIDE will list all the students in section 3 in alphabetical order followed by the students in section 5 in alphabetical order and, finally, the students in section 13 in alphabetical order. If you would prefer all the students being listed in one alphabetical list, then all of your students should be given the same SECTION NUMBER (for example, 1). Their true section number could be recorded in a NOTE if the information is needed. The only reason to use the SECTION NUMBER is to force students to be listed in groups by section number. GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 27 The SECTION NUMBER can be used to force GRADE GUIDE to alphabetize students in a specific order. For example, suppose you have a student adding your class late. In a traditional gradebook you would place that student at the bottom of your class list. By assigning that student a very large SECTION NUMBER, you could force that student to be placed after all the other students with smaller SECTION NUMBERS. It is helpful to enter each student's name either in the form of last name followed by a comma followed by first name, or in the form of last name followed by a space followed by first name. If this is done, GRADE GUIDE can determine the first and last names of each student. This may be important to you if you plan to have GRADE GUIDE write letters to students or parents using MAIN MENU Option M where you can specifically ask to list a students' first or last name. When you have finished entering the new names, press the <Esc> key. In GRADE GUIDE you can enter new students into a class assigning them NAMES, ALIASES, and SECTION NUMBERS by using MAIN MENU Option A. You can display or change NAMES, ALIASES, and SECTION NUMBERS by using MAIN MENU Option G. GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 28 >>>Grade Types GRADE GUIDE provides eight different formats for storing grades. These are: ........................................................................... : GRADE TYPE : DESCRIPTION : :................:........................................................: : LETTER : for standard letters A B C D F as well as the + and - : : : grades A+ A- B+ B- C+ C- D+ D- F+ F- and the half way : : : grades of AB BC CD DF : :................:........................................................: : WHOLE : for whole number grades with no fractions, ranging from: : : a low of 0 to a high of 250, such as 0 9 12 100 150 212: :................:........................................................: : WHOLE-CUTOFF : for whole number grades which can be associated with a : : : letter A B C D F : :................:........................................................: : DECIMAL1 : for number grades with one decimal place to the right : : : of the decimal point, ranging from a low of 0.0 to a : : : high of 5000.0, such as 1.5 29.8 97.3 521.0 2500.0 : :................:........................................................: : DECIAML1-CUTOFF: for number grades with one decimal place to the right : : : of the decimal point, which can be associated with a : : : letter A B C D F : :................:........................................................: : DECIMAL2 : for number grades with two decimal place to the right : : : of the decimal point, ranging from a low of 0.00 to a : : : high of 500.00, such as 5.62 10.00 97.75 348.50 : :................:........................................................: : DECIMAL2-CUTOFF: for number grades with two decimal places to the right : : : of the decimal point, which can be associated with a : : : letter A B C D F : :................:........................................................: : WORD GRADE : for grades which are displayed as words from a list of : : : up to ten words which you supply such as ABSENT PRESENT: :................:........................................................: When entering grades with cutoffs (WHOLE-CUTOFF, DECIMAL1-CUTOFF, or DECIMAL2-CUTOFF), GRADE GUIDE lets you specify which number values correspond to the lowest A score, the lowest B score, the lowest C score, and the lowest D score. Then, whenever the grades are displayed, the number score is given followed by the letter grade which corresponds to that number score. Note that each LETTER, WHOLE, and WHOLE-CUTOFF grade requires only half the computer memory that a DECIMAL1, DECIMAL1-CUTOFF, DECIMAL2, or DECIMAL2- CUTOFF grade requires. Each WORD GRADE requires only half the computer memory that a LETTER, WHOLE, or WHOLE-CUTOFF grade requires. In addition, DECIMAL1-CUTOFF and DECIMAL2-CUTOFF grades require significantly more space to print when grades are listed. You might consider these facts when deciding which grade type to choose. When establishing a category of WORD GRADES, you can enter a list of up to ten seven-character words which can be used when assigning grades in that GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 29 category. GRADE GUIDE treats WORD GRADES differently than other grade types. With most grade types, you would likely print a list showing all of a student's grades. That is not always the case with WORD GRADES. For example, by the end of a year a student might have 142 ATTENDANCE grades. You probably would like a table showing how many ABSENT and how many PRESENT grades have been assigned rather than a list of all the 142 grades. Only if you need to check exactly which days the student was absent from class would you need to see a list of all the ATTENDANCE grades. For this reason GRADE GUIDE supplies an option to SUPPRESS listings of WORD GRADES. When the SUPPRESS option is selected, listings of WORD GRADES are handled differently than when the SUPPRESS option is not selected. When WORD GRADES are listed, GRADE GUIDE not only prints a list of all of the assigned grades, it lists COUNTS, that is, the number of times each grade was assigned. At the time that you tell GRADE GUIDE the list of up to ten words that are to be used as WORD GRADES, you also can tell GRADE GUIDE how to handle the listing of grades and COUNTS when the SUPPRESS option is chosen. (See "Establishing New Categories" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") GRADE GUIDE also treats WORD GRADES in a special way when you enter a grade of that type. To enter a WORD GRADE value, all you need to do is type the beginning of the word in the WORD GRADE list. You must type only as many characters of the word as are needed for GRADE GUIDE to recognize which of the words in the WORD GRADE list you want. For example, if the list is ABSENT and PRESENT, all you need to enter is an A or P. GRADE GUIDE will fill in the remainder of the word for you. After GRADE GUIDE has chosen the word for you, if you see that you have chosen the wrong word, you can start typing the correct word from the beginning of the word. For example, if you type A and GRADE GUIDE fills in the field as ABSENT for you, you could type a P. Then the word "ABSENT" would disappear and "PRESENT" would appear. Also, if you type some characters which are not part of any word in the list, or if you press the <Ins> key, a pop-up menu appears on the screen from which you can choose any of the words from the WORD GRADE list or one of the NONE grades. All grades in GRADE GUIDE are assigned numeric values for the purpose of calculating totals and averages. Each LETTER grade is assigned a percentage score, for example, A is set to be worth 95%, B to be worth 85%, and so forth. GRADE GUIDE lets you change these percentage values on the DEFAULT MENU. (See "Defaults for Grade Calculations" in the chapter "DEFAULT MENU.") Each word in the list of WORD GRADES is associated with a numeric value at the time the list of WORD GRADES in entered. (See "Establishing New Categories" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") When GRADE GUIDE produces reports, you can often tell the program to list specific grades or averages in a LETTER grade format even if the grade or average is not a letter grade. To do this, GRADE GUIDE must be able to convert numeric values into LETTER grades. For example, the range of percentage values from 96.667% to 100.000% is assigned the LETTER grade A+; the range of percentage values from 93.333% to 96.667% is assigned the LETTER grade A; and so forth. You can specify what range of percentages values you want associated with each LETTER grade on the DEFAULT MENU. (See "Defaults for Grade Calculations" in the chapter "DEFAULT MENU.") When you do convert grades or averages to a LETTER grade, there are always three formats from which to choose, LETTER, LETTER+-, and LETTER1/2. When GRADE GUIDE assigns grades with the LETTER format, it only uses the pure GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 30 letter grades of A, B, C, D, and F. When it assigns grades with the LETTER+- format, it can also use the letter grades with pluses and minuses such as A+ and C-. When it assigns grades with the LETTER1/2 format, it can use the pure letter grades along with the half way grades of AB, BC, CD, and DF. >>>Categories Categories in GRADE GUIDE are used to separate different types of grades so that they can be stored in different formats and treated differently when averaged. For example, you might have categories named TEST, HOMEWORK, PROJECT, ATTENDANCE, QUIZ, READ SPEED, READ COMPREHENSION, TERM GRADE or FINAL GRADE. Into each category you can enter up to 200 grades. Since GRADE GUIDE allows up to 30 categories, you can store up to 6000 grades for every student. Most teachers will find that they need to set up only a few categories (between two and six, for example). The major exception is elementary school teachers who typically teach several different subjects and need to establish more than one category for each subject. All grades entered into one category must have the same grade type. (See "Grade Types" in the previous section.) GRADE GUIDE can calculate the total and average of all grades entered into one category. It can also combine all categories together to form a GRAND TOTAL and GRAND AVERAGE. Many teachers like to assign a course grade by assigning a fixed portion of the grade to tests, another percentage to homework, and another to a project, final examination, or even attendance. GRADE GUIDE handles this type of grade combining for you automatically. When you set up a category, you can tell GRADE GUIDE what percentage of the GRAND AVERAGE will be derived from that category. (See "Averages" later in this chapter.) A category can either be LABELED or NOT LABELED. If a category is LABELED, you will be able to assign a 16 character label to each grade that you enter into that category. Labels provide a description of what the grade was for and can make listings of grades easier to understand. Also, if you need to select one grade out of a category of grades, and the category is LABELED, GRADE GUIDE will display a pop-up menu listing the labels of the grades from which you can choose the grade you need. The main disadvantage of using LABELED categories is that LABELED categories take up more memory space and require you to enter more information. If you do not expect to use labeling, you should make the categories NOT LABELED. GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 31 ........................................................................... : Here is an example of how a teacher might set up categories for a class.: : : : CATEGORY NAME GRADE TYPE % OF GRAND AVERAGE LABELED : : TESTS WHOLE-CUTOFF 50.000% YES : : HOMEWORK DECIMAL1 20.000% NO : : PROJECTS LETTER 10.000% YES : : FINAL EXAM WHOLE-CUTOFF 20.000% NO : : ATTENDANCE WORD GRADE 0.000% YES : : : : Perhaps, at the end of the course, this class will have 4 TEST grades, : : 15 HOMEWORK grades, 3 PROJECT grades, 1 FINAL EXAM grade, and 45 : : ATTENDANCE grades. This teacher intends to label the TEST grades with : : the text book chapters covered on each test, label the PROJECTS to : : indicate the project title, and label the ATTENDANCE grades with the : : dates of the classes. Also, this teacher does not want ATTENDANCE : : grades to count as part of a student's course grade and has assigned : : that category to be 0.0 percent of the grade. : :.........................................................................: In GRADE GUIDE you establish new categories using MAIN MENU Option C. (See "Establishing New Categories" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") You can view or change category information using MAIN MENU Option J. (See "Displaying and Changing Categories" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") You can eliminate a category or eliminate all of the grades stored in a category using MAIN MENU Option F. (See "Dropping Categories" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") If you have a category where you give two grades for each assignment, you could establish two categories for those grades. For example, if you assign one grade for form and one for content, you can establish two categories such as THEME-form and THEME-content. Similarly, if you like to assign number grades and letter grades to the same assignment, and you do not assign letter grades strictly on the basis of a cutoff (that is, someone with a 93 gets a B while someone else with a 92 still gets an A), you can have two categories for those assignments, one for the number score and one for the letter score. >>>NONE Grades If you need to enter a grade for a student, but that student has not yet completed the work required to receive a grade, GRADE GUIDE allows you to enter a NONE grade for that student. In fact GRADE GUIDE gives you five different words that can be used as NONE grades. If GRADE GUIDE encounters a NONE grade when calculating an average of grades, it can either assign the grade a value of zero, or it could ignore the grade and calculate the average as if that grade had never been assigned. The method of evaluation used depends on which of the five NONE grade words was assigned. Each of the five NONE grade words is set always to be evaluated ZERO, always IGNORED, or OPTIONAL. You determine whether OPTIONAL NONE grades are treated as ZERO or IGNORED grades whenever you list grade averages. The following is a list of the five NONE grades: GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 32 ..................... : NAME : USE : :........:..........: : NONE : optional : :........:..........: : ZERO : zero : :........:..........: : N/A : ignore : :........:..........: : DROP : ignore : :........:..........: : : zero : :........:..........: When NONE grades are displayed, these words are displayed in place of a normal grade. Notice that the fifth NONE grade has a blank name. If that NONE word is used, a blank will appear where the normal grade would have appeared. Both the list of five NONE names and uses can be set by you on the DEFAULT MENU. (See "Defaults for Grade Calculations" in the chapter "DEFAULT MENU.") Whenever you enter or change grades in GRADE GUIDE, you can enter a NONE grade instead of a normal grade. There are two ways to do this. If you simply leave the new grade blank, GRADE GUIDE will automatically assign the first of the five NONE grades as the grade. If you wish to select one of the five NONE grades to assign, just press the slash key, / , and a menu will appear from which you can select which of the five NONE grades to use. >>>Averages GRADE GUIDE calculates three types of numeric averages: percentage values for an individual grade, an average of all the grades within a given category, and a GRAND AVERAGE which combines together all of a student's grades from each of the categories. Whenever a numeric grade is entered, GRADE GUIDE sets a MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE for that grade. This MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE is used to calculate a percentage equivalent for each grade you enter. For example, if you enter a new grade of type WHOLE and stipulate a MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE of 50, a student who receives a grade of 45 will have a percentage score of 90% = 45 / 50 * 100%. When setting up a category of WORD GRADES, you specify a numeric value for each of the words in the list of up to ten WORD GRADES. You also specify a MAXIMUM VALUE. This allows GRADE GUIDE to calculate a percentage value for each WORD GRADE you assign. Each LETTER grade is associated with a percentage value according to the following chart: GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 33 .................................................................. : A 95.000% : A+ 98.333% : A- 91.667% : AB 90.000% : :..............:................:................:...............: : B 85.000% : B+ 88.333% : B- 81.667% : BC 80.000% : :..............:................:................:...............: : C 75.000% : C+ 78.333% : C- 71.667% : CD 70.000% : :..............:................:................:...............: : D 65.000% : D+ 68.333% : D- 61.667% : DF 60.000% : :..............:................:................:...............: : F 55.000% : F+ 58.333% : F- 51.667% : : :..............:................:................:...............: The percentages in this table can be changed by you on the DEFAULT MENU. (See "Defaults for Grade Calculations" in the chapter "DEFAULT MENU.") To find the average of all the grades in a given category, GRADE GUIDE calculates the sum of all the grades in the category as well as the sum of all MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORES in the category. The ratio of these two sums gives the category average. ........................................................................... : For example, suppose a category contained the following four grades: : : : : 40 out of a possible 50 90 out of a possible 100 : : 36 out of a possible 50 74 out of a possible 100 : : : : The category average would be the sum of the grades 40+36+90+74 = 240 : : divided by the sum of MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORES 50 + 50 + 100 + 100 = 300 : : giving an average of 240 / 300 = 80.0%. : : : : Here is an example with a NONE grade: : : : : 40 out of a possible 50 90 out of a possible 100 : : NONE out of a possible 50 74 out of a possible 100 : : : : If the NONE grade were given a value of zero, the category average : : would be (40+0+90+74) / (50+50+100+100) = 204 / 300 = 68.0%. : : : : If the NONE grade were ignored, the category average would be : : (40 + 90 + 74) / (50 + 100 + 100) = 204 / 250 = 81.6%. : :.........................................................................: The MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE for a grade need not determine how much influence that grade has on the category average. For example, you might have a category of tests all having a MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE of 100 points. If one of the tests was a final examination, you might want to make the final examination worth twice as much as (have twice as much influence on the category averages as) any one of the other tests. For a second example, you might have a category of quiz grades with one quiz having a MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE of 20 points while the other quiz grades have a MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE of 10 points each. You might want each of the quizzes to be worth the same amount (have the same influence on the category average) even though they have differing MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORES. You can change the influences of individual grades by assigning a GRADE WEIGHT to each grade. GRADE GUIDE automatically enters a GRADE WEIGHT of 1.000 to each new grade. You have the option of changing the GRADE WEIGHT GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 34 to another value. In the example of needing a final examination grade worth twice the weight of other grades, the final examination could be given a GRADE WEIGHT of 2.000. In the example of a quiz having a MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE of twice the value of other quizzes, the unusual quiz could be given a GRADE WEIGHT of 0.500 (one half.) GRADE WEIGHTS are set when new grades are entered using MAIN MENU Option B and can be changed using MAIN MENU Option I. (See "Entering New Grades" and "Displaying and Changing Limits, Weights, and Labels" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") ........................................................................ : For example, consider the following category of four grades: : : : : 40 out of 50 with weight 2.000 90 out of 100 with weight 1.000 : : 36 out of 50 with weight 2.000 74 out of 100 with weight 1.000 : : : : The category average would be : : (40*2 + 36*2 + 90 + 74)/(50*2 + 50*2 + 100 + 100) = 316/400 = 79.0%. : :......................................................................: Category averages are combined to form the GRAND AVERAGE using the category percentages as discussed earlier. (See "Categories" earlier in this chapter.) The percentages you assign all the categories need not add up to 100%. If they do not, GRADE GUIDE adjusts them for you when it needs them. If all of the category percentages you enter are 0.000%, then GRADE GUIDE will calculate the GRAND AVERAGE without weighting the different categories. Instead it calculates the GRAND AVERAGE on a basis of the total number of points accumulated. (That is, GRAND AVERAGE = total points accumulated divided by the total number of points possible.) Even if your category percentages are not all zero, you can force GRADE GUIDE to calculate the GRAND AVERAGE on a total accumulated points basis by setting a switch on the DEFAULT MENU. (See "Defaults for GRADE Calculations" in the chapter "DEFAULT MENU.") .................................................................... : For example, with the following categories : : : : CATEGORY NAME % OF GRAND AVERAGE CATEGORY AVERAGE : : TESTS 50.000% 90.000% : : HOMEWORK 20.000% 100.000% : : PROJECTS 10.000% 87.000% : : FINAL EXAM 20.000% 92.000% : : ATTENDANCE 0.000% 95.000% : : : : the GRAND AVERAGE would be : : (90*50% + 100*20% + 87*10% + 92*20% + 95*0%) / 100% = 92.1%. : :..................................................................: >>>NOTES A NOTE is just a string of text information of up to 75 characters in length. Each student can be assigned up to 20 NOTES referred to as NOTE 1, NOTE 2, and so forth. NOTES are commonly used for students' addresses, parents' names, project title, behavior information, special comments about progress in the class, or NOTES to yourself about your future plans for a student. Teachers who have students whose names run longer than the 20 GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 35 characters allowed in the students' NAME will find it convenient to store each student's full name in a NOTE. This NOTE can be listed instead of the student's abbreviated NAME on any GRADE GUIDE report. On GRADE GUIDE reports you can choose which of the 20 NOTES should appear, so it is advantageous to decide which NOTES will represent which pieces of information. For example, for each student you could let NOTE 1 represent the student's address, NOTE 2 represent the student's project title, and NOTES 19 and 20 represent your secret plans for how to handle the student's behavior problems. You can enter NOTES using MAIN MENU Options B or H and list NOTES using MAIN MENU Options H, L, and M. >>>Help GRADE GUIDE provides a context sensitive help facility. If you press the <F1> key any time when the program is operating, the screen will fill with instructions pertaining to the feature of GRADE GUIDE you are currently using. While the help instructions are being displayed, you can press the <F1> key a second time to view an index of all available help topics. Using the cursor control keys, you can move a highlighted area on the screen to any help topic. Pressing the <F1> key or the <Enter> key will cause GRADE GUIDE to list the information for the highlighted help topic. Pressing the <Esc> key while using the help facility returns you to what you were previously doing with GRADE GUIDE. For the help facility to work, the GRADEGID.HLP file must be stored in the same directory as your GRADEGID.OVR file or in a different directory specified on the DEFAULT MENU. If you are using a computer with one 360K floppy drive and no other disk drive, you can store your GRADEGID.HLP file on a different floppy disk. You must be sure to change disks immediately before pressing the <F1> key to access help. You must also be sure to change disks back when you have finished using help so the GRADEGID.OVR file is in the disk drive when you press the <Esc> key to return to GRADE GUIDE. >>>Reports GRADE GUIDE can produce a wide variety of reports. Any of the reports can be viewed on the screen, printed on a printer, or stored on a disk file. With MAIN MENU Option G you can get a list of your students' names, aliases, or both. Optionally, you can list their section numbers. While viewing the names, aliases, or section numbers on the screen, you can change them. While printing, you can produce a horizontal line following each student's name. This produces a grade sheet convenient for recording new grades before entering them into GRADE GUIDE. (See "Displaying and Changing Students" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") To see a list of students' grades and NOTES, use MAIN MENU Option H. When viewing students' grades on the screen, you can see and change one student's grades at a time. This makes it possible to show a student his or her grades without displaying the grades for other students. When printing students' grades, GRADE GUIDE can produce a report which can be GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 36 conveniently cut apart and given to students. (See "Displaying and Changing Grades and Notes" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") MAIN MENU Option I produces a report of the grade weights, maximum possible values, and labels that you have assigned to each of your grades. (See "Displaying and Changing Grade Weights, Limits, and Labels" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") MAIN MENU Option J produces a report of the categories you have established. (See "Displaying and Changing Categories" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") GRADE GUIDE has a powerful statistical reporting feature. With it you can analyze one grade, one category, or a combination of all grades. For example, you can analyze the grades you gave on EXAMINATION 1, look at the average HOMEWORK grade for all students, or see a chart showing all the students' GRAND AVERAGES. The statistical reports can be produced using MAIN MENU Option K. (See "Statistical Reports" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") Sometimes you need a report which lists only one line for each student. Such reports are convenient for comparing students or for posting printed lists of grades. GRADE GUIDE calls such reports roster listings and produces such reports with MAIN MENU Option L. (See "Roster Reports" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") GRADE GUIDE has a very flexible letter writing feature that can be used for sending letters to students or parents or for producing specially tailored reports. To create a letter, you first write a form letter which can contain some special codes. Each special code instructs GRADE GUIDE to insert some information like a student's name, grade, average, or NOTE into the form letter. In this way you can produce a letter or special report for each student in your class with a minimum effort. You can produce a form letter with your favorite text editor or word processing program or use GRADE GUIDE's built-in form letter editor. MAIN MENU Option M lets you create letters. (See "Writing Letters" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") Whenever you produce a report, GRADE GUIDE gives you the option of displaying the report on the screen, printing the report on your printer, or saving the report to a file. You might consider sending a report to a file if you do not have a printer available and wish to save a file which can be printed later. Saving reports to a file gives you the chance to make changes to the results using a word processor or text editor. Whenever you choose to send results to a file, GRADE GUIDE gives you the name of the file being created. The file name assigned is of the form "GRADEOUT.xxx" where the "xxx" is assigned sequentially "001," "002," and so forth. All the file output written during one session of using GRADE GUIDE is sent to the same file. >>>Selected Students You may need to do something different for students who need some special attention. For example, you may need a list of students who missed taking TEST 4, a list of the homework totals for those students whose homework averages are less than 75 percent, or a report showing the grades of students in SECTION NUMBER 124 who have an A average in the course. GRADE GUIDE allows you to select students who meet any of these types of GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 37 criteria. Any of the grade entry and reporting features of GRADE GUIDE can be restricted to those selected students. You can mark students as selected using MAIN MENU Option N. (See "Selecting Students" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") >>>Grade Periods Many courses run for more than one grade period. For example, university course may run over two semesters or three quarters. Secondary and elementary school teachers often have four or six marking periods during one course. GRADE GUIDE lets you store all of the grades accumulated during a course in one class file, while keeping grades from different grade periods separate. When all the grades have been entered for one grade period, you can tell GRADE GUIDE to begin a new grade period. GRADE GUIDE will essentially hide all of the previously entered grades, allowing you to enter grades for the next grade period. You can choose to go back and view grades from any one of the grade periods, or choose to view all the grades from all the grade periods together. GRADE GUIDE is limited to ten grade periods for any one class. You can create, delete, and manipulate grade periods by using MAIN MENU Option O. (See "Grade Periods" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") >>>Passwords Information about your students is stored by GRADE GUIDE on class files. The information on these files is encrypted so sensitive information cannot be read or changed by other people who might gain access to your class files. Only GRADE GUIDE can read the information in the class files. To protect the files so only the teacher who creates the file can use GRADE GUIDE to read them, each class file can be assigned a password. When you begin processing a new class, GRADE GUIDE asks you to enter a password for that class. The password can be up to ten characters in length. The password can be made up of any characters (with ASCII codes greater than or equal to 32) including letters, numbers, and punctuation. In passwords, GRADE GUIDE does not distinguish between upper case (capital) and lower case letters. Once you have given a password to a class, GRADE GUIDE requires that you enter that password each time it reads the associated class file. If the password for your class file is the blank password created by simply pressing the <Enter> key when you are asked to give a password for a new class (that is, a password with zero characters in it), GRADE GUIDE will not ask you to enter the password to read the class file. In fact, you can tell GRADE GUIDE (by setting a switch on the DEFAULT MENU) that you want all class files to have a blank password. Then GRADE GUIDE will never ask you to enter a password. (See "Input Defaults" in the chapter "DEFAULT MENU.") You can change the password for a class file by using MAIN MENU Option P. (See "Changing the Password" in the chapter "MAIN MENU.") GRADE GUIDE Instruction Manual - PAGE 38