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VAR Grade Grading Tools for Teachers Version 6.0 MANUAL Written by DENNIS REVIE (c) Copyright 1993 by Dennis Revie Distributed by VARed Software 1490 Calle Fidelidad Thousand Oaks, CA 91360-6819 USA (805) 523-7546 Compuserve: 73427,112 Internet: 73427.112@Compuserve.com VAR Grade is COPYRIGHTED (C) 1987-1993 by Dennis Revie. All rights are reserved. VAR Grade can be distributed as SHAREWARE. It is not free. VAR Grade is written in Borland International's Turbo Pascal. The files that can be listed by the "DIR *.BGI" (screen drivers) and "DIR *.CHR" (fonts) are copyrighted by Borland International and are used in accordance with the license. The files that can be listed by the "DIR _*.BGI" (print drivers) and other print driver files are copyrighted by Fleming Software and are used in accordance with the license. PKUNZIP.EXE is Copyright (C) 1989-93 by PKWare, Inc. Product names from other manufacturers are mentioned, and are copyright and/or registered of the respective companies. These include Borland's Quattro Pro and Paradox, IBM's OS/2, Microsoft's MS DOS and MS Windows, and DRI's DR- DOS, Quarterdeck's Desqview, and Vernon D. Buerg's List. VAR Grade is dedicated to VAR, without whom neither the program nor the program author would exist. Information Information about licensing and registration can be found in the SITELIC.DOC and REGISTER.DOC files. Please read them! For dealer pricing, volume discounts, site licensing, shipping of product, returns, latest version number, or other technical information, contact us by calling (805) 523-7546, through Compuserve at ID 73427,112, through Internet at ID 73427.112@Compuserve.com, or write to the address listed above. +---------+ +---------+ | (R) --| |o |------------------ | +------+--+ | Association of | | |-+ Shareware +---| o | Professionals ------| | |-------------------- +----+----+ MEMBER Last Revision: April, 1993. Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS........................................iii I. INTRODUCTION TO THE MANUAL..............................1 A. Conventions Used in this Manual.....................1 B. Sample Classes......................................2 C. Requirements........................................2 D. Capability of the Program...........................2 II. INSTALLATION...........................................4 A. Files on the Disks..................................4 B. Required Files......................................5 C. Installion With INSTALL.............................5 D. Installation Without INSTALL........................9 E. Networks...........................................11 III. STARTING THE PROGRAM.................................13 A. Where Should the Program Files Be?.................13 B. Picking a Class....................................16 C. Classes Too Big for the Memory.....................18 D. Setting Up the Class...............................19 E. Entering Students, Tasks, Attendance, and Grades...22 F. Converting Old Classes Into New Classes............23 G. Reading the Manual from Within the Program.........23 IV. TUTORIALS.............................................26 A. Starting the Program...............................26 B. Using an Existing Class: Tutorial..................26 C. Starting a New Class...............................33 D. Entering Data......................................36 E. If You Are Lost....................................36 F. Starting Another Class.............................37 G. Advanced Mode......................................37 H. Exiting the Program................................37 I. Using a Mouse......................................38 J. How Special Keys are Used..........................38 K. How the Cursor Keys Work...........................39 iii V. ENTERING STUDENTS......................................41 A. General Methods....................................41 B. Names and IDs......................................41 C. Typing in Names and IDs............................42 D. Importing Students from Files......................44 E. Sorting Students...................................52 F. Transferring Names to a New Class..................52 VI. DEFINING TASKS........................................56 A. The Define Task Menu...............................56 B. Regular Tasks......................................56 C. Special Tasks......................................60 D. Scaling Tasks......................................68 E. Memory Limitations.................................68 F. Manipulating Tasks.................................68 G. Examples of Task Definitions.......................72 VII. DATABASE ITEMS.......................................77 A. Defining a New Item................................77 B. Altering Database Definitions......................79 C. Database Operations................................80 VIII. ENTERING GRADES.....................................84 A. Entering Data for the Whole Class..................84 B. Entering Individual Student Data...................93 C. Saving Entered Data to Disk........................94 IX. ATTENDANCE............................................96 A. Defining Attendance Days...........................96 B. Changing Attendance Defaults.......................98 C. Entering Class Attendance..........................98 D. Entering Individual Student Attendance............100 E. Default Attendance Task Values....................100 F. Seating Charts....................................100 iv Table of Contents X. ANALYZING THE GRADES..................................104 A. Default Values for Printing.......................104 B. Defaults Values for Plots.........................106 C. Plotting the Scores of a Class....................109 D. Pie Charts of a Class.............................110 E. Calculating and Displaying Statistics.............111 F. Plotting the Scores of an Individual..............113 G. Correlating Different Tasks.......................114 H. Statistical Plots of the Classes..................115 I. Horizontal Class and Student Statistics...........116 J. Database Plots....................................117 K. Scaling the Tasks.................................117 L. Adjusting the Statistics of a Task................118 M. Setting the Fewest Allowed Points.................118 N. Cropping Graphics Screens.........................119 XI. ASSIGNING THE GRADES.................................120 A. Changing the Grade Names..........................120 B. Changing the Grade Values.........................122 C. Automatic Grade Cutoffs...........................123 D. What Ifs..........................................124 E. Manually Assigning Grades.........................125 F. Adjusting Grades..................................126 XII. PRINTING AND REPORTS................................127 A. Listing Data......................................127 B. Printing the Student Scores and Attendance........136 C. Exporting Data....................................143 D. Reports...........................................146 XIII. OTHER PROGRAM FEATURES.............................185 A. File Maintenance..................................185 B. Working With Other Programs.......................188 C. Running Other Programs from VAR Grade.............188 D. International Support.............................190 E. Macros............................................191 F. Extra Memory......................................193 G. Video Displays....................................194 H. Examples of VAR Grade Batch Files.................197 v APPENDIX.................................................199 A. Program Parameters--Defaults and Limits...........199 B. Backup Files......................................199 C. Beeps or Noises...................................201 D. Menus.............................................201 GLOSSARY.................................................205 INDEX....................................................208 vi I. INTRODUCTION TO THE MANUAL VAR Grade allows you to both grade and record attendance in your classes. This is a complete grading system, and will do just about anything that you need to do. In particular, it will allow you to record, print, and analyze grades and attendance. There is a long list of features of this program, but, in general, the program allows an almost unlimited number of students, grades, attendance, database items, reports and analyses. The program can do statistical analyses and plots, allows you to manipulate and print the data in a myriad of ways, and allows about any grading system you want. It is the only grading program that doesn't constrain you to use any particular grading system or method, the only one that lets you print data any way you want, and is easily the most flexible and complete system available. This manual will give you information about VAR Grade. If this is the first time you have tried out the program, you should try the tutorials in Chapter IV. They will teach you how to use the most frequently used features of the program. This manual details all of the features of the program, both those in the beginner mode and those in the advanced mode of the program. Since VAR Grade was first released, the program has become extremely flexible at handling grading chores. There are as many grading systems as there are teachers. In that light, the program allows you to alter how it works, both your input and the program output. The plentiful features of the program can sometimes intimidate the new user, hence the program starts in the beginner mode. The beginner mode displays only the most used features of the program. However, most teachers will need to use the advanced mode of the program: there are features in it that they may really need. You may, therefore, move back and forth between the two modes at will. The purpose of this manual is to explain those features that are not obvious to you when running the program. A. Conventions Used in this Manual Names of files and programs are printed in UPPERCASE letters. Warnings and notes are printed in italics. 1 Examples of what to type are in double quotes: "TYPE THIS". MS-DOS prompts are usually listed as: A>. Anything after the prompt should be typed. Example: A> GRADE The prompt is A>, and you should type "GRADE". Special keys are those that do not print normal (ASCII) keys. They are designated in the manual and program by bracketing the key name with "<" and ">". Example: <Esc> means the Escape key, <Rtn> means the Return or Enter key. B. Sample Classes To look at the capabilities of VAR Grade, four sample classes, called GSample, A, B, and C, have been included. Many of the features of the program have been used to set up these classes. To view them when starting the program, type "GRADE GSAMPLE", "GRADE A", "GRADE B", or "GRADE C". These classes are used for many of the examples in this manual. C. Requirements The hardware requirements are listed in the README.DOC file. The major ones are: DOS 3.0 or later, 512K of memory (RAM), 1.3 megabytes of disk space, at least one disk drive of 720K or more, and a monitor and printer that can display graphics. A hard disk is highly recommended. D. Capability of the Program The standard version of this program allows you to have up to 16,000 students with up to one section or group per student, 200 database items per class, up to 8,000 tasks per class, 240 attendance days per class, and an unlimited number of classes. In reality, the limitations are due to available memory. In addition to regular memory VAR Grade takes advantage of any EMS and XMS memory that your computer has. EMS and XMS memory is memory above 640K. The program also automatically uses math coprocessor chips (80x87 math chips). 2 Introduction The program runs on networks, but does not use any special capabilities of networks. Should you desire "custom" versions of this program, they are also available. When you register your current version, should you desire a custom version, indicate so and we will try to meet your requirements. 3 II. INSTALLATION VAR Grade can be installed onto either a hard (fixed) disk or onto floppy (removable) disks. The program INSTALL will automatically install VAR Grade. You will need to answer some questions and follow the instructions, but will not have to worry about what files are needed where. If you prefer to install the program yourself, directions are given below in Section D. This chapter gives information on using the INSTALL program to install VAR Grade, information on installing the program yourself, and suggests some advanced methods of starting and running the program. A. Files on the Disks The following files are located on the disks. At times, this list might vary from the one in the README.DOC file. That file will contain the most recent list of files included with the program. Other files, all with the prefix "GRADE", are created when you run the program. Disk #1: INSTALL.EXE Installation program for VAR Grade PKUNZIP.EXE Unarchiver VARGRA1.ZIP Archive of the following files: README.DOC Introduction to VAR Grade SITELIC.DOC Site license information REGISTER.DOC Registration form CHANGES.DOC Changes from the previous version GRADE.DOC The Advanced Manual GRADE.TXT The Beginner's Manual GRADE.STR Required program file GRADE.PIF PIF file for MS Windows. *.CHR Screen and print fonts FILE_ID.DIZ File for BBS's *.BGI, *.INI, *.PS Print drivers 4 Installation Disk #2: VARGRA2.ZIP Archive of the following files: VENDOR.DOC File for shareware distributors GRADE.EXE This is the main program GRADE.OVR This is the overlay for the program *.BGI Screen drivers *.FRM Sample report forms GSAMPLE.PAR Sample class data GSAMPLE.DAT Student data for the GSample class A.PAR, B.PAR, C.PAR Sample classes A.DAT, B.DAT, C.DAT Sample classes B. Required Files For the program to run, it requires: GRADE.EXE (program), GRADE.STR (required text file), and GRADE.OVR (overlay). The following files are needed for graphs: ?.BGI (which ones depend upon your display adapter and printers) *.CHR (to change fonts for graphs--optional) C. Installion With INSTALL To install the program, you can run the program INSTALL. Follow the instructions below. INSTALL will not modify any existing files on your computer unless if you have a previous version of VAR Grade. If you do have an older version, INSTALL will replace some of the old program files. 1. Put disk #1 disk into a drive. The disk can be in any drive. For the instructions below, it is assumed that the disk is in drive A. If you use drive B, or any other drive, replace the "A:" in the instructions with "B:" (or "d:", where "d" is the letter of the drive). 2a. Installing to floppy disks: You will need three blank formatted 720K 3 1/2", two 1.44 Meg 3 1/2" disks, or two 1.2 megabytes 5 1/4" disks. If the disks are not formatted or not empty, they can be formatted during the installation. NOTE: The program uses the MS-DOS format command for formatting, and will only format disks of 1.44 Megabytes capacity or less. 5 Put a blank disk into the drive used for installation. 2b. Installing to a hard disk: You need 1.7 megabytes of disk space. 3a. Installing in DOS: Type "A:INSTALL". If the VAR Grade installation disk is in another drive, type "d:INSTALL", where "d" is the letter for the drive. 3b. Installing in MS Windows: Run a DOS program selecting the Files menu when in the Program Manager, then "Run" to run a DOS program. Then type "A:INSTALL". If the VAR Grade installation disk is in another drive, type "d:INSTALL", where "d" is the letter for the drive. 4. An opening screen will appear, explaining the hardware requirements of VAR Grade and how to use the installation program. If you have a monochrome monitor and the screen is hard to read, you may need to type "A:INSTALL/b" to force the program into black and white mode. Some monochrome boards tell programs (erroneously) that they are color boards. "A:INSTALL/c" will force the program into color mode. 5. Note that you can exit the installation program at any time by pressing the "Ctrl" and the "C" keys simultaneously (<CtrlC>). If the program has not completely installed VAR Grade, it will not run correctly, and you may have to redo the installation. 6. After reading the opening screen and pressing a key, you will be asked whether to install the whole program, parts of the program, or whether to print the README.DOC or manuals. Choose to install all the program installation (option "A"). 7. You will then be asked where to put the program. INSTALL will probably suggest the directory "\VARGRADE", but you can specify any drive or directory. To type in a new directory or drive, just type in a new name. For example, to change it to drive A, type "a:". After you have specified the directories and drives to place the program, press <AltS>. 8. The program will now install the program. If it does not find the disks or ZIP files it needs, it will request them. If the disk you are installing to does not have enough room on it for the VAR Grade files, you will be asked what to do. 6 Installation There are three options: (a) You can format the disk. (b) You can tell the program to write the files to another disk, or (c) You can tell the program to write the disk anyway. Choose option c if you have changed to a new disk or if you are installing VAR Grade over a previous version of the program. If a previous version of the program is present, the installation program will ask if the existing files should be replaced (overwritten). Note that you will only be asked this once: if you say yes, all the duplicate files will be replaced. NOTE: INSTALL does not delete the old VAR Grade files, but does replace those that have the same name as the new files. During the installation, the program will ask you to pick your printer. To do this, you will need to know the name and model number of your printer, and if it emulates any other printers. Most dot matrix printers emulate the Epson FX printer. Most laser printers emulate the HP LaserJet printer. Use the <Arrow>, <Page up>, and <Page down> keys to traverse the list and find your printer(s). Then press "Y" to select it. You can repeat this process until you have picked up to 5 printers. When you have picked all your printers, press <AltS>. The program now asks if the listed printers are the correct ones. To continue, press "Y". To change the list, press "N". 9. You will return to the screen that asks whether to install the whole program, or just part of it. If desired, you can print the documentation from this screen. Press <Esc> or "X" when you are finished. 10. When the installation has been completed, a message will be displayed. If you installed onto floppy disks, the message will explain how to label the disks and how to start VAR Grade. If you installed the program from MS Windows, the message may not be visible. If you install onto floppy disks, when you run VAR Grade, the disks containing the overlays (GRADE.OVR) and text (GRADE.STR) must be in the drive at all times. Part of the program is in "overlays", which means that some of the program is on the disk and is read into the program only when needed. NOTE: If you have removed the overlay disk, the program will print a message asking you to reinsert the overlay disk, as it needs the overlay file to continue. Also, do not move the disk with the overlays from one drive to another. It must always be in the same drive. 7 11. Installing in MS Windows: After installing the program, you want to create a program icon. VAR Grade includes the file GRADE.PIF, which suggests and standard conditions to use for the program. To create a new group window, select the Files menu when in the Program Manager, then select "New". Select "Program Group", and then "OK". Next, enter a description of the program, e.g., "VAR Grade". Next, move to the next line, "Program File", and type "VARGRADE.GRP". You now have a window, but no program in it. To add the program to that group window, again select "Files", then "New", and "OK". Select "Browse", then the directory where VAR Grade is located, probably "C:\VARGRADE". Then select the filename "GRADE.PIF". The icon should appear in the group window. An alternative way to add the program to the group window is to select "Files", then "New", and "OK". Then, type in a program description, e.g., "VAR Grade, Version 6.0" and a program command line, e.g., "C:\VARGRADE\GRADE.PIF". D. Installation Without INSTALL 1. You need up to 1.4 megabytes of disk space, at least one drive of at least 720K, and the program PKUNZIP 2.0 (if not distributed with the program, it is available from disk vendors and BBS systems). 2. The files you need for the program are: GRADE.EXE, GRADE.STR, GRADE.OVR: Absolutely required. These don't need to be on the same disk, however, the disk that GRADE.OVR and GRADE.STR are on must always be in a drive. A video adapter file: Which file is needed depends upon your display adapter. The name of the file corresponds to the display adapter (e.g., HERC.BGI is for Hercules adapters). This and one of the following files are needed to view graphs. File Adapter HERC.BGI Hercules adapter (Black & white, only) CGA.BGI Color Graphics Array adapter (640x200) EGAVGA.BGI Enhanced Graphics Array adapter (640x350) or Video Graphics Array adapter (640x400) A printer file: Pick up to five files with the initials corresponding to your printer (or one your printer 8 Installation emulates). If you have a dot matrix printer, it usually would be _FX.BGI (or _LQ.BGI if it is a 24 pin printer). For example, the Panasonic KX-P1124 printers emulate the Epson FX, hence you need the _FX.BGI file. If you have a laser printer, it is most likely _LJ.BGI. Note: Some of the printers require more than one file. File(s) Printer(s) _FX.BGI Epson FX compatible (9 pin) _LQ.BGI Epson LQ compatible (24 pin) _CLQ.BGI Color Epson LQ _LJ.BGI, _LJ.INI HP LaserJet II compatible _LJ3R.BGI, _LJ3R.INI HP LaserJet III compatible _PS.BGI, _PS.INI, GHEAD.PS Postscript *.CHR files: To change fonts for the graphs, the CHR files need to be with the program. The above files can be extracted from the zip archives (as listed above), by typing "PKUNZIP VARGRAx filename", where VARGRAx is one of the GRADE archive files, and filename is the name of the file. Section A, above, lists which files are in which archive. Example: to dearchive GRADE.EXE, located in VARGRA2.ZIP on disk drive A, move to the directory and drive that you want the program to be in, and type "A:PKUNZIP A:VARGRA2 GRADE.EXE". 3. Other files can be installed, as well. The files GSAMPLE.PAR, GSAMPLE.DAT, A.PAR, A.DAT, B.PAR, B.DAT, C.PAR, and C.DAT are examples of classes, and are used in this manual. The files that end in ".FRM" (e.g., "CLASS.FRM"), are examples of report forms that you can use. The files that end in ".DOC" and "*.TXT" are text files that explain various parts of the program. See the file list, above, to see short descriptions of each file. The following files can be used by the program to write the graphs to disk. These can then be imported into other programs: 9 _PCX.BGI PCX. (e.g., PC Paintbrush) 4. The program files should all be installed to the same directory. If they are installed onto two floppy disks, the screen and printer drivers, CHR files, FRM files, GRADE.STR, and the overlay file should all be on the same disk. E. Networks This version will run on networks (LAN). It will not, however, take advantage of special features of the networks, such as interactive mail or print queues. To be able to use any video driver, you need to copy all the video drivers onto your network hard disk. This can be done by dearchiving all the files ending in "BGI" from the archive file listed in section A (above). You can also install up to five printers, and all the graphics output BGI files (see section B, step 4, above). You can turn on/off whether to use file attributes that allow the program to work on networks. Some programs that do not run on networks do not like the attribute to be set. The attribute can be set on the Parameters Menu ("O" on the Main Menu), then "O". Network printers usually will "time-out" if nothing is sent to it for a few seconds. In most parts of the program, the printer files are sent without interruption. However, some parts need to ask for information when in the middle of printing. If you do not give the needed information quickly enough, the printer may time out. One solution is to increase the time that can elapse before the printer times out. Turning off formfeeds to put more than one listing on a page will not work for some or all networks, as the network resets the printer after the print job is done. For some printers, like HP LaserJets, an extra page may eject when printing on a network. For these printers, you should delete the reset printer string ("U" on the Printer Menu). 10 Starting the Program III. STARTING THE PROGRAM This part of the manual tells you how to start the program, including where to place your files, where to put your class grades, and how to locate class files from the program. It will also explain how to access the manual from the program. There is also a long tutorial that explains the basics of how to use the program. To use this part of the manual, you should have installed the program already (see Chapter II). A. Where Should the Program Files Be? 1. For DOS beginners Before starting the program, make sure that the program was installed, and that you are in the directory where GRADE.EXE is located (probably C:\VARGRADE). At the DOS prompt, type: "GRADE" If you are not a DOS expert, go to section B. 2. For DOS experts The program will search the current environment for the program files. This means that the search for the files are in the following order: (i) It searches the current directory first. (ii) It then searches for the files in the directory where the "GRADE.EXE" file was found. (iii) It then searches the directories specified in the DOS PATH command. NOTE: The PATH command tells DOS which directories to search for executable files: those ending in ".COM", ".EXE", or ".BAT". (iv) If it still hasn't found the files, the program searches the default directories on each drive of your computer. 11 (v) If the needed program files are still not found, the program will halt with an error message. The required files, therefore, are best placed in one directory of a hard disk or on two floppy disks, as is done by INSTALL. (a) DOS 3.0 or above The program can be started from any directory by just typing the directory and "GRADE". For example, if the program is in the directory c:\vargrade, just type "c:\vargrade\GRADE". If the program files are in the same directory as the GRADE.EXE file, the program will find the files it needs. If you add the following line to the end of your autoexec.bat file (and then reboot the computer), you can start VAR Grade from anywhere by typing "GRADE": SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\VARGRADE; Note: this line assumes that VAR Grade is in the \VARGRADE directory on drive C. (b) Examples (i) If the program is on the same drive as the class (the "A>" is the DOS prompt): For example, type: A> GRADE If the program is on a different drive, type the drive, colon, GRADE. For example, if you are on drive A, and the program is on drive B, type: A> B:GRADE The program will find the overlay, print, and other files if they are on the default directory or on any directory specified by the path command. 12 Starting the Program (ii) If you know the name of the class that you want to use, enter it on the DOS command line: A> GRADE classname OR A> GRADE \path\classname (iii) If you are using a hard disk, you may want to set up a batch file that will do the typing for you: Batch file example: If GRADE (including the necessary files) is in the directory, C:\VARGRADE, prepare a batch file that says: SET LASTPATH=%PATH% SET PATH=C:\VARGRADE;%PATH% GRADE %1 SET PATH=%LASTPATH% OR C:\VARGRADE\GRADE %1 Note: %1 can be replaced with the classname. (iv) You can start the program by typing the directory and "GRADE": If VAR Grade is in the directory C:\VARGRADE, type C:\VARGRADE\GRADE OR C:\VARGRADE\GRADE classname (v) If you have a monochrome monitor and the screen looks funny after you start the program, you may need to start the program with: GRADE/B classname This will force the program into monochrome mode. Many Hercules compatible display adapters erroneously tell programs that a color monitor is attached. The results are that some color combinations are invisible to you. 13 You can also force the program into monochrome mode with a DOS SET command: A> SET VMON=BW; You can set up a batch file for VAR Grade as follows (assuming the program is in the directory C:\VARGRADE): SET VMON=BW; SET PATH=C:\VARGRADE;%PATH%; GRADE SET VMON= If you have a monochrome monitor, you probably want to add the VMON command to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This file is executed every time you start your computer. (c) Using one drive to run the program You can start the program from one drive by putting the program disk in the drive, and typing "GRADE". If the program cannot find the overlay file, you will be asked to put the disk containing the file into a drive. If you now put it in the same drive that the program disk was in, the program will continue and run correctly. This method is not recommended, but will work. B. Picking a Class When the program starts, the first screen shows the program name, a comment about registering the program, the class files and directories listed on the directory from which the program was invoked, and a prompt for the class. If there are any files on the disk that have the extension ".PAR", they will be listed by the program on the opening screen. The ".PAR" file contains the parameters of your class: task names, default settings for the program, etc. To help you find the right class, sub-directories are also listed. You can either type in the name of the class, or you can use the cursor keys to locate the class, or you can change the directory and search for more class files. 14 Starting the Program 1. Using the cursor keys One of the class files or a directory will be highlighted. If you have a monochrome monitor and do not see a class highlighted, try starting the program with "GRADE/B" to force the program into monochrome mode. To pick the correct class, use the cursor keys to move the highlight to the correct class or directory. Then press <Rtn>. If you chose a directory, a new listing of classes will be shown. Repeat the above process until a class is chosen. NOTE: If any characters have been typed on the prompt line, the program will use them as the class name. You can delete these by using the <F10> key. 2. Typing in the name (a) If the class that you want is not listed, you can change directories and search for the class. There are two ways to change directories: i) Press <F5>, then type in the name of the new drive or directory. You can continue to change directories until you find the desired class. ii) Type the new drive or directory instead of the class name. The program first tests to determine whether what you have typed is a directory. If it is, the directory is changed. NOTE: The new directory must end in a backslash ("\"), or the new drive must end in a colon (":"). Example: Type "C:\MATH\<Rtn>" to change the directory to Math, on drive C. (b) If and when your class is listed, just type the name in. The ".PAR" is not needed, and any extensions, like .PAR, are discarded. The program will read in the class parameters, and, if a file with the same name with the extension ".DAT" is also there, the student scores will be read into the program. 3. Using a mouse to pick the class Besides the cursor keys, or typing in the name, you can also use a mouse to pick the class. When you start the program, 15 the mouse cursor will be in the center of the screen, and look like a block. If you move the mouse, you will see that the block moves, as well. Move the mouse cursor to a class or directory, then press the <Left button>. This will select that class or directory. You can move around directories just like you can with the cursor keys. 4. Starting new classes Type in the name of the class. When the program does not find the ".PAR" file, it will create a new class. Each class has two files. Each starts with the name of the class (e.g. "BIOLOGY"). They have the extensions ".PAR" and ".DAT" (e.g. "BIOLOGY.PAR" and "BIOLOGY.DAT"). There may also be backup files with the extensions ".PAX" and ".DAX" (see the Appendix for further details). 5. Using the DOS command line You may also enter the class name from the command line by listing it as a parameter: e.g. if the class name is "MATH", start the program by typing: "GRADE MATH". If the class exists, it will be read into the program. If it does not, a new class will be created with the name "MATH". C. Classes Too Big for the Memory After the classname has been entered, the program reads in the class data and student information. If there are more students than can fit into the available memory, the program warns you and asks if you want to continue. If you continue, the program will read ONLY as many students into the class as there is memory. WARNING: If you then use the program and save the data, the students that were not read into the program will be lost. To find out approximately how many students can be read into the program, enter a "O" when on the Main Menu. At the top of the second menu you will see how many students are currently in the class and how many could be in the class if all the available memory is used and if the current tasks are not increased. There are essentially an unlimited number of students and tasks allowed. The limitations are that all the data must be able to fit into the available (RAM) memory. 16 Starting the Program The regular version puts part of the program in overlays. This means that part of the program is on disk, not in memory. When the program starts, it leaves a certain amount of memory free, and uses the rest for overlays. For the regular version, you can change how much of the program is in memory with a DOS SET command. If you need more memory, enter the following command at the DOS prompt: A> SET OMEM=0; This command will shrink the program to its minimum size. Conversely, to put as much of the program into memory as possible, use the command: A> SET OMEM=400000; Values between 0 and 400000 will put varying amounts of the overlays into memory. NOTE: If you have enough EMS memory, the program will put the overlays into it. The OMEM command, then, will have no effect. You can add the SET commands to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file that is executed when you start your computer. This way, the program will always use the amount of memory you want. If you have more than 640K of memory installed in your computer, you may be able to use that extra memory as EMS or XMS memory. The regular version of VAR Grade can use these types of memory for some parts of the program. If you are short of memory, this will let VAR Grade have more room for students, grades, and graphics. More memory issues are discussed in Chapter XIII, Section F. D. Setting Up the Class After entering the program, the first screen you see is the Main Menu. This lists the major things you can do when in the program. After starting the class for the first time, you may want to set several program settings. The more important ones are listed below. Anytime that you want to change some of the current settings of the program, you can go to the "O" option on the Main Menu. If this is the first time you've used the program, you should go through the tutorial in Chapter IV before continuing. 17 1. Using multiple sections The number of sections in the class is initially set at 1. You might have several identical classes, however. For example, if you teach 3 English classes that have nearly identical exams and assignments, you can call them different sections of the same class. You can then compare the different classes as "sections". Each section uses the same set of tasks, but the program can do statistics on any combination of sections. The program keeps track of what sections you last used, and will, by default, use whatever sections that were last used by you. To allow more than one section, go to the "N" option of the Main Menu, then "U". The program automatically determines which sections have students. 2. Colors The colors of the program can be changed on the "O" option of the Main Menu, then "C" (colors). There are several colors used, designated: (i) Normal colors: The text is in this color. (ii) Background color: The background is this color. (iii) Highlight color: Foreground color used for plotting scores. (iv) Highlight background: This color is the background corresponding to the highlight. (v) Error colors: Foreground color for error messages. (vi) Error background: This color is the background for the error messages. (vii) Help colors: Foreground color used by the Help screens. (viii) Help background: This color is the background for the help screens. Some of these colors are used in pop-up menus and messages, as well. You will be asked for the new colors. The bottom lines of the screen show what the colors would look like. Needless to say, if you are using a monochrome monitor, you will only see black and white colors. Some monochrome adapter boards tell the program that they are color boards. This results in some things becoming invisible or not highlighted when they should be. If this is the case for you, you can force VAR Grade into monochrome mode by either of two methods: 18 Starting the Program (a) Start the program with "GRADE/B". The /B tells the program that you are using a black and white monitor. You can force the program into color mode with "/C" when starting VAR Grade. Example: C> GRADE /B GSAMPLE This will force the program into monochrome mode and load the data from the class GSample into the program. (b) Set a DOS command: "SET VMON=BW;". At the DOS prompt (e.g., "A>"), type the above statement. This tells the program you are using a black and white monitor. This command can also be put into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file that is run when your computer is turned on. In some cases, even these commands won't do the job, hence you will still have to set the colors to new values. After changing the colors, you are asked if you want to make these new colors the default colors. If you press "Y" (yes), all future classes will have the new colors as their initial colors. Finally, the program keeps two sets of colors, one for monochrome monitors (black and white), the other for color monitors. This feature is for those who switch back and forth between color and monochrome monitors. 3. Printers You can tell the program which printer you are using. In fact, to be able to print graphs and plots, you need to pick a printer during installation or in the "P" section of the "O" option of the Main Menu. Most printers are now supported by VAR Grade for printing graphs and plots. Most are also supported for printing files in pica, elite, or compressed printing (if your printer supports them), and bold and high quality. 4. Setting up a grading system Although some schools don't use letter grades, most do. You can set up a grading system by pressing "G" on the Main Menu. Then press "N". You can use the pre-defined grading systems that are listed, or type in your own. Note that each letter grade has a value. If you mix letter and number grades, you may want to set the letter grade equivalents to 19 numbers from 0 to 100, rather than the ones the program has predefined. See Chapter XI, Section B for more details. 5. Passwords If many people have access to your computer and its disks, you may worry about someone's altering your class files. To greatly reduce the chances of this happening, you can require that a password be used for your class. To define a password, use the "W" option in the "O" section of the Main Menu. NOTE: The default value is to not have a password. The password can have up to 15 characters, numbers, and/or punctuation characters. Should you forget your password, you can contact us at the address at the beginning of the manual to get instructions on how to defeat the password. The password is not foolproof, but greatly reduces the likelihood of snooping. E. Entering Students, Tasks, Attendance, and Grades There are two kinds of prompts in the program. The first, like the prompt asking for the classname, asks you to Enter the name and then type a <Rtn> to signify the end of the data. The second type only asks for one key--this option is usually used for the menu selections. To save keystrokes, the program will respond immediately when the key is pressed--no <Rtn> is necessary. When you are presented with a list of choices, you can use the cursor keys to move to the desired choice, then type <Rtn> to select that choice. NOTE: In many parts of the program, if you enter a <Rtn> with no data entered, the program will assume either that: (a) you did not want to enter data--the program will continue; or (b) you want to exit this section and go back to a higher level menu; or (c) the number to be entered is zero. In general, if the program asks you to enter data, you should end with a <Rtn>. If you are choosing a menu option or between two alternatives, press only the appropriate key. When you have to enter a long list of numbers, such as designating Task 80 as the sum of Tasks 1 to 79, the program will allow you to enter them with an inclusive colon: "1:79" would be 1 through 79, rather than requiring you to enter all the numbers from 1 to 79. This situation arises in four places: when entering lists of tasks, as noted in the example, when entering lists of 20 Starting the Program sections to use, when entering lists of database items, and when entering attendance days. Colons can be used to enter a list of numbers from high to low, as well. Entering "79:1" will tell the program to use tasks 79 down to 1. Example: To enter tasks 1 through 5 and 8, type: "1:5<Rtn>8<Rtn><Rtn>". NOTE: When entering a list of separate numbers, you can separate them with <Rtn>, commas, or spaces. For the above example, typing "1:5,8,<Rtn>" or "1:5 8 <Rtn>" will give the same result as the example above. Later chapters in this Manual will tell you how to enter students, tasks, attendance, and grades. F. Converting Old Classes Into New Classes If you want to use the same exams and class information for two different classes, one simple way is to just copy the "CLASSNAME.PAR" file to a new classname (e.g., copy "BIOLOGY.PAR" to the file "MATH.PAR" by typing, at the DOS prompt: "COPY BIOLOGY.PAR MATH.PAR". Math will now be set up exactly the same way as Biology). The new class is now set up the same as the previous class, except that no students will be in the new class. This feature can allow you to set up your class once and use the set-up for many classes in the future. There are other, and probably easier, methods to set up new classes (see this chapter, Section D, or Chapter IV, Section F). G. Reading the Manual from Within the Program If the file GRADE.DOC was installed with the program, then you can read it from within the program. There are three ways you can read the manual from within the program. (1) When the program is on the Main Menu, type an "H" for help. (2) The manual can also be reached from anywhere in the program by typing <AltH> (press the ("Alt" and the "H" keys simultaneously). The manual reached from <AltH> is context sensitive. This means that VAR Grade will try to find the relevant material. You can browse at will through the file by using the cursor keys. When in Help, typing <AltK> will show you a list of the keys and features supported. If there is not enough memory to display the file, an error 21 message will appear. To view the file, you would then have to reduce memory usage (See Chapter XII, Section F). (3) Press <AltV> anywhere in the program. However, you must first go to the "O" option on the Main Menu, then "F" to designate an editor. If you do this, you can use whatever editor you want to view the manual, otherwise the command works just like <AltH>. To locate text: Key Movement <AltF> Find a string <AltN> Find the next matching string <AltB> Find the previous matching string <AltK> Show the supported keys <AltJ> Jump to the previous screen Moving with the keys when viewing the Manual: Key Movement <Up Arrow> Up one line <Down Arrow> Down one line <Page Up> Up one screen <Page Down> Down one screen <Ctrl-Home> Up one-half screen <Ctrl-End> Down one-half screen <Home>, <Ctrl-Pg Up> Beginning of the file <End>, <Ctrl-Pg Down> End of the file 22 Starting the Program Key Movement <AltL> GO TO LINE: The top line will be the line that you designate. In the center of the screen a box will appear that will ask for the line number. At the bottom right of the screen, you can see which line you are on and how many lines there are in the file. Example: type "<AltL>4<Rtn>" to go to line 4. <AltP> GO TO PAGE: Moves to a page in a file. It assumes there are 60 lines per page (like in GRADE.DOC). In the center of the screen a box will appear that will ask for the page. Example: type "<AltS>22<Rtn>" to go to page 22. <AltS> GO TO SCREEN: The top line will be the first line of any screen that you enter. In the center of the screen a box will appear that will ask for the screen. The total number of screens and the screen that you are currently on are shown at the bottom right corner of the screen. Example: type "<AltS>8<Rtn>" to go to screen 8. 23 IV. TUTORIALS This chapter is in the Beginner's Manual. It goes through some exercises designed to show you how to use VAR Grade, and is highly recommended. 24 Entering Students V. ENTERING STUDENTS One of the first things to do when starting a new class is to enter the names of students into the program. This chapter tells you how to enter new students into the class, add IDs, change the names of students, and sort and list the students. A. General Methods You can type the names into the program, or you can import (read) names into the class from flat files ("F" and "A") or comma and quote files ("Q"). Each student must have a name. They do not need to have an ID, or anything else entered. B. Names and IDs Initially, the student names can be up to 20 characters long, and can include spaces and punctuation. You can change this to a number between 5 and 30 characters long, if desired. The program can sort the students alphabetically by their names for printing out scores, so it is usually better to enter the names last name first. Spelling is retained exactly as you enter it, except that leading and trailing spaces are ignored. When sorting, however, lower and upper case letters are not distinguished, so "Sue" is considered to be the same as "sue". When printing, you can print the names either as is, or you can "flip" them. To flip is to reverse the first and last names. "John Smith" would become "Smith, John". "Johnson, Anna" would become "Anna Johnson". However, to warn you, if you flip "John Standing Tree", you would get "Tree, John Standing", instead of the correct "Standing Tree, John". You could get the last example to flip correctly if you entered it "John Standing_Tree". ID numbers or other names (nicknames, etc.) can be entered as "IDs". At some colleges and universities, students are given their grades by student IDs rather than by name. You can use IDs for first or last names and the "name" for the last or first name. You can change IDs, or add them later in the several sections of the program. IDs are initially set to 15 characters long, and can include spaces and punctuation. Again, like names, this value can be changed to any number 25 between 0 and 30 characters. If you do not use ID numbers, setting the length to 0 will stop the program from asking you about IDs. The program can sort by IDs as well as names. Spelling is retained, but, as in sorting names, sorts do not distinguish between lower and upper case letters. Note that database items can also be added, which can include things like nicknames. C. Typing in Names and IDs 1. Names only You add names on the "N" option on the Add Students Menu. If you have multiple sections of students, pick which section to use. The sections numbers can range up to 65530. To enter names, you just need to type in the name, ending with a <Rtn>. If the name is already present in that section, it is NOT reentered. However, the same name could be entered in two different sections of the same class. To delete the letters you have typed, and hence remove that name, type an <F10>. The <F10> command works in all parts of the program to delete the current cell (string or number). Names can be changed later in several parts of the program (see below), so unnoticed errors can be fixed at a later time. If you added the previous name in error, you can delete it by using the cursor keys to move to it, then retype or delete the name. When you have added all the names, press <AltS> to save them. If you have multiple sections, a message will pop up again, asking you for a section. You may enter a new section of students by entering a new number, like 2, or you can exit by pressing <Esc> or entering section 0. 2. Names and IDs Option "I" on the Add Students Menu is used to add names and IDs, and works the same as above. The only difference is that you are asked for the ID, as well as the name. IDs are entered in the second column. Deleting an ID or a name that has been entered can be done by making it blank. 26 Entering Students 3. Adding, changing, and deleting names and IDs Names, IDs, and notes can also be added, changed, or deleted in four other places of the program. The details are described in later chapters. The four places are: (i) "I" on the Main Menu: Individual students; (ii) "D" on the Main Menu: Data entry for tasks of the class; (iii) "A" on the Main Menu, then "I": Attendance of individual students; and (iv) "A" on the Main Menu, then "C": Data entry for class attendance. (a) When individuals are listed In the attendance by individual students, or tasks by individual students, all the tasks or attendance for a single student are listed. If you press the <AltI> key (insert student), you will be presented with a blank form to enter the new name. Entering anything for the name will add the student to the class. An "Empty" or blank name will not be entered into the class, or is deleted from the class. NOTE: when a student has been deleted, his or her name and all associated data are deleted. Changing the spelling of the name, or ID, or changing the section number for the student, is also possible here. (b) When the whole class is displayed If you need to add a new name when in parts ii or iv (above), use the key <AltI>. A new line will be displayed on the screen. As above, removing a student name will remove that student and the associated data from the class. Blank names are removed from the class when you leave this part of the program. A second way to delete the student is with the <AltD> key. The student will be deleted immediately, and the rest of the class moved up one line. NOTE: when a student has been deleted, his or her name and all associated data are deleted. You can also change the names, IDs, or sections for a student by using the cursor keys or a mouse to move to the cell, and then typing in the new data. If you have too 27 many students to see them all on one screen, use the <Page Down> or <Down Arrow> cursor keys or mouse to move down. To use the mouse to move down, move the mouse cursor to the right side of the screen, then press the <Left button> on the stippled area. This will move you to that relative spot in the class--pressing in the middle of the stippled area will move you to the middle of the class. (c) Recovering deleted data Data that has been changed or deleted is normally lost. There are, however, two ways to recover the data if you immediately decide to "undelete" it: (i) quit the program without saving the data to disk. Any data entered in this session of the program will not be saved. (ii) if you have already saved the data from the class, use the backup files to recover the data from the previous session. More information on how to do this is located in the Appendix. (d) Removing groups of students The Add Students Menu ("N" on the Main Menu) has two options that can be used to remove groups of students. You can remove all students from one section with the "S" option, or you can delete all students from the class with the "D" option. Be careful when you use these options, as all the data for the students that were removed is lost (although they could be recovered by using the methods in part c, above). D. Importing Students from Files You can enter names via standard text files (also called ASCII files). VAR Grade will import data that is written by many other programs, including most spreadsheet and database programs. When data is imported into VAR Grade, either a student name or an ID must be included for each line. If a student name is included, the program will check whether the name is already present (as well as whether the section is correct, if used). If the name is present, the new data will included with that students' data. If the name is not present, the program will 28 Entering Students add the data as a new student. If you do not include a name on each line, the program will check the ID to see if it matches a student in the class. If so, the new data will be added. Otherwise, the data is discarded--you cannot add students only by ID, as a name is required. If a student name and ID is included, the name only will be checked. If the student exists, the old ID will be changed to the new ID. Each line that is imported can have 512 characters. For tasks and database items, the program will try to match the task number, task name, or database name. If it matches them as being identical to one already defined, the new data will replace the old data. Otherwise, a new task or database item will be defined and added to the class. 1. Importing flat files Many spreadsheet and database programs can export (write) data into a flat file. A flat file is one where the data is listed in columns. All the names of students are in one column, all the IDs in another, etc. In the "F" option of the Add Students Menu, you can pick a flat file for importing of student names, IDs, sections, database items, and/or task scores. You tell VAR Grade which columns the name, IDs, sections, and tasks are in, and the data will be automatically loaded into the class. Header lines that do not have student names should be deleted, as the program will try to load those lines as well. An example of a flat file is listed below: Jones, Fred 123 1 34.5 23.5 B 44 Smith, Ann 321 2 43.5 18.3 B 43 To load new students into the class, go through the following steps: (a) The program first asks for the filename of the flat file. You can pick the file from a list, or move to another directory to pick the file. (b) The program then displays the first few lines of the file across the top of the screen, along with a ruler. You need to tell the program where the data is located, by column number. First, the beginning and ending columns of the student names is entered. A column of 0 means that the piece of data is not in the file. Second, you enter the location of the IDs, sections, database items, and tasks. 29 When describing where the tasks are located, you also must enter the task number. Data is then read into the program. If the task data is numeric, it will be read into a number task; if it is not numeric, the data will be read into a letter task. In the above example, suppose the first column is names, the second IDs, the third sections, and the next four are tasks. The sixth column (third task) would be read in as a letter task. The tasks would be numbered as the first four unused tasks in your class, and given names (e.g., Number task 1, Number task 2, Letter task 3, and Number task 4). 2. Importing comma & quote files Many spreadsheet and database programs also can read in data from files where the data is not in columns, but is instead separated by commas. Data that has commas in it, e.g., student names, are kept together by double quotes (""). The "C" option of the Add Students Menu lets you import data from these files. An example of data in the file might be: "Jones, Fred", "123", 1, 34.5, 23.5, B, 44, "Junior" "Smith, Ann", "321", 2, 43.5, 18.3, B, 43, "Senior" (a) Program determination of fields For the above data, the program will determine that the student names are in the first field, the IDs in the next, the next five are tasks, and the last is a database item. For the tasks, the fourth one will be a letter task; the others will be number tasks. As in the flat files, the names of the tasks will be made by the program, and the first five unused tasks will be used for the new tasks. If this is not what you want, you have another option. You might include this as the first line of the file: "Name", "ID", "Section", "One", "Two", 8, "#4", "Year" This line would tell the program that the first field is the name, the second is the ID, the third is the section, the fourth and fifth are number tasks (they are numbers) with the names One and Two, the sixth is a Letter task 8, the last task is a number task with the name #4, and the last field is a string database item with the name Year, and a length of 6 (the length of "Junior", above). 30 Entering Students NOTE: Whether they are letter or number tasks, or database items, is determined by the student data on the second line, not from the first line. On the first line, "Name" tells the program that field is student names, "ID" tells it is IDs, "Section" refers to sections. Other words are treated as tasks or database items, depending upon the data on the second line. The three predefined words above need to be the entire label for the fields, but whether the labels are in upper and/or lower case letters is not important. For the tasks, anything that is a number (like 8) is taken as the desired number of the task (the program will make up a name for the task), and anything that is not a number will be taken as the name (with its number being the first unused task). Whether the tasks are made number or letter tasks are determined by the data on line two (the first student). (b) Forcing data types Since the program can guess incorrectly about which type of data is in each field, you can tell the program what each type of data is in each field by using the method outlined below. "Name", "ID", "Section", "One\n", "Two\n", 8\l, "#4\n", "Year\s10" Replacing the line in part a with the above line will force the definitions of One, Two, and #4 as number tasks, 8 is a letter task, and Year is a string type database item of length 10. The backslash ("\") at the end of the data type on the first line, then a letter, tells the program what data type the item is. The list of data types is below. Command Definition \l?? Letter grade. ?? is any number from 1 to 10000. The number is the task number of the data. \n?? Number grade. ?? is any number from 1 to 10000. The number is the task number of the data. Command Definition \a Attendance item. 31 \s?? String database item. ?? is any number from 1 to 255. If the length is over 40, it is called a Memo item. \b Boolean database item. \w Word database item. \i Integer database item. \c Character database item. Any characters are accepted when reading in the data. If you read in data with a Character type, it is suggested that you "redefine" the item to pick allowed characters. Otherwise, you may not be able to change the data. Examples: (1) In a comma and quote file, the item "Telephone\s13" will set the item to be a String database item, of length 13. (2) "Grade in school\w" will set the item to be a Word database item. 3. Automatic flat file imports The "A" option on the Add Students Menu works like the previous one ("Q"), except that the fields are separated by one or more spaces or tabs, not by commas. You are first asked if the data is separated by tabs or spaces. Then you are asked for the file name. The method of determining the type of data is the same as that used for the comma and quote files, so you can force the data to be certain types, if needed. One word of caution, however. If the fields are separated only by spaces, names will usually end up in two different fields (one for the first name, one for the last name). Therefore, given a choice, either comma and quote files or flat files separated by tabs are better. Note that most spreadsheet and database programs can export data as comma and quote files. 4. Entering scores of one task The "G" option on the Add Students Menu is designed to be a simple import of grades from one task. The main purpose of this option is for instructors in large classes. They can easily import grades on an assignment from their teaching assistants. Either names, ID's, or a database field are matched with students in the class, then the new grade will replace the previous one. The files imported need to have a name, ID, or database item listed first, then a tab or 32 Entering Students spaces, then the task score. The method works like the flat files import method. When you enter this part of the program, you are asked for the file name, the task number, and whether to match names or ID's. If the teaching assistants use VAR Grade, it is easier to export and import via a comma and quote file, as the import is done automatically. The file format should have names or ID's like the following example (listing ID's, then the task score), and there should be no first line header, as you are asked for the details before importing the data: A1234567 66 Z6543210 44 5. Importing data from Paradox Described here is how to export data from Paradox in a format that VAR Grade can understand. Because comma and quote files work best, they are used for the example. i) Start Paradox. If the first line of the table you want to export does not give the names of the columns, you probably want to name them before exporting. Student names should have the header "Name", IDs should be named "ID", and section numbers should be titled "Section". Only names are required to add new students. IDs or names can be used if you are updating data for students already in the VAR Grade class. For VAR Grade to locate the correct student, the spelling must be the same as the student name in VAR Grade. ii) Select Tools (at the top of the screen) iii) Select ExportImport iv) Select Export v) Select Ascii vi) Select Delimited vii) Paradox asks for a table name. Type in the name of the table (e.g., the name of the class). viii) Paradox asks for a filename, type in the name. Write down the name. Paradox now exports the table to a comma and quote file. To import the file into VAR Grade, press "Q" on the Add Students Menu. Then, enter the name of the file you wrote 33 down in step viii, above. It is a good idea to check the data that was imported to see if any problems occurred. 6. Importing data from Quattro Pro Described here is how to export data from Quattro Pro in a format that VAR Grade can understand. Because Quattro Pro 2.0 only exports flat files, they are used for the example. i) Start Quattro Pro, and the spreadsheet that has your data. ii) Press "/P" (Print) iii) Select the Block to export ("B", then type in the range of cells, e.g., "A1..I21"). iv) Select the Destination ("D") as a File ("F"). Type in the name. Write down the name. v) Select Spreadsheet Print ("S"). Quattro now exports the data to a flat file. WARNING: You may have to adjust the page layout and cell widths before writing the data. Page layouts are adjusted with the "L" (Layout) option on the Print Menu. Cell widths are adjusted with the "C" (Column width) on the Style Menu. To import the file into VAR Grade, press "F" on the Add Students Menu. Then enter the name of the file you wrote down in step iv, above. You will have to enter the starting and ending columns for each column of data, and the database or task numbers. It is a fairly tedious operation. It is a good idea to check the data that was imported to see if any problems occurred. An alternative for importing the data is to use the "A" option on the Add Students Menu. This will automatically determine what the data is. However, names or database items that have spaces in it will be split into two (or more) items in the program. 34 Entering Students 7. Large classes (a) Transferring scores between classes For classes with many sections, teaching assistants often grade the sections. You can have them export grades from their section as a comma and quote file, then import them into the program (again as a comma and quote file). To do this, you need to make sure that (a) the section numbers are exported along with the grades, and that (b) the task (exam) names that the teaching assistants use are identical to the ones you use. So, for example, they must all use "Midterm #1" and not "Exam #1" or "Midterm 1", etc. Another potential problem is that the new scores replace the old ones. In other words, the imported scores will supersede any you have for that task. Other ways to export and import scores are suggested above in parts 1 through 5. (b) Moving students between sections You can move all the students from one section to another one by pressing "M" on the Add Students Menu ("N" on the Main Menu). You will need to enter the old and new section numbers. Every student in the old section will be moved into the new section. You can move individual students from one section to another in the "I" option or "D" options on the Main Menu, by just changing the section number. To change the section numbers in the "D" section you need to tell the program to list the section numbers of students (you do this with the <AltC> option). (c) Deleting Sections You can remove one or more sections of a class by pressing "N" on the Main Menu, then "S". Every student in the section or sections that you choose will be removed from the class. All students in the class can also be deleted from this menu. 35 (d) Memory issues If you have large number of students and tasks, you may start to run out of memory. There are a couple of things you can do with the regular version of the program. First, Chapter XIII, Section F of this manual describes how you can alter the way the standard program uses memory. This can free up memory for other uses. Second, when in the "D" option of the Main Menu, you can use <AltZ> to specify which sections to list. If you list only one section of students at a time, you should be able to list all students in the section, and entering and leaving this part of the program will also be much faster. Also, if you use the <AltC> to change what columns to list, and specify only one or two tasks rather than twenty or thirty, again, more students can be listed, and entering and leaving this part of the program will be much faster. E. Sorting Students Students can be sorted by a variety of methods, including by name, ID, by the scores of any defined task (high to low score), by database items, by no sorts at all, or even randomized. In addition, you can sort using or not using sections. For example, you can sort by name, or by name and section. By default, the program sorts by name and section. You can change the method of sorting in the "G" option of the Main Menu, then "L" (alter the method of sorting the class). The program will continue to use the sorting method was used and will continue to use that method until told differently. Sorts are not done until you are finished altering data, so if you add new students, the names will not be alphabetized or sorted until you exit back to the Main Menu. After you designate how you want the class to be sorted, You can have the program list the students via their names OR by their IDs. In most cases, you want to list by names. For some cases, like some Law Schools that do grading by ID (to keep things anonymous), you want to choose ID. This choice only affects how the students are listed when you see lists of students on the screen. When printing data, you are always asked how to list the scores. 36 Entering Students F. Transferring Names to a New Class If you have entered names into one class, and need to have the same list of students entered into a second class, there are several ways it can be done. 1. Export to new classes The easiest way to export students is an option on the Write Data Menu ("W" on the Main Menu). You can export students to a new VAR Grade class ("V"). Before you do so, however, you may want to pick the database items to list (option "D"). If you choose to pick database items, you just type in the numbers of the items you want to export. Next, when on the Write Data Menu, press "V". You will be asked for the name of the class to export to. Choose a class, or type in the name of a new one. The data will then be written to the new class. If the class already exists, the old class will have the new students added. This option exports the names, IDs, and section numbers of the students, as well as whatever database items you choose. It will not export task scores. If you want to also export scores, use the "W" option. One caution should be made when exporting task scores: only the scores are exported, not the task definition. If you export an Average task, the new class will import it as a Number task. In other words, the scores are sent to the new class, but the type of the task is not. The task name and total points for the task are sent to the new class. 2. Saving with a new name If no task scores have been entered, you can simply save the data of the first class, then save them again with a different name. Saving is done in the "S" option of the Main Menu. When you save the class, it first lists the name of the current class. To save it to a new class, just change the name to the second class name. Example: If your first class is "MATH", when you save the class, "MATH.PAR" will be listed as the suggested name of the class. Press <F10>, to delete the old name, then type in the new one, e.g., "ENGLISH". You will now have both the Math and the English class files. WARNING: When you change the name of the class, the program assumes that the new name is the one you are using. So if 37 the first class was English, and the second Physics, the program will use the Physics name as the class currently in memory. 3. Saving with a new name, part 2 If tasks have been entered into your class, you can do the same procedure as the previous one, except that you then need to remove all the tasks from the second class. When in the second class, go to the "T" option of the Main Menu, then "C" (Change Task Menu), then "R" (remove tasks). You will be asked for the numbers to remove: type an <F1> (all). The program then asks if you really want to remove the tasks, say "Y" (yes). 4. Export as a comma and quote file or flat file You can export the class names as either a comma and quote file or as a flat file. The comma and quote files are the best choice. Then you can read the names back in to the new class. This method is the most complicated, but the most flexible, as well. First, go to the "W" option on the Main Menu (Write Data Menu). Next, for exporting to a comma and quote file, type "Q". You will be asked how to export the data: First, you need to choose which tasks to export. In most cases, it will be none. Next, you need to choose whether to export by name, ID, or both. Finally, you will be asked for the new class name. A suggestion will be CLASS.TXT, where CLASS is the current name of the class. You can export to any name, but is suggested that you do not use the extensions ".PAR" or ".DAT". NOTE: to export database items, you must choose which database items you want exported before you write the comma and quote or flat file. The next step is to import the data into a new class. First, go into the class you want to import the data ("X" on the Main Menu, then enter the class name). Next, go to the "N" option on the Main Menu to add new students. Next, choose "Q" to import students from a comma and quote file. Enter the name you just exported (e.g., CLASS.TXT). The data will automatically be imported into the program. For exporting to flat files, then importing into a new class, you export with the "P" option (plain text/flat file), and 38 Entering Students import with the "F" option on the Add Students Menu (flat file). Example: To export students from the English class to the Physics class, do the following: When in the English class, save the class as a comma and quote file in the "W" option of the Main Menu, then "Q". Next, exit the English class ("X" on the Main Menu), and choose the Physics class. Then, in the "N" option of the Main Menu, tell the program to import a comma and quote file ("Q"), and choose the file you have just written. 39 VI. DEFINING TASKS Tasks are graded assignments for students. They can be homework, exams, tests, papers, or anything else that is graded. There are twelve different predefined types of tasks in VAR Grade. The tasks are divided into two categories: (1) Regular tasks are assignments: those into which you enter grades. There are three types of regular tasks: letter, number, and extra credit. (2) Special tasks are mathematical manipulations of other tasks. These include sums, averages, percentages, etc. There are nine types of special tasks. Defining, removing, and redefining tasks can be done from the Task Type Menu, the "T" option of the Main Menu. A. The Define Task Menu Pressing "T" on the Main Menu will get you to the Task and Database Menu. From this menu, you can define or change both tasks and database items. If you then press "T", you will reach the Define Task Menu. At the top of the screen are listed some or all of the tasks in the class. At the bottom is the Define Task Menu and it's list of options. If you cannot see all the tasks on the screen, you can press <PgUp> to move up one screen of tasks, or <PgDn> to move down one screen. <Home> moves to the first screen of tasks, <End> to the last, <Ctrl-Left arrow> moves one column to the left, and <Ctrl-right arrow> moves one column to the right. From this menu, you can define all the tasks. You can also delete them, or see how they are defined. The Change Task Menu, the "C" option of the Task and Database Menu, lets you move, copy, delete, etc. the tasks. B. Regular Tasks You can enter tasks as numbers (Number tasks), you can enter them as letters (Letter tasks), or you can enter them as extra credit (Extra credit tasks). These can be defined in the "T" section of the Main Menu, then "T". They can also be defined in the "D" option of the Main Menu, then <AltT>. A task needs a name, and, if it is a number or extra credit task, the total possible points for that task. 40 Defining Tasks 1. Number tasks Number tasks are ones in which you enter numbers as the grades. The maximum possible points for any regular task is one million! The program checks the scores of every student when you put in the scores to make sure they do not exceed the maximum possible points. If the score does exceed it, that score is rejected, and a new score must be entered. When a score is rejected, a minor beep is emitted by the computer (the beep can be turned higher, or off, see below). This validation of scores reduces the number of errors made while entering student scores. However, you can also turn off this data validation (see below). Tasks that have 0 or fewer total points are ignored by Special tasks. (a) Defining When on the "T" option of the Main Menu, type "T" (Define a new task). A list of tasks that have been already defined are listed. Type an "N" (number task). The program will ask for the number of the task. If you type an <F1>, the next available number is chosen, otherwise, you can type in any other number. You can also select a task by moving the mouse cursor to the task and pressing the <Left button>. If another task already has that number, you are asked if you want to replace the old task, or insert the new one. Inserting moves all tasks one number later until an unused number is encountered. Next, you are asked name of the task. You can enter a name of up to 25 characters. If you are replacing an old task, the old name will be suggested. Last, the program will ask for the total possible points. It will suggest 100 points (or whatever the old task points were, if one already existed). Note that the program will assume that a task has 100 total points unless you alter the number. The task is now defined. You can enter grades into this task. (b) Quick defining of number tasks You can also "quick define" a sum task by pressing <F1>. The next available task number will be defined as a Number Task having 100 points. All you need to enter is the name of the task. The next available task number means that if you have defined tasks 1 through 10, the new one will be 41 11. If you have defined tasks 1 through 5 and 10 through 15, the new one will be task 6 (not 16). (c) Changing the total points If you decide to increase or decrease the total points of a number task, you can do so without changing the student scores. You need to redefine the task, as described above. However, when you reach the total points, enter a new number. If you are replacing an old task, you will be asked whether to blank out the scores, or leave them at their current scores. If you say leave them, the scores will be unchanged, but the task will have a new point total. For example, if task 5 is worth 50 points, and you want to change this to 100, you define task 5 by pressing "N" on the Define Task Menu. You will be asked for the name of the task (with the old name shown), just press <Rtn>. You will then be asked for the total points (enter 100, then <Rtn>). Finally, you will be asked if the student scores should be deleted. At this point, say "N" (NO). The new total points will be 100, and the student scores will be the same. WARNING: If you decrease the total points, student scores greater than the new total will be reduced to that new total. (d) Data validation When task data is entered, it is checked to see if the score is less than or equal to the total points of the task. If the number is too high, the program makes a small noise. This feature catches many typing errors. However, in some cases, you might want to let a student have more points. To do this, you can turn off the data validation. Press <AltO> when on a screen that allows you to enter task scores. On this options screen is the option that allows you to turn this beeping off. The noise only occurs when the score is too high for the task. On the options screen, you can also change the level of that noise. It can be turned off, or made louder. 42 Defining Tasks 2. Letter tasks Letter tasks are ones where the scores are entered as letters. The program converts them to numbers, but the scores can be entered, printed, and manipulated as letter grades. The standard or default grading system is an A is 4.0, a B is 3.0, a C is 2.0, etc. Pluses are 0.3 points higher (except A+), and minuses are 0.3 points below the grade (e.g. B- = 2.7; C+ = 2.3). You can, however, define any grading system that you want, including the names and points for each grade, as long as the total grade types do not exceed 50. In fact, you should change the grading names before you define any letter tasks. You may also want to change the grade values (see Chapter XI, Sections A and B). If you do change the grading system, you should do it before you enter any letter grades. The program stores the grades as numbers, not as letters. Thus, changing the names of letter grades after some letter grades have been assigned can result in incorrect scores. You can change the grade values for the letter grades at any time (see Chapter XII, Section B). If you mix letter and number grades, you may want to change the letter grade values. If an A is 4 points, a B is 3 points, etc., an A is 100%, a B is 75%, etc. Some people redefine them as A = 90% (or 95%), B = 80% (or 85%), etc. You define a letter task by pressing "L" on the Define Task Menu. You are asked only for the number and name of the task, not the total points. Otherwise, the method of defining it is the same as described for number tasks. 3. Extra credit tasks Extra credit tasks are ones where the points can be added to a number task, but the total points of the number task are not altered. Extra credit tasks are treated in special ways by the program. The extra credit tasks need to have the total points be specified, just like number tasks, to check for incorrect data input. However, this number is used only to check data entry. As far as the special exams, described below, are concerned, extra credit tasks have 0 total points. The student scores are used in the calculations for special tasks. WARNING: In the case of discarding the lowest of a list of tasks, if the extra credit score is one of lowest scores, 43 it may be discarded. This may not be what you want, so you should consider this potential problem before you include extra credit tasks in the definitions of Highest Tasks. Extra credit tasks are defined by pressing "E" on the Define Task Menu. Otherwise, the definition is done exactly the same way as number tasks are defined. C. Special Tasks The second major type of tasks are called special tasks. These are defined in the "T" section of the Main Menu, then "T". Special tasks are sums, averages, highest, percentages, etc., of other tasks. You do not enter scores into special tasks. Instead, you define the task as the sum (average, percentage, highest, etc.) of other tasks. The program then calculates the scores for you. These scores will be recalculated each time you change student scores. Note: Unentered tasks can either be ignored by special exams or they can count as 0 total points. Which of these the program will use can be set on the Options Menu ("O" on the Main Menu, then "O"), or by pressing <AltO> when entering data. Scores less than the fewest allowed points will always be ignored, regardless of how you set this program option. Example: At the end of the term, you probably want to add up all the task scores in the class. You can specify a task, e.g. #30, as the sum of all the previous tasks (#1 through #29). Task #30 is a special task called a "Sum task". Since any of the possible task numbers can be either a special or regular task, you can, for example, define one Sum task as the sum of all the quizzes, another as the sum of all the tests, and a third as the sum of all the homework. You can define another task as the sum of the previous three sum tasks to therefore sum all the scores. One limitation for defining special tasks is that they can be defined only as tasks acting on tasks with lower numbers. Allowing you to add or sum tasks with the same or higher numbers could result in circular definitions that could confuse the computer and produce nonsense or variable results. A second limitation applies only to sums of tasks. The total points allowed for a "Sum task" (like task #30 above), is 9,999,999 (less than 10 million points). 44 Defining Tasks NOTE: Tasks can be removed by using the "R" (remove) option on the Define Task menu or by redefining the task as a new task. To remove, choose the "R" (Remove) option. Then choose the task number or numbers at the prompt. Since all student data for the task(s) is also removed, you will be asked again to make sure that you want to remove the task(s). 1. Sum tasks These are tasks that are the sums of other tasks. Tasks can be summed multiple times. Example: Task 5 can be the sum of task 1 + task 2 + task 3. Example: Task 5 can also be the sum of task 1 + task 1 + task 1. This would be the equivalent of multiplying the task by 3. Tasks that are not yet entered can be included in the list of tasks that will be summed. When the tasks are then defined, they will be included in the sums. Note that the total points possible for each student on a sum task includes only those tasks in which scores have been entered. Example: Task 12 is the sum of tasks 3, 5, and 7. Each has 100 possible points. Mary had 90 points on task 3, and 85 on task 5. She has 175 of 200 points. When her score for task 7 is entered, there will then be 300 total points possible for her. NOTE: The sums of all the tasks in a Sum task must be less than 10 million points. (a) Defining Sum tasks To define a Sum task, type "S" on the Define Task Menu. Next, pick a task number, or <F1> for the next free task number. Next, enter a name for the task. Finally, you need to enter the numbers of the tasks to sum. After entering the last one, you will see a list of the tasks, and be asked whether this is correct. 2. Averaged tasks These are tasks that are the numerical average of other tasks. Task 5 can be the average of tasks 1 through 4. If you use letter grades, the averages are done using the point 45 values of the letters, and are reported as numbers, not letters. Any tasks that have not yet been entered are NOT averaged, so the averages reflect only those tasks for which the student has had scores entered. Averaged tasks are defined the same way as Sum tasks, except that you start by pressing "A" instead of "S". 3. Percentage tasks These are tasks that average other tasks, and then convert those averages to percentages. Example: If task 10 is the percentage of tasks 5 and 6 (which each have 100 points), the program adds up the scores from 5 and 6, then divides the scores by the total points of 5 and 6 (200 points). The score is then converted to a percent by multiplying by 100. Hence, the scores range from 0 to 100 percent. Like sum and average tasks, any tasks that have not yet been entered are not used in the conversions, so the percentages reported for the students are only for those tasks that have already had scores entered. Percentage tasks are defined the same way as Sum tasks, except that you start by pressing "P" instead of "S". 4. Highest tasks: Throwing out the lowest scores These tasks will throw out one or more of the lowest scores of a special task. Example: You can throw out the lowest two out of ten tasks. If Task 11 is the sum of tasks 1 through 10, you can define task 12 as the highest 8 of the tasks in task 11. Highest tasks discard the lowest one or more scores of a sum, averaged, or percentage task. The special task that is used must have a number lower than the highest task. For a highest task, the program will find the lowest scores of a list of tasks and add up only the highest of those scores. You need to tell the program how many tasks to discard (the lowest 1, the lowest 5, etc.). Scores that are unentered are discarded first, then the lowest scores that have been entered are discarded. For weight tasks, scores that have the lowest percentages are discarded first, not those with the lowest points. 46 Defining Tasks Example: Suppose you have a weight task worth 65 points, and defined as the weight of tasks 1 through 5, with weights of 10, 10, 15, 20, and 20, respectively. If a student scores a 70% on task 5, and an 80% on the other 4, the score from task 5 will be discarded. The student would end up with 80% of 65 points (52 points). No matter which task the student scored a 70% on, if all the others are 80%, the score would end up as 52 points. NOTE: You can throw out scores on any sum, average, weight, or percentage task. The "highest" task will report the score with the same type. Therefore, if you discard the lowest of an average task, the scores will be reported as an average. (a) Defining a Highest task To define a Highest task, you need to have already defined one or more sum, averaged, weight, or percentage tasks. Type "H" on the Define Task Menu. Next, pick a task number, or <F1> for the next free task number. Next, enter a name for the task. You will see a list of all the sum, averaged, weight, and percentage tasks. You need to pick one of these tasks, either by typing it in, or selecting it with a mouse. You are asked how many tasks to discard. You can discard up to one less than the number of tasks used in the definition. For example, if the task is the sum of tasks 1 through 6, you can discard up to 5 tasks. 5. Weighted tasks You can define a task as the sum of other tasks, each times a weight. For example, you can define task 20 as the sum of task 10 with a weight of 0.2, task 11 with a weight of 0.3, and task 12 with a weight of 0.5. This will give "true" weighting of tasks. If unused scores are not counted as 0 points, unentered scores are ignored by weight tasks, and the weights adjusted. You will first be asked for the total points the task will be worth, after weighting. Then, you will be asked which tasks to weight. Last, you will be asked for the relative weights for each of those tasks. The relative weights can be percentages or arbitrary numbers. Example: If you have three exams in your class, each worth 100 points, and want to weight them 30%, 30%, and 40%, you 47 can define task 4 as the weight of task 1 with a final weight of 30, task 2 with a weight of 30, and task 3 with a weight of 40. The calculation for the weights is done by taking the weights you give for each task and dividing them by the total points for each task. These numbers are then added up and adjusted so that the maximum possible points is equal to the total points of the weight task. For the example above, assuming you want the total points to be 100, the students scores are calculated as: 100 * (((Task #1 score) * 30 / 100) + ((Task #2 score) * 30 / 100) + ((Task #3 score) * 40 / 100)) The parentheses denote calculations that are kept together. In the example, "*" means "multiplied by". (a) Discarding scores When entering the weights for the tasks, at the bottom of the screen is an option to discard one or more scores. If you discard scores in a weight task, the other weights are adjusted accordingly. The first tasks discarded are the ones with the lowest percentage scores. Example: If you weight tasks 101 through 106, each with a weight of 10, and discard one task, the other five are each worth 20% of the total score. (b) Defining a weight task To define a weight task, type "W" on the Define Task Menu. Next, pick a task number, or <F1> for the next free task number. Next, enter a name for the task. You then enter the total points for the task. Up to here, it is like defining a number task. Next, however, you need to type in a list of tasks to use for the weights. You can also use a mouse to select the tasks. After you have selected the tasks, the Weight Task Menu appears. It lists the task number, the task name, the total points for each task, and the weights. The weights are suggested to be 1, but can be changed to any other number. In most cases, you will want the weights to add up to 100 or 1.00, but they can add to anything. In addition, at the bottom of the screen is an option to 48 Defining Tasks discard one or more of the tasks. When you are finished entering the weights and discard number, press <AltS> (save). 6. Final task You can define a task as a final task. This task will assign letter grades based upon scores of another task. These scores are only assigned after cutoffs have been designated. Cutoffs are designated either by defining automatic cutoffs in the "G" option of the program before you define the task, or by assigning new cutoffs, also in the "G" option, after you have defined the task. The final grades are recalculated each time new scores are entered. If you don't want the grades recalculated, you can either change the task to a letter task after the assignments, or you can transfer the scores to a new letter task. (a) Final task problems If the student grades are all A's, I's, or F's, the cutoffs for the grades were probably not defined before the final task was created. You can either define them for that task only with the "G" option on the Grading Menu ("G" on the Main Menu), or you can define cutoffs with the "C" option on the Grading Menu, then redefine the final task. Note that when you define a final task, it inherits the current cutoffs. Changes to the cutoffs made after you have defined a final task do not affect it. (b) Defining a Final task To define a final task, type "F" on the Define Task Menu. Next, pick a task number, or <F1> for the next free task number. Next, enter a name for the task. Finally, you need to enter the number of the task that is to be used to calculate the final grades. Although the name is "final" task, you can define any number of them. 7. Attendance task If you use attendance in your classes, you can define a task that will automatically calculate a score based upon a student's attendance. To do this, you first designate how many points the task will be worth. Next, you need to pick which attendance days to use. Last, you can assign the relative weights for each type of attendance (there are 49 thirteen different types of attendance), and how many days to ignore (for example, if you allow two absences per grading period, you can tell the program to discard the lowest two attendance scores). For assigning the relative weights for the different types of attendance, you can assign "default" values on the Attendance Menu ("A" on the Main Menu). NOTE: if no attendance has been defined, you cannot define an attendance task, and that option won't be listed on the Define Task Menu. (a) Defining an Attendance task To define an attendance task, type "B" on the Define Task Menu. Next, pick a task number, or <F1> for the next free task number. Next, enter a name for the task. Next, you need to enter the total points for the task. Up to now, it is just like defining a number task. Next, you need to enter the numbers of the attendance days that are to be used to calculate the scores. You can enter numbers of tasks that are not yet defined. Last, you enter the values for each type of attendance, and how many days to discard. Values shown on this menu are the default ones, defined on the Attendance Menu. They can be altered any way you want. Save the changes by pressing <AltS>. 8. Attendance extra credit task This task is defined just like the attendance task, but treated like an extra credit task, and counts as 0 total points to other special tasks. 9. User-defined task This task lets you enter a mathematical formula that is used to calculate student scores. This gives the user task a spreadsheet-like quality. (a) Defining a User task When defining a User task, you are asked for the name, then the definition of the task. Common mathematical symbols are used, as are parentheses. In addition, percentages can be designated. 50 Defining Tasks For the following, N1 and N2 are any numbers, and T is any task. Command Definition N1+N2 Add the items N1 and N2 N1-N2 Subtract two items N1/N2 Divide N1 by N2 N1*N2 Multiply N1 and N2 [T] Task score, e.g., [1]+[2] adds the scores from tasks 1 and 2 [%T] Percentage of a task, [%1] is the percentage of task 1. The order of precedence is parentheses first (from left to right), then the other commands. The numbers are calculated from left to right. You can have any number of parentheses. Examples: 2*10-1 will give 19 as the result. 2*(10-1) will give 18 as the result. 2*[1]+5*[5] will double the score on task one, then add five, then multiply that total times the score on task five. (2*[1])+(5*[5]) will add two times the score on task one and five times the score on task 5. 2*[1]+(5*[5])/2 will double the score on task one, then add five times the score on task five, then divide that result by two. 2*[1]+(5*[5]/2) will double the score on task one, then add to it five times the score on task five divided by two. 2*([1]+5)*[5]/2 will add five to the score on task one, double that number, then multiply it by the score on task 5, and divide the result by two. 2*[%1]+(5*[%5]) will double the percentage score on task one, then add five times the percentage score on task five. NOTE: If there are other types of special tasks that you would like to have the option of using, send a note to us and explain how this type of task would be calculated. We will try to accommodate you. 51 10. If task This task lets you enter require an assigment or type of assignment. The task has a criterium that must be passed for a score to be used. For example, you can require that a student receive 60% or more in order to pass an assignment. Students that don't meet the criteria receive zeros. (a) Defining an If task When defining an If task, you are asked for the task number, then it's name. Next, you are asked for the task that is to be checked. Last, you are asked for the criteria to use. You can "pass" all scores above, below, or equal to a number (or letter grade). If the task that is checked is a task that uses letters, the If task will also contain letter grades. Otherwise, the task contains numbers. If you list scores of an if task, students that meet your criteria will keep the scores of the task that is checked. Othewise the score will be a 0 (or a failing letter grade). To require an assignment, you need to define an If task that checks the required assignment. Then, use the if task to calculate scores (the calculated task must be a Weight, Average, Sum, or Percentage task). If you then use the calculated task in a Final task and a student doesn't meet the criteria the student grade will be a fail. The required assignment must be one of the grades used in the calculations for the task used to assign final grades. To further explain how this works, examine the examples below. (b) Examples of If definitions Example A: Students in my class have two tests, one term paper, and one creative writing assignment. The student must receive a term paper grade of a C or better to pass the class. The tests each count for 30% of the grade, the term paper 30%, and the other assignment is worth 10%. How do I set up a class to do this? Answer A: Define four tasks. Task #1 is test one, task #2 is test two, task #3 is the term paper, and task #4 is the writing assignment. Next, define an If task as task #5. Make it check task #3, select a criterium of ">=", and a letter grade of "C". Next, define a Weight 67A task as task #7. For the weight task, use tasks #1, #2, #4, and #5 (the If task, not task #3). Assign weights of 30, 30, 10, and 30, respectively. To assign final grades, define task #8 as a Final task that uses task #7 to assign grades. Any student that received a grade below a C on the term paper will be assigned a final grade of an F. Example B: Sometimes I assign book reports on a pass-fail basis. In other words, in addition to tests, etc., students must do two book reports to pass the course at all. Is there a way to do this? Answer B: Define the book reports. Make the reports worth one point each. Next, define a Sum task to add up the scores. Next, define an If task, using the Sum task, and requiring ">=" 2 points. Next, define a Weight task, using the book reports as well as any other assignments. When assigning a weight to the book reports, assign it a weight of "0". Last, define a Final task, using the Weight task. If a student did not turn in two book reports, the student will receive a failing grade. Example C: If example A, above, a student receives a failing grade if the assignment does not have a "C" or above. How do you do define the tasks if you want a student to receive a failing grade on the term paper if a "C" isn't earned, but not have the student automatically fail the class? Answer C: The difference would be to define one extra task (#6), that would be the Sum of task #5 (the If task). Next define the Weight task as above, except use task #6 in the definition instead of task #5. A student will receive a failing grade on task #5 only if the score was lower than a C. (c) If tasks and What-ifs If you are calculating what-ifs, having either an If or User task in the definition will force the program to estimate the required grades. The estimates calculated are a maximum of 0.1% above the minimum score required, so if a student requires 70% to acheive a grade, the program may report a needed score as high as 70.1%. Again, if more than one assignment is missing, the scores required are an average that is needed. If may be possible for a student to score below that average and still make the desired grade if an If or High task score is part of the grade. 67B D. Scaling Tasks In the "G" option of the Main Menu, there is an option, "S", that lets you add any number of points to a number or extra credit task, or multiply the scores of them by a number (which can be above or below 1). Since the primary purpose of scaling scores is to adjust the scores before giving final grades, further details are given in Chapter X, Section K: Scaling the Tasks. E. Memory Limitations Each task that is defined takes up space. In cases where memory is limited, you may find that you cannot define a new task. You may need to delete an old task to be able to add a new one. A second option to increase your memory is by removing any TSR (terminate and stay resident) programs from memory BEFORE running the program. A third option is to tell VAR Grade to use less memory for overlays (See Chapter XIII, Section F). A fourth option is to shrink the size of the ID's and/or student names. This last option only saves a little memory. VAR Grade uses very little memory per student, so, for example, classes of 30 students with 30 tasks or of 90 students and 10 tasks would take up less than 15K of memory over and above that used by the program. If you are having memory problems, contact us at the address below for possible solutions. F. Manipulating Tasks Tasks can easily be moved, copied, removed, and so forth. You can also transfer scores to a database item or from a database item to a task score. Most manipulations are best done from the Change Task Menu. The Change Task Menu is reached from the Main Menu by pressing "T", then "C". Some of these options are also on the Define Task Menu. 1. Copying tasks Tasks may by copied to new tasks that have higher task numbers. To do this, go the Change Task Menu, then press "C". You are asked which task to copy. Enter a number. You then need to specify where the new task will end up. If you specify an existing task number, it will replaced by the copied task. 52 Defining Tasks The definition of the task is copied exactly, even if the task is a special task. The students scores are copied as well. You will be asked for a new name for the task, however. Example: If the task to be copied is a number task, the new task will have the same total points and student scores as the first task. Example: If the task to be copied is defined as the percentage of tasks 1 through 3, the new task will also be defined as the percentage of tasks 1 through 3. 2. Transferring tasks Task scores may be transferred to a new task. When tasks are transferred, the student scores are transferred but the task definition is not. The task where the scores are transferred to will be defined as a number or letter task, depending upon the definition of the task to be transferred. The student scores are copied from the first task to the second. Note that if the task you are transferring to already exists, you are asked if you want to redefine the task. You transfer task scores by pressing "T" on the Change Task Menu. You are asked for the number of the task that is to be transferred. Next, you are asked for the place to transfer the scores. Since the place will be redefined as a number or letter task, if the old task already exist, you will be asked whether to replace it. Finally, you will be asked the name of the new task. 3. Transfer one task definition You can transfer the definition of a single task, but not any student scores (which will be set as not yet entered). This is done with the "Y" option on the Change Task Menu. You just specify the task definition to use, and where to put it, as well as the new name of the task. This is equivalent to copying the task, then clearing all the student scores. 4. Transfer a group of task definitions You can also transfer the definitions of a group of tasks, instead of one at a time. The group is specified by entering the beginning and ending numbers of the tasks, then 53 specifying where to transfer them. Like the previous option, the task definitions will be transferred, but no student scores will be transferred. If any of the tasks that are transferred are special tasks, their definitions will be adjusted as follows: if the special tasks include any tasks that are also transferred, the new tasks will be redefined to include those tasks rather than the original tasks. Transferring a group of task definitions is done by pressing "J" on the Change Task Menu. The major purpose of this option is for teachers that give the same types of tests from week to week. This lets them quickly and easily make a new group each week, with a minimum of effort. Example: Task 6, Week 1 average, is the average of tasks 1 through 5 (Monday through Friday grades). You decide to transfer the definitions for Week 2. You transfer tasks 1 through 6 to 11 through 16. Task 16 will now be defined as the average of tasks 11 through 15 (not 1 through 5). 5. Moving tasks You can move one or more tasks. To move one task, press "M" on the Change Task Menu. To move a group of several consecutive tasks, press "G". When a task is moved, the task is renumbered, and all the special tasks that use that task are redefined to refer to the new number, as well. When you move a group of tasks, you are asked for the first and last numbers of the tasks to move. All the tasks between and including those two numbers are moved. Student scores, of course, move along with the task. The major purpose of this option is to give you room to put more tasks. If you originally let tasks 1 through 10 be used for quizzes, 11 through 30 be used for homework, and 31 through 40 be used for exams, and ended up with 11 quizzes, you would like to make task 11 a quiz. Moving tasks 11 through 40 to tasks 21 through 50 will give you up to 10 more task numbers for quizzes. 6. Copy a database value to a task If you have an item defined as a database item, you can transfer the value to a task score. The transfer only makes sense if the item contains numbers, but any database item value can be transferred to a task. Since the database 54 Defining Tasks value is converted to a number, any item that contains characters that are not in numbers are transferred as "unentered". To transfer, press "D" on the Change Task Menu. You select the database item, then the task. The task must be a regular task, not a special task. 7. Clearing student scores To redefine all student scores for a task as unentered, use the "K" option on the Change Task Menu. The task remains defined the same way as previously. You can clear only regular tasks, as the others are recalculated each time scores are entered into the class. After pressing "K", you will be asked for a list of tasks to use. After you finish, you will be asked whether you really want to zero the student scores. 8. Removing tasks You can remove one or more tasks from the class. The "R" option on both the Change Task Menu and the Define Task Menu asks you for a list of all the tasks to remove. After you specify the tasks to be removed, the program will ask you if you really want to remove them. If you say "D" (delete), the task and the student scores will be deleted from the class. Using the option with the <F1> key to select all tasks will remove all the tasks. If you have the same students from one grading period to the next, removing all the tasks will start the class over for you, while keeping the students in the class. 9. Change the points of a number task To change the total points, but nothing else, you need to redefine the task. This is done on the Define Task Menu. If it is a number or letter task, you will be asked whether to delete the old grades, just say no (almost sounds like an anti-drug campaign). The new definition will be there, along with the old grades. 55 10. Show task definition To help you remember how you have defined tasks, the "V" option on both the Define Task Menu and the Change Task Menu will list the current definition of a task. 11. Print task definitions The "O" option on the Define Task Menu and the Change Task Menu will print one or more task definitions on your printer. They will be formatted to look the same as seen in the show task definition. G. Examples of Task Definitions Example #1: I gave three tests. The first was worth 100 points, the second was worth 130 points, and the third was worth 211 points. I want the exams to be worth 25%, 25%, and 50%, respectively, and the total points to be 100. Solution: Define the tests as Tasks 1 through 3, all number tasks. Define task 4 as a Weight Task. For task 4, make the task worth 100 points. Then pick tasks 1 through 3, and assign task 1 a weight of 25, task 2 a weight of 25, and task 3 one of 50. Example #2: For each test, I give two versions to my students. Half the students take one version, half the other. I want to keep track of each version separately, yet calculate the final averages for the students in my class. Solution: For each test, define three tasks. The first two are the two versions of the tests. The third one is an Average Task, which averages the first two tasks. The third task will be the average of one task that has an entered score and one that is unentered, hence equivalent to the entered score. Example #3: I give a homework assignment, then give students extra credit for turning it in early. At the end of the semester, I discard the lowest homework assignment. However, I don't want the extra credit discarded, just the lowest homework. Solution: When the homework is graded, define the homework task, the extra credit task, and a third task, the sum of the homework and extra credit. When you discard the lowest homework assignment, use the third task in the definition, not the first two tasks. 56 Defining Tasks Example #4: I want to distinguish between unentered grades and excused grades. How do I do it? Solution: The program keeps track of the lowest allowed score. When the program is first run, the lowest allowed score is 0. You can, however, enter scores less than 0. You can always enter scores down to -1,000,000. NOTE: You can tell the program the lowest score to use for statistics in the "O" option on the Main Menu, then "O", or by pressing <AltO> whenever you are enter task scores. The program, when calculating statistics, assumes that scores less than the fewest allowed points are unentered scores. The scores you entered, however, are displayed correctly (as scores less than the fewest allowed) when printing or entering scores. Hence, if you enter a -100, it will be ignored for the plots, printing, etc., but written as a -100 when entering data. Example #5: I want to assign grades to students halfway through the semester. I then want to assign final grades at the end of the semester. Solution: Define a final task at the half way point that assigns grades based on the first half scores. Then assign grades in the "G" option of the Main Menu. Define a second final task that assigns grades based on the grades for the entire semester. Example #6: I defined a number task as having 100 points. I entered grades, then decided to redefine it as having 110 points. Yet, I do not want to lose the previously entered grades. Solution: When you redefine a task, the program asks whether to delete any previous grades. If you say no, the grades will not be changed. The only exception is if you decrease the number of points, and a student has more than that number. That student score will be decreased to the new maximum points for the task. Example #7: I give three quizzes each week. Then I define a task as the sum of these three scores. It's tedious to keep defining the tasks each week. Is there an easier way? Solution: Define the tasks for the first week. Thereafter, transfer the task definitions (section F4, above). If the first week tasks were 1 through 4, transfer the group to tasks 5 through 8. The new task 5 through 7 definitions will be the same as tasks 1 through 3, and task 8 will sum tasks 5 through 7. 57 Example #8: Halfway through the semester, I like to give the students a handout that tells them their current grades, including a tentative final grade. Solution: Define a task that sums, averages, or calculates the percentages of the scores on the tasks. Define the automatic cutoffs in the "G" option of the Main Menu. Use your standard grade cutoffs. Then define a final task, using the previous task. This task will now calculate final grades based upon only those scores that have been entered. Example #9: I set up my class so that tasks 1 through 10 are quizzes, 11 through 20 are tests, and 21 through 40 are homework. I just gave my eleventh quiz. What do I do? Solution: Move tasks 11 through 40 to higher numbers. For example, move them to tasks 21 through 50. This is done with the "M" option on the Task Menu (see section F5, above). Example #10: I gave three exams, each worth 100 points. However, the third exam should have been worth 150 points. How can I fix this? Solution: Scale the task, "S" on the Grading Menu, by telling the program to multiply the scores by 1.5. The new scores will each be 1.5 the original scores, and the exam total points will be 150. Example #11: I used one class for the fall semester ("Fall"), and another for the spring semester ("Spring"). I want to consolidate the grades from the two classes so and calculate a final grade for the year. How can I do this? Solution: One way is to define a third class, "Year". Export the task scores you need for the final grades to another class with the "W" on the Main Menu, then "W". Export the task scores from each of the two classes "Fall" and "Spring". Make sure that, before you export the tasks to the "Year" class, the names of the tasks from the two classes are different. Example #12: I want attendance to count for 20% of the grade in my class, tests 40%, and homework 40%. In addition, I allow three absences in the semester. How do I do this? Solution: First, define a task that totals the homework (e.g., #20), and one that totals the tests (#21). Next, define an attendance task (#22). Make the task worth, for example, 100 points. Pick which days to use for the attendance. Then, specify three days of attendance to be discarded. Last, assign weights for each attendance type (e.g., 2.0 for present and excused, 1.0 for late, and 0 for the rest). Next, define tasks that total the homework and tests. Last, define a weight task 58 Defining Tasks (#30), and assign the attendance task (#22) a weight of 20, homework (#20) a weight of 40, and tests (#21) a total of 40. To assign final grades, define a final task that uses the scores of the weight task (#30). Whew! Example #13: I gave one test worth 10 points, another worth 20 points, another worth 100 points, and another worth 500 points. At the end of the semester, I want to count each of them equally. How do I do this? Solution: Define a weight task, that gives weights for each of the four tasks the same number. For example, weight each of them with a weight of 1.0. Example #14: I want to mix number and letter grades. However, when I do so, the letter grades don't count right. I want an A to count as 95 points, a B as 85, a C as 75, etc. How do I do this? Solution: Redefine the grade values ("G" on the Main Menu, then "N"). When you do this, instead of an A counting as 4.0, make it count as 95. Make a B count as 85, etc. Make the total points count as 100. Example #15: I want to get an average of four tasks. However, they are worth 10, 20, 50, and 100 points. I want them to count equally in the average. Solution: If you want the average to be on a 100 point scale, define a percentage task for each, then average them. For example, if the four tasks are numbers 1 through 4, make task #5 the percentage of task #1. Make task #6 the percentage of #2, etc. Then average tasks 5 through 8. It will now be an average. Example #16: I have tasks that have 10, 20, 50, and 100 points. I want to discard the (relatively) worst score of the four tasks. Solution: Like the solution to #15, define four tasks as the percentages of the four tasks. For example, define tasks #5 through 8 as the percentage of tasks #1 through 4. Now define an average (or percentage or sum) task that is the average of tasks 5 through 8. Finally, define task #9 that is a highest task of #8: discarding one task. Note: For examples #15 and #16, you could also define a weight task to do what you want. In the first case, weight each task equally. In the second, weight each task equally, and discard one of them. 59 Example #17: Sometimes I assign book reports on a pass-fail basis. In other words, in addition to tests, etc., students must do two book reports to pass the course at all. Is there a way to do this? Solution: To do this, define each book report as a number task, worth one point each. Next, define a Sum task that sums all the book reports. Next, define a High task that discards all but two of the book reports. The grades should run from 0 to 2 points. Next, define a User task. Make the task definition as whatever your other grades totals (averages) are, then times it by the (High task score - 1). For example, if you average your grades, and call it task #50, and the High task is task #40, make the User task definition: "([40]-1)*[50]". Scores less than or equal to 0 are ones that didn't meet the requirement (fails). You may need to set the fewest allowed points to a number less than zero (found on most of the option screens, e.g., press <AltO> when entering numbers to locate this option). If you don't like negative grades, you can add an extra task instead: Define a Final task (e.g., #41) that uses the High task (#40 in the example). Next, assign grades to the task, using 2 as the top grade, 1 and 0 as failing grades. Then replace ([40] - 1) in the example above with ([41] / 4). This assumes that your top grade is "4" (an A in the default grades). NOTE: Chapter X, Analyzing the Grades, gives more examples. 60 Database Items VII. DATABASE ITEMS Besides names, IDs, section numbers, and tasks, you can enter database items. VAR Grade allows a limited database of up to 200 items, which can be up to a total of 16K in size. These items can include any type of data about a student, including year in school, birthdate, address, sex, age, major, school, etc. There are six different types of items that can be defined. These database items can be altered, printed, sorted, used to filter plots or printouts, and used to define which grading system a student needs. Database items can be used in all parts of the program. Student names, IDs, and sections are actually special types of database items, and cannot be added or deleted (although names and IDs can be resized). A. Defining a New Item To define a database item, you press "T" on the Main Menu, then "D" on the Task and Database Menu. The next menu is the Define Database Items Menu. The current database items are listed on the top of the menu, and example of some database items are then listed, and then a menu of types of database items. There are six types of database items: String (up to 40 characters), Word (ordinal numbers from 0 to 65534), Integer (ordinal numbers from -32767 to 32767), Character (a character of any of 15 possible characters), Boolean (yes or no), and Memo (strings of over 40 characters). Note that Memo items are treated a little differently than the other items due to their length. You need to choose a type for an item that you want to define. Then, you need to specify the name of the database item. If you choose to define a String or Memo database item, you also need to specify the maximum number of characters in the item. If you choose a Character database item, you need to specify the allowed characters (up to 15 can be entered). Database items are easily defined. They can have a name of up to 20 characters. String: This type can be used to enter small amounts of data (since you can enter up to 40 characters). This data can be 61 any characters. Examples of types that you would want to be string items are addresses, phone numbers, and nicknames. The memory used by each string type takes 1 byte in addition to the allowed number of characters. Defining a string: On the Define Database Menu, press "S". You are asked for the name of the item. Next, you are asked how many characters are in the string. Enter a number from 1 to 40. The item is now listed at the top of the screen, along with it's type. Word: This type can be used to enter numbers above zero (cardinal numbers). It might be used to enter items like the grade level of students. Word type items each take up two bytes of memory. Defining a word: On the Define Database Menu, press "W". You are then asked for the name of the item. Integer: This type can be used for numbers above and below zero. It could also be used for grade levels, or any item that can be less that zero. Word type items each take up two bytes of memory. Defining an integer: On the Define Database Menu, press "I". You are then asked for the name of the item. Character: This type can be used for entering one character. For example, sex (allowed characters: M and F). The program checks when you enter data to make sure the correct allowed characters are entered. Character types each take up one byte. Defining a character: On the Define Database Menu, press "C". You are then asked for the name of the item. You then are asked for the valid characters. You can enter up to 15. If you want to use more than 15 characters, you should define a string of length 1 instead of a character. Boolean: This type can be used for yes or no data. For example, if they met a certain requirement (e.g., they gave an oral report). Boolean types each take up one byte. Defining a boolean: On the Define Database Menu, press "B". You are then asked for the name of the item. 62 Database Items Memo: This type is for entering lots of information about a student. Because the lengths of the Memo item can be more than the width of the screen, the Memo items must be handled a little differently. This means that, unlike the other items, you enter data into this field into popup fields that wrap words, etc. Each Memo type takes up one byte in addition to the number of characters it has. Defining a memo: On the Define Database Menu, press "M". You are asked for the name of the item. Next, you are asked how many characters are in the memo. Enter a number from 41 to 254. B. Altering Database Definitions You can change a definition of a database item, or rearrange them on the Change Database Items Menu ("T" on the Main Menu, then "R" on the Task and Database Menu). Just as tasks can be moved and rearranged, so can database items. You can also transfer a task score to a database item. 1. Move an item After you define a database item, you may want to move it around. This is especially true because listing and printing the items is frequently done in numerical order of their definition (when entering data by student, or writing the data by student). To move an item, you specify the item number, and where it should be placed (i.e., the new number of the item). The other database items are moved back. Example: To move item 4 to place 2, press an "M" on the Change Database Items Menu. You then pick the number of the item to move: "4". You then pick the number of the place to move it: "2". You will see that the old #4 has moved to #2, with the old #2 now called #3, and the old #3 called #4. 2. Alter a definition This option lets you redefine an item without losing the data. If you made an item a Word type, then decide to make it an Integer type, the program will convert the data from one type to another. Note: data that is not valid may be 63 changed or blanked. Any type of data can be converted to another! To alter the definition, press "A" on the Change Database Items Menu. You then are asked for the item number to change. You are then asked for the new database type. Any of the six types are allowed. However, if you convert a memo with 254 characters to a character item, only the first character will remain. 3. Clear student data This option clears all student data from that item. The item is still defined the same way, the student data just disappears. To clear the data, press "C" on the Change Database Items Menu. You are then asked for the item number to change. 4. Delete a database item This option removes an item from the database. All student data is deleted for that item, as well as the item definition. To delete a database item, press "D" on the Change Database Items Menu. You are then asked for the item number to change. 5. Copy task values to a database item This option transfers task scores to database items. The numbers can be transferred to any type of database item, however, transferring to types like boolean will result in all values being "N". Transferring to string or memo items will cause the value to be converted to a string. The number will have the number of decimal places you have specified. Transferring to an integer or cardinal number (word) will cause the number to be rounded. Transferring to a character item will cause the first number in the score to be transferred. Unentered scores will be transferred as blanks for all items except booleans. C. Database Operations Database items can be used in most parts of the program. Below are some examples of this. 64 Database Items 1. Entering and changing student data For the options below, you need to have defined some database items, see Section A. (a) You can enter database data in the "I" (enter individual data) option on the Main Menu. All the database items except Memos are listed at the top of the screen. Memos can be popped up over the student by pressing <AltM>. If you have more than one Memo item, you can move between them with <AltN> (next memo), or <AltP> (previous memo). (b) Data can be entered in the "D" (data for the class) option on the Main Menu. Press <AltC>, and you will see a list of the database items in addition to student names, IDs, and sections. Choose Y or N for each database item. Next you will see the list of tasks. Choose whichever ones you want. The database columns will be listed before the tasks when entering data. To enter data into Memos, press <AltM>. The Memo for the current student will be shown. The current student is the student row where the cursor is located. If more than one Memo is defined, you can move between them with <AltN> (next) and <AltP> (previous). (c) Database items can also be entered by reading in data from files. This works for both comma and quote and flat files. If an item has a name, but no numbers or letter grades in the data, it is assumed to be a database item. The default item is to make it a string (large enough to hold the first student's data). You can force the program to add database items of particular types by appending any of the following items to the database item name: Command Definition \s?? String database item. ?? is any number from 1 to 254. If the ?? is over 40, it is called a Memo item. \b Boolean database item. \w Word database item. \i Integer database item. Command Definition \c Character database item. Any characters are accepted when reading in the data. If you read in data with a Character type, it is suggested that you "redefine" the item to pick allowed 65 characters. Otherwise, you may not be able to change the data. Examples: (1) In a comma and quote file, the item "Birthdate\s8" will set the item to be a String database item, of length 8. (2) "Age\w" will set the item to be a Word database item. 2. Sorting You can sort the class by any database item. Go to the Grading Menu ("G" on the Main Menu), then "L". 3. Printing database items Database items can be printed from all the standard printing menus. The database items are listed before the student grades, except for the Memos, which are listed after the student grades. Memos cannot be printed by class, as they are usually too long to fit on one line. 4. Statistics and plots You can specify that all students not only meet task score criteria (above/below certain scores), but also they must meet database criteria. For example, if you have a character field for sex (M or F). You can specify that only males, or only females be plotted. This can be done for any database item, as you can specify the criteria! See Chapter X, Analyzing Grades, for more details. 5. Filtering printouts by database items When printing students, you can use database items to select or deselect certain students. For example, if you want to print out scores for only male students, and have a database character item called "Gender", then you can specify that all students with the value "M" be used. The filtering is done on the Write Data Menu ("W" on the Main Menu). Both printing by section and printing individual students can be "filtered". However, when printing individual students, the filtering only works when you press the <F1> key (all students). For either type of printing, you need to specify the database item to use, and whether to match the item, use values above the item, or 66 Database Items values below the item. If you match the item, if any part of the student's database value matches the string you enter that student will be selected. After you select the item and the selection criterium, the menu will state that filtering is "ON". 6. Writing data for another program Data that is written to comma and quote or flat files will include the database items you specify. On the Write Menu ("W" on the Main Menu), you can change which items will be written. This must be done before you write the scores. Therefore, to write database items to files, you first specify which ones, then you tell the program to write to a file. By default, no database items are written unless first specified. 67 VIII. ENTERING GRADES Grades can be entered into the program in either of two ways. Either the whole class can be listed for a set of tasks on the "D" option of the Main Menu, or every grade for an individual student can be listed in the "I" option on the Main Menu. A. Entering Data for the Whole Class The "D" option of the Main Menu lets you enter task data for all students in the class. 1. Moving around the screen Students, IDs, sections, database items, and tasks can be listed on the screen. To enter scores into the class, the tasks must have already been defined. Defining a task can be done in the "T" option on the Main Menu, or by pressing <AltT> when entering data by the whole class. Although all task scores can be displayed, only number, letter, and extra credit tasks can have scores entered. The others are calculated by VAR Grade. Note that special tasks at the end of the list to display may, at times, not be visible. If you need to see them, make sure the last task you tell the program to list is a regular task. A cell is a datum. It can be a task score, a name, etc. To move between cells, either the cursor keys, <Tab> and <Shift Tab>, or a mouse can be used. The cursor keys are the ones on the keypad, including the arrows and the <Home>, <End>, etc. keys. The current cell is highlighted, and the name of the student on the left is also highlighted (but in a different color). If you "use" cursor keys, then you use <Ctrl>-cursor keys to move between cells, while the left and right arrow keys move within the cell. Otherwise, use the <Left arrow>, <Right arrow>, etc. keys to move between the cells. You can change between "using" and not using cursor keys for editing by pressing <CtrlE> at any time. If you move past the right end of the screen, the tasks are scrolled to the left. The leftmost column, student names (or IDs), however, always stays listed on the screen. If there too many students to 68 Entering Grades fit on one screen, the list will scroll up as you move down the screen. The <Tab> key will move you to the next cell, while the <Shift Tab> moves you to the previous cell. If you have a mouse, you can move between cells by moving the mouse cursor to a cell and pressing the <Left button>. If there are more students than can be seen on one screen, a stippled area on the right of the screen can be seen ("mouse bar"). There are arrows at the top and bottom of the area. If you press the <Left button> on the arrows, you move up or down one name. Holding the button down on the arrow repeatedly moves the cursor. If you press the <Left button> on the stippled area, the cursor will move to the relative area of the class. For example, if you press the <Left button> in the middle of the stippled area, you will move to the middle of the class. If there are more columns than can fit on one screen, you will see a similar stippled area on the bottom of the screen (another "mouse bar"). This works just like the one on the right, except it moves the cursor horizontally between columns instead of vertically between students. The <Middle button> (for three-button mice), deletes the data in the current cell. The <Right button> is equivalent to pressing <Esc>. The top of the screen lists some special keys. They are: Key(s) Movement/action <AltB> Move to the beginning, left hand column. <AltC> Change columns. This changes what task scores and database items are shown on the screen. <AltD> Delete the student where the cursor is. This immediately deletes the student. <AltE> Move to the end column (the farthest right). <AltF> Fill unused scores in the column with a grade, or fill a database item with a value. You are asked for the grade or value. <AltI> Insert a new student before the student where the cursor is. If the cursor is at the end of the line, insert the new student after the current one. <AltL> Locate an item in the current column. You are asked for the value to match. The next item that has that value in it is located. <AltM> Popup memo. 69 Key(s) Movement/action <AltO> Options. These change how the current screen works. <AltP> Plot. If the cursor is on a task, that one is plotted. Otherwise, you are asked for the task to plot. <AltR> Recalculate the current student's scores. <AltS> Save the data to memory. It is not saved to disk. To do that, use the <AltW> option, or the "S" option on the Main Menu. <AltT> Define a new regular task. <AltU> Restore (undo) the data in that cell. This works only if you have not left the cell. <AltW> Writes the current class to disk. <AltZ> Change sections for entering data. This is only shown if there is more than one section in the class. <F10> Delete the data in that cell. 2. Changing the items listed To change which data is listed on the screen, use the key <AltC>. This can be used to change the database items and tasks that are listed, as well as whether the names, IDs, and section numbers are listed. After pressing <AltC>, you are asked (a) whether to list the student names, IDs, section numbers, and database items. Each has a Y or N next to it. A "Y" means list the item, an "N" means don't list it. Press <AltS> when you are finished choosing. (b) Next, you pick which tasks you want listed on the screen. These options are saved by the program, so that the next time you use the program, that same list is shown. Any time you define a regular task, it will be added to the end of the list of tasks. Often, only the first characters of the task name are listed. How many characters depends upon the total points for the task. The task numbers are also listed at the top of the columns. If you need to see more characters, you can change the minimum width by pressing <AltO> to reach the options screen, then specifying a new width. If you decide to list special tasks, the numbers cannot be altered by you. However, you can tell the program to recalculate the numbers by pressing <AltR>. This key causes 70 Entering Grades recalculation of the scores for the student where the cursor is located. Automatic recalculations are not done, as they could slow down the data entry very significantly. Each item you want listed takes up memory. If you are low on memory, you should list only one or two tasks and database items, rather than all of them. This will save memory. If you have more than one section of students, you can also save memory by entering data with only one section at a time, rather than all the sections. Changing sections is done with the <AltZ> key. 3. Enter the data You can use the cursor keys or mouse to move around the class and screen. Unentered scores are left blank. You can enter the new scores in the appropriate places. To keep the same score, type only a <Rtn> or use the <Tab> or cursor keys to move to the next cell. When you type in new data, the previous data will disappear. After entering a cell, if you first type a number or letter, the old data disappears. If you type a special key (a <Backspace>, cursor, or function key), the data is retained. To slightly alter the old data, press a special key, then edit the data. If the data disappeared, and you want it back, press <AltU> (undo). The undo must be done before you leave that cell. If you don't want the old data to disappear when a normal key is pressed, you may turn this off by pressing <AltO>. When it mentions "blanking a cell" on the first normal character, say "N". To enter a new number score, put in a new number between the minimum allowed points and the total possible points of that task. Numbers that are too high are normally rejected with a chirping sound. You can turn off the sound, or make it louder, by pressing <AltO>. You can allow more points than the possible points by turning off error checking on that same menu. The minimum allowed points are -1,000,000, while the maximum for any task is 1,000,000. You can use decimal points in number scores. To enter a zero, you must type a "0". Cells for tasks that are left blank revert to unentered scores. NOTE: Scores will be listed be the number of decimal places 71 that you designate. The default is one decimal place, but you can change it to 0 (if you don't use decimals) or up to 5 decimal places. The minimum allowed points and the decimals listed can be changed by pressing <AltO>. NOTE: Scores higher than the allowed points for the task will not be accepted. A noise will occur when you leave the cell. The noise can be altered by pressing <AltO>, and error checking can be turned off on the same screen. If you are entering letter grades, only letters that are in the names of the grades are allowed (e.g., for grades from A to F, only the letters A, B, C, D, and F are allowed). You can also alter the student name, ID, and section numbers. To delete a student, delete the name (e.g., with <F10>), or use <AltD>. To insert a new student, press <AltI>. The student will be added to the line where the cursor is located. You can protect changes to the student names by pressing <AltO>, then setting the appropriate option. This is highly recommended. Press <Esc> or <AltS> to stop entering scores. With <Esc>, the data in the current cell is discarded and you can quit without saving any of the changes, while <AltS> automatically saves it to memory, but not to the disk. If you are low on memory, you might not be able to enter data for all the students. You can make the program use less memory by either: (a) Pressing <AltC> to change what columns are listed. Not listing ID, section number, database items, or listing fewer tasks will save memory. (b) If there is more than one section of students in the class, press <AltZ> to have the program list fewer classes (e.g., list only section 2). (c) Reduce the amount of memory the program uses for overlays (see Chapter XIII, Section F). 4. Quick filling in of scores or database items On some assignments, most of the students receive the same grade, or need the same value on database items. You can fill in the needed values very quickly by moving to the desired column and pressing <AltF>. If you are on a column with a grade, you are then asked for the new grade to enter. 72 Entering Grades If the column is for a letter grade, you may enter a letter grade, otherwise enter a number. All unentered scores in the column will receive that grade. Students that have already had grades entered are left unchanged. If you are on a database item, empty database values are filled with the new value. 5. Listing sections If you have more than one section in the class, you can change which sections are listed by pressing <AltZ>. Enter a new list of sections. If you are short of memory, or if the program is slow in entering or leaving this section, you should list fewer sections to speed things up. 6. Inline calculator VAR Grade sports an inline calculator. If you have used computer calculators, you have seen them pop up and look like a hand-held calculator. This isn't necessary. VAR Grade does the math calculations without popping up. It doesn't look as fancy, but requires less work to use. The main purpose of the inline calculator, which is available whenever floating point (decimal) numbers are entered, is to let you add up point totals for a student's exam. One way to do this is to define a different task for each question in the exam, enter the numbers, then calculate a sum. The inline calculator is much faster and easier, but doesn't save the numbers from each question. It is called an inline rather than a popup calculator because you only need to press a "+", "-", "/", or "*" to activate it. The "*" means multiplication. If you are entering scores, and haven't added up the points on the exams, the inline calculator is ready to be used. Type in the first score, then a "+". The first score will be moved one cell to the left, and a "+" sign is shown. You then type in the next score. The score will be automatically calculated. You can then enter another "+", and another score, etc. When you are finished, you can end with a "=", or by using any cursor key. The finished score will be automatically pasted into the original cell. Example: You have a student test. The student received a 10 on the first question, 23 on the second, and 13 on the 73 third. To calculate the score, type in a "10", then a "+". The inline calculator is now visible. Then type in a "23", and another "+". The calculator show a "33 + ". Next, type in the "13" and an "=". The calculator will disappear, and "46" will appear in the cell. You could also have ended the calculation by typing in a <Down Arrow> instead of an "=". NOTE: The calculator keeps track of decimal places. It will paste in a number that has at least as many decimal places as the numbers you use. If you divide a number, it will retain a minimum of two decimal places. 7. Popup memos If you have defined a database memo, and press <AltM>, a popup memo field will appear. It will be for the student who is on the line where the cursor was when <AltM> was pressed. You will be able to type in up to the number of characters that you specified as being in the memo field. The lines are "word wrapped" like most word processors. To exit the popup memo, press a <Rtn> or <AltS>. If you have defined more than one memo field, you can move between them by pressing <AltN> for the next one, or <AltP> for the previous one. 8. Plots You can plot the current grades of any task while entering data by pressing <AltP>. If the cursor is on a task, that task will be plotted. Otherwise, you are asked for the task to plot. You can plot to the screen, to disk, or to a printer. Note that the Plot Menu, "P" on the Main Menu, has many more types of plots. (a) Options The following options are all specified by the <AltO> key, then the option changed. You can specify the type of plot to do when you press the <AltP> key. The default is to plot with 3D bars. However, you can plot with 2D bars, or you can plot pie charts instead of bar charts, or you can have the program just list the scores (no plot). 74 Entering Grades In addition, you can make the program always ask you for the task to plot, instead of picking the one where the cursor is located. You can specify whether the program plots all the scores, the ones you choose, or divides the scores into grade categories. This is done on the Plot Menu, "P" on the Main Menu, then "O". 9. Recalculations Automatic recalculations are not done by the program. However, you can force an individual student's scores to be recalculated by pressing <AltR>. Some of the options, like <AltW>, will force recalculations of all the scores. 10. Locating a value If you have lots of students in a class, you may have trouble locating a student or value of a cell. You can press <AltL> to locate an item. The program asks for the value to locate. It then starts at the next student and searches for the value. The search only is done for the column where the cursor is located. If that student or value is not what you wanted, you can repeat the search. If you want to search through all students, move to the first column first by pressing <Ctrl-PageUp>, then press <AltL>. 11. Options You have a large amount of control over how the program works. Pressing <AltO> will show you many of the options you can change. A quick synopsis of them is listed below. Most of these are discussed in other parts of the manual. Alteration of names: you can prevent names from being altered when entering data. Column width: you can widen the columns to get longer names of the tasks at the top. Blank cell: the program normally blanks a cell if you type a character. You can turn this off, and make the old value stay there. <Rtn> moves right: normally, a <Rtn> moves you to the next cell to the right. You can make a <Rtn> move you to the next cell down. 75 Verify entered values: normally, the program verifies typed in number grades for valid scores. You can turn this off, allowing scores above 100%. Noise when errors: If values are too large, the program chirps at you. You can change the noise level. Plot numbers: you can make the program always ask for plot numbers when <AltP> is pressed. Plot type: you can change from 3D bars to any of three other types. Unentered as zero: used in recalculating grades. Unentered scores can be ignored or set to 0 points. Truncate scores: scores can be truncated or rounded. If truncated, 89.96 will truncate to 89.9, while it will be rounded to 90.0 (if rounding to 1 decimal place). Minimum allowed points: normally scores below zero are always ignored by the program. You can set this value to a negative number, if needed. If you assing T-scores or Z-scores, you should set the minimum to a negative number like -10. Decimals separator: needed for some countries that don't use periods, and can be set to any character. Decimal places: you can specify how many decimal places to use in printouts and calculations. 11. Hints (a) When entering data for the whole class, only the beginning of the task names is listed. It is helpful to give the beginning of names unique labels. The names can be up to 20 characters long, but only the first few characters are displayed. You can enter scores into any defined task whether or not the task name exists. However, unique names will help you make sure you are entering scores into the correct task. Alternatively, you can change the display widths by pressing <AltO>. (b) Besides the inline calculator, VAR Grade can be used to add up points on any task. To use VAR Grade to add up scores for questions on a test, for example, you can define Task 20 as question 1, Task 21 as question 2, etc, in the "T" option on the Main Menu. Then, define Task 22 as the Sum of Tasks 20 and 21. Voila! You used the program to add up the points on questions 1 and 2 of the task. You could then also use VAR Grade to do statistics on each individual question. If you have a large number of questions on the task, this could get a little tedious, 76 Entering Grades as you need to define each question and enter the grades for each one. B. Entering Individual Student Data The "I" option of the Main Menu lets you enter task data for all tasks of individual students. The program will list all the tasks for one student, as well as all the database items. The only tasks you can alter are the number, letter, and extra credit tasks. Use the cursor keys to move around the screen. You can alter the student names, IDs, sections, or database items. Unentered scores are left blank. To delete a score, make the cell blank (e.g., with the <F10> key). To keep the same score, type only a <Rtn> or use the cursor keys to move to the next cell. To enter a new score, put in a new number between the fewest allowed points and the total possible points. The minimum allowed points are -1,000,000, while the maximum points are 1,000,000. To enter a zero, you must type a "0". Press <Esc> or <AltS> to stop entering scores. With <Esc>, you can quit without saving the changes, while <AltS> automatically records the changes. You can also alter the student names, IDs, and section numbers. To delete a student, delete the name (e.g., with <F10>), or press <AltD>. The top of the screen lists some special keys. They are: Key Movement <AltB> Move to the first student in the class. <AltD> Delete the current student. This takes immediate effect. <AltF> Find a student. You will pick from a list of all the students in the class. <AltI> Insert a new student before the current student. <AltL> Move to the last student in the class. <AltM> Database memo. <AltN> Move to the next student. <AltO> Options for this screen. <AltP> Move to the previous student. <AltR> Recalculate the scores of the current student. <AltS> Save the data to memory. It is not saved to disk. To do that, use the "S" option on the Main Menu. The inline calculator, described in Section A5, above, also works in this section of the program. The popup memos, reached 77 by pressing <AltM>, work exactly the same in this section as described in section A6, above. The <AltO> option allows you to change how data is entered into the program. Most of these are discussed in section A10, above. The one specific to this part of the program is listed below: List all the tasks: you can tell the program to list only the input tasks. The normal way lists all the tasks. If you have lots of tasks, listing only the input tasks is more likely to fit them all on one screen. C. Saving Entered Data to Disk It is strongly recommended that you save the data you have just entered as soon as possible after entering it. Although the program won't let you exit without saving changes, in case of power failures or computer failure, you will have a copy on disk of your new data. You save entered data in the "S" option on the Main Menu. You will be asked for the filename to save the data to. The filename for the current class is listed on the line, and just pressing <Rtn> will do the trick. If you want to change the filename, change it, then press <Rtn>. If you change the name, further updates will be made with the new name. WARNING: When you "save" data in the "D" or "I" options of the program with <AltS>, you are saving it to memory, not to a disk file. NOTE: The file that contains your student data is normally made a "read-only" file. This means that you cannot delete it with the DOS del or erase commands. You can tell the program to write your files "read-only", as "hidden" (the DOS dir command will not even list the file), or "normal". Normal files can be deleted in DOS. The program also makes backup files "normal", hence they can easily be deleted. Details on how to change the way the program saves the class data are in Chapter XIII, Section A. 1. Backing up data It is also recommended that you keep two copies of your class data on disk. To encourage this practice, the "F" (file) option on the Main Menu has a backup ("W") option to write the class to another directory or disk. The program will suggest writing the file to either drive A or B, so 78 Entering Grades that the data will be on floppy disks. If you are using drive A for your class, the program will suggest drive B, otherwise it will suggest writing to drive A. You can, of course, pick any other drive or directory. 2. Previous versions of VAR Grade Some people use VAR Grade on two different computers. If one of these has limited memory (less than 400K), versions 4 and above of the program will not be able to fit into memory. You can save your data in a format that earlier versions of the program will understand. To do so, when on the Main Menu, press <Alt2> (simultaneously press the "Alt" and "2" keys) to write the data in a way that is understandable to version 2, or <Alt3> to write version 3 files, <Alt4> for version 4 files, or <Alt5> for version 5 files. WARNING: If you use this option, some of the information in your class may be lost. Specifically, any task types that do not exist in the previous versions will be converted to ones that are understandable to that version, which may not be what you want. If you use this option, use only features in this version that exist in the previous version. 79 IX. ATTENDANCE Attendance dates can be defined and attendance entered for up to 240 different days. The attendance is entered either by the whole class, or by individual students in a manner analogous to entering data for tasks. You can also prepare up to two different seating charts for each section of a class. Attendance and seating is found in the "A" option of the Main Menu. A. Defining Attendance Days You define attendance days in the "D" option of the Attendance Menu. There are three methods by which you can define a new attendance day. First, to choose the next undefined day, press <F1>. Second, you may type in the number, from 1 to 240, of the day. Third, you can press <F2> to use a calender to define a whole series of attendance days. 1. Typing in the days In the first two cases, you need to give the day a name or date. In fact, it is required that you enter a name or date before the attendance is defined. To make it easy to enter dates, the function keys <F3> through <F8> can be used to automatically enter the dates. The keys are defined as the following: Key Meaning <F3> The date two days ago. <F4> The date yesterday. <F5> The date today. <F6> The date tomorrow. <F7> The date in two days. <F8> The date any number of days from todays date, up to 365 days away. Enter the days. Example: To enter the date one week earlier, enter a -7. The dates that are entered are in whatever format you have chosen. The date format can be changed in the "O" option on the Main Menu, then "D". Changing the format affects how dates will be printed on documents as well as how they are entered in attendance. 80 Attendance 2. Using the calender The third option uses a calender to define dates. After pressing <F2>, you are asked what days of the week the class is held. You enter the number of the day: 1 for Sunday, 2 for Monday, etc. When you have listed all the days, press <Rtn>. Example: If the class is held on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, press "246<Rtn>" You will then see a calender. The calender will have from six to eighteen months, depending upon the current screen mode. Today's date is highlighted. At the bottom of the screen, you enter the numbers of the first month and day of the class, and the numbers of the last month and day of the class. The program then defines attendance days and makes the names for the dates. All the days between and including the two dates you have entered and that are the same days of the week as your class are made into attendance days. If you have a mouse, you can pick the starting and ending days by moving the mouse cursor to the day and pressing the <Left button>. When you enter the number of the month, the program picks the first month with that number starting with the first month shown on the screen. In other words, if you show February through July, 1993 on the screen, and type in "1" as the month, January of 1994 is the selected month. If you want January of 1993, press <Page Up> to show January on the screen, then type a "1". Note: Since schools have holidays on different days, and this program is used throughout the world, the program cannot know which days are holidays. The format used when defining dates is the one currently defined by you. You should define the date format before you define the days. 3. Removing days If you accidentally define some days, you can delete them. When defining days, press <AltD>. Next, select the days to delete. You are then asked if you really want to delete the days. Then, if you continue, the days will be deleted. You can also remove blank days. If, for example, you have 81 defined days 1 through 5, and 9 through 12. If you type <AltC>, days 9 through 12 will be moved down to 6 through 9. The combination of these two commands, <AltD> and <AltC>, therefore, can remove and revise your attendance. B. Changing Attendance Defaults By default, when attendance days are defined, the student attendance is made "Present". There are thirteen categories of attendance: Present, Excused, Unexcused, Late, Not Entered, Other, Present 2, Excused 2, Unexcused 2, Late 2, Other 2, Activity 1, and Activity 2. These use the characters " ", "E", "U", "L", "_", "O", "P", "C", "N", "T", "Y", "A", and "B", respectively. The default student attendance and the characters associated with them can be altered on the "A" (Attendance) option of the Main Menu, then "O". In addition, the names of the attendance categories can be changed, as well. If you want to change the defaults, the Attendance Defaults screen will list the current values. The default new student attendance will be highlighted or, if you have a monochrome monitor, underlined (unless you've changed the default colors). Use the cursor keys or a mouse to move around the menu. To select a new default student attendance, move to the type and then press <Rtn>. The new value will now be highlighted. To change the letters for the different types of attendance, move to the type and pick the new key or keys. You can use up to two keys for an attendance day. To simplify matters, lowercase letters are converted to uppercase letters. The allowed keys are all the letters, except the lowercase letters, as they are automatically converted to uppercase letters. One aspect of attendance should be mentioned. The program can add up attendance of various types. One method of adding them up is total days present and total days absent. For these calculations, present includes the attendance types of present, present 2, late, late 2, activity 1, and activity 2. Absent includes excused, excused 2, unexcused, unexcused 2, other, and other 2. Not entered isn't included in either category. If you change the attendance names, try to keep in mind how they are treated with respect to being present or absent. C. Entering Class Attendance To enter attendance for all students in your class, use the "C" option of the Attendance Menu. This option works like the "D" option of the Main Menu for entering task data. 82 Attendance 1. Choose the dates When entering data, both the students and days are listed on the screen. Just as in entering task scores, to change the days in the columns you use the key <AltC>. You can then pick which days to list on the screen, as well as whether to list the names, IDs, and sections. See Chapter VIII, Section A for more details. If you define new attendance days, they are automatically be added to the end of the list of days to display (if the list has fewer than 20 days). When entering data, the top of the screen lists valid keys and key codes for the attendance. Below the keys, the days are listed by name and number. The names are listed by the first several letters of the date, just as tasks are in the "D" option of the Main Menu. Student names and/or IDs are on the left of each row. If you have numerous days you want displayed, not all of them may fit on the screen at once. If you move to the right, more may be displayed. The names or IDs in the leftmost column are always displayed, and the current student is highlighted. 2. Enter the data You can use the cursor keys or mouse to move around the class and screen. The valid keys are listed at the top of the screen. Only those keys will be accepted. To delete a student, delete the name (e.g., with <F10>), or use <AltD>. To add a new student, type <AltI>. If all the keys used for the attendance types are only one key, you only need to enter one key. However, if two keys are used by any attendance type, you can enter up to two characters per day. When quitting this section, any changes made to the screen are saved by pressing <AltS>. 3. Options Like the screens for entering scores, the attendance screens have <AltO> options. On the option screen are several options that affect entering of data. The options are described below. Alteration of names: you can prevent names from being altered when entering data. Blank cell: the program normally blanks a cell if you type a character. You can turn this off, and make the old value stay there. 83 <Rtn> moves right: normally, a <Rtn> moves you to the next cell to the right. You can make a <Rtn> move you to the next cell down. Column width: you can widen the columns to get longer names of the attendance days at the top. You can also change the keys for the attendance types, and the default attendance type, like on the Attendance Defaults screen ("A" on the Main Menu, then "O"). D. Entering Individual Student Attendance To change attendance for just one student, use the "I" option of the Attendance Menu. The program will list all of the currently defined attendance days for a student. You can alter the attendance for any day, as well as the student name, ID, or section. To keep the same attendance, type a <Rtn> or use the cursor keys to move to another day. To enter a new attendance value, put in a new letter (from the list near the top of the screen). Press <Esc> to erase the data or <AltS> to save it when finished. To delete a student, delete the name (e.g., with <F10>), or use <AltD>. To add a new student, type <AltI>. To change how this screen works, press <AltO>. The options are identical to those described above for attendance by class. This part of the program works just like the "I" option of the Main Menu. For more details, see Chapter VIII, Section B. E. Default Attendance Task Values When you define an attendance or attendance extra credit task, the program will suggest value for the number of days to discard and the weights for the various types of attendance. Although you can change these when you define the attendance tasks, you can change the default values on the Attendance Menu (the "V" option). The number of days you can discard is one less than the number of attendance days used to define the task. The weights that you can use may be any number greater than or equal to zero. F. Seating Charts Seating charts can be defined from the Attendance Menu, option "A" on the Main Menu. There are two types of seating charts: rectangular and drag 'n drop. For regular charts, in general, what you need to do is to define how many rows and columns of seats that you have in your classroom, and then enter numbers to tell the program where each student is sitting. For the 84 Attendance drag 'n drop charts, you use a mouse or cursor keys to move the desks around the room. The seating chart printouts will list both the teacher and where the students sit, viewed from where the teacher sits or uses the seating chart. You can have two different seating charts for each section of students in your class. 1. Defining a regular (rectangular) seating chart To define a rectangular seating chart, press "S" (Seating) on the Attendance Menu. If a previous seating chart has been defined, you will be asked whether to delete a previous chart or to redefine chart one or two. If you redefine a chart, the previous student seat numbers are kept, but the desks can be rearranged. Next, you will be asked to choose how many columns (width of room) and rows (depth of room) there are in the classroom. It is assumed that the seats are arranged in a rectangular position. The maximum allowed values are 10 rows and 10 columns. 2. Placing students on a rectangular chart After defining a seating chart, you need to specify where each student sits. There are four methods. First, you can place them alphabetically. Second, you can place them reverse alphabetically. Third, you can randomly place them. Fourth, you can choose where each student sits by picking seat numbers. To choose a seat number, the numbers are listed at the top of the screen, with the position of the instructor listed (when viewing the chart). It doesn't matter whether the instructor is at the front, back, or side of the class-- position the desks so the chart will be written from the perspective of where the instructor is positioned (at the top). To add the seat numbers to the students, just move the cursor to each student and type in the number of the seat. It is not required that each student have a seat, however, those that don't will not be listed on the chart. If more than one student occupies a seat, only one will be listed on the chart--the first one found by the program. 85 3. Drag 'n drop seating charts The other type of seating, drag 'n drop, lets you place each desk. Choose option "N" on the Attendance Menu. If a chart exists, you are asked whether to revise or delete an old chart, and whether to use chart 1 or 2. After choosing, you see a graphic screen showing the students with associated desks. (a) Using a mouse The easiest method is to use a mouse to move the desks. Move the mouse cursor to a desk that you want to move. Press the <Left button>. That desk should become filled in. While still holding the button down, move the mouse and associated desk until it is in the correct position. Then release the mouse. Repeat this for each desk. You cannot move the desk off the screen or above the line near the top of the screen. When finished, use the mouse to move to the "OK" or "CANCEL" buttons on the lower right of the screen. Press the <Left button> on the desired choice. "OK" saves the new seating chart, "CANCEL" doesn't. (b) Using the cursor keys The solid desk is the current desk. To change to a different desk, press the <Tab> or <Shift Tab> keys. <Tab> moves to the next student, <Shift Tab> moves to the previous one. When the correct desk is highlighted, use the arrow keys to move the desk. The <Up>, <Down>, <Left>, and <Right> arrow keys move the desk. When all the desks have been moved, press <AltS> to save the changes, or <Esc> to quit without saving the changes. (c) Reverse image desks For a highlighted desk, pressing <AltR> will reverse the student name and desk. The student name will now be printed before the desk instead of after. Pressing <AltR> again will reverse the desk back to the original version. 4. Printing a chart To print the chart, press "P" on the Attendance Menu. If you have more than one section of students, you are asked 86 Attendance for the section to print. Next, you are asked what type of names to use for the seats. If you have defined a drag 'n drop chart, you are then asked whether to print a rectangular or drag 'n drop chart. (a) Rectangular charts The chart must have already been defined, but students need not have desks assigned: empty desks are also listed. The names are listed behind the desks (as seen from the instructor). If the names are too long to fit onto one line, they will be printed on up to 5 lines per row of desks. The start of the student name is positioned at the left side of the desk (if more than one line is used to print the student names for a row of desks, the first student will be on one line, the second on the next, the third on the first or third line, etc.). The desk is written as a small "square", so it can be used to check off if the student is present or absent. (b) Drag 'n drop charts The chart is printed with graphics, and using the currently defined font. The instructor is placed at the top of the chart, where the line was when you defined the chart. When you define the chart, both first and last names of the students are shown. When printing the chart, you can print just first names, if desired. If you have a lot of students, this may allow you to better fit the students on the chart. 5. Removing the chart To remove a rectangular chart, press "S" (seating) on the Attendance Menu, then "D" (delete chart 1), or "E" (erase chart 2). The chart and all seating numbers for the students will be deleted. To remove a drag 'n drop chart, press "N" on the Attendance Menu, then "D" or "E". 87 X. ANALYZING THE GRADES Grades can be analyzed a great variety of ways. The methods are listed in the sections below. Furthermore, all the statistics and plots listed below can be printed on a printer or sent to a disk file. Chapter XII, Printing and Reports, explains the printing. The analyses in this chapter are generally from the Grading ("G") and Plot ("P") options of the Main Menu. A. Default Values for Printing Some of the program options cause a screen to appear that asks how you want to proceed, this is the Print Menu. Several options may be listed, including: (a) which printer to use; (b) what sections to use; (c) whether to print to the screen or to a printer or disk file; (d) whether to temporarily drop students from the statistical analysis. Options are only listed when they are relevant to the current operation. Picking a printer and deciding where the data should be displayed are discussed in Chapter XII. The others are discussed here. 1. Sections If you have only one section of students in your class, this option is not displayed. Otherwise, the most recently selected sections will be listed. Each time you enter the program, the program will default to using all of the current sections in the class. If you change the list of sections, this new list will be used only during the current session with the program. If there are no sections on the list, an error message will result, as there can be no usable data. 2. Temporarily dropping students You can tell the program to temporarily drop (ignore) students from the calculations for statistics and/or plots. This option can be used for students that have incomplete data. The number of students currently ignored is shown on the Print Menu screen. Note that these students are ignored only for statistical purposes. You can still enter data, 88 Analyzing the Grades write scores to printers, etc., unless statistical measures are needed (e.g., all plots). When you need to increase or decrease the numbers of students to ignore, a lists of students will be shown: those students who have been temporarily dropped from the statistics calculations are highlighted. You change the student's status by using either the cursor keys or by using the mouse <Left button> to toggle their status. The highlighted students will be ignored for any further statistics with the program or until their names are removed from the list of ignored students. 3. Print student numbers When lists of students are printed, a number can be printed along with them. These numbers are the sorted order of the student in the class. If your students are sorted alphabetically, the numbers would be their alphabetical order. If you don't want those numbers to be printed, you can turn this feature off on the Print Menu by typing an "N". 4. Decimal places Task scores are decimal numbers, and are written using decimal numbers. You can specify the number of decimal places to use in the several of the option screens in the program in addition to the Print Menu. You can print from 0 to 5 numbers after the decimal point. The number of decimals to use can be specified for regular tasks and for special tasks. A lower number will allow more numbers to be printed on a page. Note that special tasks are more likely to have decimal numbers, as they are calculated. For example, averages would most likely have fractions of a number. You can specify the number of decimal places to use for these tasks separately from the regular tasks. The number of places specified for special tasks is also used to print statistical measures, like means, medians, and standard deviations. 5. Truncating or rounding numbers You can choose whether you want numbers to be truncated or rounded. A truncated number just lops off the end of the number, while a rounded number checks the last digit before 89 it removes it, and add one to the last remaining digit if the number is 5 or above. Examples: If you print with 2 places after the decimal point, 11.111 will be truncated to 11.11, and rounded to 11.11. 15.317 will truncated to 15.31 and rounded to 15.32. Truncating and rounding affect printing data and assigning final grades. 6. Percentiles When printing student scores, you can also calculate and list the percentiles for the students. Press "R" on the Print Menu. Percentiles are the relative place of a student in the class. More about percentiles is discussed below, as you can also assign percentile scores to tasks. 7. Where to print You can print to the screen only, or to a disk file or printer in addition to the screen. In addition, you can print preview the data with the "V" (view) option. After listing the data, a menu pops up that asks whether and where to print the data you have selected. B. Defaults Values for Plots 1. Font selection You can change fonts by pressing "F" when on the Plot Menu. Font files end with the extension ".CHR". For some printers, you can also use internal printer fonts. When you choose a font, you are first asked for the directory where the font files are located. This will list all the font files in the directory that you choose. To select the font, move the cursor to the desired font and press <Rtn>. WARNING: Some fonts will not look good on some video monitors or printers. If you have a laser printer, you can also use printer fonts for printing plots (but not printing plots to the screen). When you choose a font, and have a laser printer, you will be asked whether to use internal (built-in) fonts or the 90 Analyzing the Grades fonts specified in the CHR files. Internal fonts are specific to a printer, so the ones that are available differ according to which printer you use. 2. Font size You can select the font size to use for plots. The default size if 12 points (pica). If you want to change the size, go the the Plot Menu ("P" on the Main Menu), then "O" (options). You can select any size from 6 to 16 points. 3. Assigning a graphics file format If you print plots to a disk file, they are written in a format that can be read by other programs. There are several formats that have been published, and therefore are commonly available, that can be used. Most of these can be read by many different programs. Listed below are common programs that use these formats. Format Example Programs BMP MS Windows Paintbrush CGM Computer Graphics Metafile IMG Image graphics (GEM) Format Example Programs PCX PC Paintbrush TIFF Tagged Image File Format WPG Word Perfect WMF Windows Metafile The TIFF format supports up to 300 dpi (Laser resolution). The others are at VGA screen resolution. Therefore, if you have a choice, pick TIFF. Most major word processors, desktop publishers, and paint programs support most or all of these formats. For the TIFF format, you can select low, medium, or high resolution. The others all print only one resolution (VGA). 4. Picking plot intervals For most of the plots, you can select the high and low values to plot. You can tell the program to ask for these values, to automatically select all the scores, or to use predefined grade cutoffs for the plots. The default is to use predefined grade cutoffs (if you have defined them, otherwise the program automatically selects all students). 91 You can change to one of the other three choices on the Plot Menu, the "P" option of the Main Menu, then "O". The choices are, "A" (all scores), "C" (select your own cutoffs), and "G" (use the grade cutoffs). (a) Grade cutoffs option If you use predetermined grade cutoffs, such as 90% for an A, 80% for a B, etc., this is the option you probably want to use. For each task, the scores will be put into grade categories and plotted. You therefore know how many students earned each grade on that task. If you use the grade cutoffs option, the grade cutoffs will also be used in the listing of the descriptive statistics on the "G" option of the Main Menu. (b) Pick your own cutoffs option With this option, you must specify the range of scores to plot (the high and low scores). The program will ask for these numbers each time you plot or correlate scores. If you type <Rtn> when asked for the high and/or low scores, without having typed in a number, the program chooses the highest or lowest score in the class, whichever is appropriate. If there are no students in the range of scores that was chosen, an error message will result and no scores are plotted. By picking different ranges of scores, you can zoom in on various groups of students to see how they have done, rather than seeing scores only for the entire class. One of the most useful features of picking the low range is to prevent a very low score from skewing a plot. (c) All scores option This option will plot all scores above the minimum allowed points, but will not separate the scores into grade categories, like the grade cutoffs option. (d) What you see If you select your own cutoffs, let the program do it, or plot percentiles, the program will plot by separating the scores into 10 to 25 groups of students, and then mathematically calculating the plot intervals. 92 Analyzing the Grades If you use letter grades or use grade cutoffs, you will see the scores plotted as grades, not numbers. If appropriate, the corresponding cutoffs are listed on the right of the graphs. Since the grade cutoffs are not necessarily evenly spaced, the plot intervals are therefore also not necessarily evenly spaced mathematically (but will look evenly spaced). This option affects the plots, pie charts, and correlation plots. 5. 2D versus 3D plots Some plots can be done either with bars that look two dimensional (2D), or with bars that look three dimensional (3D). The plots are otherwise the same. C. Plotting the Scores of a Class By selecting the "P" (plot) option on the Main Menu, the scores for any of the tasks can be plotted. The program lists the tasks and asks which task should be plotted. On the Plot Menu, "P" will plot the scores, and "T" will give the same plot with 3D bars. Plotting the scores follows the sequence below. 1. Choose a task You will see a list of all the tasks. To see any that are not listed on the screen, use the cursor keys or a mouse. If you pick task zero or <Esc>, the program exits this section without plotting. Otherwise, the task is plotted. 2. Score ranges The plot uses the method you have specified to pick the range of scores (see section B3, above). Student scores not yet entered or lower than the fewest allowed points are not used for the plots. 3. Defaults As discussed above, after picking the task and a range of scores, you can pick which section(s) of students to use and where to print the scores. See sections A and B of this chapter for more details. 93 4. Plotting the scores The plot separates the scores into up to 25 categories of scores. It also shows the mean, median, and standard deviation of the scores for the task (see the section on "Calculating Statistics" below for a more complete explanation of what these statistics mean). If there is a mode, it is plotted, as well. The numbers of students in each of the score intervals is plotted. The statistics calculated and printed are for those scores in the chosen range of scores. If the high or low range of scores are changed, these statistical measures will, therefore, also change. The mean, median, and mode are shown on the plot with arrows. The description is above or to the right of the arrow. At one standard deviation above and below the mean, there are additional arrows (listed as "+1", "-1"). If the standard deviations fall outside the range of scores plotted, they will not be displayed. 5. Listing the scores If you want to see the list of students' scores on a task, you choose the "L" option on the Plot Menu. The program lists the scores in two columns: (a) class order (dependent upon your method of sorting students) and (b) by scores on that task, from high to low score. The rank order of the students is also printed, if that option was chosen. The listing is generated the same way as the plots, mentioned above. You can therefore both plot and list students used in the plot for any tasks that you want. D. Pie Charts of a Class This plot will divide the class into intervals, then plot them as a pie chart. In this sense, it is similar to the plots discussed above, except in pie shape rather than a histogram. However, too many intervals in a pie can cause overlapping of titles. Therefore, if there are over 15 grades when plotting letter grades, they will be combined until there are 15 or fewer plot intervals. When plotting numbers, only 10 intervals will be charted. The percent of students in each interval is also shown. In general, the only difference between the pie charts and the plots is how the data is presented. 94 Analyzing the Grades E. Calculating and Displaying Statistics You can calculate statistics without having to plot the scores. They can either be calculated and printed, or calculated and the values assigned to tasks. 1. Explanation of statistical terms (a) Mean, median, mode, standard deviation The median is the score for the person exactly in the middle of the class, i.e., exactly half the scores are above that number and half are below that number. The mean is the number calculated by adding up all the student scores and dividing by the number of students in the class. If you have a "normal" or "bell-shaped" distribution of scores, the mean and median should be the same number. In practice they are usually different. The mode is the interval with the largest number of students. The standard deviation is a measure of how the scores are dispersed. The larger the standard deviation, the greater the range of the scores. A score that is equal to the mean plus the standard deviation (called "one standard deviation above the mean") is approximately in the top 16% of the scores. For a normal distribution, two thirds of the scores should be within one standard deviation of the mean. How many standard deviations away from the mean a student has scored, therefore, is a measure of how the student did on the task in relation to everyone else. You can compare scores between tests by comparing the deviations from the means for each student. (b) Percentiles Percentiles are calculated by ranking the students in order of their scores. These ranks are then converted into percentages by dividing the rank by the number of students in the class, subtracting the resulting number from 1.00, and multiplying the result by 100. So, if there are 100 students in the class, and a student is the 30th highest score, you would divide 30 by 100, obtaining 0.3. Next, subtract 0.3 from 1.0. The result, 0.7, is multiplied by 100 to get 70. The student is in the 70th percentile: he or she did better than 70 percent of the students in the class. 95 (c) T-score T-scores are an estimate of the standard deviation of a population. It is also called a Student's t-distribution. It does not assume a normal distribution, like a standard deviation does, but instead "samples" the mean. 2. Displaying statistics Rather than plotting each task to calculate the mean, median, and standard deviation, you can pick the "G" option on the Main Menu to reach the Grading Menu, then pick the "M" option. The mean, median, mode, standard deviation, and high and low scores are calculated. In addition, a simple non-graphic histogram is shown. You can see these statistics for any combination of tasks. To calculate statistics, you need to choose the tasks to use, and pick which sections of students to use. The data is calculated only for those sections that have been selected. This allows comparisons between different sections or combinations of sections. Statistics are not calculated if a task has not been defined or if the task has less than the fewest allowed points. 3. Assigning statistics Z-scores (standard deviations), T-scores, and percentiles tell you how a student did in relation to the other students in the class. You can calculate these statistical measures of a task for the class, and assign these numbers to a task. This is done on the "G" option on the Main Menu, then "T". On the Assign Statistics Menu, press "S" for standard deviations (z-scores), "P" for percentiles, or "T" for T- scores. You will be asked which task to use for the calculations, and which to assign the new scores. WARNING: The new task will be redefined as a number task. If you assign z-scores (standard deviations) and T-scores, approximately half of the scores will be below zero. Make sure that you change the fewest allowed points to a number below the lowest standard deviation or T-score (see section M, below). A value of -10 or so is usually sufficient. 96 Analyzing the Grades F. Plotting the Scores of an Individual You can follow how a student is doing in your class by plotting the scores for that student on a set of tasks. By selecting, on the Plot Menu, option "I" for 2D bars or "B" for 3D bars, you can plot trends for scores of any of the tasks of an individual student. 1. Picking the tasks The program lists the tasks and asks you to pick which one(s) to plot. You can pick as many as you want. Further explanations of the statistical measures listed below are in section E1 (above). The following plots can be done: (a) Scores This causes the scores on each task to be plotted. One potential problem with this is that, if each task has a different number of points, it may be difficult to see trends and compare scores. (b) Percentages This will cause the percentages on each task to be calculated and plotted. This tells you how well a student did on each task. (c) T-scores The T-scores are calculated for each task, and the student's T-scores plotted. T-scores are a standard statistical measure that is discussed above. This tells you how a student did compared to the mean score of all the other students. (d) Percentiles The percentiles of the student on each task are calculated and plotted. The best percentile is 99, as that student did better than 99% of the other students. This ranks the students in order of their scores, and will tell you the rank of the student compared to the rank of the other students. (e) z-scores (standard deviations from the mean) 97 The standard deviations (SD) are calculated for each task, and the student's SD plotted. SDs are discussed above. This tells you how a student did compared to the mean score of all the other students. 2. Listing the scores The program will plot the task scores and calculate the statistics. The program assumes that the student trend is a straight line: either the scores increase or decrease. Note that this is frequently not the case, hence, these results should be interpreted with caution. The program then calculates the best-fitting line for that trend, and plots it on the graph. The correlation coefficient for the task scores, as well as the mean, median and standard deviations are also calculated. These may or may not be useful for understanding how a student is doing in the class. The statistics are also listed on the graph. If you choose more tasks than fits on one screen or page, the list will be printed on two or more screens or pages. G. Correlating Different Tasks By selecting the "C" or "3" options on the Plot Menu, you can plot the scores for any of the tasks against the scores for any of the other tasks. This helps you determine if there were any problems on one or both of those tasks. If the tasks are measuring different things, the scores will be widely scattered. This may be an indication that one or both of the tasks did not measure what you hoped it would. If the tasks are measuring similar abilities, the scores will tend to cluster near the diagonal. 1. 2D or 3D plots In contrast to the other plots, the two different plots for correlations look quite different. In the 2D plot, the scores are shown as x's. If two or more x's are on the same place, the x becomes thicker. For the 3D plot, 3D bars are plotted. The more students on a point, the higher the bars. To make the plot easier to interpret, it is slightly skewed. This makes it easier to tell the difference between tall bars and bars at different points on the graph. 98 Analyzing the Grades 2. Choose the tasks You must choose the tasks to plot for each of the axes. Any task can be plotted against any other task. To help in your selection, the program lists the tasks. If you pick task zero for either axis, the program will give an error message and asks again. To exit this section without plotting, type an <Esc>. 3. Pick a range of scores for each task If you grade with number grades, for each task that you have picked, and you have set the program to pick your own cutoffs, you can pick the high and low scores to plot. Otherwise, the program selects the intervals for you. If you just type <Rtn>, the program will pick the highest or lowest score in the class (whichever is appropriate). If no students are in the ranges of scores that you pick, no scores will be plotted and an error message will result. 4. Correlation plot The plot shows a 20 X 20 matrix of the distribution of the scores. The correlation coefficient is calculated and shown. The coefficient ranges from 1.0 (the scores on the X-axis predict exactly the scores on the Y-axis) to 0.0 (the scores on the two axes are completely random with respect to each other) to -1.0 (the low scores on the X-axis predict high scores on the Y-axis, and vice versa). The closer the coefficient is to 1.0, the more closely the two tasks measured the same parameters or abilities (and hence the students scored more nearly the same on both the tasks). If the correlation coefficient is close to 0 or below it, then students who did well on one task did poorly on the other. If you decide that this result indicates a flaw in one or both of the tests, the program will allow you to delete one or both tasks. For the 2D plot, two or more scores on the same point will show up as a thicker "x", while on the 3D plot, the bars will get higher and higher with each score. H. Statistical Plots of the Classes This type of plot shows plots of the range, mean, median, and standard deviations of the class for one or more tasks. You can also show how an individual student scored on those tasks compared with the entire class. These plots are the "S" and "1" options on the Plot Menu. 99 1. Pick the tasks You first pick the tasks to plot. You can choose to plot from one to forty different tasks. If you want to plot an individual student against the scores, you will also be asked to choose a student to plot. 2. Plotting the statistics The program will show the range of scores as wide bars. The mean is a wide line all the way horizontally across the bar. The median is a thin horizontal bar all the way across the wide bar. The mean is a horizontal bar with some vertical lines in it. The standard deviation is shown as the vertical line, extending one standard deviation above and below the mean (which is halfway between the two). At one standard deviation above and below the mean are horizontal lines extending halfway across the bar. If you are plotting the scores of a student as well as the class, that student's scores are shown as horizontal bars, a little wider than the wide bar showing the range of scores. If you plot tasks that have a wide range of scores, some or all of these measures can end up compressed. Note that, if you choose, you can pick the score intervals to graph. The range of scores plotted range from the lowest to the highest obtained scores on any of the tasks. The widths of the bars depends upon how many tasks are plotted; the more tasks, the narrower the bars. The X-axis shows the numbers of the tasks that were plotted. I. Horizontal Class and Student Statistics Section H described one way of plotting the class statistics. Option "H" on the Plot Menu is another way to plot the same statistics. 1. Pick the tasks and student You first pick the tasks to plot. You can choose to plot as many tasks as you want, but only two can be shown per screen. You then pick the student to plot versus the class. 100 Analyzing the Grades 2. Plotting the statistics The horizontal plot shows the range of scores as the X-axis. A wide line shows the high and low student scores on the task. The mean, median, and standard deviations are shown on the plot. Below the plot, the student's score is shown. J. Database Plots With the exception of the individual plot (section F) and horizontal plots (section I), you can do all the plots mentioned above in the "D" (database) option of the Plot Menu. For these plots, you make the students meet some database criteria. For example, you could plot all the seniors in the class separately from all the juniors. What the Database plots do is filter out those students that don't meet your criteria, and plot the rest. You can plot students above, below, or equal to some criteria. Database plots open up a wide range of possibilities for analyzing your students. You can check how students of different ages, sex, year in school, colleges, cities, etc., affect how they did on a particular task or set of tasks. 1. Pick the database item First, you choose which database item to use for the selection criteria. You can use any database item. Next, you need to choose the type of criteria. You can choose students above a value, below a value, or equal to a value. For strings and characters, these refer to alphabetical order, where above is later in the alphabet. Next, you are asked for the item to test. For example, if you are using age as the criterion, you would enter a number. 2. Plot You will next be asked the task(s) to use, and continue on just like the normal plots. Since each plot needs different criteria, refer to the section on the appropriate plot, above. K. Scaling the Tasks If you grade using number grades, you can scale the regular tasks differently. Pick the "G" (grade) option of the Main Menu, then the "S" (scale) option in the Grading Menu. You may 101 add any number of points to an task, or multiply the task by any positive number. The total points for the task, after scaling, will not change. If desired, you can readjust the total points manually in the "T" section of the Main Menu either before or after scaling the task. Point totals less than the allowed scores are summed as the lowest allowed score, while scores greater than the total task points are set at the total points. Students with scores that have not been entered are not changed (the score is still undefined). Scaling allows you to conveniently change point totals for any number task. It also allows you to add points to one section and not to others, as the scaling occurs only for those sections you choose. You cannot scale letter or special tasks. L. Adjusting the Statistics of a Task In unusual circumstances, you may want to manually adjust the mean, median, and standard deviation of a task. The "A" option on the Grading Menu lets you do this. The "D" option lets you remove those adjustments. To adjust the statistics, you need to pick the task to use. Student scores are adjusted by changing the standard deviation and the mean. The current values are then displayed. You can change one or more of these values to any numbers you want. The student scores are adjusted to reflect the new mean and standard deviation. These numbers are then used by all the other parts of the program that calculate these values. To return to the true values, use the "D" option on the Grading Menu. Note that, if you revert to the original scores, they may be slightly different than the true original value due to rounding off errors. M. Setting the Fewest Allowed Points When you first use the program, the fewest points that a student can have on a task is 0 points. If you want to enter scores below 0, you can set the fewest allowed points to be less than zero. It can be set either in the "O" option of the Main Menu, then "O" again, or by pressing <AltO> when entering task scores. You can reset the fewest allowed points to as few as -1,000,000 points. 102 Analyzing the Grades Even though the fewest allowed points may be 0 (or any other number), you can still enter scores lower than the fewest allowed points. Students with scores lower than the fewest allowed points will always be ignored for statistical tests, and are always considered to be equivalent to unentered scores. The difference from unentered scores is that unentered scores can either be ignored or set to 0, while numbers below the fewest allowed points will always be ignored. When you print the numbers, both types of scores will be blank or print as "Not submitted". If you set unentered scores to zero, numbers below the fewest allowed points will print as "*Not submitted". This will let you distinguish between the two types of scores. N. Cropping Graphics Screens If you print to screen, you can still print the graphics to a disk or printer file. When you are asked to "press any key to continue", if you press <CtrlD>, <CtrlP>, or <CtrlF>, you will be able to select what portion of the screen you want to write. <CtrlP> will print the graphic directly to a printer, while <CtrlD> and <CtrlF> will print to a disk file called "class.xxx", where "xxx" stands for the graphics format (e.g., PCX if you are using PCX format). If the extension is already used, the third character is replaced with a number from 0 to 9. After you press one of the above three keys, the screen is surrounded by four solid lines. Whatever is within the lines is printed. NOTE: Since the graph is printed in a different resolution than the screen, the lines are only approximately what are printed. To move the lines, move the cursor keys. They work as shown below (Ctrl-keys move faster): Key Action <Right arrow> Moves the leftmost line to the right. <Ctrl-Right arrow> Moves the leftmost line right 10 pixels. <Home> Moves the leftmost line to the left. <Ctrl-Home> Moves the leftmost line left 10 pixels. <Left arrow> Moves the rightmost line to the left. <Ctrl-Left arrow> Moves the rightmost line left 10 pixels. <End> Moves the rightmost line to the right. <Ctrl-End> Moves the rightmost line right 10 pixels. <Down arrow> Moves the top line down. <PgUp> Moves the top line up. <Ctrl-PgUp> Moves the top line up 10 pixels. <Up arrow> Moves the bottom line up. <PgDn> Moves the bottom line down. <Ctrl-PgDn> Moves the bottom line down 10 pixels. 103 XI. ASSIGNING THE GRADES Just about any grading system can be used with VAR Grade. Each class can have up to four different grading systems. This chapter explains how to design your own letter grading system, how to assign grades, and how to print assigned grades. Each letter grade has a name, a value, and a cutoff that is used for assigning grades. Grade values are the numbers used for calculating averages or percentages, while cutoffs are used for assigning scores to letter grades in final tasks. A. Changing the Grade Names When you start a new class, one of the first things you need to do is to change the letter grading system to the grading system you need to use. The program defaults to the grading system commonly used in the United States: A through F, with + and - scores. In some other countries, the program defaults to their most common grading system. However, you can define any grading system that has up to 50 different letter grades (plus an "unentered" or "incomplete" grade). Each grade can have a name of up to three characters long. You can also assign point totals to the grades. The grade names and values should be defined and listed in numerical order. You can also have up to four different grading systems for one class. For example, you can have A to F, S and U (satisfactory/unsatisfactory), and P and NP (pass/not pass). 1. Defining new grade names To change the grading system, go to the "G" option on the Main Menu. Choose the "N" option on the Grading Menu. Next, you are asked whether to use one of a few pre-defined grading systems, or to define your own system. There are several predefined grading systems. If you decide to define your own grading system, you are first asked how many grading systems to use. If you use more than one grading system, you need to have defined a database item to use to specify which grading system a student uses. You are asked which database item to use, and 104 Assigning the Grades what values are used for which grading system. If a student has a value that doesn't match any of the grading systems, it is assumed the student uses grading system 1. Next, you will be asked to enter the grade names and the grade values for the grades for each of the grading systems. Keep in mind that the first grading system is the primary one, the others are secondary ones. When plotting letter grades, or doing statistics on letter grades, only the first system is used. For all other parts of the program, the grading system doesn't affect the results. These grade values are for the grades, not the scores that are needed to obtain the grade (see Section C to define grade cutoffs). The current grade names and values are listed. To clear them all, press <AltC>. Enter your own grades and point values in numerical order. Grade names and point totals can be changed at any time. However, if you have defined any letter or final grades, the new grade names may make the old grades incorrect, as the program converts all letter grades to numbers and stores the numbers. You are strongly urged to change the grading system when you define a new class. You can change the grade values at any time (see Section B). WARNING: If you change the grading system after assigning letter grades, the new numbers may translate into a different grade than you want. Press <AltS> to save the new grade system. If there is more than one grading system, you are then asked to enter the next ones until all have been entered. If you changed any grades, you are asked for the maximum value of a grade (see below). You are then asked for the grade name of unentered scores. In the US, this is usually called an incomplete ("I"). (a) Multiple grading systems When using multiple grading systems for a class, there are two things to keep in mind. First, the first grading system is the primary one. This is the system that is used for plotting and statistics. In addition, it is the system used when the program doesn't match the database item. Second, a database item is used to select the grading system for the student. If no match of the student value and the grading system occurs, the student is assumed to be using grade system 1. 105 For example, you can define a "Grade Options" database item, with the values 1, 2, and 3. For each of three grading systems. Then, when you define the multiple grade systems, tell the program to use a value of 1 for the first grade system, etc. If a student has a value of 4, since there are only three systems defined, grading system 1 would be used. 2. Mixing letter and number grades The previous section described how to assign grade names and point values. This section describes some of the considerations that go into making grade values. The common definition of an A in the US is to assign it a point value of 4.0. A B is 3.0, and so forth. Some instructors like to assign letter grades to some things, and number grades for others. If you then average the grades, you are averaging a 4.0 with a 100, and getting 52. This is probably not what you want. If you calculate a percentage of a B, you would get a 75%. This also may not be what you want. An alternative is to assign point values on a scale of 100. One possibility is to assign an A a value of 95. Assign a B a value of 85, and so forth. Assign a total of 100 points as the maximum. Averaging a 100 and a 95 would give a 97.5, probably better than the above 52. A percent of a B would give an 85%, again more what you might expect. Another possibility is to assign an A+ = 100, an A = 90, a B = 80, etc. The variations are endless. Changing grade values is described in Section B. Note that grade values and grade cutoffs are different.. B. Changing the Grade Values Grade values are the values of letter grades used in the calculations of percentages, averages, etc. They are not the values used to assign grades. Those values are the grade cutoffs. The preset values for the letter grades are 4.0 for an A, 3.7 for an A-, etc. You can redefine the grade values at any time and as often as you want. Every time you do change them, the grades are recalculated to reflect the new letter grade values. To do this, go to the "N" option of the Grading Menu. Option "V" lets you enter new values, while option "C" uses the cutoff values you have already entered (option "C" is not available if cutoffs have 106 Assigning the Grades not been defined, see Section C). Before you change the grade values, you might want to read Section A2, above. C. Automatic Grade Cutoffs Cutoffs are used for assigning final task grades. Note that these are different from grade values. If you always use the same grade cutoffs, you may want to set that system in the "C" option of the Grading Menu. For instance, you can tell the program that 90% is an A, 80% is a B, etc. Alternatively, you can tell the program that 90 points is an A, 80 points a B, etc. When you assign grades, VAR Grade will use these values, either as percentages or points, as the point system to use when assigning grades. You can change the cutoffs at any time. However, when final tasks are defined, they inherit the current cutoffs. If you change the cutoffs after the final task is defined, the task definition keeps the old cutoffs. To use new cutoffs, you would have to reassign grades with the "G" option on the Grading Menu. To remove the cutoff points needed for various grades assigned in the "C" option, use the "R" (remove) option of the Grading Menu. 1. Assigning cutoffs After pressing "C" on the Grading Menu, you will be asked if you want to assign percentage values, or point values. If you pick percentages, the total points of each task are multiplied by the percentage to obtain the cutoffs. If you pick points, no matter how many points the task is worth, the student will need to obtain these points to get the grade. You next enter the minimum scores (percentage or points) to obtain each grade. Listed at the top of the screen are the range of scores possible. The cutoffs must be listed in numerical order. If you leave a cutoff blank, no students will obtain that grade. If you use multiple grading systems, each system is listed separately. When you have finished, press <AltS>. You are then asked whether to use the cutoffs for the grade values. NOTE: The grade values can be changed at any time. 107 2. Considerations If you define cutoffs before defining a Final task, the values of the cutoffs are used to compute the grades. If no cutoffs have been assigned, you must manually assign cutoffs for the final task. This is done in the "G" option of the Grading Menu. If you change or remove the cutoffs, this will not change the grades in any final tasks that have already been defined. Any final tasks defined after you change the cutoffs will use those new cutoffs. To change the cutoffs of final grade tasks that have already been defined, use the "G" option of the Grading Menu to reassign new grades. D. What Ifs "What ifs" are calculations of what a student needs to obtain a particular grade. This is a question that students frequently ask instructors. VAR Grade can answer their questions. What ifs will calculate the average grade(s) needed by a student to achieve any and all letter grades for a final task. Sometimes an exact solution is possible (e.g., when only one score hasn't been entered). Sometimes the score must be estimated (e.g., when you discard more than one task). In either case, the score is an average for the missing scores. When scores are discarded, it may be possible for students to get below the average and still get the desired grade. Therefore, the calculated score can be regarded as the average score that guarantees the grade, not the minimum average needed to achieve a grade. What ifs are calculated by pressing "W" on the Grading Menu. A final task must have been defined before you can calculate the what ifs. After picking a final task, you are asked to pick a student to use, then where to print the calculations. If grade cutoffs have not been assigned, you are asked for them before the what ifs can be calculated. The what if printout contains a lot of information. The current points for the student, the total points for tasks that have been taken, the points left to be recorded, and the maximum points possible. Each grade is listed, along with the points or score needed for the grade, and how much the student 108 Assigning the Grades needs on the remaining tasks to achieve each grade. If the student has already achieved a grade, that is also indicated. The percentage of the remaining points needed for each grade is also listed. E. Manually Assigning Grades To manually calculate and print grades on a task (or final grades) use the "G" (grade) option on the Main Menu, then "G" on the Grading Menu. Read the section on automatic grade cutoffs, above, before using this option. 1. Manually assigning grades First, pick which task to grade. Letter tasks cannot have grades assigned, as they are already letter grades. If you choose a final task, the grades will be assigned to it. Otherwise, the grades are printed, but no permanent record is made of the grades. You then choose how to display the grades. This includes whether to print names or IDs and where to print it. 2. Plot and cutoffs If no grade cutoffs have been specified (see above), you are asked to select the low cutoffs for each grade. Depending upon your grading system, up to 49 cutoffs can be entered for each grading system. If you leave a cutoff blank, nobody will receive that particular grade. 3. Listing the grades The program lists the points, percentages, and assigned grades, by section, for the task. A tables of numbers of students with each grade and the cutoffs are then listed. Only grades that students can earn are listed at the end of the class: if the cutoff is blank, it will not be listed. If you have just entered cutoffs for this task, the program asks whether the grades are acceptable. If you choose no ("N"), the plot and cutoffs will continue to be repeated, until they are acceptable. When the data is printed out, the classname, section, task, and date are also printed. If you have picked a task defined as a final task, the program will save the grades 109 for the students on that task, as well as the new cutoffs. The grades for a final task are recalculated each time you enter scores, but will use the cutoffs you chose. If the task is not a final task, the assigned grades and cutoffs are not stored. F. Adjusting Grades If you do not like the grades that have been assigned, you can adjust them. This is frequently done when students have extenuating circumstances that has adversely affected their grade. Adjusting can be done on the Grading Menu, then "H". Adjustments are only done on final tasks. First, pick the final task to adjust. The program then lists both the final grades and the scores used to compute them, each in it's own column. You can adjust either or both scores. The scores are then saved as new tasks (with new names: "Adjusted" is prepended). These new tasks are defined as letter or number tasks, whichever is appropriate. Although you could do these adjustments manually, this is much simpler. If you don't like the names to have "adjusted" in them, you can change the names on the Task Menu ("T" on the Main Menu, then "T" and "C"). 110 Printing and Reports XII. PRINTING AND REPORTS You can print out the grades and attendance of a class by four methods: 1. List the scores of a task. The program will list the student scores for that task in numerical order and in sorted order (see Section C of Chapter X). 2. Print grades or attendance for any combination of tasks and sections or names with the "W" (write) option on the Main Menu--discussed below. 3. Assign and print the grades with the "G" (grade) option on the Main Menu. This method is discussed in Section E of Chapter XI. 4. Write a report form, then use the "W" option on the Main Menu to select the form to write the data. This option allows virtually unlimited types of reports. You can also export student data in a format that another program can use. This is done on the "W" option of the Main Menu. A. Listing Data When you want to list data, a menu will appear that asks how you want to proceed. This is the Print Menu. Listed on the menu will be several options, including: (a) which printer to use; (b) what sections to use; (c) whether to print to the screen or to a printer or disk file. The options listed will vary in different parts of the program. The options involved with what data to display are discussed above, in Chapter XI, Analyzing the Grades. The ones involved with printing or displaying grades are described below. 1. Choosing a printer When you install the program, you are asked which printer you will be using. If you want to change which printer will be used or how to print (single or double spacing; pica or elite; etc.), press "Q" on the Print Menu to get to the Printer Menu. The Printer Menu can also be reached in the "O" option of the Main Menu, then "P". 111 NOTE: Any time you are printing text to a disk file or a printer, you can stop the printing by pressing <CtrlS> or <Esc>. You will be asked whether to stop printing. If you answer yes, printing will then stop. (a) Installation of a graphics printer To install a new printer, press the number listed for it on the Printer Menu. All the currently installed printers are listed. To install more, rerun the INSTALL program, and choose to install the new printer. Up to five printers can be installed. Pressing the number of the printer will install the graphics printer codes. If yours is not listed, your printer manual should list the printer(s) that it emulates. Most 9-pin dot matrix printers emulate the Epson FX printer. Most laser printers emulate the HP Laserjet, and those that don't are usually Postscript printers. NOTE: The list of supported printers will be continually updated. If yours is not supported with the version that you have, an update may be available that will explicitly support your printer. (b) Text printer codes For most of the printers, the text printer codes will also be automatically installed. These are used to print bold, elite, and compressed print. For others, however, you also need to tell the program which printer codes to use. To do this, pick the "T" option on the Printer Menu. Listed will be several different printers that are frequently emulated. Most printers emulate the Epson FX printer. If yours does, pick that. If not, the printer may emulate one of the other printers listed below. Some printer manufacturers and the printers they usually emulate are listed below. If your printer is not listed, or if you want to change the printer codes for your printer, use the "U" option on the Printer Menu to put in the printer codes. The program will keep track of the text printer codes for each of the five printers that can be installed. 112 Printing and Reports Text Printer Definition Printers Supported Epson FX-80 Most Epson printers, including the EX, FX, MX, and RX series. Also, many printers from Brother, Citizen, Panasonic, and others. IBM Graphics Printer IBM dot matrix, Okidata with IBM emulation, Star Micronics, and others. HP Laser Jet HP LaserJet, Plus, Series II, DeskJet, PaintJet, and most laser printers. NEC P-2200 Most NEC printers. Okidata 92 Okidata 84, 92, 93, 192, 193, 292, and others. Note: Text printer codes for Postscript printers cannot be changed. (c) Printer problems If you use the "T" option to select printer codes, and the printing is still not right, one option is to remove all printer codes. This is done by pressing "T" on the Printer Menu, then "Z" (zero). You can now print only in pica (10 cpi) type. Another option is to enter your own printer codes (see Section 1d, below). (d) Entering your own text printer codes To change the printer codes, press "U" on the Printer Menu. Listed will be the current printer codes. To change them, use the cursor keys to move to the code that you want, then press the correct codes. Your printer manual will list the codes needed to use pica, elite, etc. printing. These are usually called escape codes, as <Esc> is the first key code sent to the printer. Codes can be entered either as hex numbers (base 16), or as regular base 10 numbers. Some printer manuals print both, some only one. Pressing <AltE> will switch between listing and entering the codes as hex numbers or as text. NOTE: Some of the keyboard keys work differently in this part of the program, as you need to be able to enter any possible printer code. To enter escape (#27), press the <Esc> key. The backspace key will enter <CtrlH> (#8). The <Enter> or <Rtn> key will enter <CtrlM> (#13). To enter codes below 32 or above 127, hold down the <Alt> 113 key, then use the keys on the numeric keypad to enter the number. Not all codes need to be entered, just the ones you want to use. You can enter up to 10 characters for each of the codes. To remove the previous character, use the <F2> key (not the <Backspace> key). After you exit with <AltS>, the new codes will be in effect. (e) Printer errors If there are problems with your printer (not turned on, out of paper, etc.), the program will put out error message on the screen. Sometimes the error message may mistakenly state that the error is a "disk" error instead of a printer error. In either case, try to correct the error before telling the program to continue. If the error is not correctable, output to the printer will stop. In most cases, the printing is just turned off. (f) Changing the printer ports The program assumes that you are using the first parallel printer port, called LPT1 (also called LST or PRN). To change this, you can pick either of several parallel or serial ports as the destination of the printing for each of the five allowed printers. No checking is done by the program for the presence of the port, so if the port you choose does not exist, you will not print any data. If you try to print and nothing gets printed, you may have set the wrong port. 2. Printer options Several options about how you want the printer to print the data are listed on the Printer Menu. (a) Graphics quality Graphics quality can be set by pressing "G" on the Printer Menu. The graphics can be printed at low, medium, or high resolution. Below is a list of the resolution for each of the types of printers. In all cases, the resolution is better than screen resolution. The main reason for printing at lower resolution is speed. The lower the resolution, the faster the printing. A second reason is memory. Higher resolution takes more memory. In most 114 Printing and Reports circumstances, memory should be sufficient for all resolutions. Driver Printers Low Medium High _CANON Canon LBP/8 560x750 1120x1500 2240x3000 _DIC Kodax Diconix 150560x7501120x1500 2240x3000 _FX Epson FX 448x720 896x2160 1792x2160 _LQ Epson LQ 448x600 1344x1800 2688x1800 _PP24 IBM Proprinter 448x720 1344x1800 2688x1800 _IBMQ IBM Quietwriter448x600 896x1200 1792x2400 _TSH Toshiba 24-pin1296x1800 1296x1800 1296x1800 _LJ HP LaserJet 560x750 1120x1500 2240x3000 _LJD HP LaserJet IID560x750 1120x1500 2240x3000 _LJ3R HP LaserJet III560x750 1120x1500 2240x3000 _LJ3RD HP LaserJet IIID560x750 1120x1500 2240x3000 _DJ HP DeskJet 560x750 1120x1500 2240x3000 _DJC HP DeskJet C 560x750 1120x1500 2240x3000 _OKI92 Okidata 92 _PJ HP PaintJet 672x904 1344x1808 1344x1808 _PS Postscript 5401x7201 5401x7201 5401x7201 _XRXINT Xerox 4045 Int 560x750 1120x1500 2240x3000 _XRXUS Xerox 4045 US 560x750 1120x1500 2240x3000 Notes: (1) The _LJD and _LJ3RD drivers print text in duplex mode only. If your printer supports duplex, you can print simplex with the _LJ or _LJ3R driver. (2) Only some of these drivers are included with the shareware version of the program. (b) Text quality You can set some printers to draft (low) or correspondence (high) quality. Press "Q" on the Printer Menu. For most printers, high quality is the best way to print. However, for some printers, high quality is much slower. (c) Character size and fonts You can print with characters that are pica (12 point), elite (10 point), or compressed (8 point). Printing with smaller type lets you print more characters per line. You can also adjust the value of how many characters on a line (see Margins, below). For some laser printers, including the HP LaserJet III and Postscript printers, you can pick both fonts and sizes for the fonts that range from 6 to 16 points. For these laser printers, both regular and 115 proportional fonts are supported. For all other printers, only non-proportional fonts are supported (e.g., Courier). WARNING: In some parts of the program, printing with characters larger than 12 points (pica) may cause problems with spacing on the printouts. (d) Line Spacing Single, double, and even greater spacing of lines can be printed. Changes from single line spacing occur when output is sent to a disk or the printer, never on the screen. Line spacing can be changed on the "O" option of the Printer Menu. (e) Margins: Dot matrix printers You can set up the left, right, top, and bottom margins of the pages. The left margin is the number of characters to leave blank on the left side of the page. The right margin is set indirectly: you specify the number of characters on a line. If you decrease the number of characters, the line is shorter, hence you have a larger right margin. The header and footer set the lines at the top and bottom of the page. The page numbers are written in the footer, while the running head on the top right of the page is written in the header. Setting either to 0 will prevent them from being written. You can also specify the number of lines on a page. A typical 8 1/2" by 11" page in pica mode has 80 characters on a line and 66 lines. Laser printers, however, usually only print 60 lines. Elite has 96 characters and 88 lines, while compressed has 136 characters and 110 lines. Most laser printers print 60 lines in pica, 80 in elite, and 100 in compressed. (f) Margins: HP and Postscript printers For laser printers that support fonts and point sizes, you specify the page margins in inches. Instead of being asked the characters on a line, header lines, etc., you are asked for the left, right, top, and bottom margins in inches. The minimum margins are 0.25". 116 Printing and Reports (g) Margins: Problems This flexibility in setting margins can also cause problems. If you have set the number of characters on a line or margins set to a very small number, you can truncate some of the data that is sent to the printer. If only the part of the data has been written, check the margins that you have set to see if that is the problem. If the program doesn't break the pages in the correct place, try increasing or decreasing the lines on a page. Example: You print a page of text, but the page number ends up on a second page. You need to decrease the number of lines on the page, probably to 60 lines. (h) Landscape vs Portrait mode Some printers can print text both in portrait and landscape (sideways) modes. Most laser printers can do this, for example, while few or no dot-matrix printers can. If your printer supports landscape mode, in some parts of the program you can print in landscape mode. The most likely place you'd want to do this is when you print all the tasks in your class. Printing in landscape mode gives you about 30 more characters on a line when printing pica size, but 12 fewer lines. You can set the number of characters on a line and lines on a page when in landscape mode on the "O" option of the Printer Menu. (i) Form feeds and page numbers On the "O" option of the Printer Menu, you can change whether page numbers are written on a page, and whether to send formfeeds at the end of each page. (j) Decimal places When printing data, you can specify how many decimals to print the scores. There are two numbers that can be set. First, the number used by regular tasks can be specified. Many teachers do not use decimals in their grades, so setting this value to 0 will save space when printing. You can also set the number of decimal places to be used when printing calculated numbers. These numbers frequently end up as decimals. You can change either set anywhere from 0 to 5 decimal places in the "O" section of 117 the Main Menu, then "O". In addition, the values can be set on the data entry screens by pressing <AltO>. 3. Disk files When you print data to disk, they are printed as plain text (ASCII) files. This means that you can then use a word processor to alter them in any way that you want, or use the word processor to print the files. If you pick the "D" (print to disk) option, you will be asked the name of the file. Any name can be used, as long as it is a valid DOS filename. A name is suggested, and pressing <Rtn> will cause that name to be used for the disk file; pressing <Esc> when you are asked for the file name will turn off the printing. In case of a syntax error in the file name, the program will ask for a new name. The program checks to see whether there is enough space on your disk and also to see if a file with that name already exists. If there is not enough space on the disk, the program will stop sending files to the disk. Plots and drag 'n drop seating charts are written in a graphics format, and are not ASCII files. You can choose which graphics format you want, on the Plot Menu ("P" on the Main Menu). When you installed the program, the graphics formats were also installed. The one included with the program are listed below. After you choose the one you want, any plots that are sent to disk are sent with that graphics format. Most word processors, painting programs, and desktop publishing programs can import some or all of these graphics formats. File(s) Name/Examples _BMP.BGI Bitmap (e.g., MS Windows Paintbrush files) _CGM.BGI Color Graphics Metafile _IMG.BGI Image graphics _PCX.BGI PCX. (e.g., PC Paintbrush files) _TIF.BGI TIFF files _WPG.BGI Word Perfect graphics files _WMF.BGI MS Windows Metafile The TIFF supports up to 300 dpi (Laser resolution). The others are at VGA screen resolution. Therefore, if you have a choice, pick TIFF. 118 Printing and Reports You select which graphic file format to use on the Plot Menu "G" option). For the TIFF, you can also select low, medium, or high resolution. The others all print only one resolution. Note that you can set the font size for graphics on the "O" option of the Plot Menu. The size can be set from 6 to 16 points, just like for text. 4. Other options When data is printed, either to a disk file or to a printer, information identifying the data is also printed. These include the date, class name, and sections. Student names, IDs, and database items may also be printed. In addition, other identifying information is printed. These are discussed below. (a) Class name When VAR Grade prints data to a printer or disk file, it also prints the name of the class. Renaming the class will override the default name (which is the one used when starting the program). On the Write Data Menu, the "W" option of the Main Menu, option "T" can be used to rename the class with up to 30 characters for printing data. The name the program automatically chooses is the one you typed in as the class file name. Changing the class name on the Write Data Menu will change it for printing only, and will not change the file name of the class. Example: The class is called "BIO" when you tell VAR Grade to use it. The default name for printing would be "BIO". You can change it to anything else, e.g. "Biology 100", for printing purposes, but the file name(s) will still be BIO (plus the extensions ".PAR" and ".DAT"). (b) Instructor name You can list your name when data is printed. On the "W" option of the Main Menu, then "T", you can specify the instructor's name. If a name is entered, it is printed. Otherwise, nothing is printed. 119 Also on this menu are "automatic comments". These are for printing comments specified in the report forms. Reports and automatic comments are described below in Section D. (c) Section names or comments If you use more than one section of students, you can specify comments or names on printouts. This is on the same screen as the instructor and class name. The comment is written after the section number. If there is only one section of students, the comment is not printed, as the section number is not printed. Example: To write "MWF 9:00 to 10:00 AM" after the section number on printouts, press "W" on the Main Menu, then "T". The comment is added on the line with the correct section number. (d) Date The current date is written when data is printed. If you have failed to set your clock, the date will not be correct. You can change the format of the dates on the "O" option of the Main Menu, then "D". The date format also affects how attendance days are defined by the program. To change the date format, press "D" on the Parameters Menu. You are now on the Dates Menu. There are six types of dates, two each from American, European, and Japanese methods. One of each set is numbers only, the other prints the month names. Note that you can also change the names of the days of the week and the names of the months on the Dates Menu. If you press "I", you can enter new three letter abbreviations for each of them. B. Printing the Student Scores and Attendance If you want to print out a list of the students and their task scores, select the Main Menu choice "W" (write). This is the Write Data Menu. You can print out all the task scores or attendance for one student ("by name") or for whole sections of students ("by section"); you can print a grid for entering scores; or, you can export data in formats that can be read by other programs. In addition, you can specify a list of classes (subjects) to use when you print scores. 120 Printing and Reports 1. Write options On the Write Data Menu, if you select "O" (options), you can change how the program prints the student data. These options can also be changed in other parts of the program. The options are: Print numbers: You can change whether numbers are printed next to the student names when listing students by section. The numbers are listed in the sort order. Keys: You can choose whether to print a key of tasks, database items, or attendance names at the top of the page, then list the items by number, or whether to print the name above the columns of data. Printing keys will allow more data to be printed per page, however, not printing them makes the printout easier to read. Percentiles: Besides printing the task scores, you can also print the percentiles for those scores. Unentered scores: You can choose whether to ignore unentered scores, or to set them all to 0 points. Truncate: You can choose whether to truncate or to round scores when calculating and printing grades. Minimum points: You can choose the lowest scores the program will count as entered scores. Scores that are below the minimum are always ignored by the program. Decimals: You can choose how many decimals to use for printing of scores. 2. Grades for individual students From the Write Data Menu, you can select "N" (by name), or "L" (by name, select the tasks). Each of these options can print the task, database, and attendance scores for a student. The "L" option lets you pick which tasks to list, while the "N" option just prints all the student task scores. (a) Selecting a student After you select one of the above options, you will see a list of students in the class. If there are more students 121 than fit on one screen, you can use the cursor keys to locate the desired student. You can also press the <Left button> on the stippled line below the students to page through the names. The highlighted name can be chosen by typing <Rtn>, or you can select a student by moving the mouse cursor to him or her, and pressing the <Left button> of your mouse. You can also pick a name by typing it in at the prompt. If you are searching for a student in the class, you only have to type in the first characters of the name that match the desired name and that do not match any other names. Example: if you type "ken" when picking a student, the first student with the letters "ken" in the name will be found. "ken" would find "Kravitz, Ken" in the GSample class. However, it could also find a name like "Kendrow, John". If you type in the name, and there is more than one section of students in the class, you must enter the section number for the student (or <F1> to search for the section--note that the program will find only the first occurrence of the name). (b) Selecting all the students If you want to print scores for all the students, press <F1> when the program asks for the student name. If you print to a printer or disk file, you will be asked whether to print them one student per page. If you answer "y", a new page will be started for each student. If you answer "n", the program will fit as many students on a page as it can. (c) Selecting what to list There are up to six options listed on the Print by Name Menu. You can print task scores, attendance, an attendance summary, both task scores and attendance, pick database items to list, and pick subjects to list. i) Change database items to list The program prints only those database items that you pick. Some items you may want on your printouts, some you don't. The "C" option of the Print by Names Menu lets you choose (they can also be changed from the 122 Printing and Reports Write Data Menu: option "D"). To change the list, press "D". A list of the database items is then shown, with their numbers. You need to pick the numbers of the ones you want shown in the order you want them printed. Note that due to their length, memos are always listed at the end of the data, otherwise the database items will be listed in the order that you specify. ii) Subjects Elementary school teachers usually teach several subjects to the same set of students. Option "C" of the Print by Names Menu lets you designate up to 10 different subjects to be printed. These subjects are other VAR Grade classes. To select a new class, either type in the name, or press <AltF> to see a listing of the current classes. The program will print data from these classes in addition to the current class. The current class is printed first, then the other classes in order of their listing. The list of subjects is kept for that session of the program. After you exit the program, no subjects are retained for the next session. Also note that subjects are only used for tasks, not for attendance. iii) Tasks and attendance You can print task scores, attendance, an attendance summary, or task scores and attendance or attendance summary. If you print task scores and select option "L", you are asked for the list of the tasks to print. If you also picked subjects, you are also asked which tasks to print for each subject. (d) Printing The program first lists the name of the student, the ID, the section, and the date the data was printed (i.e., the current date). It will then list the database items, in the order that they were chosen (except for memos). It will then list the defined tasks by number and name as well as the scores for the student, the total points for the task, and the percentage of the total points for the 123 student score. If you use letter grades, the total points and percentages are not listed, since they are meaningless. If no score was entered for the student, it is listed as "Not submitted". If a score is excused (by being below the minimum allowed points), it is listed with "*Not submitted". Note that the "Not submitted" can be changed to whatever term you'd like on the "O" option of the Main Menu, then "T". For attendance, VAR Grade will list all the dates and attendance. For the attendance summary, a list of the totals for each attendance category will be printed, along with the totals for absences and present. Note that present, for the totals, includes the attendance categories present, present 2, late, late 2, activity 1, and activity 2. Absent includes the categories excused, excused 2, unexcused, unexcused 2, other, and other 2. If you list the scores to a printer or to a disk file, VAR Grade will break the listing into pages. You can change such things as margins, type styles, etc. before you print the class from the Print Menu (see above). 3. Printing sections This option lets you print task scores, database items, attendance, or attendance summaries for one or more sections of your class. Except for the attendance summaries, you can choose which items to list. In addition, if you have designated subjects (classes) to list, the program will cycle through each subject on the list and print what you specify. (a) Choose what to list First, you need to choose whether to list task scores, database items, attendance, or summaries of attendance. In all cases, the data is broken into columns and pages automatically. i) Tasks You can choose which tasks to list in any order. The program "fits to print" the data. At the top of the printout is a list of the tasks and their numbers. When the data is printed, to save space the columns are listed by number. 124 Printing and Reports ii) Database items You can choose which database to list in any order, except for memos, which cannot be printed. The program "fits to print" the data. At the top of the printout is a list of the database items and their numbers. When the data is printed, to save space the columns are listed by number. iii) Attendance You can choose which attendance days to list in any order. The program "fits to print" the data. At the top of the printout is a list of the days and their numbers. When the data is printed, to save space the columns are listed by number. iv) Attendance summary Each of the attendance categories is printed if there is at least one student that has that category. Since there are up to 13 categories, there are up to that many columns of numbers. v) Brief summary This option prints only the sums of the presences and absences. Present includes the categories present, present 2, late, late 2, activity 1, and activity 2. Absent includes excused, excused 2, unexcused, unexcused 2, other, and other 2. vi) Database and summary This option combines the database items and attendance summary results. (b) Selecting the items You can select the items by entering the numbers for the items, or by using the mouse. <F1> can be used to pick all the items. Next, you are asked whether to print by names, IDs, or both. In addition, you can print names either the way you entered them, "flipped" (where the first and last name are reversed), or only first names. Names or IDs are printed 125 in the leftmost column. If you choose to print both, names are printed in the leftmost column, then IDs. NOTE: If there are too many items to print on one screen, the program will print out as many as fits across the page for a whole section, then another set, etc., until all the items and students have been printed. After specifying what to print, you reach the Print Menu. If the wrong section, printer, or other options are listed, change them before specifying where to print the data. If you are printing more than one set of items, or more than one section of students, the program will ask if you want to print them one set per page. If you answer "y", the program will start a new page for each new set of tasks or section of students. If you answer "n", the program will fit as many on a page as it can. It is recommended that you print data that you have entered on your printer or to a backup disk file immediately after entering the data, just in case there is a computer or disk malfunction. If you print the scores on your printer, using elite or compressed type and single spacing will allow more scores to be printed per page than pica printing. If your printer supports it, you can print in landscape mode (sideways), to get more items per width of the page. As mentioned above, you can set decimal places, margins, page lengths, characters per line, etc. from the Printer Menu. Although you may have entered scores using several decimal places, they will be printed using the number of places that you specify. NOTE: The program keeps grades using 15 significant digits, but will not print that many. When printed to the printer, page lengths are calculated and the printing formatted accordingly. The date is also printed so that you know when you last printed your class data. 4. Printing grids For entering student data, it is often useful to list the students with a blank grid. You can then use it to record the grades. The grid can make it easier to enter the student grades into the computer. The program will list all 126 Printing and Reports the students in the class and empty boxes (grids) for entering student data. Attendance grids have twice as many boxes as regular grids. These grids are for recording data on paper, which can then be easily transferred to the computer. C. Exporting Data You can export data from a VAR Grade class in two different formats. Other programs, like spreadsheet and database programs, can then read import the data. VAR Grade can also read the exported data. For all the methods of export, you can specify whether to write names, IDs, and sections, as well as database items and any combination of tasks. You export data from the Write Data Menu, "W" on the Main Menu. 1. Selecting database items Before you export data, you need to choose which database items to export. To do so, press "D" on the Write Data Menu. A list of the defined items is shown at the top, along with the numbers of the items. Enter a list of the numbers to use. <F1> selects all the database items. 2. Picking the export method Next, you can choose between the different methods of export. These are comma and quote files and flat files. Comma and quote files are files that have the data separated by commas. Any data that has commas in it is surrounded by quotes. Flat files are one where the data is in columns, like a spreadsheet. The columns can be separated by spaces or <tabs>. 3. Selecting the data to export First, you need to have selected database items to export. Next, you need to select whether to export names, IDs, or both. Last, you need to select the tasks to export. For data that is to be exported, the suggested order of export is: the name, ID, section, database items, tasks, and, finally, memo items. Note that section numbers are only exported if there is more than one section in the class. 127 Next, you are now asked for the order that the data should be in when it is exported. Some programs require a specific order for the data. By default, the data is written with the following order: Names, ID, Sections (if there is more than one section in the class), Database items selected, then Tasks. You can change it to any order. Three things should be kept in mind: (1) Entering a blank or zero for any item will prevent that item from being exported. (2) If numbers are duplicated, only the first one will be exported- -the others will not. (3) You can only enter numbers as large as the number of items. For example, if there are five numbers, the program will only accept order numbers from 1 to 5. 4. Comma and quote file To export data to a comma and quote file, press "Q" on the Write Data Menu. A quote and comma file is a plain text (ASCII) file where strings (names) are enclosed in double quotes (""), while numbers are not. Cells of data are separated by commas. Many spreadsheets can import this type of file. Each set of data (or cell) will be imported into one cell in a spreadsheet or database file. Each line in the file ends up as one line in the spreadsheet. Example: a comma and quote file would look like the following: "Darwin, Charles", 10.3, 20, "A", 30 "Crick, Francis", 20, 15.5, "B", 35 In the above example, the file has two students, the first set of data is their names, the second through fifth are grades. The fourth column is letter grades, the other grade columns are number grades. The first line of an exported comma and quote file contains the names of the student data. For example, if you exported student names, the first column on the first line will read "Name". 5. Flat file To export data to a flat file, press "P" on the Write Data Menu. A flat file is a plain text (ASCII) file where data is separated into columns. The columns are separated by 128 Printing and Reports spaces. Many spreadsheets and database programs can import data in this format. Example: a flat file would look like the following: Darwin, Charles 10.3 20 A 30 Crick, Francis 20 15.5 B 35 One caution about flat files: the above lines may cause the first and last names of the students to end up in different columns! Whether this happens or not depends upon the program used to import the data. The first line of an exported flat file contains the names of the student data. For example, if you exported student names, the first column on the first line would read "Name". When you export flat files, you are asked whether to separate the fields with <Spaces> or <Tabs>. Some programs require data to be separated by <Tabs>, while others don't care. 6. Exporting data to Borland's Paradox Below is an example of how to export data, then import it into Paradox 4.0. Importing into other databases or programs may work differently, but the general idea is the same. (a) Export as a comma and quote First, export your class data, as explained in parts 1 through 4, as a comma and quote file. You will need to select a name for the file. Any name will do, but write down the name. i) Go to the Write Data Menu ("W" on the Main Menu) ii) Press "D", and select the database items to export. iii) When back on the Write Data Menu, press "Q". iv) Select the tasks to export. v) Choose whether to export names and/or IDs vi) Select a file name. A name is suggested, CLASS.TXT, where CLASS is the name of the current class file. Write down the file name and directory. The data has now been written. Next, you need to exit VAR Grade, and start up Paradox. 129 (b) Import into Paradox The following steps explain how to import the data into Paradox. It is assumed that you know the basics about the program. i) Start Paradox. ii) Select Tools (at the top of the screen) iii) Select ExportImport iv) Select Import v) Select Ascii vi) Select Delimited or AppendDelimited (if you are adding this data to an existing table). vii) Paradox asks for a filename, type in the name you wrote down in part a. viii) Paradox asks for a table name. Type in a name (e.g., the name of the class). Paradox now shows the table. The first line of the table will have the names of the items (Name, ID, etc.). The other lines have the students and their data. 7. Exporting data to Borland's Quattro Pro First, export to a comma and quote file exactly as described in part 7a. Next, follow the steps below to import the data into Quattro Pro. Other spreadsheet programs may work differently. i) Start Quattro Pro ii) Press "/T" (Tools) iii) Press "I" (Import) iv) Press "C" (Comma and "" Delimited) v) Enter the filename you wrote down. The data is then read into the program. The first line of the data will have the names of the items (Name, ID, etc.). The other lines have the students and their data. You may need to change the width of the columns by pressing "/S" (Style), "C" (Column Width). D. Reports A simple programming language, named VRL (VAR Grade Report Language) has been added to VAR Grade so that you can write reports that include your class data. The language will allow you to write just about any report that you might need. The 130 Printing and Reports reports are written in plain text (ASCII characters) that are called report forms. These forms are translated by VAR Grade into complete reports. Included with the program are several forms that can be used by you for your classes, or used as examples to help you write your own reports. The language used for the forms can be used to emulate any of the types of output that VAR Grade already does. It also lets you write reports that can include data on students from more than one class, so that you can have the program write reports that will consolidate the grades for your students that are taking more than one of your classes. 1. Overview of the VRL language The purpose of VRL is to let you access just about any piece of data of your class. It is also a forgiving language, in that if you make a mistake, the program will not blow up or go into computer heaven. Instead, mistakes will show up as reports that do not look how you want them, and will usually result in the incorrect commands appearing in square brackets in the output. Each command in the VRL language starts with a left square bracket "[", and ends with a right square bracket "]". The only exception to this are non- printing commands, which start with a left curly bracket "{" and end with a right curly bracket "}". The form that tells VAR Grade what to do is read line by line. This means that commands must be entirely on one line. You can have as many commands on one line as will fit. Each line in the form can have up to 512 characters, with no limit on the number of lines. The commands can be broken down into several categories. First, there are comments. The comments are ignored by VAR Grade, but are useful for commenting on what you have done. Second, there are printer and format commands. Printer commands tell the printer to do something, such as print the next part with bold type. Format commands tell the program to change the way things are written, such as to go to the next page (called a "formfeed"). Third, there are commands that let you write class data. These let you write student, task, and attendance data. Fourth, there are commands that tell the program to change something. These are used to change or switch data, like changing the class, to switch to a different task, and so forth. Fifth, there are commands that tell the program to repeat things. These allow you to easily write lists of students and tasks. Last, you can 131 write out text. Anything that is not in brackets is written exactly as it is in the report form. Commands can also be formatted. This means that you can specify not only to write a particular score or name, but also how to write it (spaces, how many decimals, etc.). Different commands need different types of formatting, so the relevant formatting will be discussed with each command. Commands need to have square brackets around them. Subcommands, like those in the Print command, need to have both the command and the subcommand between the square brackets. Although spelling is important for the commands, they can be in any mixture of upper and lower case letters. If you want to write a left square bracket in your text, you can do so by writing two consecutive square brackets ("[["). Extraneous material that is written after the commands, but inside the brackets, is usually ignored. 2. Writing report forms Before writing report forms, you should do three things. First, read the following sections on what the commands do. This will let you know what types of things you can do, as well as what some of the funny looking commands mean. Second, browse through some or all of the forms included with the program. This will help you see how somebody else has accomplished what you might want to do. Feel free to copy, modify, and discard anything in the forms. Last, write the form in plain text (also called "ASCII" characters). Most, if not all word processors and all text editors can write what you have written in plain text. Word processors usually write files with their own proprietary formatting. To write files in plain text, you generally have to specifically tell the program to do so. If your word processor cannot print plain text files, there are a number of good shareware word processors that can. In the "W" (write) option of the Main Menu, there are several options for writing and editing forms. (a) Designating an editor The "E" option on the Write Data Menu will let you designate whichever editor or word processor you want to use to edit or view report forms. The editor should be 132 Printing and Reports capable of writing plain text (i.e., in ASCII characters). You should call the editor with whatever command you use to invoke the editor. For example, if you are using Word Perfect, enter "WP", or "C:\WORDPERF\WP". If you have a hard disk, any word processor can be called from VAR Grade. If you do not have either, only word processors or editors that take up little memory can be called from the program. If your word processor takes up too much memory to be called from the program, you will not be able to edit report forms from inside VAR Grade. You could, however, exit the program and then edit the report forms. Then go back into VAR Grade to print them. (b) Editing forms The "F" option on the Write Data Menu will invoke the editor you have designated. VAR Grade will invoke your editor so that you can edit or view report forms. Forms can have any name. However, it is suggested that you use the extension ".FRM" for the forms. The forms included with the program all have that extension. If you use a consistent ending for the forms, it will be easier to find the one that you want. When the editor is invoked, it is invoked with: "editor *.FRM", where 'editor' is the name of your editor or word processor that you specified in the "E" option of the Write Data Menu. (c) Class reports This option, "C" on the Write Data Menu, is intended for using forms that write reports for all the students in your class. It will ask you for the name of the form to use, then will ask where to print the class data. If you use this option to print a form intended for individual students (see the next section), the first student in the class will be used as the "correct" student. Examples of class forms are listed below. At the end of the report writing section there are examples of how the printouts for these forms look. Note that the registered version has additional forms. Form Use Attend.FRM Prints attendance totals for all the students in the class. 133 Consolid.FRM Lists all the students grades on one task in each of three classes. This shows the capability of the report writer in being able to find and write the grades of students (having identical names) from different classes. Flat.FRM Emulates flat files. This writes all the students' names, IDs, and sections as a flat file. Filter.FRM Shows how to use filters to print out students below/above certain values on task scores and database items. MailAll.FRM Mail list that prints the addresses of all students in a class. For the form to work, the fields must be "Street 1", "Street 2", "City", "State", and "Zip". Section.FRM Lists all the grades for all the students in the class. This emulates the "Write students in sections" option of the Write Data Menu. Stats.FRM Lists the total points, high, low, mean, median, and standard deviation for the first five tasks in a class. (d) Individual reports This option, "I", is intended for using forms that write reports on individual students. A second menu will appear, asking if you want to write a report on one student, all students below a designated score on a task, or all students above a designated score on a task. If you choose to write a report on one student, you will be asked for the name of the student. If you pick either of the other two options, you will be asked for the task and the cutoff score. Each student in the class that is above or below the cutoff (whichever option you chose), will have the form printed for him or her. This will let you write a report telling the low students to shape up and a different report praising the top students, each listing the relevant grades for the student. Examples of individual forms are listed below. At the end of the report writing section there are examples of how the printouts for these forms look. 134 Printing and Reports Form Use Attexamp.FRM Prints many of the attendance commands. Database.FRM Uses some of the database capabilities to print a form. Elem.FRM Prints grades from several classes for one student. This shows how to write a report that consolidates the class data for one student into one report. This type of form is frequently needed for elementary schools. Low.FRM This is an example of a report that will tell the parents of students that their child is not doing well enough in your class. Name.FRM Lists all the grades and data for one student. This emulates the "Write data for a student" option of the Write Data Menu. Progresp.FRM The same as progress, but works with printers that cannot print elite and compressed sized type. RCElem.FRM Form that prints out a sample reportcard for a student. It includes the student's average on the listed tasks. Report.FRM This shows the capability of writing a free form report that tells the students in your class how they are doing. Rprtcard.FRM This form shows possible ways to do a report card, and is a modified Elem.FRM. 3. Non-printing commands Non-printing commands are words bracketed by "{" and "}" (see example 1, below). When the form is printed, these commands are removed from the form. The purpose of these, therefore, is to let you state what you have done in plain English so that the next time you look at the form, you will remember why you wrote it. These non-printing commands can be anywhere in the form. However, they cannot be nested (see example 2, below). If you want to put a left curly bracket into your text, put it in as two consecutive left 135 brackets ("{{") (example 3). Note that if the right curly bracket is not present, the rest of the line is not printed (example 4). Examples: # Statement in Form Program Output 1 {This is a comment} 2 {This is {a} comment} comment} 3 {{This is a comment} {This is a comment} 4 {This is a comment NOTE: For comments that take up an entire line, like example 4, that line will not be printed. 4. Printer and format commands (a) Printer Commands Printing will use the setup you set on the Print Menu. However, there may be cases where you want to temporarily change the printer setup. Printer commands tell your printer to do special things. You can tell your printer to print things in bold type, or even enter printer commands directly into your forms. These commands have the form: [Print"subcommand"] or [Print'subcommand'], where subcommand is one of the subcommands listed below. SubCommand Description '' Anything between the single quotes is sent to the printer. The purpose of this command is to send any special printer codes to the printer that you want. A "#" tells the program to print the next number as an ASCII code. Example: [Print'#100'] means to print ASCII character 100 ("d"). A "@" tells the program to print the following characters exactly as they are listed. Example: [Print'@100'] means to print "100" (not "d"). NOTE: All the commands listed below start and end with double quotes ([Print"command"]). BoldOn Sets the printer to start printing with bold characters. 136 Printing and Reports BoldOff Turns off bold printing. Chars=# Sets the number of characters on a line, where "#" is a number. Example: [Print"Chars=50"] tells the program to set the number of characters on a line to 50. Compressed Sets the printer to print in compressed text (17.1 characters per inch, 10 lines per inch). Courier For proportional printers, puts them into the Courier font (non-proportional). If you have forms written for a non-proportional printer, they can be printed on a proportional printer without change if you use this command. Elite Sets the printer to print in elite text (12 characters per inch, 8 lines per inch). High Sets the printer to high quality text. Lines=# Sets the number of lines on a page, where "#" is a number. Example: [Print"Lines=44"] sets the number of lines on a page to 44. For printers that print proportional type, this command only works until you change the type size. Normal Sets the printer in draft (normal) quality text. Offset=# Sets the number of 1/10" spaces to be printed at the beginning of each line, where "#" is a number. The higher the number, the further from the left side of the page the document is printed. Example: [Print"Offset=6"] prints one-half inch of spaces at the beginning of each line. 137 SubCommand Description Pica Sets the printer to print in pica text (10 characters per inch, 6 lines per inch). Points=# For proportional printers, sets the font to that size type, in points. Pica = 12, elite = 10, and compressed = 8. You can set any value from 6 to 16 points. SubCommand Description PropOff Prints a proportional font non- proportionally. This is a way of printing a form written for a non-proportional printer on a proportional printer. The output will probably look a little odd. Courier font is probably a better choice. (b) Format commands These commands alter how the printed form will look. Command Description CJust Centers strings on a line. For a string to be centered, it must have a width specified. It complements the RJust and LJust commands. CtrJust Centers strings on a page. CJust centers within a width, CtrJust centers on the entire line of a page. See Attend.FRM or Progress.FRM to see the difference. EndOfPage Write a formfeed (end of page character). This starts a new page on the printer. Any forms longer than the number of lines on a page are automatically broken into pages. The EndOfPage command lets you pick where the pages will break if you want certain items to end up on the same page. Exscore=# Sets the word(s) to be printed when a student score is excused (below the minimum points). If [exscore], then it is set to "*Not submitted", if [exscore=***], then "***" will be printed, if [exscore=], then nothing will be printed (also, see NoScore). 138 Printing and Reports Command Description Just Left justify strings. Names, dates, etc. can be written with a defined length (e.g., you can have the student names written with 25 characters). Left justification will write the names starting with the first character. Example: "Student Name............." (the periods are there for illustration purposes, only). This is the standard way of writing names, etc. Landscape Prints landscape mode (sideways). This works only for laser printers. NewLine Causes a new line to be started. NoLine Prevents a new line (the next line will be written on the same line). NoScore=# Sets the word(s) to be printed when a student score is unentered. If [noscore], then it is set to "Not submitted", if [noscore=ugh], then "ugh" will be printed, if [noscore=], then nothing will be printed (also, see ExScore). NotOnePerPage More than one student or set of students per page (default setting). See "OnePerPage". NoWay=# For what-ifs, sets the word(s) to be printed when a student score is not possible. If [noway], then it is set to "Not possible", if [noscore=oops], then "oops" will be printed, if [noscore=], then nothing will be printed. OnePerPage One student or set of students per page of output. Page breaks will be inserted after each student or set of students. PageNum Print page numbers on the pages. Portrait Prints portrait mode (normal). This is the default mode. 139 Command Description RJust Right justify strings. Names, dates, etc. can be written with a defined length (e.g., you can have the student names written with 25 characters). Right justification will write the names from the rightmost character. Example: ".............Student Name" (the periods are there for illustration purposes, only). TwoPerPage After two forms are printed, this starts a new page. This command works like OnePerPage, except starts a new page after every other student instead of after every student. Zeroscore=# Sets the word(s) to be printed when a student score is unentered and set to zero. If [zeroscore], then it is set to "0", if [zeroscore=zero], then "zero" will be printed, if [zeroscore=], then nothing will be printed. 5. Commands to write or switch data There are quite a number of commands for accessing or switching data. These are listed below in several groups: student data, task data, and class or generic data. For most of the data, you can tell the program how to format the output. For almost all of the commands, you can tell the program how many characters to write the data. This is useful for formatting columns. Example: [Name:25] tells the program to write the student name 25 characters wide. Since the name is less than 25 characters, the rest will be written with blanks. [Name] will write only the name, with no extra blanks. For numeric data, you can tell the program how many numbers should be written after the zero. Example: [TaskScore:10:3] will write the data 10 characters wide, with 3 numbers after the zero: xxxxxx.xxx, where x is any number (notice that one space is taken by the period). If you specify a length that is less than the required spaces, the entire piece of data is written. Example: [TaskScore:0:3] will write the data with as many spaces as needed, but including three numbers after the decimal. 140 Printing and Reports NOTE: Formatting of commands, which are the ":#" seen after the commands listed below, are optional. (a) Class or Generic Data These commands access class data, switch between classes, or access things like the current date. Command Description "":# Anything between the double quotes ("") is printed. The only reason you will probably need to use this command is to specify the width of headers, etc. when formatting tables. It is commonly used when writing forms for proportional printers. AddSect:# Adds # to the list of sections to use. AttTotal:# Prints the total number of class days. Class=# Switches the class to another one. The "#" must either specify a valid filename of a class, or specify nothing. It is specifies nothing, the original class will be used as the current class. Up to 7 classes in addition to the original one can be kept in memory at once (unless you run out of memory). If you have the same students in several classes or subjects, this can let you write one report form that will put all their data onto one printout. ClassName:# Prints the name of the current class. Note: This command does not print the file name, but instead the name you specify for printouts in the "O" option of the Main Menu. Currchart:# Changes the seating chart to use to the #. The number must be 1 or 2. Currsect:# Changes the section to use to the #. It removes any other sections from the list of sections to use. Date:# Prints the current date. 141 Command Description SectComm Prints the section comment for the current section. Section comments are set in the program on the Write Data Menu ("W" on the Main Menu, then "T"). Teacher:# Prints the teacher's name. The name must have been entered in the program on the Write Menu. (b) Student Data These commands access the student data, including grades and attendance. Command Description AtSeat#:# Prints the name of the student at that seat. AttAct:# Prints the number of days the student has had an "activity". AttA2:# Prints the number of days the student has had an "activity 2". AttAllA:# Prints the total number of days the student has been absent. Absent includes excused, excused 2, unexcused, unexcused 2, other, and other 2. AttAllP:# Prints the total number of days the student has been present. Present includes present, present 2, late, late 2, activity, and activity 2. AttChar:# Prints a character that corresponds to the type of attendance the current student had on the current attendance day (AttDay). e.g., if the student was late, it prints: "L". AttExcused:# Prints the number of days the student has had an "excused" absence. AttE2:# Prints the number of days the student has had an "excused 2" absence. AttLate:# Prints the number of days the student has been "late". 142 Printing and Reports Command Description AttL2:# Prints the number of days the student has been "late 2". AttNotPres:# Prints the number of days the student has been absent from the class. AttOther:# Prints the number of days the student has been "other" from the class. Other can be used for any meaning by you. AttO2:# Prints the number of days the student has been "other 2" from the class. Other can be used for any meaning by you. AttPresent:# Prints the number of days the student has been "present". AttP2:# Prints the number of days the student has been "present 2" in the class. AttString:# Prints the name of the attendance type for the current student on the current attendance day. e.g., if the student was late, it prints: "Late". AttUnex:# Prints the total number of "unexcused" absences by the student. AttU2:# Prints the total number of "unexcused 2" absences by the student. Comment Prints automatic comments. The comment is picked from the student score of the current task. For comments to be printed, the automatic comments must have been entered (which is done on the Write Menu). See section 7, below. Comment? Asks for the comment, then prints it. There are several choices. You can pick an automatic comment, you can print blank lines, underlined lines, or you can type in lines on the keyboard. A menu appears that lets you choose which. 143 Command Description Currchart:# Sets the seating chart to #. The value must be 1 or 2. DBVal:# Prints the database data of the current student for the current database item. Firstname:# Prints the first name of the current student. A first name is either the first word in the student name, or everything past the comma. FName:# Prints a flipped name--where the first and last names are reversed. ID:# Prints the ID of the current student. Lastname:# Prints the last name of the current student. A last name everything before a comma, or the last word in the student name. Name:# Prints the full name of the current student. Seat Prints the seat number of the current student. Section:# Prints the section of the current student. TaskPer:#:# Prints the percentage score that the current student scored on the current task. TaskPts:#:# Prints the total attempted points of the student on the current task. If all the task scores have been entered, it will be the same as TaskTotal, below. TaskScore:#:# Prints the score on the current task for the student. Note: the following are analogous to the WhatIf part of the program (Grading Menu). WhatIf"xx" Set the grade xx, where xx is any valid grade. Example: WhatIf"A" sets the current WhatIf grade to an A. 144 Printing and Reports Command Description WhatIf"ptsleft":#:# Points left to achieve the grade set by the WhatIf"xx" command. WhatIf"ptsneeded":#:# Points needed to achieve the grade set by the WhatIf"xx" command. WhatIf"%needed":#:# Percent of the points needed to achieve the grade set by the WhatIf"xx" command. It is equal to 100 * (ptsneeded / ptsleft). WhatIf This prints all the grades and the needed points and percents, just like in the Whatif section of the program. (c) Task, attendance and database data These commands are used to change or specify the tasks, attendance, or database items to use. In general, you want to change or specify the current task with Task or DTask, then print the data with the other commands. Command Description AttDay# Changes the current attendance day to #. AttName:# Prints the name of the current attendance day. AttNumber:# Prints the number of the current attendance day. AttTotal:# Prints the total number of class days. Currsect:# For seating charts, sets the current section to the value. It also removes any other sections from the list of sections to use. DBName:# Prints the name of the current database item. DBNum:# Prints the number of the current database item. 145 Command Description DB"" or DB'' If a name is between the quotes, the first database item that includes that name is made the current database item. To make sure you have the right item, it is usually best to put the entire item name between the quotes. DB# Makes the # the current database item. DTask Defines a task as the current one. No data is printed. The task can be specified many ways: (1) [DTask#x], where x is the number of the task. (2) [DTask@x], where x is the xth task you have defined. (3) [DTask(x)], where (x) is the total number of tasks in the class /x. Example: If there are ten tasks defined, [DTask(2)] is the fifth task. (4) [DTask?]. "?" means that the program will ask you to select the task when it reaches that point. (5) [DTask+]. The "+" can be added to any of the first three definitions, and tells the program to increment the number by one. [DTask+] will increment the current task by one. [DTask(2)+] will, if there are 16 tasks, make the current task the ninth one (16/2 = 8, then add one). (6) [DTask"name"], where name is any word or characters, will select the first task that matches the characters. So [DTask"First"] will select any task with first in the name (e.g., "First Exam" or "The first test"). (7) In some circumstances, like the [Loop] command described below, just a plain [DTask], without any designation of a number, is required. When [Loop] is used, the plain [DTask] is modified to have the required number for the loop. Task:#:# This works like DTask, except that, after the current task has been changed, the score for the current student on that task is printed. TaskName:# Prints the name of the current task. 146 Printing and Reports Command Description TaskNum:# Prints the number of the current task. TaskTotal:#:# Prints the total points of the current task. 6. Repetitive commands These are commands that are used to write lists of students or tasks. There are three commands that repeat through a series of items: repeat, loop, and students. There is also a related command, header, that prints a header at the top of a page. Last, there are items that filter values, so that only ones that meet a condition are printed. Command Description AttRepeat:#:# Repeats the attendance days from the first # to the second #. If the #'s are not included, the first is set to 1, the second one is set to the last attendance day. It can also be used with the [IFAtt] commands to print only certain types of attendance. DFilter This command sets a value to test for a database item. The values needed to be passed can be above (">") a value, below ("<") a value, between two scores ("^"), or equal to a value ("="). A "?" will make the program ask for the value. If equal is chosen, any matches to the value qualify as equal. If between is chosen, the two values are separated by a comma. When testing, lowercase values are converted to uppercase ones. Examples: [DFilter?] makes the program ask for the filter to use. [DFilter<K] passes values below "K". [DFilter=the] passes any database value that has "the" in it. [DFilter^C,T] passes any values from D to S. Header For the following repetitive commands, [Header] will print whatever is on the header line at the beginning of any new page. This command will let you write long lists of students or task scores, each with a header on the top of any new pages. 147 IfAttx These commands are used with AttRepeat. If the current student has that attendance, the line is printed, otherwise, the attendance day is incremented. x can be: A (activity), A2 (activity 2), E (excused), E2 (excused 2), N (not found), L (late), L2 (late 2), O (other), O2 (other 2), P (present), P2 (present 2), U (unexcused), or U2 (unexcused 2). Example: [AttRepeat][IFAttU] [AttName] will print out the dates for all unexcused absences for the current student. Example: [AttRepeat][IFAttL2] [AttName] will print out the dates for all late 2 days for the current student. IfStudentExists Prints what is left on the line only if the student exists. It's use only makes sense when the "Class=" command is used. If the student doesn't exist, a line feed is not done. IfDFilter If the student does not pass the filter value for the current database item, the rest of the current line is skipped. The filter value is set with "DFilter". IfTaskExists Prints what is left on the line only if the current task exists and the current student's score on the task is at least the minimum allowed. If the task doesn't exist, or the score is not entered, a line feed is not done. IfTFilter If the student does not pass the filter value for the current task, the rest of the current line is skipped. The filter value is set with "TFilter". 148 Printing and Reports Command Description Loop Repeat more than one line. Any lines between [Loop] and [Loopend] will be repeated. Note that the lines containing [Loop] and [Loopend] are not printed. Tasks specified with the commands [Task] and [DTask] that are found between the [Loop] and [Loopend] commands are incremented between repetitions. Note: [DTask#1], [Task@1], etc, will not be incremented within Loop, so use plain [DTask] and [Task]. The [Loop] command can be modified by telling the program how to increment the Tasks. [Loop:#:#] is used specify, in order the beginning task to use and how much to increase the task numbers each loop. Example: [Loop:3:2] will print tasks, starting with the third task and increasing the task numbers by 2 each time the loop is repeated. If the "#" numbers are omitted, it is assumed that the loop should start at the first task and increment them by one each time. [Loopend] can also be modified. In [Loopend:#], the "#" is the number of the last task to be printed. Example: [Loop:3:2] [Task] [Loopend:7] will print out the scores for the third, fifth, and seventh tasks. The loop will end when the last task in the class is reached. So, in the above example, if there were only five tasks in the class, only scores for the third and fifth tasks will be printed. Repeat# Write the information on the line, but increment the task numbers on the line by one each time the line is repeated. "#" is a number. If "#" is not present, the line will be repeated once for each task in the class. If "#" is a number, the line will be repeated that number of times. If "#" is a number in parentheses, like "(2)", the line will be repeated by the quantity: the total number of tasks in the class / that number. Examples: If a class has 16 tasks that have been defined, [Repeat] will repeat the line 16 times; [Repeat(2)] will repeat the line 8 149 Command Description Repeat (cont) times; [Repeat5] will repeat the line 5 times. Note that, in each case, any task numbers on that line will be incremented by one each time the line is repeated. If "#" is a question mark, you will be asked, whenthe form is printed, for a list of the tasks to write. The line will be repeated enough times to write out that list. Students Write the information on the line for each student in the class, from the first student to the last one. The purpose of this command is to easily write out a list of students' data. Example: [Students][Name] will write the names of all the students in the class, one per line, starting with the first student and ending with the last student. TFilter This command sets a value to test for a task score. The values needed to be passed can be above (">") a value, below ("<") a value, between two scores ("^"), or equal to a value ("="). A "?" will make the program ask for the value. If between is chosen, the two values are separated by a comma. All values must be numbers. If you want to test letter grades, use the grade values for the testing. Examples: [TFilter?] makes the program ask for the filter to use. [TFilter>90] passes values above "90". [DFilter=100] passes any score that is 100. [DFilter^70,90] passes any values above 70 and below 90. 7. Statistical commands These are commands that calculate and write various statistical values, like averages, means, medians, and standard deviations. The "Avg" commands, below, are used to print averages of student scores listed on the printout. The form RCElem.FRM gives an example of their use. The other statistical measures are seen in Stats.FRM. 150 Printing and Reports Command Description AvgPct:#:# Prints the percentage for the student scores between AvgStart and AvgStop. AvgResume Resumes averaging without restarting. With AvgStop, this command allows you to skip some student scores. AvgShow:#:# Prints the average of all the student scores between AvgStart and AvgStop. AvgStart Starts averaging task scores. AvgStop Stops averaging task scores. AvgSum:#:# Prints the sum of the student scores between AvgStart and AvgStop. Highscore:#:# Prints the high score for the current task. Lowscore:#:# Prints the low score for the current task. Command Description Mean:#:# Prints the mean for the current task. Command Description Median:#:# Prints the median for the current task. StdDev:#:# Prints the standard deviation for the current task. 8. Comments and automatic comments On the Write Data Menu, you can enter "Automatic Comments" (option "T"). These are comments that can be printed for students if they have achieved certain grade cutoffs. You specify the command [Comment] on the form. The program then selects the comment for the appropriate grade. Enter automatic comments by typing in the comment and the minimum score needed for that cutoff. This can be done for up to 9 items. The minimum scores are absolute numbers, not percentages. If you use the command [Comment?], the program will ask you for the comment. You either pick one of the automatic comments, or type in your own comment. You can also print blank or underlined lines and write them on by 151 hand. The report form Progress.FRM shows the use of the [Comment?] command. 9. Proportional printing Proportional printing is supported for some printers. If your printer is supported, and you want to use proportional fonts, some forms may need to be changed. One easy thing you can do is add the command [Print"Courier"] to the beginning of the forms. They will then print in Courier--a non-proportional font. Otherwise, to convert to a proportional font, you need to specify the width of the data and headings. Information that doesn't need to line up needn't be changed. See the included forms for examples, as all of them will print the same on proportional and non- proportional printers. Commands for proportional printing include Print"Courier", Print"PropOff", and Print"Points=x" (where x is a number from 6 to 16). The proportional printers also support landscape (sideways) and portrait (normal) mode, and the commands Landscape and Portrait. 10. Designing a form To design a form, you should first read sections 1 through 9. Second, you should look at and study the report forms that are included with the program. These are detailed below in section D11. Then: i) Write, using a word processor, what you want the form to look like. Just type in what you want. ii) Put square brackets around those parts that are changeable and need to be put in by the program--the data you previously entered into the program. iii) Replace what you have in the square brackets with commands. iv) Put in format commands (widths, decimal places, etc). v) Write the form to disk as a plain text (ASCII) file. vi) Test the form from the program. Make a note of the problems and errors, then repeat steps i through v until it looks how you want. It may take a couple of iterations to make it look how you want. Example If you want to design a form to print the second grade for all students in a class. How do you do it? 152 Printing and Reports i) Use a word processor or text editor to write the following: Class: Test class Date: xx/xx/xx Name Task #2 first name 100.0 second name 90.0 ii) Next, notice that there are five types of data present: the class name, the date, the task name, the student names, and the task scores. iii) Replace the fake data in part i with brackets: Class: [Test class] Date: [xx/xx/xx] Name [Task #2] [first name] [100.0] [second name] [90.0] iv) Now, look up the commands to replace what is inside the brackets. For the student names, you want a repetitive command. For the taskscores, you should also specify the digits and decimal places. Class: [Classname] Date: [date] Name [dtask#2][taskname] [students][name] [taskscore:5:1] v) Next, specify formatting for the student list. To make sure things line up, you can specify a width for "Name", as well. Class: [Classname] Date: [date] ["Name":20][dtask#2][taskname:25] [students][name:20][taskscore:25:1] vi) Last, save the form as plain text and test it in the program. If changes are needed, repeat these steps. 153 Other Program Features XIII. OTHER PROGRAM FEATURES A. File Maintenance VAR Grade has a complete file maintenance section: "F" on the Main Menu. The intention of this section is to allow you to copy, move, delete, recover, etc. any or all of your class files. 1. Alter the current class file name This option ("A") will change the file name of the class that is currently in memory. Both the class files and the backup files, if present, are renamed to the new name. Note that this is different than changing the class name for printouts. The name listed on printouts can be changed in the "O" option of the Main Menu. 2. Write the class to a backup disk This option ("B") will write the current class to a different directory or, preferably, drive. This will allow you to keep a copy of the current class on another drive. It is highly recommended that you keep copies of your class on at least two different drives. In the unlikely case of disk failure, you will have another copy of your class data. It is also advisable to keep a printed copy of your grades. 3. Maintenance of one or more classes The next five options can be used for file maintenance of any and all your classes, not just the current class as in the above two options. For each option, you can specify one or more files, and can use the DOS wildcard characters * and ? to help specify the files. You can also specify files on any drive or directory of your computer. The DOS wildcard character "*" means all files, while the character "?" means any character can be in that position of the filename. DOS extensions, the characters after the period (e.g., .PAR), are ignored. Instead, all class files associated with that name are renamed. 155 Example: If you specify "*", this would mean to do a particular operation on ALL class files. Example: If you specify "ART??", it would mean all classes starting with the letters "ART" and then having up to two more characters, like "ART10" or "ARTS". When you use one of the five options, you can use the cursor keys or mouse to move to the desired class, or use them to change directories or drives, or move the cursor to the line "Files to use:" and type in the file specifications. Whichever field is highlighted when you press <Rtn> will be the field that will determine what action is taken. The options and their actions are listed below. (a) Rename class files ("R") This option can be used to rename one or more files. You are first asked for the file(s) to rename, then are asked for the new name(s). The file that matches the listed filename will be renamed. (b) Update class files ("U") This option will look at all class files in the first directory or drive that you choose, then copy them to a second directory or drive if they are more recent than those in that second one. If you have more than one class in a directory, this will let you update (or backup) all those files at once, rather that one at a time as in "W", above. (c) Copy class files ("C") This option will copy all class files that you specify to new drives or directories. This differs from update in that update only copies classes that are also in the second directory or drive, while copy copies them whether or not they already exist in the specified directory or drive. (d) Move class files ("M") Moving class files will copy the specified classes into the new directory or drive, then delete them from the 156 Other Program Features first. This option is useful for archiving classes after the semester or year is finished. (e) Delete class files ("D") This option will delete all the specified class files. WARNING: This option will remove whatever class files you specify. Be sure you have picked the ones you really want to delete. Note that you are asked if you are sure that you want to delete those classes before the program actually removes them. 4. Write/Not write backup files ("B") Backup files are normally made of your grades. These backups contain the data from the previous time that you saved your data, and are this program's equivalent to the BAK files your word processor probably produces. The backup files have the same name as the class, but have the extensions ".DAX" and ".PAX". NOTE: The appendix gives more information on these files. No matter which type of file the class data is written (read-only, hidden, or normal), the backup files are made normal files. This means that they can be deleted should you not want to clutter up your disk with them. However, if you prefer not to have the program make backup files, you can use this option to prevent backups. It is strongly recommended that you let back-up files be made and that you let the program write the class files as read-only. The combination of these two options will give your data much greater security. 5. Recover backup classes ("V") As mentioned in section 4, backup files are normally made. If you have backup files, and accidentally delete or damage your class, you can use the Recover command to restore your class. Note that the class is restored from the previous time the data was saved. Press "V" on the Alter Files Menu. All backup classes are listed, and you are asked for the class(es) to recover. Enter the name of the class. The old backup files (".DAX" and ".PAX") are renamed to the correct class extensions. 157 6. Change class protection ("P") The class grade files are, by default, written in what is known as "read-only" files. This means that if you are in DOS and ask that the files be deleted, they will not be deleted by DOS. The program does this to prevent accidental deletions of the data, but this can sometimes cause problems with other programs, most notably some backup programs. You can change the way files are written by specifying that they be written normally (they can be deleted by DOS), as read- only files, or that they be "hidden" files (DOS will not even list the files on a "dir" command). Hidden files will still be seen by VAR Grade, but not by anyone casually snooping around your disk. B. Working With Other Programs 1. Multitasking programs Programs like Desqview can be used to switch back and forth between more than one program. VAR Grade can detect these programs and change it's video output to account for it. To turn this option off, go to the "O" option of the Main Menu, then "O". 2. Video Text can be written through BIOS calls or directly to the screen. Most programs write directly to the screen, as it is much faster. If VAR Grade is causing conflicts with other programs, however, it can write to the BIOS. C. Running Other Programs from VAR Grade 1. DOS shell If necessary, you can use the "R" option on the Main Menu to run other programs from VAR Grade. This feature was put into the program to allow you to delete files or format disks without exiting the program. With this option, however, if you have enough memory you can run any program. You should be warned that certain programs may cause problems. The major problems can come from programs that are memory resident or that will 158 Other Program Features (inadvertently) stall ("hang") the computer. Because there is no reasonable way for VAR Grade to prevent you from running these types of programs, it is advised that you save your data before running programs other than those of the DOS operating system (del, format, dir, etc.). When you press "R" on the Main Menu, you are shown a fake DOS command line. You can type in the command you want to run, or leave it blank. Then press <Rtn>. If you run a command, the command will run, then you will return to the program. If you leave a blank line, you will remain in DOS until you type "EXIT" at the DOS command line. To remind you that you are still in VAR Grade, the prompt will be preceded by a message: "To return to VAR Grade, type EXIT." VAR Grade keeps track of the last ten commands you have run. You can move to any of them, edit it, and then press <Rtn> to select the new command. When running other programs from VAR Grade, or when viewing files (below) or editing reports forms, VAR Grade will try to free up as much memory as possible. It will therefore try to move itself into EMS memory or onto a disk (if you have a hard/fixed disk), and will give a message to you as to what it is doing (e.g., "Swapping to disk") when it is doing so. This will free up much more memory for running these other programs. In fact, VAR Grade will use less than 10K of memory when running other programs if it is able to swap itself to either EMS or a hard disk. If you do not want VAR Grade to swap the data in memory to a disk file, you can prevent this. On the Parameters Menu ("O" on the Main Menu), you can tell the program not to use a disk file to save memory. 2. Viewing files while in the program Pressing <AltV> will let you see the disk manual from anywhere in the program. Since <AltH> will also do this, VAR Grade will let you change how <AltV> works. If you go to the "O" option of the Main Menu, then "F", you can specify what program will be run with the <AltV> command. If you want to view the manual from your word processor, you would enter the command to start your word processor, followed by a space and the "@". 159 Example: To use the shareware program List to view the manual when in VAR Grade, type "list @". You don't have to view the manual with <AltV>. In fact, you can run any DOS program with this command. If you add "@", it is replaced with the location of the manual. If you leave it off the line, the manual will not be viewed. Example: To see the files in the current directory when in VAR Grade, type "dir" when in the "F" section. D. International Support There are several features in VAR Grade that make it easier for users outside the United States. Some of these have been mentioned previously, like defining your own grading system. Two more are discussed here. 1. Dates You can redefine the method of writing the date. You can write dates a variety of ways, including American, Japanese, and European style dates. This can be done in the "O" option of the Main Menu. These dates are used for writing data and in defining attendance days. In the same part of the program, you can also change the abbreviations for the months and days of the week. 2. Other output You can now change any output strings. These strings are the ones used for printing data. Some of these strings also affect the screens in the program. For example, changing the names of the month names, described above, changes the names on the calendars. The main purpose is to let non- English speakers translate the output strings into their own language. However, if you dislike the titles or names of some of the output, you can change it! The strings can be changed on the International Menu ("O" on the Main Menu, then "T"--Titles). The types of strings you can change are broken into several categories. Many of the strings affect most or all output (e.g., "Name", "ID", etc), while others are specific to particular parts of the program. Hence, it is hard to put 160 Other Program Features them into categories based upon this report or that graph. Instead, they are put into general categories. After you have changed any of the strings, they are written to a file called GRADE.INT. Every time VAR Grade starts, it searches for the file. If it finds it, it uses those strings in preference to the default ones. You can return to the defaults by deleting or renaming GRADE.INT. If the file GRADE.INT is not found, it searches for a file called GRADE.xxx, where xxx is the international phone code for your country. For example, to phone the US, you would dial 001, then the US area code and phone number. If you are using the program in the US, VAR Grade will search for GRADE.INT, if it doesn't find that, it will search for GRADE.001. If it doesn't find that, it uses the program defaults. In the future, we plan to send out translations for non-English languages as GRADE.xxx files. You can make your own GRADE.xxx file by translating the strings, then renaming GRADE.INT to the appropriate GRADE.xxx file. E. Macros Macros allow you to assign a sequence of keyboard actions to a single key. For example, you could use a macro assigned to the <AltP> key to type out "print". Spreadsheets and word processors frequently have this capability. VAR Grade also has macros. Macros are best for making repetitious tasks simple by assigning one key to do all the work. They are also useful for reassigning keys used by a program. For example, if you would rather the <F1> key be reassigned to the <AltA> key, a macro could be defined to do this. Up to 10 macros can be defined. Each can have up to 50 keys in the definition. 1. Defining a macro You start recording a macro by typing <CtrlR>. Every key you type while you are recording will produce a slight "chirp". This reminds you that you are recording. To stop recording a macro, type <CtrlR> again. You then assign a key to the macro. WARNING: the first key you type will be assigned to the macro, including the regular keyboard characters. Choose carefully. After picking a key, you will be asked for the name of the macro. A name is useful, as you may want to delete the macro at a later time. 161 If the key you selected for assigning the macro is already used by another macro, you will be asked if you want to replace the old macro. If you answer "N" (no), you will be able to type in a new key for the macro. When you exit the program, the macros are written to a file named "GRADE.MAC". 2. Viewing and Deleting a macro To see what macros are defined, go the "O" section on the Main Menu. Then "M". A list of the current macros is shown. You can delete any macro by selecting it. You can also delete all the macros by pressing "C" (clear). 3. Macro Examples 1) Using a macro to add 10 points to a task of a student: Go to the "D" section of the program. Go to a number task. Type <CtrlR>. This starts the recording. Next, type "+10". This will add 10 points to the score. Next, type <DownArrow>. This will move to the next student. Last, type <CtrlR>. This ends the macro recording. Assigning it to a key, e.g., <AltA> (add), and type in a name of the macro: "Add 10 points". You can now type <AltA> to add 10 points to any student score. 2) Printing all the scores on all the tasks for a class from a macro: Go to the Main Menu. Type <CtrlR>. Next, type "W" (write), "S" (section), "T" (tasks), "<F1>" (all the tasks), "P" (print). Then type <CtrlR>. Assign the macro to a key, e.g., <AltP>, and give it a name. You have printed all the tasks in the class to a printer. When you are in the Main Menu, typing <AltP> will print out all the scores. 3) Assigning a commonly typed number to a macro: If you have a lot of student scores that are always the same, like "10", assign a macro. Type <CtrlR>, "10", <CtrlR>. Assign the macro to a key, give it a name, and you have made your work easier. Again, macros are great for things you frequently type over and over. There are two cautions, however. First, some macros will only work from certain places in the program. For example, #2, above, works only from the Main Menu. 162 Other Program Features Second, if you assign a macro to a key that is used by the program, the macro will take precedence. For example, if you assign the <F1> to popup the help screens, pressing <F1> will not select all the tasks (attendance days, etc.). In this case, before you assign the new Help key, you could assign another key to <F1>, like <CtrlA>, that would select all the tasks. F. Extra Memory VAR Grade can run without problems if you have 512K of memory in your computer. In some cases, however, you would like more memory. If you have large classes, extra memory may be required. Students and tasks take up memory, so if you have hundreds of students or tasks, they may not all fit into conventional memory. A second reason for more memory is speed. The overlays can be put into expanded (EMS) memory, which speeds up the program. In addition, the more memory you have, the faster the graphics plots are done. Regular or conventional memory is memory up to 640K. If you have more than 640K of memory installed in your computer, you may be able to use that extra memory as not only EMS memory, but also extended (XMS) memory, or even hard disk memory. Unless you do one of the following, the program will use either XMS or EMS for student data, whichever is more plentiful. Overlays and printing graphs can only use EMS or regular memory. The following commands can control what types of memory the program uses. VMem: specifies how much XMS or EMS memory to use, in K bytes. At the DOS prompt (or in the autoexec.bat), enter: SET VMEM=x; where x is the KB to use. If this command is not used, the default is to use up to 448K XMS or EMS memory. VType: specifies what type of memory to use. You can specify "EMS", "DISK", or "NONE". At the DOS prompt, enter: SET VTYPE=x; where x is one of the three words, above. If this command is not used, the program will prefer to use XMS memory. If there is not enough XMS memory, but there is enough EMS memory, the program will use EMS, instead. If you specify "DISK", the program will slow down a lot! Use it only if that is your last resort. 163 OEMS: specifies whether to use EMS for the overlays. Default is yes. If OEMS is N, the overlays are not put into EMS. At the DOS prompt, enter: SET OEMS=N; this will turn off EMS use by the overlays. Having the overlays in EMS memory speeds up the program, as it reduces disk access. OMem: specifies how much memory to use for the overlays. Setting it to 0 gives you the maximum amount of memory for student data, while specifying 400000 puts as much of the overlays into memory as possible. Examples: 1) To let the program use 10 megabytes of XMS memory, type, at the DOS prompt (or put into a batch file): SET VMEM=10000; 2) To free up as much regular memory as possible, type: SET OMEM=0; 3) To use EMS rather than XMS memory, type: SET VTYPE=EMS; 4) To use a minimum of memory, type: SET OMEM=0; SET OEMS=N; SET VTYPE=NONE; G. Video Displays VAR Grade supports all standard displays. There are some points below that may help you. 1. Monochrome displays Some monochrome display adapters tell programs that they are color boards. This causes the program to write data to the screen that looks funny or unreadable. If you have a monochrome board and the opening screen has a lot of underlined characters, there are two things you can do to improve the display. (a) Start the program with a switch Instead of starting the program with "GRADE", start it with "GRADE/B". The /B is a switch that tells the program 164 Other Program Features that you have a black and white display. This has to be done each time you run the program. An analogous switch, "GRADE/C" will force the program into color mode. (b) Set a DOS environment variable Rather than typing /B all the time, you can set a DOS variable, instead. Before running the program, type "SET VMON=BW;". This tells the program that you have a black and white display. The best thing would be for you to set this variable in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file that DOS reads when booting the computer. Example: You can do this by typing, at the DOS prompt, "COPY CON AUTOEXEC.BAT" then <Rtn>. Then type "SET VMON=BW;", then <CtrlZ>. This will add one line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Alternatively, set up a batch file that starts VAR Grade: Example: Prepare a file called G.BAT the has the following lines: SET VMON=BW; GRADE SET VMON=; This will set the variable, run the program, then remove it from the environment. Some suggested batch files for use with VAR Grade are given later in this chapter. 2. EGA If you have an EGA board, you can display 43 lines on the screen. Go to the "O" option of the Main Menu, then pick "V". You can pick whether to show 25 or more lines. 3. VGA and Super VGA For VGA boards, you can display 50 lines. For most super VGA boards, you can display even more lines. If you have a Video 7, Paradise, Orchid, Tseng Labs, ATI Technologies, Chips and Technologies, Genoa, or Trident super VGA video adapter board, the program will allow you to have more than 80 characters on a line. 165 If the program doesn't correctly recognize your board, you can set a DOS variable to tell the program which board you have. You can have up to 132 characters per line and up to 60 lines per screen, depending on the board. For Video 7 boards, type the following line (or put it in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file): "SET VMON=VIDEO7;". If you have a Video 7 board and black-and-white monitor, add the line: "SET VMON=VIDEO7;BW;". For the Orchid boards, replace "VIDEO7" in the above examples with "ORCHID". For the Paradise boards, replace "VIDEO7" with "PARADISE", and for the Tseng Labs boards, replace it with "TSENG". For Genoa boards, use "GENOA", for ATI Technologies, use "ATI", for Trident boards, use "TRIDENT", and for Chips and Technologies, use "CHIPS". Many video boards from other companies use the chips from one of these manufacturers. For example, EMK boards use the Paradise VGA chips. NOTE: If the screen looks funny after changing the display, your board will not go into the mode you chose. You need to set the display back to one that your board is capable of using by pressing "V" and then "1". Some mouse drivers also cannot support video modes other than 80x25 and 80x50. If the program hangs or aborts right after changing video modes, it is probably a faulty or old mouse driver. 4. Other Graphics Some video adapters are not detectable by VAR Grade. In those cases, you will get funny looking plots. To let you use the correct BGI driver for your adapter, an additional command has been added. Type "SET BGI=x;", where x is the name of the BGI driver, at the DOS prompt before using the program. If you need this command, you will probably want to add it to your Autoexec.bat file so that you don't have to type it in each time you use your computer. Example: A> SET BGI=Herc; This example will tell the program to use the Hercules video driver (Herc.BGI). H. Examples of VAR Grade Batch Files If you are familiar with MS-DOS, the following are examples of how to set up batch files to do what you want with VAR Grade. For all the examples, it is assumed that you are using DOS 3.0 or later, and that the program is in the directory C:\VARGRADE. Classname is a name of any valid VAR Grade class. 166 Other Program Features Preparing Batch files: The easiest way to prepare the following files is to use a word processor that will write the data to disk files in plain text (ASCII) format. To prepare the batch files from MS-DOS, type the following (A> is the DOS prompt, the material between the [], below, tells you what to do): A> COPY CON batchfilename<Rtn> [type in one of the batch files listed below] <CtrlZ> [simultaneously press the <Ctrl> key and "Z"] A> GR.BAT: Batch file to run VAR Grade from any directory. Put it in your directory where DOS is, or in one specified by the PATH command. Start it from DOS by typing "GR Classname". @ECHO OFF @REM CALL WITH "GR Classname" IF %1Z == Z GOTO ERR SET LASTPATH=%PATH% SET PATH=C:\VARGRADE;%PATH% C:\VARGRADE\GRADE %1 SET PATH=%LASTPATH% GOTO END :ERR ECHO ERROR! RUN GR WITH: "GR Classname" :END You may want to add parts of some of the following batch files to GR.BAT to fit your needs. GM.BAT: Batch file if you have a monochrome monitor. Put it in your directory where DOS is, or in one specified by the PATH command. Start it from DOS by typing "GM Classname": SET VMON=BW; C:\VARGRADE\GRADE %1 GMin.BAT: Batch file to reduce the memory used by VAR Grade. Put it in your directory where DOS is, or in one specified by the PATH command. Start it from DOS by typing "GMin Classname": SET OMEM=0; 167 C:\VARGRADE\GRADE %1 GMax.BAT: Batch file to increase the memory used by VAR Grade, thereby reducing the disk accesses, and increasing the speed of parts of the program. Put it in your directory where DOS is, or in one specified by the PATH command. Start it from DOS by typing "GMem Classname": SET OMEM=400000; C:\VARGRADE\GRADE %1 168 Appendix APPENDIX A. Program Parameters--Defaults and Limits The default values are those that are there when the program starts. Parameter Default Maximum Students 0 16000 Sections 1 16000 Tasks (total) 0 2000 Total points for a number task 100 1000000 Total points per sum task - 9999999 Attendance Days 0 240 Database items 0 200 Lines per page 60 30000 Characters per line 80 255 Left margin 0 Lines in header 5 Lines in the footer 5 Page numbers printed Yes Form feeds to separate pages Yes B. Backup Files 1. Preventing Data Loss It is very important to prevent data from being lost. There are several things that the program does to prevent this loss. a) You cannot exit the program without telling it whether you want your data saved. b) You cannot accidentally exit the program (e.g. disk drive door open, printer not turned on), except from a power failure or by rebooting the computer. 169 c) Files are written in read-only format by default. You cannot delete or erase these files in DOS. The default can be changed to "normal" (if you do not fear deleting your class grades), or "hidden". d) When files are written to disk, the program checks to make sure the files were written with the correct size (hence were probably correctly written). e) When files are written to disk, the previous class data is turned into backup files. The file CLASSNAME.PAR is changed to CLASSNAME.PAX. The file CLASSNAME.DAT is changed to CLASSNAME.DAX. These backup files are not read-only, and can be deleted by DOS. Should you want to delete old class files, use the DOS 3.x command Attrib to change the file attribute to "normal", then delete the file. Example, type: A> ATTRIB -R CLASSNAME.* A> DEL CLASSNAME.* You can tell the program to stop making backup files, but we recommend that you do this only if disk space is at a premium. f) If a fatal error occurs during program execution, VAR Grade will try to save any new data put into the program. Success depends upon the nature of the fatal error. A fatal error is one that prevents the program from executing correctly. Although great care has been taken to prevent such errors, they may still occur. Therefore, it is suggested that you immediately save your data to disk when you have entered new data. It is also recommended that you also print the data on your printer to have another copy of it. 2. Recovering Old Data To recover the information in the backup files, you can use the recover command on the Alter Files Menu. Press "F" on the Main Menu, then "V". Chapter XIII, Section A5 describes how this command works. Alternatively, you can do the recovery yourself. First, you must first exit VAR Grade. When in DOS, rename them so that 170 Appendix the file that ends in ".PAX" ends in ".PAR" and the file that ends in ".DAX" ends in ".DAT". Both files must have the same classname. At the MS-DOS prompts (A>), type: A> RENAME ACLASS.PAX ACLASS2.PAR A> RENAME ACLASS.DAX ACLASS2.DAT ACLASS2 will have the data from the PREVIOUS update of the data--NOT the most recent update. C. Beeps or Noises If the computer beeps or makes a noise, there are two possible reasons. First, you could have entered a number too high or low for the task. This warning can either be changed to a louder pitch or turned off in the "O" section of the Main Menu, then "O". Second, the memory may be quite low, so that the information in a screen window could not be saved. When the current window is finished, it probably will not be able to redraw the underlying window correctly. Pressing <AltR> will usually redraw the screen. The program should run correctly when memory is low; however, not all students, tasks, or attendance days may be listed when memory is low. If you get one beep, more will probably occur due to the limited memory. Since memory is low, you should probably exit the program, free up some memory, and then re-run VAR Grade. One way to free up memory is by setting a MS-DOS variable OMEM=0, then reentering the program. Example: At the DOS prompt (A>), type: A> SET OMEM=0; D. Menus The following is a list of the major Menus in VAR Grade. They are arranged in a hierarchy, so an indent is one menu down in the hierarchy. Those marked with asterisks (*) are only in the advanced mode. Those marked with plus signs (+) are dependent upon your class. 171 Add Names Menu Data Menu (continued) Type in names Designate editor* Type in names and IDs Edit reports* Change size of names or Export to new class ID's Export quote and comma Use multiple Sections file* Import flat files* Export flat file* Import flat files Change database list* automatically* Plot Menu Import comma and quote Plot the scores in 2D files* bars* Import one task* Plot the scores in 3D Move section+ bars* Delete section+ List scores on a task* Delete all students Pie charts* Individual Task Form Database plots* Class Task Form Plot trends in 2D bars* Task Type Menu Plot trends in 3D bars* Define tasks* Correlate two tests* Change tasks* Correlate with 3D bars* Add database item* Plot class statistics* Change database item* Plot an individual versus Attendance Menu class statistics* Class Attendance Form Horizontal individual Individual Attendance plot* Form Plot options* Define new attendance Change fonts* dates Assign graphics format* Change attendance values Grading Menu Make a seating chart Scale tasks Make a drag 'n drop chart Descriptive statistics* Print a seating chart Assign statistics* Attendance options Adjust statistics* Save Class Data Delete adjustments* Write Data Menu What if calculations View by section Assign grades View by name Adjust the final grades* Pick tasks, view by name* Change grade names or Print grids values Print attendance grids Assign cutoffs Designate database items* Grading Menu (continued) Write Options Remove cutoffs Write individual reports* Help Write class reports* Teacher & class name and section comments* 172 Appendix File Maintenance Alter class file name Write backup file Rename classes Update classes Copy classes Move classes Delete classes Recover classes Toggle backups File protection Parameters Menu (Options) Sections to list Passwords Sorting and listing Options for the program Date and time Titles (output) Printer Menu Printers (up to 5) User defined line codes Printer Codes or Fonts Text printer codes Page options Text character size Text quality Graphics quality Set the printer port Color Editor for viewing Macros Video display lines Beginner/Advanced mode DOS shell* Quit the class Get another class 173 Glossary GLOSSARY Archive Files that have been compressed so that they take up less space on the disk. They need to be unarchived to be used. ASCII A standard code that translates normal characters and symbols into 7 bit binary computer code. Autoexec.BAT When you start your computer, it looks for this file to get information about the operating environment. Bars Squares used to depict student scores in the plots. They can look two dimensional or three dimensional. Batch One of three types of files that DOS can execute. Batch files are written in ASCII characters, with each line telling DOS what to do. Cell A highlighted area of the screen that holds one piece of data. Comma & Quote Files Files that have strings of characters between double quotes (""), and commas separating pieces of data. Numbers are separated only by commas. Cursor Keys Keys that move the position of the cursor on the screen. They include the arrow keys, the home, end, page up, and page down keys. Database Data kept by a program in a structured way. The data can then be sorted, abstracted, graphed, or otherwise manipulated. Default The value when the program starts. Directory Group of files on a disk. Files on hard disks are usually grouped together in directories to make it easier to find the file you need. Drives are also directories. Display Adapter A card in the computer that controls the monitor. It can be a Hercules card, CGA, EGA, or VGA card, as well as other cards. Edit Keys When edit keys are used, the left and right arrow cursor keys move within a cell instead of between cells, and the home and end keys move to the beginning and end of the cell. To "use" edit keys means that you can use the 175 left and right arrow, home, and end keys to move around a cell. To move between cells when "using" edit keys, you need to use <Ctrl>-arrow keys. EMS memory Expanded memory. Memory above 640K. If you have 1 megabyte or more memory and a program that can map this memory, like EMM.SYS or EMM386.SYS, programs like VAR Grade can make use of the memory. Fixed Disk A disk that cannot be removed from the computer. Flat Files Files that have data in columns, separated by spaces. Floppy Disk A disk that can be removed from a drive. Hard Disk A disk that cannot be removed from the computer. Install Put the files needed by a program onto new disks such that the new disks have the program files in the places needed by that program. Macros Macros allow you to assign a sequence of keyboard actions to a single key. They generally are used for repetitive tasks. Main Menu The menu that lists the major sections of the program. Menu-driven Uses menus to let you reach all parts and features of the program. Monochrome Black and white. Overlay The part of the program that is in memory only when needed. It is read in from a disk when it is needed. Path A list of directories that tells MS-DOS where executable programs are. The path is set by typing "SET PATH=directory1;directory2;" at the DOS prompt, where directory1 and directory2, etc., are names of directories. Ports Printers are connected to either serial or parallel cards in your computer. Each card has a different designation for its address. These addresses are the ports. Printer Codes Codes sent to the printer to control how it prints data. RAM Random access memory. This is memory the computer uses to run programs. Most computers have 640 kb or more of RAM, and VAR Grade needs 512 kb of RAM to run. Memory on floppy or hard disks is not RAM. Regular tasks Those tasks that you can put in new data. They are the number, letter, and extra credit tasks. 176 Glossary Special keys Special keys are those that do not print normal (ASCII) keys. The function keys (<F1> through <F10>), the <Alt>, <Ctrl>, <Ins>, <Del>, and the cursor keys. Special tasks Those tasks that are calculated by the program. You cannot put in new scores into these tasks. Task A graded assignment for the class. Toggle Turn on and off. Text Printer A printer that prints non-graphics characters. All printers are text printers. Wildcard The characters * and ? are used by MS-DOS to match more than one character, as a wild card, when playing cards, can match any other card. XMS memory Extended memory. Memory above 640K. If you have 1 megabyte or more memory and a program that can map this memory, like EMM.SYS or EMM386.SYS, programs like VAR Grade can make use of the memory. 177