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WHATSNEW.V23
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1992-08-15
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WHATSNEW.V23 Page 1
MAKING THE GRADE
Version 2.3
WHAT'S NEW?
~~~~~~~~~~~
August 1992
(As usual, this new version can be installed over the old version
without risk to pre-existing data files. Just type INSTALL at the
DOS prompt.)
PRINTER PORTS
Version 2.3 can print to printers at LPT1:, LPT2:, LPT3:, and LPT4:.
You are asked which port to print to at the Choose A Printer screen.
On a stand-alone computer,the printer is normally connected to LPT1:
so select this port if in doubt; if present, a second printer is at
LPT2:. If the computer is a terminal connected to a network, a
printer connected to the file server can be accessed as LPT1: or
LPT2:(a previous problem accessing network printers has been fixed).
PRINTING TO A FILE
Edit screens, graphs, Notes data, and reports can now be printed to
a file, giving you another useful way to manipulate data. Let's deal
with these one at a time:
- Printing A Report To A File
At the Report Menu screen, you can print a report on the printer as
usual, or re-direct the output to a file. To do this, press Alt-F
or press Esc and select this function from the menu that pops up. At
the prompt, enter a file name for the report to be printed to. This
name can be anything you like so long as it conforms to DOS naming
conventions, and may include a full or partial pathname. Here are
some examples:
C:\MTG\GRADES.SAV STUFF.TXT B:CHE-3A1!.ATT PROGRESS.RPT
There is some rudimentary error-checking at this point, but if the
filename syntax is incorrect you'll simply get an error message when
it comes time to print. When a report is printed to a file, it sends
the text of the report as well as all the printer codes; as far as
DOS is concerned, it sends the same information to the file as it
would to a printer. This allows for some interesting manipulation.
For example, at some later time you could use the DOS `COPY' command
to copy the file to a printer; using the filename STUFF.TXT from
above, you'd type at the DOS prompt:
COPY STUFF.TXT PRN (or perhaps COPY STUFF.TXT LPT1)
(To view the file on screen from DOS, type: TYPE STUFF.TXT | MORE)
Because the file contains the printer codes necessary for correct
formatting, it will print just as though you'd printed it directly
from Making The Grade. Naturally, it should be the same kind of
printer or the printer codes will be wrong.
Page 2 WHATSNEW.V23
Another example: suppose you want to have a blank Attendance report
with dates printed along the top row, and maybe the month printed on
the blank line. MTG normally leaves these blank, but now you can
change that default. Using Alt-F, re-direct output to a file. Then
exit MTG, and using a text editor (the EDIT utility that comes with
DOS is fine, or the one in PC Tools or Norton Utilities), load the
file and make the changes. Be careful when you do this to maintain
the correct spacing (use `overstrike' instead of `insert' mode), and
not to erase or change any of the printer codes (though even these
can be altered if you know what you're doing). Finally, save the
file, exit the editor, and copy the file to a printer.
Last example: a gradebook report prints an asterisk to represent a
missing score, and you'd like to use other symbols, maybe an 'I' for
'Incomplete' or an 'L' for 'Late'. Using the same general procedure
as above,you can customize this and any other report to your liking.
One point to remember is that if you specify the same filename each
time you print to file, the next re-directed output is appended to
whatever was printed before, so if you want each re-directed output
in a separate file, a new filename must be supplied every time. On
the other hand, if you'd like all reports in the same file for ex-
ample, MTG will do this by default; just use the same file name each
time. To get MTG to print to a printer again, enter LPT1: or what-
ever parallel port the printer is attached to.
- Printing An Edit Screen To File
On either type of Edit screen (Test or Student), pressing Alt-F en-
ables an Edit screen to be saved to a file. In this case there are
no printer codes, only what you see on screen. This file can then be
loaded into an editor or word processor and become part of another
document. As with Report, successive screen saves can be appended to
the same file by entering the same filename each time, or can be
saved to different files.
Alt-F works in a couple of additional cases at the Edit screens:
When you have just used Alt-A (to arrange by `number of missing
assignments' for example), the sorted data is temporarily displayed
in highlighted white on black. Before pressing Esc to clear this
display,pressing Alt-F allows you to save this screen to a file. The
same applies to the `Class Stats' display -- while the popup box is
displayed, Alt-F will save the screen.
When printing a screen, you are also asked if you wish to retain all
of the `high-ASCII' box and line characters (the line border around
the screen for example). WordPerfect can print these characters but
other word processors may not be able to without moving a DIP switch
on the printer. If you'd prefer that more printable characters be
substituted, press Tab so the prompt line reads:
(Press TAB to toggle high-ASCII box characters, now LOW ).
The default is HIGH. TIP: This is a handy way to print an Edit
screen without the high-ASCII box characters;press Alt-F and specify
LPT1: as the file name and select LOW ASCII, and DOS will send the
file to the printer.
WHATSNEW.V23 Page 3
- Printing A Graph To A File
The same technique applies to graphs as to Edit screens. You can for
example: graph a test; save the graph to a file;try a different mean
and standard deviation; save the adjusted graph to the same file;
look at the adjusted data screen; save this screen to the same file;
finally, press Alt-C on a graph and save the Class Stats box super-
imposed on the graph to the same file.
- Printing Notes Data To A File
Now this one may seem redundant; after all there is already an Alt-P
to print Notes data and Alt-S to save it to a file. But using Alt-F
is a little different and works the same way as in Report. Printing
Notes to a file retains all of the printer codes, and can therefore
be printed from DOS by just COPYing the file to the printer, retain-
ing all formatting. This method also permits (for example) an indi-
vidual grade report to be merged with Notes data on that student,the
student's Edit screen, or a student graph.
STARTING A NEW CLASS
When starting a new class, if you wish to use the same filename as a
data file already on disk,you must now first delete the old class at
the Main Menu (previously, you could delete the old class from the
Administrative Details screen). This extra precaution is necessary
in the event you have encrypted Notes data files associated with an
old class; if the class were to be simply deleted, the encrypted
Notes data would not be exported to ordinary text files, and you
would lose access to that data (see WHATSNEW.V21 or the manual for
an explanation of 'exporting' Notes data).
CLASS STATS
For those who like statistics, the Class Stats display (Alt-C) now
calculates the average of all correlation coefficients (i.e. the
average of all those calculated when you graph tests). This stat-
istic therefore gives you an idea of how consistently the class
scores as a whole, +0.7 or greater considered a strong correlation,
+0.3 or less a weak one. A weak correlation indicates that, for some
reason, the class has performed inconsistently; students' overall
averages are a poor predictor of their scores on the next test. As
usual, a statistic of this nature means little without delving into
the why's and the wherefore's, but it may provide some additional
insight. Correlation coefficients are explained in more detail in
the manual, pages 55-59. NOTE: this calculation may take a couple of
seconds on a slow computer -- a lot of numbers are being crunched.
WINDOWS ICONS
If you like to run your DOS programs under Windows, there are a
couple of MTG icons included on the program disk,two for MTG and two
for MTG Plus (called MTG1.ICO, MTG2.ICO, MTGP1.ICO, and MTGP2.ICO).
Please consult your Windows manual for instructions on installing
icons.
-------------------
Page 4 WHATSNEW.V22
MAKING THE GRADE
Version 2.2
WHAT WAS NEW?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 1992
GRADEBOOK REPORT
There are now two gradebook reports, Gradebook report #1 and #2.
#1 is the original, which prints raw scores and percentages up to 9
across a page. #2 prints up to 14 tests across a page, leaving out
the Raw Score column; all other information is included. This vari-
ation of the gradebook report is more compact, uses less paper, and
is a little easier to read. If you don't need a hard copy of raw
scores on hand, this may be your preferred gradebook report.
INDIVIDUAL GRADE REPORT
In many cases there aren't enough recorded test scores to fill
a page, but until now this option churned out one report per page,
whether or not each page was mostly blank. MTG now looks to see
how many sets of test scores are to be printed. If that number is
less than 21, at least two reports will fit on a single page, and
you are asked if you'd like to print multiple reports per page. If
you answer 'yes', as many are printed per page as will fit. To make
the best use of available space,the header is reduced to three lines
and each report is separated from the next by just a line of '='
signs. Then you can post these on a bulletin board, cut them out
in strips to give each student, or whatever.
You are also asked if you want to include test averages and the
class average on each report. If you consider this information pri-
vate, or simply want to de-emphasize comparisons between individual
students and the rest of the class, this data can be suppressed.
Finally, if test weights aren't being used, this report will now
print points (raw score) out of maximum score for each test, and
at the bottom, total points out of total possible points, discount-
ing tests for which there are no scores.
MISSING ASSIGNMENTS
This report now asks if you'd like the test descriptions to be
printed on the same page as the other data, beside each test name.
This format is convenient when you wish to cut the report into sev-
eral strips, one for each student. If this option is chosen, the
report prints all the data in condensed pitch, and suppresses the
last page of the report, which normally lists all test descriptions
separately.
WHATSNEW.V22 Page 5
NETWORK VERSION
When a school or school board purchases a site license,the pack-
age now includes the usual individual user version in which each
teacher can enter his/her name, and a separate network version with
a few design changes that enable MTG to run from a file server a bit
more effectively. Briefly, only one copy of the executable needs to
be installed on the file server,and provision has been made for each
user to have his own directory and setup file, rather than having to
install a separate executable for every user, which is very wasteful
of drive space. Complete details are included in the site license
package.
STARTING A NEW FILE
When a new file is started, the edit screens are mostly empty,
and if it's only your first or second time through the procedure, it
may not be clear where test names, student names, and dates go. I've
added some extra column headings to smooth the way here, and once an
entry has been made under each heading,the headings are removed next
time the file is loaded, to avoid screen clutter.
GRAPHS
Both test and student graphs are now a little deeper. The test
frequency distribution graph can display frequencies as high as 18;
the student cumulative average graph can display as many as 9 tests.
PASSWORDS
You are now required to press Enter after typing in a password.
This effectively prevents anyone from knowing how long your pass-
word is, making the password a little more secure. NOTE: please do
not rename the file MTG.EXE to something else (MTG22.EXE for ex-
ample). The password is stored inside this file and if the file has
been renamed, MTG cannot figure out where the password should go.
MTG also tries to find itself when it first runs, to make sure you
are running it from within its own directory;again if MTG.EXE is re-
named, this test will fail.
DISPLAY ADAPTERS
MTG will now run on MDA (mono) and Hercules video adapters, and
will automatically switch to readable colors (black, white, and
bright white) when you run the program. Some computers that are equ-
ipped with EGA's and VGA's are connected to monochrome monitors,
and the range of 16 colors that CGA can display show up only as
shades of grey on such monitors. I've added a command line switch
that can be used to force MTG to simulate a monochrome display; col-
ors are limited to white, bright white, and black, and may provide
better contrast on such monitors. There may also be an improvement
with the liquid crystal displays commonly found on laptops. To force
MTG to use the white, bright white, black combination, at the DOS
prompt type MTG /m, or MTG /b.
Page 6 WHATSNEW.V22
OTHER COMMAND LINE SWITCHES
Some older CGA video adapters display 'snow' or interference if
the screen is updated too quickly. If you have such a problem, try
starting the program by typing MTG /s; this forces MTG to use a
slower method of printing to the screen and will eliminate this in-
terference. EGA's, VGA's, and newer CGA's do not have this problem.
MTG makes minimal use of the mouse. As with other spreadsheet-
like programs, much of a session is spent entering data, a task for
which mice are poorly suited. To force MTG to start up without a
mouse cursor on screen (if a mouse is attached to your system), type
MTG /n ('n' for 'no mouse'). These command line switches can also
be used in combination, e.g. MTG /m /n. To simplify startup, this
line could be placed in a batch file named MTG.BAT; then you just
type MTG at the prompt as usual, and the switches are activated
with no extra typing.
TREND PERIOD
The trend period can now be set to a maximum of 39 tests instead
of the previous 9. Hypothetically then, if 40 tests have been com-
pleted, you could compare the class and individual student averages
after test 40 with those after test 1. As you may recall, the
trend is shown on a student graph, in the 'Class Stats' box, and
when the class is arranged (sorted) by trend. Press Alt-P to change
the trend period from its default of 3.
BUG FIX
A bug was fixed whereby the delete key occasionally misbehaved in
the Notes editor, crashing the program.
NOTES ON WEIGHTING BY CATEGORY
Several teachers have asked if MTG can weight by category
(Homework, Quizzes, etc.) rather than having to assign each test its
own weight. In the programs I have seen that employ weighting by
categories, I noticed that within a category, it is impossible to
assign different weights, so if for example, there are five quizzes
within the Quiz category, and that category is assigned a weight of
15%, then each quiz gets a weight of 3%, regardless of its actual
standing or significance in relation to other quizzes in the
category. As well (at least in the programs I looked at),the number
and names of categories are fixed, often with names like HW, TE, QU,
etc. If I were to implement categories, I would still feel compelled
to allow variable weighting within the category, which is little
different from what MTG currently offers.
Finally, there is another, more subtle problem with weighting
by category. When you set the weight for an entire category, the
marks you enter into that category, no matter how many or how few,
will always carry the full weight you have set for an entire year.
For example, you assign a weight of 20% to labs and a weight of 20%
to quizzes. At any given time during a semester, the class may have
done only one lab and four quizzes for example, but because you have
already assigned them their total category weights for the year,they
contribute equally to a student's average at that given moment. The
WHATSNEW.V22 Page 7
other two methods -- individual weighting and total marks -- do not
have this weakness.
However, there is a way to organize weights by category, and I
will give an example here. First, it is assumed that you know ahead
of time how each category will be weighted as a whole; 10% for
homework, 25% for tests, etc. So when you enter the first item in
a category, say Test.1, give this item the _entire weight_ for that
category. When you enter scores for the next item in that category,
you'll divide the first weight in half and assign half to the new
item (so each is 12.5%), and so on. What about when you've got say
5 tests and a total weight of 17% must be split evenly among them?
Here's what you can do in such a case: first, change all the weights
for the 5 tests to 1%. Then press Alt-W, for Group Weight
Adjustment. Answer 'No' to the question 'Adjust all weights?'. Then
use the spacebar to mark each of the 5 tests. Press Enter when done
and enter a weight of 17% for that group. The 17% will be split
evenly (within 0.1%) among the 5 tests.
This may seem more tedious at first, but there are advantages.
The tests don't have to be weighted evenly; before using Group
Weight Adjustment, you could assign weights of 0.5%, 1%, 1%, 1%,
and 1.5% for example. Then specify a group weight of 17% and MTG
calculates the new weights _based on this ratio_. Also, there is
no limit to the number of possible categories, or any naming re-
striction other than a maximum of 6 characters, though obviously
you need some kind of naming convention, similar to that used in
the sample file CHE-3A1!. Finally, it's a simple matter to change
any individual weight or the group weight at any time during a sem-
ester. If you haven't used Group Weight Adjustment before, you
might want to experiment with the sample file first to see how it
works and read the relevant section in the manual.
____________________
