Shareware Overload

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

/ Shareware Overload / ShartewareOverload.cdr / educ / teacher2.zip / GBDOC.EXE / GB.DOC

Wrap

Text File | 1990-02-08 | 134KB | 2,621 lines

THE TeacherWorks MASTER TEACHER GRADEBOOK This program was written in consultation with several teachers, the primary emphasis being to meet the needs of full time teachers at any classroom level. The flexibility and power that this program allows is unequaled in any other gradebook program. There is no single standard gradebook that all teachers use. Most gradebook programs force users to conform to the grading method understood by the programmer. Because a wide variety of teachers were consulted in the process of preparing this program, the user should be able to use their favorite type of grading system. Features of this program include: 1. Grade by total points or grade averages 2. Use either letter or numeric grades 3. A maximum of 240 grades per semester per student 4. Weight grades within six categories 5. Use Extra Credit 6. Adjust grades that the computer has calculated (for that student who really worked but just barely missed.) 7. Edit one grade for the whole class on a single screen, adding grades in any order (you select the name of the student rather than having the computer throw names on the screen one at a time). 8. See the complete record of one student on one screen and change any part of that record. 9. Program design that needs very few keystrokes for completing any task. 10. Formatted print outs that meet the requirements of most districts (No more double book keeping). Some of the printouts actually fit on your gradebook pages. 11. Eight classes per disk with the ability to swap disks. 12. Up to 60 students per class. 13. The ability to transfer students between classes. 14. A grading period system that allows for quarterly, trimester or year round grading. 15. Grades calculated by what the student has been assigned. New check-ins are not penalized for the grades they missed unless you choose to do so. 14. Scan information by class, student or grade. Grade averages for the whole class are also shown. 15. Students are assigned ID numbers automatically as they are entered. You may change those numbers later. Grade print outs may be done by ID number to preserve the anonymity of the student. 16. Classes may be added or deleted at any time. 17. Students may be added or deleted at any time. 18. Student entry dates are recorded and may be edited. 19. Students may be alphabetized at your option. 20. A multi-class makeup utility allows you to access any student from any class. 21. dBASE III compatible files allow easy access by many commercial programs The above are only the predominant advantages of this program. As you become more familiar with it, I believe that you will find its power and flexibility unequaled anywhere. I. INTRODUCTION TO TEACHERWORKS TeacherWorks is a series of programs written to be used in the classroom by all levels of educators. The Gradebook program is User Supported Software and I encourage you to share it with your colleagues. Please register your ownership if you find this program useful to you. In return for your registration, you will receive full documentation for the gradebook and you will be informed of program upgrades and enhancements. The GradeBook is a complete program and I believe you will find it to be the most flexible and powerful electronic gradebook available. There are however, many modules available that will add to the power of this program. To get those modules, you will need to order the whole TeacherWorks program. Registration is as follows: Register Gradebook Only ................... $25.00 Register Gradebook and order the complete TeacherWorks program including: Charting Grades with Graphics A Progress Report Making Facility Test Maker ........................... $40.00 If you find the gradebook program to be all that I have claimed it to be, I know that you will be genuinely pleased with the remainder of the TeacherWorks program. The graphics program will use your student information to provide pie, bar and line charts of your classes. The progress report program will allow you to send out class or individual progress reports, using information from your gradebook. Comments are structured around student information relating to grade and category averages. The lesson planner allows you to set up daily or unit lesson plans in a structured environment. The test maker allows you to write up to 100 multiple choice and/or true-false question which are scrambled within their own areas each time they are printed. There is also an essay section and of course an answer key for each set of questions. In the works is a classroom organizer and an American History Database which will be useful for those teachers who would rather hold a patriotic observance rather that a flag salute each morning. Your School or District may Site License TeacherWorks. Under this program, your licensing unit will be sent all software and documentation and may then duplicate copies for all employees within that unit. Site license fees are: TeacherWorks School Site License..... $150.00 TeacherWorks District Site License... $500.00 II. Please register your ownership by sending the form below with a check to: R & G Software Ronald N. Grout 599 E. Wright Hemet, CA 92343 ---------------------------------------------------------------- TeacherWorks Registration Registrant's Name ______________________________________________ School or District _____________________________________________ Street Address _________________________________________________ City ___________________________ State _____ ZIP _______________ Phone Number _________________________ Please Check One: ___ Register The TeacherWorks Gradebook ($25.00) ___ Purchase Whole TeacherWorks Program ($40.00) ___ School Site License($150) ___ District Site License($500) Please Check One: ___ Please send on 5.25" (360K) disks. ___ Please send on 3.5" (720K) disks. III. INCLUDED FILES GB.EXE ................. The Gradebook Program GB1.OVL GB2.OVL GB3.OVL GRADEBOOK OVERLAYS GB4.OVL GB5.OVL GB6.OVL MASTER.DBF ............. Class File Master GRADE.DBF .............. Setup File MENU.DBF ............... Holds Listing of Classes/Class Info STATUS.DBF ............. Keeps Default Disk Info NAMES.DBF .............. Needed for Makeup Utility GB.DOC ................. This Document CONFIG.SYS ............. Parameters Required for Computer Initialization LICENSE The TeacherWorks Gradebook - Copyright 1988 by Ronald N. Grout R & G SOFTWARE This gradebook may be copied and shared with others as long as no fee is charged for distribution. Only this gradebook is covered by this license. The complete TeacherWorks program is not to be considered Shareware and is not covered by this license. It may be copied only within the exceptions specifically stated within its own license. Copyright 1988 by Ronald N. Grout. All Rights Reserved. TRADEMARKS R & G SOFTWARE is a trademark of R & G SOFTWARE. TeacherWorks is a trademark of R & G SOFTWARE. dBASE III is a trademark of Ashton Tate. Epson is a trademark of Seiko Epson Corporation. C. Itoh is a trademark of C. Itoh & Co., LTD. Diablo is a trademark of the Xerox Corporation. IV. MODIFYING YOUR BOOT DISK Your boot disk disk will require the following information in the CONFIG.SYS file to allow the TeacherWorks programs to function properly: FILES=20 BUFFERS=22 ON A HARD DISK Go to your ROOT directory and check to see if your boot disk has a CONFIG.SYS program on it by typing: C: <ENTER> CD\ <ENTER> TYPE CONFIG.SYS <ENTER> ON A FLOPPY SYSTEM Put your BOOT disk in drive A: and type: A: TYPE CONFIG.SYS CHECKING THE CONFIG.SYS FILE If the CONFIG.SYS file already exists, you will see its contents on the screen. Check to see if files and buffers numbers are equal to or greater than the required numbers above. If they are, you are ready to begin installation. If not, you will need to add the files and buffers commands to your CONFIG.SYS file. Use your favorite ASCII editor and place in the numbers shown: FILES=20 BUFFERS=22 Alternatively, you may copy the CONFIG.SYS file on your GradeBook 1 disk to the bottom of your boot disk CONFIG.SYS file. Place GradeBook 1 in drive A. If you boot from a Hard disk type C: CD\ COPY CONFIG.SYS + A:CONFIG.SYS CONFIG.SYS If you have a floppy system, put your boot disk in drive B: and type: B: COPY CONFIG.SYS + A:CONFIG.SYS CONFIG.SYS V. If there is no CONFIG.SYS file, the screen will say "File not found". If this is the case, you may copy the CONFIG.SYS file on your GradeBook 1 disk. If you have a Hard disk system, place your GradeBook 1 disk in drive A: and type: C: CD \ COPY A:CONFIG.SYS If you have a floppy system, put your GradeBook 1 in drive A: and and your BOOT disk in drive B: and type: B: COPY A:CONFIG.SYS * * * * IMPORTANT * * * * BEFORE USING YOUR GRADEBOOK, YOU MUST REBOOT WITH THE NEW CONFIG.SYS FILE. VI. TABLE OF CONTENTS TOPIC PAGE -------------------------------------------------------- TUTORIAL ......................................... 1 USERS MANUAL ..................................... 14 Starting the Program The Input Line Set Up ...................................... 15 Name, School, Department Total Points or Grade Point Averaging Program Storage Category Information Setting Up Grading Scales Selecting Your Printer Changing Your Setup Data .................... 19 Program Directory Screen .................... 20 Creating a Class File ....................... 20 Selecting an Existing Class for Use ......... 20 Directory Help .............................. 20 Deleting a Class File ....................... 21 Duplicating a File .......................... 21 The Quit Selection .......................... 21 Changing The Data Disks ..................... 22 TeacherWorks Program Menus .................. 22 Adding a Student to the Class ............... 23 Deleting a Student .......................... 24 Alphabetizing Student Names ................. 24 Edit a Student Record ....................... 25 Adding a Grade to the Whole Class ........... 26 Adjusting Student Grades .................... 28 Looking at Class Information ................ 28 Grade Period Summary Scan Student Summaries Scan One Category/Assignment Printing Out Class Information .............. 31 Printing out the Grade Period Summary Print out Student Summaries Print out 1 Category/Assignment Print out Class Roll Sheet Defining Assignments ........................ 33 Moving a Student to Another Class ........... 34 Changing the Active Class ................... 34 MakeUp Utility .............................. 35 Using The MakeUp Utility Option 1 - Selecting a Grade Period Option 2 - Indexing the Classes Option 3 - Editing Records Option 4 - Printing an Alpha List Changing to a New Semester .................. 38 Using ID Numbers ............................ 39 Preparing Progress Reports .................. 40 GRADE BOOK TUTORIAL The way that you run this program will depend on your hardware setup. If you have a hard drive, go to your grades subdirectory and make sure that GB.EXE and all the required .DBF files are there. If you have a 360K floppy system, start with your MASTER DISK in drive A while keeping your CONTROL DISK ready for inser- tion. If your computer has 3.5 inch drives or 1.2 megabyte drives, your master disk will contain GB.EXE and the required .DBF files. At the DOS prompt, type GB. If you are working with 360K flop- pies, you will be told to put your CONTROL DISK into drive A: once the program has completed loading. The program will read the system clock and ask if that is the proper date. If it is, just hit <ENTER>. If not, make the necessary corrections. The DATA drive will next be selected. At this point, make sure that you have a formatted disk in your DATA drive. This is the drive which will hold the Class Files. If you are using a floppy with 700K or more, this may be the same as the MASTER drive but I strongly recommend that data not be stored on the MASTER drive. If the offered choice is correct, hit <ENTER> and verify. If not, correct it. The next time you boot up, the new default will be your opening choice. If you are working with a hard drive, you are allowed to use paths for storing your data. For this tutorial it is best to store your data on a floppy. You can later use the hard drive for your final setup. The program will now prepare your data disk. SET UP Now you will need to tell the Grade Book Program some information which is necessary for it to do its job properly. The first screen asks for your name, school and department. Fill this in and then stop when you are asked if you want to use total points or a grade point average. Some things to think about. 1. If you use point totals, assignments will not be weight- ed. You simply assign more points to more important grades. (eg. Class work = 10 points, daily work = 15 points, tests = 50 points, projects = 100 points, etc.). Maximum for any given category grade is 999 points (3 digits). 2. If you use grade point averages, letter grades or num- bers may be used and each grade can be weighted accord ing to the importance of the assignment. If you find this confusing, skip down to the section on setting up grading scales and read it carefully. It should answer any questions. A rule of thumb regarding which to use might be if you simply count up how many points your students get each grad- ing period to determine their grades, choose the point total option. All others should choose the point averaging option. Page 2 Choose now whether you want to use point totals or grade point averages. The next screen deals with your hardware set up. Start by typing the letter of the drive which will hold the Grade Book Master Disk. Sub directories are not necessary. Next you need to say if your DATA Drive is a 360K disk. If it is, you can only store about 200 students on it. The larger 700K and 1.2 Meg drives should not fill up if class data is all that is on it. Setting Up Your Grade Categories Your grade categories are the various types of assignments and tests that you might use. You are allowed to choose what you wish to call them with the limitation that they may only have ten letters. Some examples of category names might be: Assignment, Asn/Lev 1, Asn/Lev 2, Assignmnts, Assign 1, Tests, Quizzes, Projects, Home Work, Class Work, Daily Work, ETC. Notice that Extra Credit is already a choice. This is because it is handled differently. Extra Credit is added to a student's total grade, but not to his required total. More on that later. A couple of notes regarding the names of categories: 1. This version of TeacherWorks has a separate grade for Final Tests. It is not necessary to use a separate category for this. 2. Try to give names to all five categories even if you do not plan to use them. 3. Extra Credit has its own category. You may however give extra points to any assignment. When you select your grading scales, you are selecting the numbers that the computer will use in its calculations. Anything above that will be counted as Extra Credit. Categories and Total Points If you have selected Total Points for the way that you wish to keep your grades, you will need to type in your category names and say how many points are possible for that particular type of assignment. The maximum number of points avaliable for any grade in any catagory is 999 (3 digits). Read the instructions on the screen and then fill in your categories and point totals. You must remember the number values that you select for each catego- ry. Page 3 Categories and Grade Averaging If you choose to average your grades, you will use the same grading scale for each assignment. More important grades will be "WEIGHTED" so that they are worth more. As an example, assign- ments might be worth a weight of 1, activities worth 2, projects worth 5, tests worth 7 and Extra Credit worth 1. Read the in- structions on the screen and then fill in your categories and category weights. Setting Up Grading Scales Grading scales will also be determined by whether you are total- ing or averaging your grades. When setting up a scale for the point totals, all grades that the student is required to complete will be added up and then compared to the maximum number of points he/she can receive. This comparison gives a percentage on a scale of 1 to 100 (Extra Credit can bring that number up to above 100) percent of the possible points scored. Averaging grades works a little different. Each time you add a grade, the program multiplies that grade by its weight, then adds that total to the total points. It then adds the value of the weight to a running total of value points. Finally itdivides the total points by the value points to give a GPA. This may sound confusing, but it works. One note. You are given grades A+ through F-. I realize that most teachers do not give out F+, F, and F- grades. Some teach- ers do however, so I have added that option to this program. You can be creative in the way that you use it. Please make sure that the F and F- grades are lower than the F+ grade. Grading Scale for Total Points Total Points are the easiest to set up a grading scale for since only numbers are used. The scale below reflects what percentage of the total points possible the student gets. On the screen you see the letter grades beside highlighted spaces with "0.0" on the right side. Using a 100 percent hierarchy, type in your class scale. Decimal points may be used if you wish. For this tutori- al fill in the following: A+ = 98 C+ = 78 F+ = 55 A = 92 C = 72 F = 50 A- = 90 C- = 70 F- = 45 B+ = 88 D+ = 68 B = 82 D = 62 B- = 80 D- = 60 Page 4 Grading Scale for Grade Point Averaging Since both number and letter grades may be used when averaging, you will need to fill out two grading scales, one for the number that represents the value of each letter grade when it is en- tered, and one to represent the average which will be the low end of each grade. As an example, the easiest scale to use when averaging is a 15 point scale. In this scale, A+=15, A=14, A- =13, etc. That would be the value of each letter grade. The average for each grade would be A+=14.5, A=13.5, A-=12.5 down to F-=0.5. The first screen asks for the VALUE of each grade, while the second screen needs the AVERAGE of each grade. Read each of the screens for any help you might need. For this demonstration, type in the following: Screen 1 A+ = 15 C+ = 9 F+ = 3 A = 14 C = 8 F = 2 A- = 13 C- = 7 F- = 1 B+ = 12 D+ = 6 B = 11 D = 5 B- = 10 D- = 4 Screen 2 A+ = 14.5 C+ = 8.5 F+ = 2.5 A = 13.5 C = 7.5 F = 1.5 A- = 12.5 C- = 6.5 F- = 0.5 B+ = 11.5 D+ = 5.5 B = 10.5 D = 4.5 B- = 9.5 D- = 3.5 Page 5 Choosing Your Printer This program allows you to print out information with some dis- tinctive formats. To do this, special printer codes must be sent to the printer. Since all printers don't use the same codes, you will need to say which printer type you use or what codes it emulates. The listed printers are EPSON, EPSON LQ, IBM, DIABLO, and NEC. Ninety Percent of all printers emulate one of these. Check your printer documentation and see which one it is. For example, 70% of all dot matrix and most laser printers can emu- late EPSON (including Panasonic, Star and Citizen). Virtually all Daisy Wheel/Letter Quality printers follow the DIABLO stand- ard. NEC and C.ITOH share the same codes. Many computers have switches that allow a non standard format but also will allow alternating to either EPSON or IBM. Try using different codes (you are allowed to change from within the program) if you cannot find which printer yours emulates. If none seem to work proper- ly, choose the clean option. Everything will print out, but you will not be able to get the extra features. More information on printers is available in the User's Manual. From this point on, You will see letterS inside braces(<>). When you see them, simply tap the key that has the letter inside of it. Examples would be <Y>, <N>, <ENTER>, etc. CREATING YOUR CLASS FILES After you have entered your choice of a printer, the program will copy files across to the DATA drive and set up a menu. Here you must create and choose the classes that you want to use. At this point, there are no classes available. You are asked to type in a Class Name. You can use either Letters or Numbers for you class names. I usually name my classes by period number, but words such as ENGLISH, HISTORY, etc. will work. Each name must be unique. Your menu will allow you to describe each in twenty five letters or less so the file name does not need to be elabo- rate. You will not be allowed to use any keys that are not alpha / numeric. For this demonstration, type: DEMO You will be told that the class does not exist and asked if you want to create it now. Press <Y>. For your class description, type: Demonstration Class File <ENTER> You will be shown the categories that you chose earleir. Each class may have different category names, but the category numbers must be the same for all classes. If you wish to accept the names written in earler, press <ESC>. Otherwise, go ahead and change the names as you desire. Changes can also be done within the GradeBook. The program will tell you that it is preparing and loading your files. When it is done, you will see the Master Menu. Page 6 THE MASTER MENU Notice that at the top of screen your class's name is in reverse color. This is so that it stands out enough to prevent using the wrong class. Right below the class name is the Grading Period. There are three possible grading periods, each having up to 80 grades. If your school has two quarters per semester, you will be using only two of the grading periods. If your school is on a six week trimester system or on a year round system you will find having all three grading periods quite useful. Many teachers may find that they will not need to use more than one grading period. The Menu Choices that you have are: 1] Update Class File Information. 2] Edit a Student Record 3] Add a Grade to the Entire Class 4] Scan Class/Student Grades 5] Print Class/Student Reports 6] Define or Print Assignments within Class Categories 7] Multi Class MakeUp Utility 8] Write Out Progress Reports 9] Change Grading Period 10] Change Active Class 11] Quit Student Gradebook Before anything else can be done, you need to put some student names into your gradebook. Press: <1> <ENTER> This brings you to a second Menu. The new menu gives you the following choices: 1] Add a Student to This Class 2] Delete a Student 3] Move a Student to Another Class 4] Alphabetize This Class 5] Change or Update Your Setup Data 6] Begin a New Semester 7] Speed ID# Entry System 0] Return to MASTER MENU You may notice that the last option is a 0. You may move back- ward from one menu to another by typing 0 and <ENTER>, or <ENTER> or <ESC>. This makes it easy to move back very easily. ADDING STUDENTS TO YOUR CLASS It is time to put some students into your gradebook. Press: <1> <ENTER> Type in your first student's name and press <ENTER>. Notice that you must type in the last name first, followed by a comma and finally the first name. Notice also that the letters are automatically capitalized. This is to prevent alphabetization errors later on. Page 7 You are told that this is the first student in the class and there are 0 students on this disk. The computer will keep a running total of students so that you know when you reach the maximums. You are allowed 60 students per class and up to 300 students on a 360K floppy. On a larger drive, you will be al- lowed to fill all 8 classes with 60 students. Also the student will be given an ID# which you will be allowed to change later. After the name is finished, you will be asked the entry date. The screen will show the date that you selected at the beginning of the program. Hitting <ENTER> will record that date. If you wish to change the date, from that point on, the new date that you type in will be used for entry. The system date will contin- ue to be used for all other parts of the program. After hitting <ENTER>, you will be asked to verify your entry. Do so and then enter at least five more students. When finished, simply type QUIT to return to the update menu. DELETE A STUDENT You are not going to delete any students at this time, but please press <2> and <ENTER>. Notice that you are given a listing of the students in the class. If their names are longer than 19 letters, they will be chopped off. This is necessary to allow having up to sixty students on the screen at once. You can by the way, use this listing to check your entries for errors in spelling, etc. To delete a student, simply type the number to the left of their names. The students full name will be given and you will be asked to double verify your choice. Since this is not necessary at this time, you may either type <0> to quit or simply press <ENTER>. MOVE A STUDENT TO ANOTHER CLASS This option moves a student from one class to another. The other class must be one of the classes on your default data drive. The student is moved to the new class and erased from the old class. All grades for this grade period are transferred. If however you are in grade period two or three, earlier grade periods are left unchanged. If you want them changed, you will need to go back and do that in the earlier grade periods. Page 8 OTHER OPTIONS The other choices on this menu are pretty straight forward. Alphabetizing a class does just that, nothing fancy. Changing your Setup Data allows you to change any of the information that you typed in during the setup part of this program. You may also change the description that you gave to your class when you created it. You might look through it to see how it works. Starting a new semester allows you to begin a new semester with all students initialized as if they had just been entered. For our purposes, it is time to return to the Master Menu. Press: <ENTER> ADD A GRADE TO THE ENTIRE CLASS Before you edit a single student record, I would like you to add a single assignment grade to the whole class. Press: <3> <ENTER> You are given a choice of Direct Access and Speed Data Entry. For the first grade entry, press <1> to seclect Direct Access. This option is particularly powerful and its implementation is not possible with most gradebook programs. After this selection, you come to a new menu. Notice the categories and their titles are listed. For now, press: <1> <ENTER> Asked which grade you want to work with, press: <1> <ENTER> The students are listed once again with the last part cut off to leave room for grade entry. The two minuses are there for more than effect. The computer interprets the minuses as grades that are not required to be completed. It will not count those grades for or against the student. If a student is not required to do an assignment, just leave the minuses there. If you make a mistake and record a grade that the student wasn't expected to do, simply type the minuses back in. If a student does not turn in an assignment you must give a 0 if you want that grade to be counted. To enter grades, simply type the number of the student to whom you want to give a grade. That student's full name will beshown at the bottom. Type in a grade remembering that this is category 1. If you are totaling your student grades, the number you selected for category 1 is the top number you use here. If you are averaging student grades, you can use either letter grades or the numbers that you used for grade scale 1. When you are fin- ished entering grades, type 0 for the student name or simply press <ENTER>. Page 9 Quitting the class entry screen sends you back to the edit a grade menu. Notice selection seven (Grade Period or CUM Grade). This selection lets you go in and overrule the computer if you feel a student needs a special break one way or the other. Press: <8> <ENTER> then <1> <ENTER> The grade you see is the grade that the computer has calculated for your students determined by the criteria you gave during the setup. The computer will change this grade each time that you enter a grade, so do not bother to change it until you are fin- ished with this grade period. Lets look at the CUM grades. Press <ENTER> then press: <8> <ENTER> then <4> <ENTER> You will be asked if you want to recalculate your grades at this time. The reason that the CUM grade is not constantly recalcu- lated is the computer does not know which week you are in within each grading period. Press <Y>. To get an accurate cumulative grade, you need to tell the computer what value to give to each grade period. Assume that you have finished the first grade period, worth 8 weeks, and you are in the third week of the second grade period. You don't want the second grade period to be calculated out at the same value as the first grade period. Recalculating only before issuing a report makes it unnecessary to tell the computer at each grade session how many weeks are to be assigned to each grade period. Since we are in the first week of the first grade period, give the following values: Weeks in Grade Period 1 ---> 1 Weeks in Grade Period 2 ---> 0 Weeks in Grade Period 3 ---> 0 Then press <Y>. The computer will update your CUM grade then let you go in and make any changes that you wish to make. Leave this part of the program by pressing <ENTER> then press <ENTER> one more time to return to the Master Menu. At the Master Menu, press <3> again and this time select the Speed Data Entry System. The Speed Data Entry System allows rapid entry of grades for those teachers who keep hand written records then transfer them to the computer later. At the Master Menu, select option 3. The next menu allows you to select your choice of data entry method. Select the second option. Choose your assignment category at the next menu and then the assignment number. The Data Entry Screen shows the student's name, the grade cur- rently recorded for that student, and an entry line for the new grade. Typing the new grade and pressing the <ENTER> key will bring up the next student. Page 10 You can move to the next student without changing the grade by typing [N] and pressing <ENTER>. Pressing the cursor down or cursor up key will do the same thing as will pressing the [ESC] key. To move to the previous student, press [P] and <ENTER>. You automatically exit after typing a grade for the last student in your class list, If you wish to exit earlier, just press [Q] and <ENTER>. EDIT A STUDENT RECORD Back at the Master Menu, select <2> and press <ENTER>. You will be asked to type the name of a student. You don't need to type the full name. Just a few letters of the last name will usually be sufficient. You may however have forgotten the names of the students you typed in earlier. No problem. Simply hit the <ENTER> key. You are given a class list and asked to select the number of the student you wish to use. Select one of your stu- dents and press <ENTER>. The screen shows all the information available on this student for this grade period (with the exception of the CUM grade). At the bottom of the screen, you are given your options. The first line allows you to go to the Next student, Previous student or Another student. Press <N>. Notice the screen is not refreshed, only the student information is changed. This allows you to scroll fairly rapidly through your students. If you are working with a student near the beginning of your list and you want one near the end, pressing <A> will ask you for the name of a student and you can type in the new student's name. Pressing <1> through <5> or <E> will allow you to edit a category or extra credit grade. Press <1>. You are told that you are changing a grade for category 1. If you have forgotten what category 1 is, just look to your left and you will see them listed. Handling the categories this way allows for easier keyboard entry. You have already entered a grade for category 1, grade 1, so press: <2> <ENTER> You will be told to type in the new grade. Do so at this time. If you do not want to type in a new grade, you may simply press the minus key twice. The next row of options allow you to change the students name or ID# as well as the grades for grade periods 1 through 3. Next you are allowed you to recalculate all your grades for this grade period. The computer does this automatically but I wrote this section to help me in debugging and all of my Beta Testers liked having it there so much that I left it in. If you think that the info on the screen is not correct, go ahead and recalculate and then watch as the grades are checked. You are shown the assign- ments, the total points as they accumulate and the number of grades assigned for those who are totaling their grades or the Page 11 total value of assignments given for those who are averaging. While on this, the screen is slightly different depending on whether you are averaging or totaling your grades. If averaging grades, your grade summary will show your "Grade Point Average". If you are totaling your grades, the grade summary will show "Total Points Possible". This only relates to the student on the screen. Each student is independent of the class in this re- spect. This allows for flexibility in not penalizing students who check in late, transfer from another school or have an ex- tended illness. Your next option is to switch grade periods. You will not be able to do this at this time since grade periods two and three have not been created yet. Only create them after you have finished with the previous grading period. Once they have been created, no more information will be automatically passed for- ward. More on this later. Your final options are to print out the information on the screen, give a grade for the Final Test and quit. each of these should be self explanatory. For this demonstration, press <Q> so that we can return to the master menu. SCAN CLASS/STUDENT INFORMATION The next choice on the master menu is to Scan (look at) information. Press: <4> <ENTER> Number one on the scan menu allows you to look at a summary of all students and all three grade periods. You are first asked if you want to recalculate you CUM grades, then a class grade point average based on a "4.0" standard grading scale is calculated, and finally the students are listed with the three grading peri- ods, the CUM grade, the date each student entered your class, and the class GPA. You may scroll forward, backward or quit. Scanning student summaries allows you to scroll forward and backward through all the students and all their grades for this grading period, three students at a time. Scanning one category assignment allows you to look at just one grade. You can look at it alphabetically, in descending grade order, or ascending grade order. If you use letter grades, you will normally want to sort in ascending order since that will put the "A"s at the top and the "F"s at the bottom. If you use numbers, you will normally sort in descending grade order since the higher numbers will be at the top. If you mix letter and number grades, numbers will be separated out from letters. The class average at the bottom of the last page is calculated using the numbers you assigned the program during your Setup. Page 12 When you have finished looking through your scan options, return to the master menu by pressing: <4> <ENTER> OPTIONS 5 THROUGH 9 The remaining options on your menu will be fully discussed within the MANUAL. A brief description of each is appropriate at this time. Option five allows you to print out your information on standard 8 1/2 X 11 paper. The printouts look similar to the scans, however they are formatted for paper. Print out four is slightly different. It will print out role sheets on standard role book paper which uses space and a half spacing. The print will also be bold. The assumption here is that your printer is supported by EPSON, IBM, NEC or DIABLO codes. Option six allows you to define what each of your eighty assign- ments, tests, projects, etc. are for and then print them out. Up to eight sets of definitions are available so that you can give out different definitions for each class or use the same defini- tions for all classes. Option seven is a very special part of this program. I don't thik you will find it available in any other gradebook. It allows you to access the grades of any student of any class. It sets up an intra-class index. Type the name of a student from any class, and you have that student. Some of the Beta Testers used this option more than any other part of the program. I think its kind of neat. There are three pages devoted to this makeup utility later in the manual. Option eight allows you to write out progress reports for any or all of your students. The format is very flexible and powerful. More on this in the User's Manual Section. Option nine allows you to change to a higher grade period or go back to a lower grade period. Do not move forward until you have finished your present grade period. Moving forward copies the student records, then goes through each student's record and initializes each category grade to two minuses. If you make any changes in an earlier grade period, the changes that you make will not be reflected or updated in the new periods. You will need to update these manually. Option ten allows you go back to the class directory and change to another class, delete a class, add a class or swap disks in your default data drive (particularly useful if your spouse wants to kick you off the computer and go to work.) Page 13 Option eleven will close all the files and quit the program. At this point, let me emphasize that you must never take your data disk out of the data drive unless the program has completely finished closing the files and has returned you to DOS, or you are instructed to remove your disk by the program (as you will when you swap disks in the data drive.) When swapping disks, ALWAYS WAIT UNTIL THE COMPUTER TELLS YOU TO REMOVE YOUR DISKS. Failure to heed this warning will corrupt your data disks. This ends your tutorial. For detailed instructions on each part of the program, consult the USER'S MANUAL. If you have not registered your ownership, please do so as soon as possible. You will not only guarantee better and more powerful upgrades for this program, but you will be eligible to receive help from the author. If you have any suggestions as to how this program can be made more useful, please send them to: Ronald N. Grout R & G Software 599 E. Wright Hemet, CA 92343 Page 14 USERS MANUAL STARTING THE PROGRAM Boot your machine as you normally would. If you are working with a 360K or 720K floppy system, place your GradeBook 1 disk in one drive (A or B) and your data disk in the other. Your data drive should have no other programs on it. When using a hard disk, the only practical method of storing data is within separate SUBDIRECTORIES and PATHS. If you are not familiar with this method of storing data, please refer to your DOS manual. The TeacherWorks GradeBook takes advantage the DOS hard disk subdirectory system. When installing to a hard disk your install program creates a \DATA subdirectory directly over the program directory if one does not already exist. You may now use this subdirectory or any other subdirectory on your hard disk for storing your data. The main thing to remember is that when you choose a path, do not end with a backslash "\". When the program prompts you to enter the path, type the DRIVE LETTER, a colon ":" and then if the data is not on the root directory, a standard PATH. eg. A: B: C:\GRADES\DATA D:\SCHOOL\GRADES\DATA C:\MYGRADES\DATA etc. You may use [CTRL] [Y] to clear the input line. When using a floppy to store data, just use the drive letter and a colon. Log on to your program disk or move to the hard disk subdirectory that hold your GradeBook program. At the DOS Prompt, type GB and press <ENTER>. The first screen you will see is the introductory screen. To continue the pro- gram, press any key. If you have a 360K floppy system and it is necessary for you to switch PROGRAM and CONTROL disks, you will be prompted to do so. You will be shown the system date. If it is correct press <Y>, if not, press <N> and correct it. You will be asked which disk drive will hold your class data. The drive letter must be followed with a colon. If you are using a subdi- rectory for your data, it must not end with the backslash "\". If the prompted letter or path is correct hit <ENTER> and press <Y>. If it is not, correct it by typing the correct path, hit <ENTER>, and press <Y>. The program will now begin. Page 15 THE INPUT LINE The input line is the "reverse" field that you are allowed to type information into. It allows the following Key Commands: <CTRL><A> or <HOME> Previous Word <CTRL><F> or <END> Next Word <CTRL><Y> Erase from cursor to end of line. <BACKSPACE> Delete previous char- acter <CTR><G> or <DEL> Delete character at Cursor. <INSERT> Togle Insert or Push Mode and Overwrite Mode Up Arrow Previous line Down Arrow Next Line <ENTER> Next Line PROGRAM SETUP A setup program must be completed each time you initialize a new DATA disk. The information is used for tabulating grades and control of your printer. 1. Name, School and Department This information will be used on most of the printouts and when you are scanning grades. You may use upper case and lower case letters. 2. Total Points or Grade Point Averaging This gradebook program allows the user to define up to five types or categories of grades. The way that these categories are used is determined by this selection. Grade Totals: - Uses only numbers for grade entry. - Each category is assigned a number which represents the maximum points available for all assignments within that category. eg. Assignment Type Point Possible ---------------------------------- Home Work = 10 pts Class Work = 15 pts Projects = 25 pts Tests = 50 pts etc. - A grading scale is established based on a percentage, which compares the student's total points with the total points possible for that student. Page 16 Grade Point Averaging: - Either letter or number grades are acceptable - A grading scale is set up which is used by all cate- gories. Each category then uses a weight or grade value to determine importance of each grade en- tered. eg. Assignment Type Weight ------------------------------ Home Work = 1 Class Work = 2 Projects = 5 Tests = 7 etc. - A final grading scale average is established which decides what is needed for each grade, taking into account that the grade is multiplied by the category weight. 3. Program Storage When you begin each session with the TeacherWorks Gradebook, you are asked where you wish to store your DATA. A little more information is needed regarding the program and data storage. The home drive for the gradebook must be given to keep the infor- mation necessary for internal use. It is also used to prevent the user from removing the control disk from drive A if it is being used on that drive. This program stores student data for each class in three differ- ent files. If each class fills to the maximum 60 students, the actual number of student records is tripled to 180 student re- cords. Multiply that times the maximum 9 classes and you have more than 1400 class records. Since a single 360K floppy disk drive can store only 600 class records, that is a maximum of 200 students. The program must know that there is a limit on the space available for students. Not telling the program that you are storing data on a 360K floppy can cause the program to run out of disk space and prevent further tabulations and entries. 4. Category Information Categories provide for this program's power and flexibility. The way that they are used is determined by whether you select grade point totaling or grade averaging. You need to fill out two types of data, category names and category values. Category Names may be up to ten letters long. Some popular choices would be Home Work, Class Work, Activities, Assignment, Assn/Lev 1, Assn/Lev 2, Tests, Quizzes, Projects, Book Work, Reports, etc. Page 17 This program has a special FINAL TEST grade. It does not need to be included within a category. To set up values for total points, simply decide how many points assignments within each of the five categories should be worth. See the section on total points and grade averaging above for more details. To set up values for grade point averaging, you must decide the relative value of various assignments within the different cate- gories. Select your lowest valued assignment category and give it a value of 1. Then give a value to each of the other catego- ries relative to how important they are compared to 1. As an example, if a daily assignment is worth a base value of 1, how much would a test be worth in comparison? What about a project or a quiz. Determine your weight (relative) value for each of the categories, including extra credit. For some examples, see the section above on total points and grade averaging. 5. Setting Up Grading Scales If you choose to Total your points, only one grading scale needs to be developed. If you use Grade Averaging, you will need to fill out two scales. With either type of grading, students compete only with themselves. If an assignment or test is missed, students are not penalized unless the teacher desires to do so. This is especially useful when a student enters a class late in a grading period. Point totals and grade averages only look at the grades that a student is required to complete. You will notice that the grading scales allow for three levels of F Grades (F+, F, F-). Most teachers have not used this in the past, but to provide for more flexibility, this program allows for its use. After setting up your grading scales, you need never use them again. Quarter, Trimester and Semester grades will not reflect the three Fail levels. Individual assignment or test grades will however show them. Total Point Grading Scales The total point grading scale should be built on a percent- age basis. In other words, what percentage of the total possible points available to a student should that student have to get for the desired grade. Here you must use a 100% scale. EXAMPLE: A+ = 98 B+ = 88 C+ = 78 D+ = 68 A = 93 B = 83 C = 73 D = 60 A- = 90 B- = 80 C- = 70 D- = 57 Most teachers have their own variation of this scale. Use whatever fits your needs. Page 18 Grade Averaging Scales When averaging grades, there is quite a bit more flexibility in the way that you can set up your grading scales, but it is also a little more difficult to do. First you must set up a numerical grading (conversion) scale that will repre- sent the value of each letter grade. In other words, when you type in a letter grade, the computer will translate that to a number for calculating grade averages. You can make up any kind of scale here that you desire. EXAMPLES: 1. 15 Point Scale - A+ = 15 B+ = 12 C+ = 9 D+ = 6 A = 14 B = 11 C = 8 D = 5 A- = 13 B- = 10 C- = 7 D- = 4 2. 100 Point Scale - A+ = 100 B+ = 89 C+ = 79 D+ = 69 A = 95 B = 85 C = 75 D = 65 A- = 90 B- = 80 C- = 70 D- = 60 Because of the setup of the computer's numeric keypad and because averaging grades on a 100 point scale can be unfair (on a 100% scale, an A+ and a 0 = an F, not a C), I prefer a 15 point scale. Others prefer a 20 or 12 point scale. A 4 point scale can be used, but decimals can be very tricky to work with. After setting up your conversion scale, you need to set up your low end scale, or the point average necessary for the desired grade. For a 15 point scale this would be: A+ = 14.5 B+ = 11.5 C+ = 8.5 D+ = 5.5 A = 13.5 B = 10.5 C = 7.5 D = 4.5 A- = 12.5 B- = 9.5 C- = 6.5 D- = 3.5 For a 100 point scale, see point totals above. Page 19 6. Selecting Your Printer. This program uses BOLD and SPACE AND 1/2 line spacing for some of the print outs. To do this, special codes must be sent to the printer. All printers are not alike but many share similar printer codes. I have tried to provide within five choices, a set of codes that will fit your computer. The five choices are EPSON, IBM, NEC, DIABLO and CLEAN. Even if your computer is one of these, it may not use the expected codes. Some Epsons (espe- cially older models) use IBM code. Some NEC and Diablo printers use EPSON code. You may have to test your printer with this program to see which works best. Use the class list printout to test your printer. Some basic rules are as follows: Virtually All Daisy Wheel Printers DIABLO Dot Matrix Printers NEC NEC OR IBM C. ITOh NEC OR IBM CENTRONICS EPSON OR IBM PANASONIC EPSON CITIZEN IBM DATASOUTH EPSON OKIDATA IBM OR EPSON OLYMPIA EPSON PANASONIC EPSON SCM IBM STAR IBM OR EPSON Laser Printers should emulate EPSON OR IBM If none of the above works with your printer, select CLEAN. You will not be able to use BOLD or SPACE and 1/2 printing, but you can print out your information in straight single spaced reports. CHANGING YOUR SETUP DATA With the exception of changing from grade averaging to grade totaling, choices that you make during setup can be changed. From the Master Menu, press <1> and <ENTER>. This will take you to the update menu. Here you will need to press <5> and <ENTER> to come to the Setup Menu. At this menu, you have the choice of changing General, Category or Grading Scale information. You can also change your class descriptions. General information includes the teacher's name, school and department as well as drive defaults and printer choices. Cate- gory and grade scale information are described above. Simply work yourself through the screen by entering the prompted infor- mation or pressing <ENTER>. Your changes will be saved when you exit the program or change the default disk. Page 20 THE PROGRAM DIRECTORY SCREEN The program directory offers a number of options. The top window shows all existing class files, a description of those classes, the number of students in each and the last date that each class file was used. The bottom window allows for the input of class names, removing a class from the directory, duplicating a class, changing the disk in the default drive or quitting to the previ- ously used part of the program (Master Menu or Back to DOS). CREATING A CLASS FILE To create a class file, simply type an unused name in the bottom window of the program directory screen. Class names must be letters or numbers. They must be seven characters or less. Many teachers choose to use the period number for the class name. Since you are allowed a 25 letter class description, this may be the best option at a secondary level. At elementary levels, titles such as "READING", "HISTORY", "MATH", "ENGLISH", "SCIENCE" or "ART" may be more appropriate. After typing in your new class name, you will be asked if you really want to create this file. This double check is available so that a misspelled word doesn't automatically create an unwant- ed file. If your name is correctly typed, press <Y> and you will be asked to give your file a twenty five letter description. This description is used on all your printouts so anything that you put here is must accurately reflect what the class is. Write something that will help you to know exactly of what the file consists of. When your description is finished, press <ENTER> and your class will be created, then loaded into memory, and you will be sent to the Master Menu. SELECTING AN EXISTING CLASS FOR USE To select an existing file off the program directory, simply type in the class name that you wish to use and press <ENTER>. If you accidentally type the name incorrectly, you will be asked to verify your choice. If your choice is correctly typed, you will be told that your class is loading and you will be transferd to the Master Menu. DIRECTORY HELP If you press <H> and then <ENTER>, a HELP SCREEN will appear in the upper right hand corner of your monitor. This screen will give brief descriptions on how to load, create or delete a class file. Page 21 DELETING A CLASS FILE A maximum of 9 classes may be stored on a single program directo- ry. Sometimes it is necessary or just convenient to remove one of those classes. To do so, press <X> and <ENTER>. A window will open in the upper right corner of the screen and you will be asked to type in the name of the file that is to be deleted exactly as it is show to the left. Type in the appropriate name or if you wish type <Q> to quit. After pressing <ENTER>, you will be asked if your choice is correct. Press <Y> and you will be double checked. Press <Y> again and the class will be removed from the directory, all related files will be erased from your disk, and you will be asked to choose a new class to use. If you chose to press <N> when asked to verify if you wish to delete your class, you will have a chance to type in another class name for deletion. Should you desire to quit at this point, press <CTRL> <Y> to clear the input line, then press <Q> then <ENTER> to return to your class selection line. If you erased the class that you were previously using, you will not be allowed to return to the Master Menu until you have slect- ed a new class. DUPLICATING A FILE If you have the same students in a number of classes, you may duplicate an original file as many times as you need to. Create your first file, add the student list, and return to the program directory. At the program directory, press [D] and <ENTER>. You will be asked which file(class) you wish to duplicate. Type the name of the chosen class. Press [Y] twice at the prompt, then write the name of the new file. Next write your class description and press <ENTER>. The new class is added to your Menu. THE QUIT SELECTION The last option available on the program directory is to press <Q> and <ENTER>. If you have just begun the program, this will cause the program to abort. If on the other hand you have already been to the Master Menu at least once, the quit option will send you back to the Master Menu. This allows you to return quickly if you accidentally pressed <9> on the Master Menu by mistake. The quit option will not work if you have just deleted a class file. Page 22 CHANGING THE DATA DISK If one or more teachers are using this program or if your data is stored on more than one disk, you may need to swap disks. To do this at the program directory press <D> and <ENTER>. DO NOT TAKE THE DISK OUT OF THE DRIVE UNTIL PROMPTED TO DO SO. Doing so will corrupt your data. You will be told that your files are being closed and then told to put your new disk in the default drive. Do and press any key. You will be returned to the program direc- tory with the new disks classes displayed. TeacherWorks PROGRAM MENUS Two menus control work within the TeacherWorks Gradebook program. Everything centers on the Master Menu. When the program is first entered, this is the first menu that you will come to. Options for this menu are: 1] Update Class File Information 2] Edit a Student Record 3] Add a Grade To the Entire Class 4] Scan Class/Student Grades 5] Print Class/Student Reports 6] Define or Print Assignments Within Class Categories 7] Multi Class MakeUp Utility 8] Write Out Progress Reports 9] Change Grading Period 10] Change Active Class 11] Quit Student Gradebook The second major updates class files. Options for this menu are: 1] Add a Student to This Class 2] Delete a Student 3] Move a Student to Another Class 4] Alphabetize This Class 5] Change or Update Your Setup Data 6] Begin a New Semester 7] Speed ID# Entry System 0] Return to MASTER MENU Most of the options on each of the two menus have submenus. By following the logical choices of each menu, each user should find easy access to all the options that this program offers. To return to the previous menu simply press <ENTER> or <ESC> at the menu prompt. Page 23 ADDING A STUDENT TO THE CLASS One or more students may be added to a class at any given time. From the Master Menu, press <1> and <ENTER>. This will take you to the Update Menu. At this menu press <1> and <ENTER> again. The screen will show the active class, a student number, a stu- dent entry line and the number of students on the disk. A little about each. The active class is the class that you are using at this time. Make sure you have the right class. It would be unfortunate if you added thirty names to the wrong class. The student number keeps you apprised of the number of students that you have in the class. This number may also be the ID# assigned to the student. To prevent two students from being assigned the same ID#, a separate counter is used for assigning these numbers. In future versions of the program, you will be allowed to select a beginning ID coun- ter number for each class. The student entry line is where you type the name of the student to be added to the class. Anything that you type here will be automatically changed to upper case. This prevents problems that might occure later when alphabetizing the students. You must type in the last name, a comma, a space and then the first name. The program looks for the comma and the space. If it does not find it, you will be told that you have an invalid entry and prompted to make the necessary corrections. The number of students on the disk is kept so that you will know if you are running out of space when using a 360K floppy drive. Since such a drive can only hold approximate- ly 300 students for three separate grade periods, this can be useful in helping you to know how many classes you can use on one disk. You are allowed up to 9 classes and each class can handle up to 60 students. That's more than a 360K floppy can handle. If you happen to have nine classes with sixty students each, you will need to limit yourself to five classes per 360K floppy disk. After entering a student's name, you will be shown the system date. If the system date and the entry date are the same, simply press <ENTER>. The system date may not, however, be the actual date the student entered your class. Most teachers enter stu- dents into their gradebooks a couple of days after classes start because of confusion, transferring, and late comers the first day of a semester. If this is the case, type in the actual entry date for this first student and the date will be retained until changed again or this part of the program is exited. Page 24 When the name and date are correctly entered, press <Y> at the prompt. There will be a slight delay as student entry informa- tion is calculated and then you will be asked to enter another student. If you choose not to enter any more students at this time, simply type QUIT and press <ENTER>. You will be returned to the Update Menu. USING ID NUMBERS When you add a name to your class it is automatically assigned an ID Number. That number is used when searching for a student with the Multi-Class Makeup Utility and can be used for printing out student grades. You may change the ID Number. Each ID number can be up to thir- teen characters long and it will accept both numbers and letters. With thirteen characters, it can be used for as a Social Security Number, a school ID or even a Text Book Number. It can be changed within an individual record screen, but the easiest way to change it is to use the Speed ID editor. On the UPDATE menu. DELETING A STUDENT At the Master Menu, press <1> and <ENTER>. This will take you to the Update Menu. Now press <2> and <ENTER>. The screen will show a bar across the top with the class name and the function title. Your students will be listed with a number in front of their names. Type the number of the student that you wish to delete. That student's full name will be shown and you will be prompted to press Y or N. Pressing <N> at any point will abort the dele- tion of the chosen student and prompt you for the next deletion. If you press <Y>, you will be asked if you are sure. This double checking should prevent most accidental deletions. When you have completed any deletions, you may quit this function by either pressing <0> and <ENTER> or just pressing <ENTER>. ALPHABETIZING STUDENT NAMES This program does not automatically alphabetize students. To alphabetize your class, move to the Update Menu by pressing <1> and <ENTER> at the Master Menu. At the Update Menu, press <4> and <ENTER>. The program will begin alphabetizing immediatly. You will not be prompted for verification so do not make this choice unless you really want it done. Page 25 EDIT A STUDENT RECORD From the Master Menu, press <2> and <ENTER>. You will be asked to type in a student name. The whole name is not needed. The program will find the first student that matches the letters that you type. Usually two or three letters will get you any student you want. If you want to see a list of the students, press <ENTER>. Each student will have a number in front of his or her name. Select the number of the student you wish to work with. After selecting your student, the program will take about 3 seconds to paint a format screen, then another 3 seconds to put the student's record on the screen. Moving from student to student after the original screen is painted will take approxi- matly 3 seconds. The top of the screen will show the student's name, ID# and Class. Next is a listing of all the grades by category. The double minus that you see for grades tells the computer that the assignment in question has not yet been assigned. If you mistak- enly give a student a grade, you may remove it by using the double minuses. That grade will then be ignored by the computer when it is tabulating grade summaries. On the bottom left are the titles that you have given to each category, on the bottom right is the grade earned for each grading period, and in the bottom center are the options you have for editing. Those op- tions are listed as: <N>ext, revious, <A>nother Student Edit Category <1>,<2>,<3>,<4>,<5>,<E> <C>hange Name, ID#, GP1, GP2, GP3 <R>ecalculate, <S>witch Grade Period Print nformation on this Screen <F>inal Test, <Q>UIT Pressing <N> or will move you foreward or backward through the class list. Pressing <A> will return you to the original student selection screen. Choose another student's name or press <ENTER> to see the list of students again. Pressing the numbers <1> through <5> or <E> will open a window which asks for the number of a grade within the category you have just chosen. Type in the number of the grade you want to enter, then type the correct new grade. Typing 0 instead of the grade number closes the window with no changes. Pressing <C> will open a window with a new Menu which gives you the option of changing the student's name, ID# or the grade for one of the three grade periods. For more information regarding the ID#, see the section on adding a student. Pressing <R> will force a recalculation of all the grades. This is added for your convience and is not really a necessary part of the program. You may simply want to check out whether the grades are properly calculated. Page 26 Pressing <S> will switch you foreward or backward through the three grade periods if they exist. You will only be allowed to work with the student you are presently editing. Any changes that you make will not be passed on to the other grade periods. If the final grade of a grade period is altered, you will need to manually pass that final grade along. Pressing will give you the option of printing all the infor- mation on the screen. This is nice if you wish to give a copy of all assignment information to your student or to a parent who is visiting your class. Pressing <F> will allow you to enter the Final Test Grade. Pressing <Q> will send you back to the Master Menu. ADDING A GRADE TO THE WHOLE CLASS To add a grade to the whole class, go to the Master Menu and press <3> and <ENTER>. You will see a second menu which allows you to select Direct Data Access or Speed Data Entry. The Direct Data Access System will show you all the students in the class and allow you to assign a grade to any one of them. The Speed Data Entry System assumes you have alphabetized your student papers or are copying grades out of a book. Direct access is for those teachers who enter grades directly into this computer GradeBook. Speed Data is for teachers who record grades first to a hand ledger gradebook and then double book to the computer gradebook. After selecting Direct Access or Speed Data, the next menu shows each grade category that you may wish to work with. Press the number of your choice and <ENTER>. You will be asked the number of the grade you want. Type the number of the assignment or test you wish to work with and press <ENTER>. DIRECT DATA ACCESS SYSTEM You will see a new screen with a listing of all your students. The screen allows for up to 60 students in three columns. To provide enough space for those students, names must be cut off after 14 letters. This should not be a problem unless you have students with the same first and last name who must be identified by an initial. In this case, you will have to wait until after your selection to positively identify which student you have. To select a student for grade entry, type the number to the left of that student. The student's whole name will be displayed and you will be prompted to enter the grade for that particular assignment. Continue entering grades in this fashion until you have grades for each student. The two minus symbols that follow each student indicate that the student was not assigned this specific assignment. If you accidentally call down the wrong student, simply put in two minus marks and no harm done. If a student is required to do an assignment, you must enter a grade. If you don't, the computer assumes that the student was not Page 27 required to do that assignment and will ignore it when tabulating grades. As grades are entered, the student's grade period grade is auto- matically recalculated. When you have finished adding grades to the class, simply press <ENTER> and you will be returned to the add a grade menu. From there you may add another grade or return to the Master Menu. SPEED DATA ENTRY The Speed Data Entry System allows rapid entry of grades for those teachers who keep hand written records then transfer them to the computer later. At the Master Menu, select option 3. The next menu allows you to select your choice of data entry method. Select the second option. Choose your assignment category at the next menu and then the assignment number. The Data Entry Screen shows the student's name, the grade cur- rently recorded for that student, and an entry line for the new grade. Typing the new grade and pressing the <ENTER> key will bring up the next student. You can move to the next student without changing the grade by typing [N] and pressing <ENTER>. Pressing the cursor down or cursor up key will do the same thing as will pressing the [ESC] key. To move to the previous student, press [P] and <ENTER>. Page 28 ADJUSTING STUDENTS GRADES On occasion, a student will work very hard and still not be capable of mastering enough work to get the grade that you as the teacher feel the student should receive. The computer is going to give all students the grade that they earn. If you wish to adjust that grade up or down at the end of the grading period, you are allowed to do so. At the Master Menu, press <3> and <ENTER>. Select the Direct Access option. You will be taken to the "EDIT CLASS GRADE" menu. Option 7 on this list allows you to change tabulated grades for grade periods 1 through 3 or for the cumulative semes- ter grade. Press <7> and <ENTER>, then select the grade period you wish to work with. Your students will be listed the same way as described above in the "ADDING A GRADE SECTION." Type the number to the left of the student that you wish to adjust. Their full name will be displayed and you will be prompted to enter their new grade. Make sure that you use a LETTER GRADE. When you have finished adjusting those students in question, simply press <ENTER> and you will be returned to the "EDIT CLASS GRADE" menu. You can then press <8> and <ENTER> to return to the Master Menu. If you choose to adjust a students Semester CUM grade, you will be asked if you want to recalculate the CUM grades first. It would be a good Idea to do this. Semester CUM grades are not recalculated automatically. To do so would require giving the number of weeks in each grade period any time the program is booted up. LOOKING AT CLASS INFORMATION To use the computer for looking at class lists and grade sum- maries, press <4> and <ENTER> at the Master Menu. This takes you to the "LOOK AT CLASS" or "SCAN" menu. The screen will show the following options: 1. Scan the Grade Period Summary Grade Periods and Semester CUM 2. Scan Student Summaries All Category Grades for each Student 3. Scan One Category/Assignment Show a Grade from one Assignment 4. Quit Each of these options are similar to hard copy printouts, except that class averages are displayed with the grade period summary. Page 29 1. Grade Period Summary After pressing <1> and <ENTER>, you will be asked if you want to recalculate your grades. Recalculating the Semester CUM Grade is not done automatically. To do so would require imputing the number of weeks for each grading period each time you started up the program. If you have not recalcu- lated the Semester CUM grade since the last grades were entered, it would be a good Idea to do so at this time. If you choose to recalc, you will be asked to state how many weeks there are in each grading period. Here you must state how many weeks have been COMPLETED in each. If you are in the third week of the first grading period, then you would type <3> for the first grading period and <0> for the other two. If you were in the fifth week of the second grading period, Your choices might be <9>, <5> and (0> or <6>, <5> and <0>. After typing in the correct number of weeks, the recalc window will show the computer going through the class students and upgrading their CUM grade. If you choose not to recalc, the window will close and the program continues. The computer will take a few seconds to recalc the class average and will display class information on the top four lines. Student Grade Summaries will be displayed on the next 19 lines and you will be able to scroll forward or backward through student records. At the bottom of the screen, the class average is displayed in a "4.0" grading scale. To return to the "SCAN" menu, press <Q>. 2. Scan Student Summaries This program allows for a maximum of three grade periods. Because of the amount of space needed, no provision is made to allow for the showing of all the grades for all three grade periods for all the students. You are allowed to move back and forth between grade periods when editing one stu- dent's record. You can also move the whole class forward or backward through the grade periods. This section of the program simply allows you to quickly scroll through all the students, three students at a time, showing all the grades available for this grading period. To do this, press <2> and <ENTER> at the "SCAN" menu. The first three students and their grades for this grading period will be shown. You may scroll forward or backward three students at a time by pressing <F> or . Depending on the speed of your computer, it takes from two to seven seconds to rewrite the screen with the next three students. When done looking at your students, press <Q> to return to the "SCAN" menu. Page 30 3. Scan One Category/Assignment To look at just one grade, select <3> on the "SCAN" menu. You will be prompted to choose which category you need. After selecting the category, you will be asked which grade within that category you want. You will then be asked whether you want to see the students in Alphabetical order (by student name), In descending order (100 down to 1 with numbers or F to A with letter grades) or ascending order (1 to 100 numerically, A to F for letter grades). After selecting <A>, <D> or <S>, you will be told that the computer is sorting (alphabetizing) your information. When the display is returned, you will see a four line header which among other things, tells you the category and assign- ment number. It then lists the students in the order which you selected. With this option, you may scroll down, but not back up. When you come to the end of the class list, a grade point average is shown based on the grading scales that you defined in your setup. When finished looking at the information, press <Q> and you will be given a chance to select another grade to look at or quit back to the "SCAN" menu. Page 31 PRINTING OUT CLASS INFORMATION All class information may be sent to the printer by using option 5 off the Master Menu. After pressing <5> and <ENTER>, you are given the following choices: 1. Print Out Grade Period Summary 2. Print Out Student Summaries 3. Print Out 1 Category/Assignment 4. Print Out Class Roll Sheet 5. Quit 1. Printing out the Grade Period Summary The print out for this option will vary according to which grade period you are using. If you are in grade period 1, it will show the grade period 1 grade. If you are in grade period 2, it will print out the grades for grade period 1, grade period 2 and the semester CUM grade. If you are in grade period 3, it will print out all three grade periods and the Semester CUM grade. Before the printout for grade periods 2 and 3 are allowed to proceed, you will be asked if you wish to recalculate your CUM grade. If you have not done this since your last input of assignments, you should do it now. Any individual grade adjustments that you have made to the CUM grade will be overwritten by the new calculations. In all three printouts, a header is given to each page, up to 38 student records are shown per page, the printer pauses between pages, printouts have 1/4" spacing for names, and each student's class entry date is shown. 2. Print out Student Summaries This print out first gives a header to the page, then prints out all student information for the present grade period only. Up to seven students will be on each page. Category names are listed on the left under the student's name with the grades for each category extending across the page. The grade period grade is shown directly across from the student's name. Depending on whether grade averaging or grade totaling is chosen, each student's total points and grade average or grade total possible is also shown. Although this print out is set to skip over the perforation of fan feed paper, it does not pause at the end of each page. Either a tractor printor or a sheet feeder is needed to keep the paper moving through the printer correctly. Page 32 3. Print out 1 Category/Assignment In this printout, you can select a report on any one grade in the gradebook. A header is given, but there is no skip- ping over the perforations. There is a simple listing of students and the grades they got for the designated assign- ment. You are first asked to select the category that the assign- ment is in, then asked to choose which assignment. You then decide how to sort the inforamtion: <A>laphabetical - by student name. <D>escending - from F to A for letter grades, from 100 to 0 with numeric grades. A<S>cending - from A to F for letter grades, from 1 to 100 with numeric. When the print out is finished, the class average is printed at the bottom. Even with the full contigent of 60 students, if the paper is suitably aligned in the printer, all names should be on one page. There is no special spacing and print is not enhanced. 4. Print out Class Roll Sheet The roll sheet print out is designed to work with a majority of roll books. It uses 1/4" spacing and names are printed in bold type. No header is used since roll books have no standardized format. Align the print head approximately 1/4" above the first line for student names. Test your printer to find out exactly where you will need to allign your paper. When the print out is finished, fill out your forms header by hand. Page 33 DEFINING ASSIGNMENTS This program allows you to use up to 255 grades for each student during the semester. In order to keep track of all those assign- ments, tests, quizzes, projects, etc., option 6 off the Master Menu allows you to define assignments for up to eight grading periods. After pressing <6> and <ENTER> at the Master Menu, you will be asked which of set of assignment definitions you wish to work with. Each set allocates space for a 25 letter definition for each of the 85 grades within a given grade period. If all of your classes are the same (as in some High School Situations), you might use three of the sets to define grade periods 1, 2 and 3. Other combinations are possible but if you find that you are going to need more than 8 sets, you will need to set up more than one data disk to store your classes and grade definitions. After selecting the appropriate set, you will be shown all the categories and category titles and asked which one you wish to work with. Your selection of categories will present on the screen a listing of all the grades within that category. Use your <ENTER> key or Cursor keys to move up and down through the categories, writing in your definitions. Going past the last assignment will save any changes made and return you to the Category Definition Menu. Page 34 MOVING A STUDENT TO ANOTHER CLASS On occasion, it will be necessary to move a student from one class to another. Many gradebook programs require the user to print out that student's grades, add the student to the new class, use the print out to reenter all the grades, then go back and delete the student from the old class. With TeacherWorks, the procedure is simplified considerably. Press <3> on the Update Menu. You will be shown a listing of all the students in the class. Select the number of the student that you wish to move and press <ENTER>. The student's name will be moved to the bottom of the screen and you will be asked to verify your selection. After pressing <Y>, you will be double checked. Pressing <Y> again will give you a listing of all your classes. Select the class to which you want to move the student and press <ENTER>. The program will copy the student and all that students information for the present grading period to the new class, delete the student from the old class, and then return to the original class listing. The student who is transferred will be given a new ID number to meet the requirements of the new class. CHANGING THE ACTIVE CLASS Moving from one class to another with TeacherWorks is very sim- ple. Off the main menu, press <10> and <ENTER>. This will take you to the Program Directory Screen. At this point, you may select any of the listed classes or use any of the options dis- cussed earlier regarding the Program Directory Screen. One option that is a little different is the QUIT option. If you type <Q> and <ENTER>, it will take you back to the Master Menu rather than quit the program as is the case when first starting the program up. Page 35 MAKEUP UTILITY If you have ever sat beside your gradebook with a stack of makeup papers that have no order, and you don't want to spend the whole evening sorting the students by class, you know the rational behind this makeup utility. This part of the program allows you to type a student's name (or a portion of that name) and it will find the students class and record. Enter the student's grade and all information will be automatically updated. USING THE MAKEUP UTILITY Pressing <7> at the main menu will give you the MakeUp Utility menu. The choices available are as follows. Choice Description ----------------------------------------------- 1 Select Grading Period To Work With 2 Create/Revise the Student Index 3 Record Makeup Grades 4 Print INDEXed List of Students 0 Return to Master Menu OPTION 1 The TeacherWorks Gradebook works with three different grading periods for each class. Pressing 1 and <ENTER> allows you to choose which of those grading periods is current. A window will open which asks you what your choice is. Pressing <0> returns you to the Master Menu without making any change. Selecting 1, 2 or 3 are your only other correct options. Any other numbers will be ignored. If you select a grading period that has not been used, you will not be able to access any students. OPTION 2 This program works by setting up an index of all students on the Data Disk, no matter which class they are in. That index in- cludes the students class and ID#. When you select a student, the index finds which class he/she is in, opens the class file, and finds the student using the student's ID#. If you have frequent student changes within your classes, you will need to revise the index regularly. If you select this option before you select a grading period, you will be asked to choose the grading period before the program continues. Page 36 OPTION 3 Option 3 allows you to begin the actual editing of student grades (marking in the makeup work). If you have not selected the grade period before you press <3>, you will be asked to make your choice before you are allowed to continue. If no index has been constructed, that will also be done automatically. You will be asked to type in a student name. The whole name is not needed. The program will find the first student that matches the letters that you type. Usually two or three letters will get you any student you want. After selecting your student, the program will need to find the student's class and then the student within that class. The amount of time taken for this will be determined by your machine. An AT computer working at 12 Mhz with the data on a hard disk will take about 2 seconds to find the student and paint in the student's record on the screen. A 4 Mhz PC working with a dual floppy drive will take up to 10 seconds to complete the same process. The top of the screen will show the student's name, ID# and Class. Next is a listing of all the grades by category. The double minus that you see for grades tells the computer that the assignment in question has not yet been assigned. If you mistak- enly give a student a grade, you may remove it by using the double minuses. That grade will then be ignored by the computer when it is tabulating grade summaries. On the bottom left are the titles that you have given to each category, on the bottom right is the grade earned for each grading period, and in the bottom center are the options you have for editing. Those op- tions are listed as: <N>ext, revious, <A>nother Student Edit Category <1>,<2>,<3>,<4>,<5>,<E> <C>hange Name,ID#,GP1,GP2,GP2 <R>ecalculate Print nformation on this Screen <F>inal Test, <Q>UIT Pressing <N> or will move you forward or backward through the indexed class lists. Pressing <A> will return you to the original student selection screen. Choose another student's name or press <ENTER> to see the list of students again. Pressing the numbers <1> through <5> or <E> will open a window which asks for the number of a grade within the category you have just chosen. Type in the number of the grade you want to enter, then type the correct new grade. Typing 0 instead of the grade number closes the window with no changes. Pressing <C> will open a window with a new Menu which gives you the option of changing the student's name, ID# or the grade for one of the three grade periods. Page 37 Pressing <R> will force a recalculation of all the grades. This is added for your convenience and is not really a necessary part of the program. You may simply want to check out whether the grades are properly calculated. Pressing will give you the option of printing all the infor- mation on the screen. This is nice if you wish to give a copy of all assignment information to your student or to a parent who is visiting your class. Pressing <Q> will send you back to the Master Menu. OPTION 4 This option allows the user to print out a list of all the stu- dents in the active student index. It will not be formatted and it will not stop for the printer to switch pages. It only there as a convenience for the user. Page 38 CHANGING TO A NEW SEMESTER Option 6 on the Update Menu allows you to begin a new semester. It is important that you follow a few precautions before you begin this part of the program. 1. In the process of preparing the files for your new semester, all data will be removed from grade periods 2 and 3 and the most recent student listings will be moved to grade period one. These listing will then be initialized as if entered for the first time. It is therefore imperative that you make a backup copy of all your data files (.DBF and .NDX) before you continue with this part of the program. 2. Understand that this option may take a considerable length of time to complete, depending on the speed of your system. If you have an old 4 mhz IBM with two floppies, you may have to wait up to an hour to prepare five classes. On the other hand, the same files can be prepared in under 10 minutes on my 12 mhz AT with a 40 ms hard disk. Make sure to give yourself enough time to complete the job. 3. Read the instructions on the screen carefully. Make sure that you follow them carefully. 4. Know the beginning date of the new semester. You will be asked to enter it before the conversion takes place. The date you give will be used for the students entry date. At the Update Menu, press <6> and <ENTER>. You will see some instructions and asked if you want to continue. Press <C>. You will next be warned about the time required and asked if you wish to continue. Press <Y>. The next window will show the present date. If that is not the beginning date of the new semester, type that date in and press <ENTER>. Press <Y> to continue and sit back as the conversion is completed. Page 39 USING ID NUMBERS When you add a name to your class it is automatically assigned an ID Number. That number is used when searching for a student with the Multi-Class Makeup Utility and can be used for printing out student grades. You may change the ID Number. The ID number can be up to thir- teen characters long and it will accept both numbers and letters. With thirteen characters, it can be used for as a Social Security Number, a school ID or even a Text Book Number. It can be changed within an individual record screen, but the easiest way to change it is to use the Speed ID editor. The Speed ID editor can be accessed by selecting option 7 on the Update Menu. Once entered, it works the same way as the Speed Data Entry System. Pressing Cursor Up, Down, or [ESC] will move you to the next student without changing the student's ID as will pressing [N] followed be <ENTER>. Pressing [P] followed by <ENTER> will move you to the previous student and [Q] will return you to the Update Menu. To change the ID, type in the new ID number and press <ENTER>. Page 40 PREPARING PROGRESS REPORTS The progress report option prepares a progress report that may be sent home to a student's parents to inform them of their child's class work. It is designed to allow teacher input while provid- ing a setup program that does most of the work. Progress Report Setup Selecting Option 8 for the first time will enter you into the Setup Program. Input line commands for this program are: <CTRL><A> or <HOME> Previous Word <CTRL> or <END> Next Word <CTRL><Y> Erase from cursor to end of line. <BACKSPACE> Delete previous char- acter <CTR><G> or <DEL> Delete character at Cursor. <INSERT> Togle Insert or Push Mode and Overwrite Mode You will need to fill out the following information. School Name and address Designated Phone. This may be the school phone or your home phone. Teacher's Name. Here you may want to use just your last name with Mr., Mrs., Miss or Ms. prefix. Grade Period Dates - what dates are included in grades periods 1, 2 and 3. If you do not know the dates for each of the grade periods at this time, hit the <ENTER> key through each of the three periods. You can modify the setup program at any time. Complete titles for each of your categories. These are the grade categories you set up in your gradebook. You have 15 spaces, so there is a little more flexibility. Comments to represent A, B, C, D and F grades. Parents often do not understand our particular grading system. Giving a short comment for each category can be helpful. The grade average for each category will be calculated and the chosen comments will displayed for each category. If you prefer, your comments can be "Doing A work", etc. A comment describing the purpose of Progress Reports. I have given a suggested statement. If you want to use mine just tap <Y>. If you want to make up one of your own, press <N>. Once you fill out this information, you can change it from inside the progress report menu. This information is stored in a setup file and you will not need to fill it out again. Page 41 The Progress Report Menu After going through the setup, you will be asked for the date of the progress report. If you intend to send the report out imme- diately, just hit <ENTER>. If you plan to send it out later, write in the date you plan to send it. When asked how many weeks in the present grading period, choose only the number of weeks in the grading period now active (Grading period 1, 2 or 3). After completing this screen, you will move on to the progress report menu. Option 1: Go directly to a student Use this option if you only plan to send out one or two progress reports and you know exactly who you want. Option 2: Scroll through all your students This allows you to look at all the students in your class and do the reports as you go. Option 3: Change your setup information You use this option to change any of the information that you completed when you entered the Progress Report Menu for the first time. Writing a Progress Report 1. Choose a student for your report. Use either Progress Report Option 1 or 2 to select the student. 2. Press <D> The various category grade averages will be calculated. 3. You will see the comments that are assigned to each category grade. You will be given room to write down up to two lines of personal comments for the student. To keep the program size manageable, this program does not have word wrap. At the end of each line you must hit the <ENTER> key. If you do not want to make a comment, just press <ENTER> twice. 4. You will be asked if you want to include a printout of the student's grades. This is a simple listing, similar the student summary printout. 5. Finally, press to print out your progress report or <Q> to cancel the printout. If you forgot to turn on your printer, you will be told about the problem and returned to the student's grade screen. Page 42 Changing Your Setup Information By choosing option number three, you may change any or all of the information in the progress report setup file. You have the following options. They should be self explanitory. 1] Change School, Teacher and Grade Period Date Information 2] Redefine Categories 3] Change Comments for Category Achievement 4] Change Progress Report Introductory Statement 0] Quit QUITTING THE PROGRAM To quit the program, press <11> and <ENTER> at the Master Menu. Never quit the program by just turning the computer off. This program will frequently save its information as it returns to the system. If you turn the computer off or reset the computer while this program is in use, some of your data may be lost and your files may be corrupted. APPENDIX A: ERROR CODES The following Run-Time Error Messages may be given as you run a TeacherWorks program. These codes may be followed by additional information such as a file or variable name. 10. File does not exist: An attempt has been made to open a file that cannot be found. Note the name of the file and see if it is on your data disk or in the "GRADES" directory. If not, copy it over from one of the original disks. This problem may also occur if you select the wrong disk for your data. 17. Invalid drive specifier: An invalid drive specifier has been selected. Check and see if you have selected a non-existing disk drive for your data (eg. drive M). 22. Error creating file: An error occurred during an attempt to create or write to a file. The most likely causes are failure to incorporate the proper CONFIG.SYS during system boot, insuffi- cient disk space, or a bad disk. 23. Error opening file: An error occurred during an attempt to open a file. The most probable cause is a failure to include the proper CONFIG.SYS during boot. Another cause may be that the file may not exist on the drive or directory where it is supposed to be found. 24. Error closing file: The most frequent cause of an error while an application is closing a file is insufficient disk space or you may have removed the data disk from the data drive. 26. Error writing file: The most frequent cause of an error while an application is writing to a file is insufficient disk space, usually during an operation that opens a new file, such as sorting (alphabetizing) data. 30. Record out of range: Usually only occurs within a shell or DESQview. May also require you to reindex your files if you are in the makeup utility (option 2). 31. Not a dBASE III database: A data file may have a damaged structure header. Always back up your work. If this happens, simply copy your backup file over to the data drive. 39. Maximum allowed number of records reached: Since it is unlikely that you have passed a billion records, this would indicate that your file has been damaged either by a bad drive or improper handling. 40. Printer is either not connected or turned off: In most instances, your TeacherWorks program will check to see if the printer is ready to go and warn you if it is not. It is possible that this error may occur however. A.1 43. Not enough memory: This message marks an attempt to run TeacherWorks on a computer with insufficient TPA (RAM less oper- ating system less device drivers.). For most instances, a mini- mum of 400K is necessary to run a TeacherWorks program. Some options require at least 450K. APPENDIX B: PROBLEM PREVENTION 1. Using with DESQview When using DESQview on an XT class computer, this program can bomb out after printing information. Even more difficult is a problem that seems to occur within DESQview when moving stu- dents from one class to another and the data files are on the same directory as the program files. The solution here would be to not print or move students while using this program within DESQview. I have contacted Quarterdeck and told them of the problem, but have not been apprised of any changes. Since I have no access to a 386 machine, I do not know if this problem exists in that environment. 2. Improper program closing If you turn off or reset the computer while inside a Teach- erWorks program, you may destroy your file access. An example would be what happened to one Beta Tester. This tester created a new data disk, added over a hundred names and then added five grades to each name (about 3 hours of work). He then turned off the computer without exiting the program. The result was that the next time he booted up, MENU.DBF was empty and GRADES.DBF was not set up. All of his data was correct within his individual classes, but he could not access that information without MENU and GRADES. If this should happen, create another data disk, go through the setup process, then create exactly the same files that you had before. Next, copy all your classes from the original data disk over the newly created class file names using the DOS COPY command. Finally, if possible, use dBASE III, dBXL, or some other dBASE compatible program to edit the information inside MENU.DBF (you'll need to input the number of students in each class). 3. Backing up your work As with all data, accidents can happen. Always assume something bad will happen, back your work up each day, and you should be safe from most disasters. To back up your work, place a blank, formatted disk in drive A: and your data disk into the other drive. Log onto your data disk and type: COPY *.DBF A: B.1