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1988-08-30
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200KB
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3,698 lines
DOCUMENTATION FOR GRADE GUIDE
Version 3.xx Series
(C)Copyright 1988, Jon Kane
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
GRADE GUIDE is a versatile program used for the storing,
retrieving, and analyzing of students' grades. It does not require any
special hardware but it does take advantage of color graphics cards,
printers, and fixed disk drives when they are available. Its use on
computers with less than 128 K of memory may be limited. Some of its
features include:
-displaying easy to follow menus showing users all available options.
-selecting any option by touching one keyboard key.
-listing names, ID's, grades, and statistics in several formats.
-separating grades into categories such as EXAM, QUIZ, or HOMEWORK.
-recording grades either as number scores, letter grades, or both.
-giving grades of NONE to students whose grades are not yet available.
-evaluating NONE grades either as zero grades or as ignored grades.
-basing number grades on any maximum value, not just 100 points.
-dropping the lowest or the lowest few scores in a category of grades.
-weighting each grade and each category when calculating averages.
-saving NOTES about absentee records, comments, or special grades.
-letting you change any of the stored students' information.
-rescaling by adding or multiplying students' grades by a constant.
-accommodating up to 2000 grades per student.
-putting no limit on the number of students until the memory is full.
-allowing names and grades to be read from any DOS text file.
-basing letter grades on almost any grading system; not just ABCDF.
-having information displayed on screen, with printer, or to a file.
-printing grade reports in a form convenient for handing to students.
-supplying statistical reports and graphs of students' performance.
-writing letters which include information about the students' grades.
-creating grade report tables designed by the user.
-backing up disk files at regular intervals to avoid lost work.
-configuring the program to function as you want it to function.
-using colors to aid readability when color hardware is available.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
= DOCUMENTATION TABLE OF CONTENTS =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
INTRODUCTION AND LICENSING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
GETTING STARTED WITH GRADE GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
FILE MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
OPTION A -- Choosing a Disk Drive or Directory . . . . . . . . 6
OPTION B -- Choosing a Class File and Using Command Line
Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
OPTION C -- Moving to the MAIN MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
OPTION D -- Moving to the DEFAULT MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
OPTION E -- Combining Two Class Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
OPTION F -- Recovering a Backup File . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
OPTION G -- Changing Between Printer Output and File Output . 9
OPTION H -- Changing Color Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
OPTION Q -- Quitting GRADE GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Page 1
ENTERING INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
commands; numbers; character strings; student names;
change mode; illegal characters
THE MAIN MENU CHOICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
MAIN MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
OPTION A -- Entering New Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
OPTION B -- Entering New Grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Reviewing NONE grades; Creating a grade based on the
GRAND AVERAGE
OPTION C -- Entering New Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
OPTION D -- Dropping Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
OPTION E -- Dropping, Adjusting, or Deleting Grades . . . . . 21
Dropping grades; Adjusting grades; Deleting grades;
Temporarily and permanently changing grades
OPTION F -- Dropping Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
OPTION G -- Displaying, Printing, or Changing Students' Names 23
OPTION H -- Displaying, Printing, or Changing Students' Grades
& Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Listing grades; Entering, viewing, and changing NOTES;
Printing grade lists
OPTION I -- Displaying, Printing, or Changing Limits, Weights
or Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
OPTION J -- Displaying, Printing, or Changing Category
Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
OPTION K -- Displaying or Printing Class Statistics . . . . . 29
OPTION L -- Writing Reports in Roster Format . . . . . . . . . 30
OPTION M -- Writing Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
OPTION Q -- Quitting and Returning to the FILE MENU . . . . . 37
CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
DEFAULT MENU OPTION A -- Setting up default directories and
back-ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
directories; disk drive; directory changing; back-up time
interval
DEFAULT MENU OPTION B -- Changing the Methods of Grade Calculations 40
grand average weighted; value of an empty category; basis
of grade from average; converting of letter values;
letter grade percentages; grade confirmations; treat none
grades as zero; labeling of categories; listing grades
with labels; grade report form
DEFAULT MENU OPTION D -- Changing the way GRADE GUIDE
displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
start in color mode; lines per page; maximum roster
width; statistics grade list; statistics histogram;
roster statistics; decimal digits for totals; decimal
digits for averages; letter grade display names
DEFAULT MENU OPTION E -- Changing the Use of the Editing Keys 51
DEFAULT MENU OPTION Q -- Quitting and Returning to the FILE
MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
MEMORY REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
INPUT/OUTPUT PROBLEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
SUGGESTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Page 2
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
= INTRODUCTION AND LICENSING =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
This program has been written and tested with great care to try to
insure data integrity and accuracy of results. On the other hand, the
programmer will not be liable for damages caused by use of GRADE GUIDE.
GRADE GUIDE was designed to aid a teacher in the routine tasks
associated with storing, reporting, and analyzing students' grades, and
was not designed to take grading or teaching decisions away from the
teacher.
GRADE GUIDE Version 3.xx series is being distributed as Version
3.00 on three files: "GRADEGID.EXE" which contains the program,
"GRADEGID.OVR" which contains overlay code for the program, and
"GRADEGID.DOC" which contains a copy of this documentation. GRADE GUIDE
Version 3.01 operates the same way that GRADE GUIDE Version 3.00 does
except that it does not use program overlays. Thus GRADE GUIDE Version
3.01 is distributed on two files: "GRADEGID.EXE" and "GRADEGID.DOC".
Version 3.01 is not being made available for general distribution.
Copies of Version 3.01 are made available to registered users of GRADE
GUIDE. Other versions of GRADE GUIDE in the 3.xx series include minor
modifications made available as site licensed programs.
The programmer maintains a copyright on this program, its displays,
and its documentation. Any person may be licensed to use this program
and may make as many copies of the program as desired. A short term
license is granted to all new users at no cost. After users have had a
chance to use GRADE GUIDE for a short evaluation period, not to exceed
six months, they must register to obtain a license for continued use.
If you have not sent a registration fee to Jon Kane, then you do not
have a license for continued use of this program. Users who only
obtained a copy of this program from a third party are not registered
users. Fees paid to such a third party do not include payment of a
registration fee. To register, send the version number of this program
and $25.00 payable to Jon Kane to:
GRADE GUIDE, c/o Jon Kane, 2814 Regent Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53705.
The registration fee entitles one to continued use of the program, a
diskette containing a copy of GRADE GUIDE, a printed copy of this
documentation, and assistance in configuring GRADE GUIDE (setting up the
correct GRADEGID.DFT file.) If your payment is being sent by a third
party (such as the school purchasing agent), send notification of your
payment to the above address so that the license can be registered in
your name.
Each user of GRADE GUIDE is required to register. Registration is
not automatically extended to a user's spouse or other family members.
If a household has one registered user, a second person at that
household may be licensed to use the program by sending the second
person's name and an additional $10 fee to the above address. This
second license entitles the second person to use the program, but it
does NOT entitle the second person to an additional copy of the program
or an additional copy of the documentation since adequate access to
these materials should already be available. The second person license
cannot be extended to a third person.
Page 3
Site licenses are also available. A site license grants all people
employed at a site or institution the right to use the program as long
as they remain employed at that institution. It can also include making
some minor modifications to GRADE GUIDE for special use at that site.
Site licenses are offered to groups of 10 or more users. To obtain
information about the cost of a site license, contact Jon Kane at the
above address. Include the name and address of the site or institution,
the number of potential users of the program employed at that site, and
the number of printed copies of the documentation that are required.
All users, whether licensed or not, should feel free to give this
program to others as long as the copyright notices within the program,
on the display, and in the documentation remain unchanged. All copies
distributed should include the three files "GRADEGID.EXE",
"GRADEGID.OVR", and "GRADEGID.DOC".
GRADE GUIDE is designed to make it easy to use. In fact, users
find that they can operate most of the features of GRADE GUIDE without
ever reading any of this documentation. It is, therefore, unnecessary
for a new user to memorize the operating procedures described in this
documentation. It may be a good idea to read or skim this documentation
once to get an idea of what GRADE GUIDE is capable of doing for you, and
so you can see how the program operates. While using GRADE GUIDE, you
can always see what options are available to you, so you only need to be
mildly familiar with GRADE GUIDE to use it.
If you have any suggestions for improvements, have found any bugs,
or wish to have this program customized to your specific grading
requirements, you may inquire about changes at the above address.
Version 3.00 has been released in response to users' suggestions about
earlier versions of GRADE GUIDE. In particular, if you need to have
GRADE GUIDE perform a specialized task such as preparing a file which
you could use with your statistical or spreadsheet program or
calculating a final grade using some special method, you may be able to
have a GRADE GUIDE COMPANION program written which will perform your
special task. Cost will depend on the task and number of users.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
= GETTING STARTED WITH GRADE GUIDE =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The GRADE GUIDE Version 3.00 program is stored in two files named
"GRADEGID.EXE" and "GRADEGID.OVR". Both of these files must be present
when the program begins operation. It is easiest to place the
GRADEGID.OVR file on the same disk drive as the GRADEGID.EXE file. If
you use subdirectories, you may want the GRADEGID.OVR file in the same
subdirectory as the GRADEGID.EXE file is. If the GRADEGID.EXE file and
the GRADEGID.OVR file are not located in the same directory, DOS must be
able to find the GRADEGID.OVR file. You may move these files to any
floppy or fixed disk by using the DOS COPY command. The DOS PATH
command can be used to inform DOS how to find the GRADEGID.EXE file and
GRADEGID.OVR file. If your computer is equipped with sufficient Lotus-
Intel-Microsoft Expanded Memory (EMS), the GRADEGID.OVR file will be
loaded into the expanded memory.
GRADE GUIDE Version 3.01 is stored on one file, "GRADEGID.EXE". It
is loaded into memory all at one time. This provides for faster program
execution at the expense of much memory space.
Page 4
Whenever the "GRADEGID.EXE" and "GRADEGID.OVR" files are both
present on the default disk drive (Version 3.00), you may run the GRADE
GUIDE program by typing the name "GRADEGID" followed by a carriage
return, <CR>. The program begins by displaying a welcoming message
which remains on the screen until you press the space bar, <Space>.
GRADE GUIDE is a menu-driven program, which means that it performs
operations which you select from a list of possible operations by typing
a one letter command. GRADE GUIDE always displays on the screen the
list of operations from which you can choose. The first menu that you
see while running GRADE GUIDE is the FILE MENU. GRADE GUIDE stores
information about each of your classes in a separate disk file. You can
use the FILE MENU to choose which class file you want GRADE GUIDE to
process.
From the FILE MENU you can choose to go to the MAIN MENU. From the
MAIN MENU you can enter students' names and grades, display names and
grades, change names and grades, analyze grades, remove students from a
class, or write letters and reports. You can also establish grade
categories such as EXAMS, QUIZZES, HOMEWORK, and so forth, so that
grades in these different categories can be treated in different ways.
Also from the FILE MENU you can choose to go to the DEFAULT MENU.
From the DEFAULT MENU you can change many aspects of how GRADE GUIDE
operates. You can change how GRADE GUIDE displays information, how
GRADE GUIDE calculates grade averages, how GRADE GUIDE uses the cursor
control keys, and how GRADE GUIDE performs several other functions. It
is not necessary to use the DEFAULT MENU if you like the way GRADE GUIDE
has chosen to handle these operations. The instructions which follow
frequently note that some aspect of GRADE GUIDE performance can be
changed by using the DEFAULT MENU. The section of this documentation
entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS explains how to use the DEFAULT MENU
to make these changes.
If your computer has a color graphics card and a printer port, the
FILE MENU looks like the following table.
.......................................................................
: FILE MENU :
: :
: A : choose drive/directory F : recover from a backup file :
: B : choose class : G : redirect output to file :
: C : go on to the MAIN MENU H : change display to monochrome :
: D : go on to the DEFAULT MENU :
: E : combine two class files Q : quit the program :
: :
: Class Files in Directory : \ :
:.....................................................................:
If your computer does not have a color graphics card, OPTION H is not
displayed. If GRADE GUIDE thinks that your computer does not have a
printer port, OPTION G is displayed as "G : redirect output to printer".
Then GRADE GUIDE tells you that it has prepared a DOS file to which you
can send printer output (see OPTION G below).
Page 5
OPTION A -- Choosing a Disk Drive or Directory
This option allows you to choose which disk drive you want GRADE
GUIDE to search for the class files that you use. If you always store
your class files on the same disk and in the same directory that you
store the "GRADEGID.EXE" and "GRADEGID.OVR" files, you never need to use
OPTION A.
After selecting OPTION A, just type the letter of the disk drive
you want. GRADE GUIDE then asks you for the directory of the newly
chosen drive. You can enter a carriage return, <CR>, or escape key,
<Esc>, and GRADE GUIDE uses the current default directory for that disk
drive, or you can clear the old directory name (press the <F2> function
key) and enter a new directory name. GRADE GUIDE uses the standard DOS
rules for naming directories. Once your new drive and directory names
have been accepted, GRADE GUIDE lists for you all the classes available
on the new drive and directory. (NOTE! GRADE GUIDE can be set so that
it automatically chooses a particular drive or directory for you. See
the section in this documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for
details.)
Suppose, for example, you have just finished using a class file on
floppy drive B. If you change the floppy disk which is in drive B, you
can use OPTION A to update the "Class Files in Directory" list to
reflect the contents of the new disk. Use OPTION A to change the
default disk drive to drive B (even though the default drive was B
already.) This will cause the directory to be updated. The same
process can be used to change directories on the same disk.
OPTION B -- Choosing a Class File and Using Command Line Parameters
GRADE GUIDE stores information about each of your classes in a
separate file. When you select OPTION B, you may enter the name of
either a previously created class file or a new class file which you
would now like to create. Your class name may be from one to eight
characters long and may include letters, digits, or even some special
characters (hyphen, underscore, exclamation point, and so forth). You
may not use a period or a space in the name. The name you select is
then displayed on the screen next to the "B : choose class" option.
If there are already some class names listed on the screen, you may
select (or edit) one of those names by using the cursor control keys.
When you select OPTION B, a blank cursor appears in the list of class
names. Pressing cursor control keys move that cursor to class names in
the list of classes. When the cursor moves to a class name, that name
appears on the screen next to the "B : choose class" option. Pressing
the carriage return, <CR>, or the escape key, <Esc>, selects the name.
There is one other way to select a disk drive, a directory, or a
class file. When you begin using GRADE GUIDE by typing "gradegid", you
may include a command line parameter. The parameter can be typed after
the "gradegid" command but on the same line as that command. With the
parameter you can tell GRADE GUIDE what your choices are for disk drive,
directory, or class. The parameter may be in any one of the following
seven forms:
Page 6
drive: drive:class
directory\ directory\class
class drive:directory\
drive:directory\class
For example, if you want to choose class MATH-001 on disk drive B, you
could begin GRADE GUIDE with the command "gradegid b:math-001". This
feature is convenient to use if you like to run GRADE GUIDE from a batch
procedure.
NOTE! choosing a class file with this option does not cause the
program to proceed to the MAIN MENU where the class file can be
processed. You must choose OPTION C to continue on to the MAIN MENU.
The file that GRADE GUIDE creates for your class has a file name
which is the same as your class name with a file extension of "GRD".
Thus, the information that you store concerning the class "MATH-001" is
stored in the file "MATH-001.GRD". Whenever GRADE GUIDE updates a file
to save changes you have made to the stored information, the old version
of the file is kept as a backup and is given the file extension "BAK".
Thus, the backup file for MATH-001 is called "MATH-001.BAK". By using
OPTION A above, you can choose to have GRADE GUIDE store and read class
files in any directory on any disk drive that your computer has.
If you no longer need to have a particular class on file, you may
simply delete the "GRD" and "BAK" files for that class by using the DOS
ERASE or DEL commands. For example: ERASE MATH-001.GRD. GRADE GUIDE
was purposely designed not to do this deletion for you so that it would
be difficult to lose an entire class of grades accidentally. As in any
work done on computers, it is always a good idea to keep extra copies of
your class files on backup disks in case you encounter physical problems
with the floppy or fixed disk where your class files are stored.
OPTION C -- Moving to the MAIN MENU
With this option GRADE GUIDE proceeds to the MAIN MENU where you
can choose to perform many functions with the class file that you have
selected with OPTION B. If the program cannot find a "GRD" file for the
class you have chosen in the directory of the currently chosen disk
drive, it asks you if the class is a new class. If it is a new class,
respond Y and GRADE GUIDE creates a new file for your new class.
Otherwise, answer N and check to see that you have spelled the name of
the class correctly and have chosen the correct directory, disk drive,
and diskette.
GRADE GUIDE does not allow you to select OPTION C before you select
a class to process using OPTION B.
OPTION D -- Moving to the DEFAULT MENU
GRADE GUIDE allows you to change several aspects of its behavior.
In particular, you may select default disk drives or directories so that
GRADE GUIDE always selects the correct drive and directory for you. You
may also set up GRADE GUIDE so that it does not continually ask you
questions for which you always respond with the same answer. You can
tell GRADE GUIDE to use different methods for calculating students'
averages, different ways to display information, and different ways to
Page 7
use the keyboard. To learn how to set these defaults, see the section
of this documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS.
OPTION E -- Combining Two Class Files
Occasionally you may want to combine the information which is
currently being stored in two different classes. There are at least two
common reasons why you may want to do this.
The first case can arise when you are teaching two sections of the
same class. Suppose that students in each section receive the same
assignments and take the same or comparable tests. If you originally
decided to store these two classes of students in two separate class
files but later decide that it would be better to store all of the
students in one file, then you want to combine the two files.
The second case can arise when you teach a course which runs for
more than one semester, quarter, or grading period. You may want to
store the grades for one semester on one file and the second semester on
a second file. Then you may want to combine these two files at the end
of the course so that you have a complete list of all the grades
obtained throughout the entire course.
If you have more than two classes that you want to combine, you can
easily combine two classes at a time until you have all the classes
combined into one.
When you choose to combine classes, GRADE GUIDE asks you to enter
the names of the two classes that you want to combine and for the name
of the new class which will be created when combining the old classes.
The two old classes must be available on the current default disk drive.
The new class can have the same name as one of the old classes. If you
enter a blank name for any one of the three classes, GRADE GUIDE will
return to the FILE MENU.
After you enter the class names, GRADE GUIDE will read the
information for the two old classes and check that it is possible to
combine the two files. If the two old classes have no students in
common, then GRADE GUIDE expects that you are trying to combine two
sections of the same course. In this case, GRADE GUIDE requires that
the two classes have the same categories defined with the same number of
grades entered. If the two old classes have some students in common,
then GRADE GUIDE expects that you are combining two different semesters,
quarters, or grading periods of the same course. In this case, the two
classes do not have to have the same categories defined. Grades from
each student in the second class will be added onto the list of grades
from the same student in the first class. GRADE GUIDE only requires
that the total number of grades and the total number of categories do
not exceed normal limits.
Before GRADE GUIDE combines the two classes, it asks you to confirm
that you do want to combine the two files. If you do, GRADE GUIDE
combines the classes and writes a copy of the new file on the disk.
When you return to the FILE MENU, the new class will appear as the
current class name.
Page 8
OPTION F -- Recovering a Backup File
If you have made serious errors while changing a class file, this
option allows you to recover the backup file for that class. For
example, you can have the "MATH-001.GRD" file deleted and replaced by
the "MATH-001.BAK" file. It has the same effect as performing the two
DOS commands
ERASE MATH-001.GRD
RENAME MATH-001.BAK MATH-001.GRD
NOTE! GRADE GUIDE periodically makes backup copies of your file, making
the old MATH-001.GRD file into the new MATH-001.BAK file. So, if you
have made serious errors from which you would like to recover, be sure
to exit GRADE GUIDE before your file is backed up a second time.
OPTION G -- Changing Between Printer Output and File Output
GRADE GUIDE allows you to view information about students on the
screen or to print that information with a printer. Some users may wish
to have the information stored on a DOS text file. By selecting OPTION
F, you tell GRADE GUIDE that you would like to write your information to
a file rather than with the printer. GRADE GUIDE then allows you to
write information to a file named "GRADEOUT.1" which will be stored in
the directory you have currently chosen for your class files. If GRADE
GUIDE finds that you already have a file named "GRADEOUT.1", it calls
the new file "GRADEOUT.2" or "GRADEOUT.3" or uses some other extension
number so that the new file will not be confused with an old file.
There are many times when GRADE GUIDE gives you the option of
writing information either on the screen or with the printer. After
selecting OPTION F, GRADE GUIDE changes so that you have the option of
writing information either on the screen or to the GRADEOUT file. The
information is written to the GRADEOUT file in exactly the same form as
it would have appeared on the printer (including the use of form feed
characters.)
This option may be convenient to use if you do not wish to use the
printer at the present time. You could write your report to the
GRADEOUT file and print it at a later time. It may also be useful if
you want to change the way that GRADE GUIDE presents information by
editing the GRADEOUT file with a text editor or a word processing
program. Another possible use of this feature is to create a file of
information which can then be read by a spreadsheet program, database
program, or other statistical analysis program.
GRADE GUIDE allows you to keep sending information to the same
GRADEOUT file even if you change the class file which you are using.
Selecting OPTION F a second time causes GRADE GUIDE to end writing to
the GRADEOUT file and again send information to the printer. If GRADE
GUIDE never writes any information to the GRADEOUT file so that the file
remains empty, then GRADE GUIDE erases the file and no new GRADEOUT file
appears in your directory.
NOTE! if you do not have a printer port on your computer, then
GRADE GUIDE automatically assumes that you want to set up a GRADEOUT
file when you begin running GRADE GUIDE. Occasionally, on some not-so-
compatible computer systems, GRADE GUIDE cannot tell that there is a
Page 9
printer attached to the system when in fact there is a printer. In
those cases you can select OPTION G to tell GRADE GUIDE that your
computer does have a printer. GRADE GUIDE writes to DOS printer port
LPT1. If you have a serial printer or wish to use a second printer
attached to your computer, you will have to use the DOS MODE command
before you run GRADE GUIDE.
Printers often print a maximum of 80 or 120 characters per line.
Thus, GRADE GUIDE restricts printed output to no more than 80 characters
per line. When writing to a GRADEOUT file or when using a larger
printer, you might not want GRADE GUIDE to observe this restriction.
The 80 character restriction only affects output written by the roster
output feature of GRADE GUIDE (MAIN MENU OPTION L.) This 80 character
restriction on the roster output width can be changed. See the section
in this documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for details.
OPTION H -- Changing Color Modes
If your computer has a color graphics card, OPTION H is displayed.
It allows you to force the display to appear in black and white rather
than in color. This option is provided for those users who might have a
monochrome display or TV connected to their color graphics card which
can be difficult to read when the screen displays in color. If the H
option is chosen and the display is in black and white, then the H
option allows you to change back from black and white to color. OPTION
H is omitted if your computer does not have a color graphics card.
(NOTE! you can reset GRADE GUIDE so that it always begins in monochrome
mode rather than in color mode. See the section in this documentation
entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for details.)
OPTION Q -- Quitting GRADE GUIDE
When you are done using GRADE GUIDE, select OPTION Q. GRADE GUIDE
will ask you to confirm that you want to exit the program. You may also
exit from GRADE GUIDE at any time that GRADE GUIDE is running by
entering a <Ctrl-Break> (hold down the Ctrl key and press the Break
key.) (When GRADE GUIDE is waiting for you to enter a key at the
keyboard, <Ctrl-C> as well as <Ctrl-Break> will allow you to exit.)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
= ENTERING INFORMATION =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Often GRADE GUIDE asks you to enter information. Here are a few
rules about entering such information.
COMMANDS
To enter a command, merely press the key for the letter correspond-
ing to the menu choice for that command. The response may be in upper
case or lower case and you do not need to press the carriage return,
<CR>.
NUMBERS
To enter a number just enter the digits for the number you want.
The digits that you press appear in reverse video on the display. Do
not use a decimal point (".") when entering a whole number or a sign
Page 10
("+" or "-") when entering any number. If you make a mistake while
entering a number, you can backspace over the mistake using the
backspace key. You can also correct errors by moving the cursor to the
left with the <F9> function key or to the right with the <F10> function
key. If the cursor is at the first character of the input, then
pressing <F9> will bring the cursor to the last character entered.
Similarly, if the cursor is at the last character of the input, then
pressing <F10> will bring the cursor to the first character entered.
You may insert new characters at the current cursor position by typing
the characters on the keyboard. You can delete the character at the
current cursor position by pressing the <Del> key. If you press the
<F2> function key, it will clear your input so that you can start over
from scratch. You can complete your input by typing a carriage return,
<CR>, by pressing the space bar, <Space>, or by pressing the escape key
<Esc>.
If you are entering a grade and do not type any digits, then the
grade is entered as NONE. When entering weights or percentages, you may
add up to 3 decimal digits to the number. Weights and percentages can
have up to 3 digits to the left and 3 digits to the right of the decimal
point.
CHARACTER STRINGS
Character strings can be entered the same way that numbers are
entered except that the input is always ended with a <CR> or <Esc>, not
with a <Space>. Students' names, aliases and notes, category names,
class names, input file names, letter grades, and comments are all
entered as character strings. Character strings entered as names,
aliases, or letter grades may not begin with a <Space>.
NOTE! GRADE GUIDE distinguishes between upper and lower case
letters. So, when you enter a student's name, be sure to use the same
capitalization as you plan to use when referring to that student later
on. Similarly, if you want names of categories to appear in capital
letters, then you should enter those names using capital letters.
STUDENT NAMES
Occasionally you must tell GRADE GUIDE the name of a student. (See
MAIN MENU OPTIONS B, D, H, and M.) When entering the name of a student
that you want GRADE GUIDE to find, it is not necessary to type the full
name of that student. If GRADE GUIDE cannot find the name that you
typed, it will look for a name which CONTAINS what you typed. If it
finds such a name, it asks you if that is the name you want. If you say
no (N), then it keeps looking.
For example, if you want to find the student "Smith, John" and you
asked for the name "John", GRADE GUIDE might ask you if you meant
"Baker, John" since that name also contains "John". If you respond N,
GRADE GUIDE will find "Smith, John".
CHANGE MODE
There are several places in GRADE GUIDE where you are given the
opportunity to change previously entered information by entering CHANGE
MODE. When this is done, you see the information which can be changed
being displayed on the screen in reverse video. If there are several
Page 11
items of information visible on the screen when you are in change mode,
then you are able to move from one item to another item by pressing one
of the cursor control keys, the up arrow, down arrow, left arrow, and
right arrow. NOTE the distinction between the use of the arrow keys and
the <F9> and <F10> function keys. The arrow keys move the reverse video
entry on the screen to another entry on the screen. The <F9> and <F10>
function keys move the cursor within one entry from one character to the
next.
You can exit from CHANGE MODE by using a carriage return, <CR>, or
escape key, <Esc>. Remember, if you want to clear an old entry so that
you can begin entering a completely new one, you should press the <F2>
function key.
Because some keyboards do not allow you to use the cursor control
keys and the numeric keypad at the same time, GRADE GUIDE allows you to
use four of the function keys instead of the cursor control keys. You
can use
<F5> in place of up arrow,
<F6> in place of down arrow,
<F7> in place of left arrow,
and <F8> in place of right arrow.
(NOTE! you can change the keys that GRADE GUIDE uses for cursor
movements or editing functions. You can define the keys so that they
work the way you are used to having cursor and editing keys work. See
the section in this documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for
details.)
If you move from one item of information on the screen to another
or escape from CHANGE MODE without entering any new characters, then the
old information remains unchanged and is redisplayed in normal video.
If you wish to change a previously entered grade to a grade of NONE,
then while you are in change mode you would first press the <F2>
function key to clear the present entry and then press <Esc> or an arrow
key to accept the new entry.
ILLEGAL CHARACTERS
If at any time while running GRADE GUIDE you press a key which
GRADE GUIDE was not expecting, the computer beeps to signal that the key
was not expected. The key you pressed is not recorded or displayed in
any way, and you may continue by typing any legal key.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
= THE MAIN MENU CHOICES =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
GRADE GUIDE allows you to enter students' names, ID's, and grades,
and then allows you to view or print that information and some related
statistics. It also makes it easy for you to change any of the
information that you have entered. The MAIN MENU shows you the choices
you have when performing these operations with a class. The menu looks
like the following table.
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.......................................................................
: MAIN MENU :
: :
: :
: A : add student names D : drop student names :
: B : add student grades E : drop/adjust grades :
: C : add grade categories F : drop grade categories :
: :
: G : display/print/change student names :
: H : display/print/change student grades & notes :
: I : display/print/change grade limits, weights, & labels :
: J : display/print/change category names, percents, & labeling :
: :
: K : display/print class statistics :
: L : display/print class roster :
: M : display/print letters :
: :
: Q : quit and return to FILE MENU :
:.....................................................................:
While the MAIN MENU is being displayed, you may choose to perform
one of 13 grading operations labeled A to M, or you may press Q to quit
and return to the FILE MENU. When you establish a new class, you will
usually first choose OPTION A which allows you to enter the names of
your students.
Next you will select OPTION C so that you can establish some grade
categories. GRADE GUIDE stores grades in grade categories. These
categories allow you to keep different types of grades separate. For
example, you might want to establish one category for EXAMS, one for
QUIZZES, and one for HOMEWORK. GRADE GUIDE can list students' grades by
category, can calculate the total and average of each student's grades
within a category, and can calculate the average of all the students'
grades within a category. Also, GRADE GUIDE can automatically calculate
an overall average score for each student called the GRAND AVERAGE. You
can tell GRADE GUIDE how to combine the average grades in each category
to calculate this GRAND AVERAGE.
OPTION B allows you to enter grades for your students and assign
weighting factors to those grades. After entering names and grades for
each student, you can list names using OPTION G, you can list grades
using OPTION H, you can calculate some statistical reports concerning
the class' performance using OPTION K, and you can print a wide variety
of reports using OPTIONS I, J, and L. OPTIONS G, H, I, and J also allow
you to change the information that you have previously entered in case
there are errors or needed modifications. OPTION M allows you to have a
form letter or customized grade report printed with an individual
student's name and grades inserted into the letter at appropriate
places. OPTION H can also be used to store notes for each student.
Notes can be used for recording text information and can be used for
absentee information, behavior reports, personal information, or other
comments.
If you need to remove students from the class, use OPTION D. If
you wish to drop the lowest grades for each student, use OPTION E.
OPTION E can also help you to adjust a grade for purposes of rescaling
or to have a grade removed altogether. If you want to remove one of the
categories that have you established, use OPTION F.
Page 13
Here is a more detailed description of each of the MAIN MENU
options.
OPTION A -- Entering New Names
Choose OPTION A if you want to enter the names of students not
previously entered into your class. GRADE GUIDE displays a menu with
seven choices. To enter new names from the keyboard, select choice A.
Then GRADE GUIDE allows you to enter a list of names. Each name can be
up to 20 characters long. GRADE GUIDE notifies you if you enter a name
which has already been entered into your class so that no duplication of
names will occur. Names may be entered in any order; GRADE GUIDE
alphabetizes them for you. It is helpful to enter each student's name
either in the form of last name followed by a comma followed by first
name, or in the form of last name followed by a space followed by first
name. If this is done, GRADE GUIDE can determine the first and last
names of each student. This may be important to you if you plan to have
GRADE GUIDE write letters to students or parents using MAIN MENU OPTION
M. In either form, there can be as many spaces as you desire between
the last name and the first name. When you are finished entering the
new names, press <CR> or <Esc> without entering any characters.
If you enter new students into a class which already has some
grades assigned, the new students are automatically given grades of NONE
for each of the previously entered grades. You can change these NONE
grades by using MAIN MENU OPTIONS B or H.
GRADE GUIDE also lets you enter an ALIAS for each student, although
this is not required. You may wish to use the alias for a student ID
number, a set of initials, a phone number, a nickname, a course section
number, or any other piece of information up to 12 characters long. One
advantage of using aliases is that you are then able to list students'
grades by alias rather than by name. Some teachers prefer listing
students' grades by alias so that the grade lists can be posted without
permitting any student to learn the grades of another student. Even
though no two students can have the same name, many students are allowed
to share the same alias. If two students have the same alias and
students are listed in the order of their aliases, then those two
students will appear next to each other in the list in alphabetical
order determined by their names.
There are two ways to enter aliases from the keyboard. If you have
entered a list of students' names and later want to assign aliases to
those students, you may do so by selecting choice B from the ADD STUDENT
NAMES menu. GRADE GUIDE then lists for you the names of the students in
the class who do not yet have aliases assigned to them. Each name
appears on the screen and for each name, you may enter an alias. You
may continue entering aliases until all students in the class have been
assigned aliases, or you may enter a <CR> or <Esc> to stop.
Another way to enter aliases is to use choice C from the ADD
STUDENT NAMES menu. This allows you to enter aliases at the same time
that you are entering students' names. For each new student's name that
you enter, GRADE GUIDE allows you to enter an alias for that student.
(See MAIN MENU OPTION G for still another method of entering aliases.)
Page 14
Each of the choices for entering names and aliases (A, B, and C)
allows you to enter information from the keyboard. GRADE GUIDE can also
read this same information from a DOS text file. If you have students'
names or aliases on a text file and want to have GRADE GUIDE read those
names rather than having you type them at the keyboard, then you can
select choice D, E, or F. This can give you a fast way to enter names
and ID's if there is a file containing this information for students in
your class.
When you select OPTIONS D, E, or F from the ADD STUDENT NAMES menu,
GRADE GUIDE asks you for the name of the DOS file containing the
information that you want to enter. If you do not specify the drive or
directory of the file, the directory used is the same as the class
file's directory. GRADE GUIDE will expect to find information for one
student on each line of that file where each line ends with a carriage
return. Each line may be up to 250 characters long. GRADE GUIDE asks
you to enter the beginning and ending columns (tab positions) for the
position on the line where the names or aliases can be found. The first
line of your file is displayed on the screen to help you remember which
columns to choose. While reading the names or aliases, GRADE GUIDE
displays the new information, deletes leading and trailing blanks in the
input, and does not use any duplicate names.
OPTION B -- Entering New Grades
This option allows you to enter new grades for all the students in
your class. Since all grades are entered into categories, some
categories must be established (MAIN MENU OPTION C) before you can enter
grades. If you have established at least one category, you are shown an
ADD STUDENT GRADES menu with eight choices. To enter grades from the
keyboard, select choice A or choice B. If you select choice A, GRADE
GUIDE asks you to enter your students' grades in the same order as your
students are listed alphabetically by name. If you select choice B and
you have given your students aliases, GRADE GUIDE asks you to enter the
grades in the same order as they are listed alphabetically by alias.
GRADE GUIDE allows you to record grades in three different formats:
NUMBER, LETTER, and NUMBER WITH CUTOFF. When you establish a category
(MAIN MENU OPTION C), you select which method you want to use for
storing grades. If you select the option LETTER, then all the grades
that you enter into that category will be letter grades. GRADE GUIDE
accepts the standard letters grades from a 4.0 scale
GRADE VALUE
----- -----
A 4
B 3
C 2
D 1
F 0
Page 15
In addition, the following less standard grades are accepted
GRADE VALUE GRADE VALUE
------ ----- ------ -----
A+ 4.333
A- 3.667
B+ 3.333 AB 3.5
B- 2.667 BC 2.5
C+ 2.333 CD 1.5
C- 1.667 DF 0.5
D+ 1.333
D- 0.667
F+ 0.333
F- -0.333
(NOTE! you can change both the letters used and their corresponding
values. See the section in this documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT
SETTINGS for details.)
If you establish a category and you want to record grades in that
category as numbers, then you can select the option NUMBER rather than
LETTER for that category. The third option, that of NUMBER WITH CUTOFF,
allows you to store grades in a format similar to storing grades with
the NUMBER format except that you are allowed to enter for each grade in
that category a set of four CUTOFF grades representing the lowest
numeric score for the grades of A, B, C, and D. The only difference
between this method of storing grades and that of the NUMBER method is
that with the NUMBER WITH CUTOFF method, when students' grades are
listed, the number score is listed, and along with it, the associated
letter grade. When you enter new grades into this category, you can
choose to enter grade cutoffs. If you do not elect to enter cutoffs,
then grades will be listed without the associated letter grade. (Grade
cutoffs can be changed at any time with MAIN MENU OPTION I.) All grades
stored with the NUMBER or the NUMBER WITH CUTOFF method must be whole
numbers in the range from 0 to 250.
When you use MAIN MENU OPTION B to enter grades, GRADE GUIDE needs
to know which types of grades you wish to enter. After you select a
choice from the ADD STUDENT GRADES menu, GRADE GUIDE shows you a list of
your categories. For example
A : EXAM
B : QUIZ
C : HOMEWORK
If you only want to enter one grade, let us say a QUIZ grade, then press
b (in either upper or lower case) followed by a <CR>. GRADE GUIDE
responds by showing you the grade
QUIZ 1
GRADE GUIDE can also let you enter several grades at once. For example,
you could enter a QUIZ grade, an EXAM grade, a second QUIZ grade, and a
HOMEWORK grade. In that case you would type the choices "babc" followed
by a <CR>. GRADE GUIDE would respond by listing the grades
Page 16
QUIZ 1
EXAM 1
QUIZ 2
HOMEWORK 1
You may enter up to ten grades at one time. The number after the
category name tells you which grade of the category you are entering.
If you had previously entered three QUIZ grades, then the two new QUIZ
grades would be numbered 4 and 5. (It is legal to enter an empty list
of grades by typing only a <CR> when prompted for the grades you want to
enter. Do this if you really do not want to enter any grades.)
After confirming that the list of grades that you want to enter is
correct, you are asked to enter the maximum possible score for each of
the number grades, the A, B, C, and D cutoffs for each of the NUMBER
WITH CUTOFF grades, and a grade weight for all grades.
A category can be a LABELED category, which means for each grade in
that category you may attach a label describing the purpose for that
grade. If you are entering any grades into a LABELED category, then you
are asked to enter a grade label of up to 16 characters. For example,
for QUIZ 2 you might enter a label such as "Chapt. 2 Sect. 4".
To each grade that you enter, you may assign a weight. GRADE GUIDE
will ask you to enter this weight, although if you simply enter a <CR>
or <Esc>, the weight will default to being 1.0. This weight allows you
to put more or less emphasis on a grade. If, for example, you wish to
double the value of a grade, enter a weight of 2.0. If you want a grade
to have only half its normal value, enter a weight of 0.5. If you do
not want the grade to count at all, enter a weight of 0. The number you
enter for a weight may include up to three decimal digits.
For each of your students, GRADE GUIDE displays the student's name
and a place for you to insert each of the student's grades. You can
then enter each of the grades that you chose to enter. If for any grade
you enter a blank grade (by typing a <CR> before entering a grade), then
GRADE GUIDE records the special grade of NONE. NONE grades are intended
to be used for students who have not yet completed an assignment or when
you have decided not to assign a grade. NONE grades, like any other
grades, can be changed using MAIN MENU OPTION H. When GRADE GUIDE
calculates grade averages, it can either treat NONE grades as if they
had the value zero, or it can ignore NONE grades and treat them as if
the grade had never been assigned. GRADE GUIDE frequently asks you
whether or not you want NONE grades treated as zero. (NOTE! if you
always want GRADE GUIDE to treat NONE grades as zero or always want NONE
grades ignored, you can have GRADE GUIDE stop asking you. See the
section in this documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for
details.)
GRADE GUIDE allows you to enter students' grades which are larger
than the maximum possible scores which you entered. The larger numbers
will be treated as though there were extra credit given. For example,
if the maximum possible score on an EXAM is 100, and you enter a grade
of 110, then GRADE GUIDE will treat the grade as if it included 10
points of extra credit and will assign it a percentage of 110 %. GRADE
GUIDE displays a reminder whenever a grade is entered which exceeds the
maximum possible score for that grade.
Page 17
Before entering grades, GRADE GUIDE asks you:
Do you want to confirm inputs (Y/N) ?
If you respond with Y, then after each student's grades are entered,
GRADE GUIDE will ask you if the grades you entered are correct. If you
say that they are not correct, GRADE GUIDE will enter CHANGE MODE, and
you will be able to change the grades that you just entered. Entry
errors can always be corrected later using MAIN MENU OPTION H, but it is
often more convenient to correct errors at the time you make them.
NOTE! the use of maximum possible scores equal to zero or NONE can
cause strange results when category percentages and GRAND AVERAGES are
calculated.
GRADE GUIDE also allows you to enter grades from a DOS text file.
This feature is supplied for those teachers who may have computer graded
exams with results supplied in DOS text files and for those who may want
to read grades that they have obtained as output from some other
computer program. If you wish to read in grades from a file rather than
from the keyboard, then you should select choice C or choice D from the
ADD STUDENT GRADES menu. If you do choose to enter grades from a file,
then GRADE GUIDE asks you to enter the name of the DOS text file
containing the new grades. If you do not specify the drive or directory
of the file, the directory used is the same as the class file's
directory. GRADE GUIDE checks that the file has exactly one line of
text for each student in your class. Each line except for the last line
of the file must end with a carriage return. Lines may be up to 250
characters long. If the file is of the correct length, GRADE GUIDE will
accept grades from that file.
If you enter grades from a file, as GRADE GUIDE asks you to select
categories into which you are going to enter grades, it also asks you
for the beginning and ending columns (tab positions) for the positions
on the line containing those grades. The first line of the input file
is displayed on the screen to help you remember the correct columns to
choose. GRADE GUIDE continues just as it did when you entered grades
from the keyboard, including asking you for maximum possible scores,
weights, cutoffs, labels, and whether or not you want grade confirma-
tions. The only difference is that the grades are read from the file.
By choosing to do grade confirmations, you can check that your grades
are being read in correctly and even change them if they are wrong.
GRADE GUIDE looks at each of the positions which you chose on each
line on the file and determines a grade from what it finds in that
position. In general GRADE GUIDE selects the first item in the position
which looks like a grade. If you said that there was a letter grade in
columns 5 through 12 and one line reads: "ghscabyh" in that position,
then GRADE GUIDE would assign a grade of C, the first reasonable grade
in that position. If the position reads: "ghsuabyh", then the grade
would be AB. If a number grade is read from a line reading:
"a000078+23rihs ", then the grade would be 78. If GRADE GUIDE cannot
make sense out of the characters read from a given position, a grade of
NONE would be assigned.
Entering grades for a large class can be a long process. If you
are ever in the middle of entering grades for a class and need to quit,
you may exit from GRADE GUIDE by typing <Ctrl-Break> or <Ctrl-C>. GRADE
Page 18
GUIDE will ask you if you want to save your class file. Unless you have
made a mistake and want to erase all that you have just entered, you
should save the file. When you do this, all of the grades which you
have not yet entered will be recorded as NONE. Then the next time that
you use GRADE GUIDE you can continue where you left off by using ADD
STUDENT GRADES menu choice E or F.
Reviewing NONE grades
ADD STUDENT GRADES menu choices E and F allow you to REVIEW NONE
GRADES. If you select one of these choices, GRADE GUIDE will list for
each student all the grades where that student currently has a NONE
grade recorded. Then you can either change those grades or leave them
alone. GRADE GUIDE will ask you for the name of the student that you
want to begin listing. If you had selected choice E, your students will
be listed alphabetically by name. If you selected choice F, they will
be listed by alias. If (as suggested in the previous paragraph) you had
exited GRADE GUIDE before completing the entry of grades for all your
students, then option E or F will allow you to change all of the NONE
grades that were given to those students as a result. NOTE! all of the
NONE grades for each student will be listed; not only those which may
have resulted from exiting GRADE GUIDE early. You can use choices E and
F even if you have never exited from GRADE GUIDE without completing your
grade entries. It provides an easy way to see which students still have
incomplete work (that is, NONE grades.) It also gives you a fast way to
update those grades which were recorded as NONE but now need to be
changed.
Creating a grade based on the GRAND AVERAGE
ADD STUDENT GRADES menu choice G allows you to automatically create
a new grade. The new grade is based on each student's current average
grade. If you select choice G, for each student GRADE GUIDE calculates
an average of that student's grades. Then that average is converted
into the new grade for that student. GRADE GUIDE asks you for the
category into which you want the new grade entered. If the category
stores number grades, each student's average grade is converted to a
percentage which is stored as the student's new grade. If the category
stores letter grades, each student's average grade is first converted to
a percentage, and then that percentage is converted to a letter grade.
(NOTE! if you wish to use this feature for letter grades, you will
probably need to set the letter grade percentages corresponding to your
personal choice for the value for each letter grade. See the section in
this documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for details.)
After you select a category, GRADE GUIDE asks you for a grade label
if the category is a LABELED category. GRADE GUIDE asks you for a grade
weight, but will assume a weight of zero if you simply enter a <CR> or
<Esc>. You will likely want the new grade, being an average of all the
other grades, to be weighted zero so that its value will not be included
in future calculations of the average grade. On the other hand, if you
want to use this quarter or semester grade along with other quarter or
semester grades to calculate a final grade in the course, you will have
to use MAIN MENU OPTION I to change its weight to 1.0. If the category
into which you are entering the new grade stores numbers, GRADE GUIDE
assumes that the maximum possible score for that grade is 100 which
corresponds to an average of 100 percent. (NOTE if you would rather
have these grades based on a total different from 100, you can tell
Page 19
GRADE GUIDE what maximum score you want to use. See the section in this
documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for details.) If the
category into which you are entering the new grade stores numbers with
cutoff, GRADE GUIDE asks you to enter the grade cutoffs. If the
category into which you are entering the new grade stores letter grades,
GRADE GUIDE asks you if you want to use the mixed letter grades of AB,
BC, CD, and DF and also, if you want to use the fractional letter grades
of A+, A-, B+, and so forth.
OPTION C -- Entering New Categories
Since there must be at least one category established before you
can enter students' grades, you will usually want to use MAIN MENU
OPTION C when you first establish each class file (although you can
establish new categories later on.) GRADE GUIDE allows you to enter as
many as 200 grades for each student in each category which is NOT
LABELED and 120 grades in each category which is LABELED. You can
establish as many as 10 different categories, and, therefore, GRADE
GUIDE limits you to entering no more than 2000 grades for each student.
If you select MAIN MENU OPTION C, GRADE GUIDE lists information
about each of the categories you have established so far and waits for
you to enter new information. For each new category you enter a name
for the category (the name can be up to 20 characters long), select a
grade format (NUMBER, LETTER, or NUMBER WITH CUTOFF), a percentage of
the GRAND AVERAGE, and whether or not you want the category to be
LABELED.
The percentages you assign need not add up to 100%. If they do
not, GRADE GUIDE adjusts them for you when it needs them. GRADE GUIDE
uses these percentages when it calculates a GRAND AVERAGE score for each
student. It weights each category's average according to the
percentages that you assign. If you enter all of the percentages as
0.000%, then GRADE GUIDE will calculate the GRAND AVERAGE without
weighting the different categories. Instead it calculates the GRAND
AVERAGE on a basis of the total number of points accumulated. (That is,
GRAND AVERAGE = points accumulated divided by the total number of points
possible.)
If a category is LABELED, then you will be able to assign a 16
character label to each grade that you enter into that category. Labels
provide a description of what the grade was for and can make listings of
grades easier to understand. The main disadvantages of using LABELED
categories is that LABELED categories take up more memory space and
require you to enter more information. If you do not expect to use
labeling, you should make the categories NOT LABELED. (NOTE! You can
ask GRADE GUIDE to stop asking you if you want each category to be
LABELED. See the section in this documentation entitled CHANGING
DEFAULT SETTINGS for details.)
You signal that you are done entering new categories by entering a
blank name for a category.
OPTION D -- Dropping Students
With this option you can choose to drop some students from your
class. GRADE GUIDE asks you for a list of the students you want to
drop. Recall that it is not necessary to enter the entire name of the
Page 20
student to find the student that you want. Before actually dropping any
student from the list, GRADE GUIDE asks you to confirm that you want
that student dropped.
OPTION E -- Dropping, Adjusting, or Deleting Grades
This option allows you to choose three functions that can modify
every student's grades. With OPTION E, GRADE GUIDE can drop the lowest
grade or lowest few grades in any category changing the dropped grades
to NONE. Also, with OPTION E, GRADE GUIDE can adjust one particular
grade by a constant value. This can be done to rescale grades.
Finally, with OPTION E, GRADE GUIDE can have one grade completely
removed from the list of grades. When OPTION E is selected, GRADE GUIDE
displays a DROP/ADJUST GRADES menu.
Dropping grades
Instructors sometimes want to drop the lowest grade or lowest few
grades for a student before calculating final grades. You can elect to
drop students' grades by selecting choice A from the DROP/ADJUST GRADES
menu. When you do, you are asked to choose a category and to choose how
many grades you want dropped from that category (for example, the lowest
1 grade or the lowest 3 grades.) GRADE GUIDE also asks you whether you
want NONE grades treated as zero or want NONE grades ignored. Then
GRADE GUIDE considers each student in the class and looks at all the
grades in the chosen category for that student. It changes the lowest
grades in that category to NONE.
If you indicate that you want to treat NONE grades as zero, GRADE
GUIDE will drop those scores with the smallest value (after multiplying
by the appropriate grade weights.) This will give the students the
highest possible average when NONE grades are treated as zeros. If you
choose to have NONE grades ignored, GRADE GUIDE will drop those scores
with the smallest percent. This will give the students the highest
possible average when NONE grades are ignored. For example, suppose
that there are four QUIZ scores recorded as follows:
QUIZ # MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SCORE WEIGHT
------ ---------------------- ------
1 10 1.000
2 10 2.000
3 20 1.000
4 10 1.000
Suppose also that one student has received the four grades 8, 7, 12, and
9, respectively. If you drop two grades while NONE grades are treated
as zero, GRADE GUIDE will calculate the weighted grades to be 8, 14, 12,
and 9 and will drop the first and the last grade which are the smallest.
If you drop two grades while NONE grades are ignored, GRADE GUIDE will
calculate the percentages obtained for each score to be 80%, 70%, 60%,
and 90% and will drop the second and third grades which have the
smallest percentage.
NOTE! if you drop the lowest 2 grades from a category once and then
try to drop the lowest 2 grades again, the second drop will have no
effect since each student will already have at least 2 NONE grades in
that category. If you wanted to drop 2 MORE grades, you would have to
ask for the lowest 4 grades in the category to be dropped.
Page 21
Adjusting grades
Sometimes after instructors look at the grades they assigned, they
see that there is a need to shift or rescale the grades to bring them in
line with other grades given in the same course. This often happens as
a result of a test or assignment being too easy or too hard for students
making their grades artificially high or artificially low. You can make
such adjustments in the students' grades by selecting choice B from the
DROP/ADJUST GRADES menu. When you do, you are asked to choose a
category and a grade in that category. You are not allowed to adjust
LETTER grades. GRADE GUIDE will ask you if you want to add a constant
to the chosen grade, subtract a constant from the grade, or multiply the
grade by a constant.
If you choose to add or subtract a constant, you can then enter a
whole number constant which will be added or subtracted from each
student's grade. If you choose to multiply by a constant, you can then
enter a rescaling factor with up to three decimal digits. Then that
factor will be multiplied by each student's grade, and the results will
be rounded to the nearest whole number. With all three of these
adjustments, no grade is allowed to exceed the maximum possible number
score of 250 or go below the minimum possible number score of zero. If
a grade would have exceeded 250, GRADE GUIDE assigns a grade of 250. If
a grade would have fallen below zero, GRADE GUIDE assigns a grade of
zero. GRADE GUIDE keeps a count of how many grades reach 250 or zero
during the adjustment process and informs you of that count.
NOTE! GRADE GUIDE only adjusts the students' grades and not the
maximum possible scores or the letter grade cutoffs which are associated
with that grade. If you want those changed also, they can be reset by
using MAIN MENU OPTION I.
It is possible that you might want to make a more complicated
adjustment in the students' grades. For example, you may wish to
multiply each grade by one half, and then add 50 points to each grade.
This can easily be done by performing the adjust procedure twice; once
to multiply by the value 0.5, and once to add the value 50.
Deleting grades
Occasionally instructors either enter a grade incorrectly or decide
that a particular grade should not be used for grade calculations. One
way to handle this situation would be to change the weight of that grade
to zero using MAIN MENU OPTION I. Then the grade would appear on each
student's grade list but would have no effect on the student's average.
Another solution would be to remove that grade completely from the list
of grades. You can delete a grade in this manner by selecting choice C
from the DROP/ADJUST GRADES menu. When you do, you are asked to choose
a category and a grade in that category. GRADE GUIDE will then remove
that grade from all grade lists.
If, for example, you have 10 QUIZ grades, you may choose to delete
QUIZ 6. This will cause the QUIZ grades numbered 7, 8, 9, and 10 to be
renumbered and appear as QUIZ 6, 7, 8, and 9, respectively.
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Temporarily and permanently changing grades
You may want to see the effect of your having dropped, adjusted, or
deleted grades before committing yourself to making the grade change
permanent. Therefore, at first, GRADE GUIDE only TEMPORARILY changes the
grades. This allows you to view the grades using any of the MAIN MENU
options while the grades are still only TEMPORARILY changed. In fact,
if you return to the MAIN MENU while there are TEMPORARILY CHANGED
GRADES, there will be a statement at the bottom of the screen reminding
you that grades have been TEMPORARILY CHANGED. The only changes you can
make to the stored information while there are TEMPORARILY CHANGED
GRADES is to create more TEMPORARILY CHANGED GRADES. GRADE GUIDE never
updates the disk file while there are TEMPORARILY CHANGED GRADES.
Before you are allowed to make other changes to your file you must
decide whether you want those grades PERMANENTLY CHANGED or whether you
want to reinstate the old grades. You make that choice by re-entering
OPTION E which allows you to select between those two options or to
change some more grades (TEMPORARILY.) GRADE GUIDE does this by making
sure that the copy of your class file on the disk has been updated prior
to your changing grades. Then if you decide that you want to reinstate
the grades the way they were before you created the TEMPORARILY CHANGED
GRADES, the file can be read from the disk and the old grades are
restored.
OPTION F -- Dropping Categories
Occasionally, you may have established a category which you never
used or for which you have no further use. You can remove that category
and ALL OF THE GRADES ENTERED IN THAT CATEGORY by using OPTION F. You
are asked to select a category to drop. GRADE GUIDE allows you to
choose between dropping the entire category (including all the grades
entered into that category) or dropping just the grades entered into the
category (leaving the category definition intact). You can also choose
not to drop any information. If you establish a category to contain
LETTER grades and you should have used NUMBER grades, then the only way
for you to rectify the situation is to drop the category using OPTION F
and then reestablish it using OPTION C.
OPTION G -- Displaying, Printing, or Changing Students' Names
This option allows you to have your students' names and aliases
listed. If you choose to list names on the screen, students' names are
listed alphabetically, 40 at a time. Each time the screen fills with
names, you can choose to enter CHANGE MODE by typing a C. Then you can
use the cursor control keys to move to any name on the screen and change
the name. Recall that the carriage return, <CR>, or escape key, <Esc>,
is used to get out of CHANGE MODE. If you do change a name, then when
you escape from change mode, GRADE GUIDE begins listing the names again
from the beginning of the alphabet so you can view any changes you have
made in the order of the names. If you have more than 40 students in
your class, you can either press <Space> to continue listing more names
or press Q to quit listing the names.
If you list names and aliases, then both the students' names and
aliases appear on the screen. If you enter CHANGE MODE, then you can
change both names and aliases. In this way CHANGE MODE can be used to
Page 23
enter aliases for students even if no aliases had been previously
entered for any student.
You may also list names on the printer (or to the GRADEOUT file.)
The option to list aliases on the printer appears only if you have
established aliases for at least some of your students. You can choose
to have the names or aliases listed in one of three ways.
Like This (no horizontal lines)
1. Able
2. Baker
Or Like This (horizontal lines)
1. Able________________________________________________________
2. Baker_______________________________________________________
Or Like This (horizontal lines and vertical lines)
1. Able___|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
2. Baker__|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
The latter two methods produce lists which are convenient for recording
grades by hand before they are entered into a class file.
If you are printing names, you may stop the printer by entering the
<Ctrl-Break> or <Ctrl-C> key once. Rather than stopping the program's
execution, the program will pause, and you will be able to continue
printing by pressing <Space> or stop printing by pressing the letter Q.
This is helpful if you want to stop the list before the end.
OPTION H -- Displaying, Printing, or Changing Students' Grades & Notes
Choose this option when you want to view or print the grades of one
or more of your students, when you need to change one or more grades, or
when you want to enter, view, or change student NOTES. GRADE GUIDE
displays a menu of choices allowing you to list grades on the screen,
print grades on the printer, or quit and return to the MAIN MENU. You
can choose to have the grades listed using your students' names or their
aliases. NOTE! if you have not given aliases to your students, you may
still choose to list their grades using aliases. This causes GRADE
GUIDE to show a blank where the students' names normally appear.
After selecting an option to view or print grades, GRADE GUIDE asks
you for the NAME of the first student whose grades you wish to see.
(NOTE! you must enter the NAME of the student even if you selected to
list students by ALIAS.) If you respond with a <CR> only, then GRADE
GUIDE lists the grades of all the students in the class.
Listing grades
When GRADE GUIDE lists grades, it gives the student's name or
alias, a list of each category into which grades have been entered, and
a list of all the grades the student has earned in each category. In
addition, it gives a total and an average grade based on the student's
Page 24
performance in each category. For all categories, it gives a sum of all
the grades multiplied by their grade weights (which you have entered
when entering the grades in OPTION B) and a percentage based on the
maximum possible scores (which you have also entered.) In addition, for
letter grades, it lists a grade point average (on the 4.0 grade scale).
(NOTE! the number of decimal places that GRADE GUIDE uses to display
totals and averages can be changed. See the section of this documenta-
tion entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for details.)
GRADE GUIDE also gives a GRAND TOTAL and a GRAND AVERAGE score
which is a percentage based on the percentages the student obtained in
each category and the percentage weights you have assigned to each
category. (NOTE! the method that GRADE GUIDE uses to calculate the
GRAND AVERAGE can be changed to suit your needs. See the section of
this documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for details.)
There are two different ways in which GRADE GUIDE can handle NONE
grades. It can assign them a value of zero, or it can treat them as if
that grade had never been assigned. For example, if the student "Smith,
John" has been assigned quiz scores of
QUIZ # SCORE MAXIMUM POSSIBLE WEIGHT
------ ----- ---------------- ------
1 10 20 1.000
2 10 20 2.000
3 NONE 30 1.000
4 15 30 1.000
then, if NONE grades are assigned the value zero, the quiz total would
be
10 * 1.000 + 10 * 2.000 + 0 * 1.000 + 15 * 1.000 = 45
and the total possible would be
20 * 1.000 + 20 * 2.000 + 30 * 1.000 + 30 * 1.000 = 120
giving "Smith, John" a quiz percentage of 45 / 120 = 37.50 %.
On the other hand, if NONE grades are ignored, the total would be
10 * 1.000 + 10 * 2.000 + 15 * 1.000 = 45
and the total possible would be
20 * 1.000 + 20 * 2.000 + 30 * 1.000 = 90
giving "Smith, John" a quiz percentage of 45 / 90 = 50.00 %.
Before listing any grades, GRADE GUIDE asks you which way you want the
grades evaluated by saying
Do you want NONE grades given the value of ZERO (Y/N) ?
to which you can respond with a Y or N. If you have any grades in
LABELED categories, GRADE GUIDE will ask you if you want to list grades
with labels. Listing the grades with labels takes much more room than
printing them without labels. (NOTE! by setting defaults using the
DEFAULT MENU, you can avoid the need to answer these questions. See the
Page 25
section in this documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for
details.)
GRADE GUIDE calculates the GRAND AVERAGE for each student by
weighting the percentages the student gets in each category by the
category percentages (which GRADE GUIDE adjusts if they do not add up to
100%.) If a category has no grades in it, then there is a question as
to how the GRAND AVERAGE should be calculated. GRADE GUIDE acts as if
that category did not exist. When it calculates the GRAND AVERAGE, it
adjusts the other category percentages so that the percentages of the
categories which do have grades add up to 100%. (NOTE! you can change
GRADE GUIDE so that it treats an empty category as if it had grades in
it and either all the grades were zero or all the grades were perfect
scores. See the section in this documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT
SETTINGS for details.)
There is a wide variety of ways that GRADE GUIDE could handle
LETTER grades. The way GRADE GUIDE treats LETTER grades is to assume
that each assignment which receives a LETTER grade is worth 4 points as
in the standard 4.0 point scale for letter grades. If you want a LETTER
grade to be worth more (or less) than four points, you can do that by
adjusting the weight of the grade accordingly. When GRADE GUIDE
calculates averages with LETTER grades, it simply assigns the
corresponding grade point values to each grade and divides by the total
number of points possible. For example, if a student received 3 LETTER
grades of A, B, and C, that student would be given 4 points for the A, 3
points for the B, and 2 points for the C. This yields a total of 4 + 3
+ 2 = 9 grade points. Since the total number of points possible is 4 +
4 + 4 = 12, the student's average would be
(4 + 3 + 2) / (4 + 4 + 4) = 9 / 12 = 0.75 = 75.000 %.
Since the GRADE POINT AVERAGE (GPA) for this student is 9 / 3 = 3.0, the
student has a B average. Most instructors do not associate 75% with a B
average. The problem is that teachers use many different methods for
calculating letter grades from percentages. No matter what method GRADE
GUIDE chose to use to display averages of LETTER grades, only a few
instructors would be happy with that method. Therefore, GRADE GUIDE
allows you to set the percentages that you want associated with LETTER
grades. If you plan to use LETTER grades, you should see the section of
this documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for instructions
about how to get GRADE GUIDE to handle LETTER grades properly for you.
If grades are being listed on the screen and there is not enough
room to display all the grades on one screen, then GRADE GUIDE lists the
grades using several categories at a time. It waits until you press
<Space> before it continues. When grades are on the screen, you may
press the letter C and enter CHANGE MODE. Then you may use the cursor
control keys to move the cursor which becomes visible to any grade on
the screen. You may change any grade and when you do, the category
totals and averages and the GRAND AVERAGE are automatically updated for
you. <CR> or <Esc> is used to exit from change mode.
If you are viewing a list of all the students' grades, then you
will see one student's grades on the screen at a time. You can move to
the next student by pressing <Space>, or you can avoid seeing the
remainder of the list by pressing the letter Q.
Page 26
Entering, viewing, and changing NOTES
Student NOTES are designed to allow you to enter comments or
customized grades into a student's record. For each student GRADE GUIDE
allows you to enter up to 20 lines of NOTES numbered 1 to 20. In each
of these lines you may type any text information that you want. You
might choose to enter reminders to yourself about each student, lists of
dates that each student missed class, information about a student's
illness, the student's address, the student's parents' names, or even a
customized grade not available in GRADE GUIDE like "WITHDRAWN' or
"INCOMPLETE". These notes can be viewed on the screen or sent to the
printer while using MAIN MENU OPTION H. The NOTES can also be listed
along with student's grades using MAIN MENU OPTIONS L and M. Since MAIN
MENU OPTION L will allow you to sort students according to the
information you have stored in one of the NOTES, you can use NOTES to
separate students into classes or types.
Whenever you are viewing a student's grades on the screen using
MAIN MENU OPTION H, a message at the bottom of the screen reminds you
that you can see that student's NOTES by pressing the N key. Pressing N
will cause GRADE GUIDE to display a screen full of NOTES. The student's
name and GRAND AVERAGE appear on the top line of the NOTES screen, the
word NOTES appears on the second line, and then 20 lines of NOTES are
displayed for that student. Pressing <Space> will cause GRADE GUIDE to
return to displaying the student's grades.
If you enter a C while the NOTES are being displayed, GRADE GUIDE
puts you into CHANGE MODE, and you can enter, change, delete, or add to
any of the NOTES. The cursor control keys can be used to move from one
NOTE to another while the <F9> and <F10> keys can be used to move the
cursor within a NOTE. You are free to enter any desired text into the
NOTES. Each line of the NOTES can contain up to 75 characters. You may
use all 20 lines of NOTES or only a few lines. You do not have to use
the lines in order. For example, you may enter information on line 10
of the NOTES before you have entered any information on the first nine
lines.
It may be convenient for you to use each of the 20 lines of NOTES
in the same way for each of your students. This is helpful when using
the roster listing or the letter writing feature of GRADE GUIDE. There
you are allowed to choose a particular line of the NOTES to list for
each student. So, for example, if you use line 8 in the NOTES for each
student for a comment about the student's midterm project, then you
could include that NOTE 8 comment in a roster listing of all the
students (MAIN MENU OPTION L) or a customized letter to each student
(MAIN MENU OPTION M.)
When NOTES are listed on the printer, you specify that only some of
the notes should be printed. GRADE GUIDE lets you tell which NOTE
number should be the first NOTE printed, and which should be the last
NOTE printed. Therefore, if you want to keep some sensitive information
about each student such as what the student looks like or what the next
assignment for that student should be, it is best to keep all such
sensitive information on either very low numbered NOTES like NOTES 1 to
5 or on very high numbered NOTES like NOTES 15 to 20. Then when NOTES
are printed, you can avoid having those notes listed. Also, when NOTES
are listed on the printer, GRADE GUIDE does not print NOTES which are
blank. So, for example, if you have entered information into NOTE 3 and
Page 27
NOTE 8 but for no other NOTE, only two lines of NOTES will be printed.
If you want blank lines printed for NOTES 4, 5, 6, and 7, you can enter
NOTES consisting of a single space for those NOTES.
<CR> or <Esc> allows you to exit form CHANGE MODE.
Printing grade lists
If you choose to list grades on the printer, GRADE GUIDE will ask
you if you want NOTES printed as well as GRADES. (NOTE! by setting
defaults using the DEFAULT MENU, you can avoid the need to answer this
question. See the section in this documentation entitled CHANGING
DEFAULT SETTINGS for details.) If you do want NOTES printed, GRADE
GUIDE will ask you to enter the number of the first and last NOTES that
you want printed. If you do not enter a number for the first NOTE and
simply press <Space>, <CR>, or <Esc>, then GRADE GUIDE will assume that
you want to begin with NOTE 1. Similarly, if you do not enter a last
NOTE number, GRADE GUIDE will assume that you want to end with NOTE 20.
GRADE GUIDE only allows you to print one sequence of NOTES. For
example, you cannot ask for GRADE GUIDE to print NOTES 5 through 9 and
NOTES 14 through 16. MAIN MENU OPTIONS L and M do allow you to choose
exactly which NOTES GRADE GUIDE should print.
While you are listing grades on the printer, you may stop the
printer by entering the <Ctrl-Break> or <Ctrl-C> key once. Rather than
stopping the program's execution, the program will pause, and you will
be able to continue printing by pressing <Space> or stop printing by
pressing the letter Q. This is helpful if you want to stop the list
before the end. If you had elected to see a list of all the students'
grades, the printer will print each student's grades, one after the
other. If you had elected to begin the list with a particular student,
then after printing each student's grades, GRADE GUIDE will ask you if
you want to continue with the next student.
Note that if you do not like the format that GRADE GUIDE has chosen
to list grades, you can design your own formats using the roster listing
facility of MAIN MENU OPTION L or the letter writing facility of MAIN
MENU OPTION M.
OPTION I -- Displaying, Printing, or Changing Limits, Weights or Labels
With this option you may list or change any of the maximum possible
grades, grade weights, or grade labels that you have previously
established. After selecting this option, GRADE GUIDE displays a list
of all the grade categories that you have established for this class.
You may choose any category whose grade limits and weights you wish to
list.
After you select a category, GRADE GUIDE displays the grade weights
that you have established for that category. The weights are listed in
rows of five grades each. You may enter CHANGE MODE by pressing the
letter C which allows you to change any of the weights that you see.
See the section of this documentation about MAIN MENU OPTION H for a
discussion concerning the use of grade weights. Recall that <CR> or
<Esc> is used to get out of CHANGE MODE. Pressing P or F sends the
displayed information to the printer or the GRADEOUT file, respectively.
After this action, continue the program by pressing <Space>. A maximum
of 100 weights are displayed on the screen at any one time. If there is
Page 28
not enough room to list all the weights on one screen, GRADE GUIDE will
display a second screen of weights when you are done looking at the
first screen. When viewing the second part of the listing you can enter
CHANGE MODE or print just as you can with the first part.
If the category you have selected is for storing number grades,
GRADE GUIDE then lists the maximum possible scores for each grade.
Again, you may enter CHANGE MODE, print, or continue by pressing C, P,
or <Space>, respectively. Recall that <CR> or <Esc> is used to get out
of CHANGE MODE. If there is not enough room to list all the maximum
possible scores on one screen, GRADE GUIDE will display a second screen
of maximum possible scores when you are done looking at the first
screen.
If the category you have selected is for storing number grades with
cutoffs, then GRADE GUIDE displays the grade cutoffs which you have
established. It begins with the A cutoffs and continues to the B, C,
and D cutoffs. Each set of cutoffs is displayed on a separate screen,
and with each set you may choose to enter CHANGE MODE, print, or
continue with a C, P, or <Space>, respectively. If there is not enough
room to list all the cutoffs on one screen, GRADE GUIDE will display a
second screen of cutoffs when you are done looking at the first screen.
If the category you have selected is a LABELED category, then GRADE
GUIDE displays the grade labels, three per row. If there is not enough
room to list all the labels on one screen, GRADE GUIDE will display a
second screen of labels when you are done looking at the first screen.
As with the other displays, with each screen you may choose to enter
CHANGE MODE, print, or continue with a C, P, or <Space>, respectively.
After viewing one full category of information, you may choose
another category or select OPTION Q to quit and return to the MAIN MENU.
OPTION J -- Displaying, Printing, or Changing Category Information
Selecting this option causes GRADE GUIDE to display all the
category information you have established for the class. For each
category the category names, the type of grades (NUMBER, LETTER, or
NUMBER WITH CUTOFF), the percentage of the total grade, and whether or
not the category is LABELED are displayed. You may enter CHANGE MODE by
pressing C. This allows you to change the category names and the
category percentages but does not allow you to change the category grade
type. (The only way to change the grade type is to delete the category
using MAIN MENU OPTION F and then reinsert the category using MAIN MENU
OPTION C.) Recall that <CR> or <Esc> is used to get out of CHANGE MODE.
Pressing P or F sends the displayed information to the printer or the
GRADEOUT file, respectively. Pressing Q quits this option and returns
you to the MAIN MENU.
OPTION K -- Displaying or Printing Class Statistics
This is a very powerful option which displays several kinds of
reports about grades for your class. You may choose to display a report
concerning one particular grade (for example, EXAM 3), one particular
category (for example, QUIZ totals or averages), or the GRAND TOTALS or
GRAND AVERAGES.
Page 29
Each report has GRADE GUIDE calculate one value for each student.
In the case of one grade, GRADE GUIDE takes either that grade for each
student or a percentage for that grade based on the maximum possible
score for that grade. In the case of one category, GRADE GUIDE takes
either the total or the percentage that each student obtained in that
category. In the case of the GRAND TOTAL or GRAND AVERAGE, GRADE GUIDE
calculates the GRAND TOTAL or GRAND AVERAGE for each student. In each
case GRADE GUIDE asks:
Do you want grade TOTALS rather than AVERAGES (Y/N) ?
(NOTE! this question can be answered instead on the DEFAULT MENU. See
the section in this documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for
details.)
GRADE GUIDE next displays a report giving the number of students in
the class, the maximum and minimum values obtained by the students, the
mean and median scores obtained by the students, and the standard
deviation of the scores. GRADE GUIDE then displays a list of all the
scores obtained listed in increasing order. This list also includes the
Z-Score for each score obtained. The Z-Score tells how many standard
deviations the score is from the mean score. The statistical report
ends with a histogram showing graphically how the scores are
distributed. (NOTE! you can have GRADE GUIDE suppress the listing of
grades and Z-Scores or the histogram if you wish. You can also change
the character used to display the histogram on the printer. See the
section of this documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for
details.)
As in OPTION H you are able to choose to have the report sent to
the printer if you have a printer attached to your computer. Also,
GRADE GUIDE asks you to choose whether or not you want NONE grades
treated as zeros.
When the report has been completed, you have the option to select
another report or press Q to return to the MAIN MENU.
OPTION L -- Writing Reports in Roster Format
With this option you can print a report in a traditional roster
format with one student's information appearing on each line. You can
select just which information you want to appear on each line. For
example, you could print a report where each line gave a student's name,
the student's QUIZ 1, QUIZ 2, and QUIZ 3 scores, the student's QUIZ
TOTAL, the student's GRAND TOTAL, and the student's NOTE 3. You are
only limited by the width of the printer you are using. In addition,
you can have the lines of the roster sorted so that students are listed
in order of their names, in order of one of their NOTES, in order of one
of their grades (that is, students with better grades would appear
first), or even in order of a total or average grade.
When you choose OPTION L, GRADE GUIDE shows you a screen with two
sides to it. The left side says "ENTRIES YOU HAVE CHOSEN". Here GRADE
GUIDE lists the types of information that you have selected to print on
your roster report. On the right side of the screen it says "ENTRIES
YOU MAY CHOOSE FROM". Here GRADE GUIDE gives you a menu of the types of
information you can choose to put into your report.
Page 30
The menu of choices begins with a list of the categories that you
have established for your class. Then it lists the choices NOTE,
GRAND TOTAL | AVERAGE, NAME, ALIAS, LINE NUMBER, and DELETE LAST ENTRY.
You may choose any of these menu choices in the order that you want the
information to appear on your report. For example, if you want the
first column of your report to list the students' names, then select
NAME. If you want it to be a line number, then select LINE NUMBER.
If you want to select a grade to be listed, then choose the menu
choice for the category to which that grade belongs. GRADE GUIDE asks
you to enter the number of the grade that you want. If you select a
category but just enter a <CR> when you are asked for a grade number,
then GRADE GUIDE assumes that you want the category TOTAL or category
AVERAGE. It asks you whether you want the TOTAL or the AVERAGE.
When you are making your selections, GRADE GUIDE displays your
selections for you in the table at the left side of the screen. The
first column in the table is labeled "Entry Number" and numbers the
table entries. The table entries are numbered from 1 to 15 when you
begin making your selections. If you make more than 15 selections, then
the screen scrolls so that you can see the last 15 of your selections.
In that case, you will be able to use the up and down cursor control
keys to make your list scroll up and down.
The second column in the table is labeled "Tab Column". This tells
you the tab position on the printed line where your entry will be
located. GRADE GUIDE automatically arranges for there to be two columns
of blanks between each entry on the printed line. The table shows the
tab position for the next entry that you select. If you would like more
than two blanks between two of your entries, you can add blanks by
pressing the right cursor control key. You can take away the blanks
that you added by pressing the left cursor control key.
Each time that you select MAIN MENU OPTION L, GRADE GUIDE looks at
your class and decides how long the longest student name is, how long
the longest student alias is, how long the longest of each of the 20
NOTES are, and how large each of the grade totals could be. While this
is being done, GRADE GUIDE flashes the message "Initializing the Roster
Format", although for small classes, this may take less than a second.
In this way GRADE GUIDE knows how many columns it will take for NAME,
ALIAS, and TOTAL entries to print.
If you make a mistake while selecting entries, or if you need to
make a change, then select the DELETE LAST ENTRY choice from the menu.
This removes the last entry that you made. By repeatedly selecting
DELETE LAST ENTRY, you can remove as many entries as you want.
If you have used the roster listing for the same class before,
GRADE GUIDE remembers what the previous roster format looked like and
displays it for you. If you want a new roster, just DELETE LAST ENTRY a
few times until the roster entries that you no longer want disappear.
It is possible that the roster listing that GRADE GUIDE displays for you
is not exactly like the one that you last used because some of the
columns may have expanded between the last time you used the roster and
this time. For example, perhaps last time you used the roster listing
you listed NOTE 2 for each student, and the longest NOTE 2 was 5
characters long. Now the longest NOTE 2 might be 10 characters long, so
the columns of the roster had to be shifted to allow for the longer NOTE
Page 31
2. Also, some roster entries may have changed if you have deleted some
grades or categories using MAIN MENU OPTIONS E or F.
When you are done making entries, press the carriage return, <CR>.
If you have selected more than one entry, GRADE GUIDE asks you to enter
the number of the entry that you want to use to sort your output. For
example, suppose that you have made selections giving the following
table:
1 1 LINE NUMBER
2 5 NAME
3 27 EXAM 1
4 35 EXAM 2
5 43 EXAM 3
6 55 EXAM TOTAL
If you tell GRADE GUIDE to sort by entry number 2, then the lines of
your roster report will appear alphabetically by students' NAME. If you
tell GRADE GUIDE to sort by entry 6, the lines of your roster report
will appear in the order of your students' EXAM TOTALS. GRADE GUIDE
asks you whether or not you want the lines in decreasing or increasing
order of these EXAM TOTALS. If you do not select a proper entry number
or just press <CR> when selecting an entry to be used for sorting, then
GRADE GUIDE assumes that you want to sort by students' names. When
GRADE GUIDE sorts your roster by a NOTE field, it can use one of two
different methods. The first sorting method is fairly fast. If your
class size is large, and your computer is low on memory space, GRADE
GUIDE chooses to use a second sorting method. This second sorting
method is much slower than the first. For example, if your computer is
low on memory, and you sort by a NOTE field for a class of 300 students,
you may have to wait several minutes for your computer to complete the
sort. If you cannot wait for the sort to complete, you can always exit
from GRADE GUIDE by pressing <Ctrl-Break>.
When you have completed making your selections for your roster,
GRADE GUIDE allows you to choose between showing your roster on the
screen, printing your roster (or writing it on the GRADEOUT FILE),
changing the entries that you have made, or quitting and returning to
the MAIN MENU. GRADE GUIDE labels the entries of your roster report
with numbers. Each column of the roster report has a number at the top.
If you list the roster on the printer, there will be a key printed at
the bottom of the report stating what each column entry represents.
If you list numbers in a column of your roster (number grades,
totals, or averages), GRADE GUIDE prints five lines of statistics at the
bottom of the column. The statistics give the maximum possible value
for the numbers in the column, the maximum value that was listed, the
minimum value that was listed, and the mean and the standard deviation
of the numbers listed. GRADE GUIDE does its best to fit those
statistics into the space allotted for that column. If you think that
the statistics are too cramped, you can allot more space for that column
by adjusting the tab positions for that column. GRADE GUIDE will label
the five statistics lines using a column of the roster which does not
contain numbers. It will use the NAME field if it is present, the ALIAS
field if the NAME field is not present, and a NOTE field if the NAME and
ALIAS fields are not present. (NOTE! you can have GRADE GUIDE suppress
the listing of these five lines of statistics if you wish. See the
Page 32
section of this documentation entitled CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for
details.)
You may make as many lists of your roster as you like while using
the roster entries that you have chosen. Then if you wish to change the
roster so that it contains different entries or so that it is sorted by
a different entry, you may change the roster entries. You can then
delete entries, add entries, and change the number of the entry that is
used for sorting.
By default, GRADE GUIDE assumes that you never want to write a
report that is wider than the standard 80 column printer. For this
reason, GRADE GUIDE stops you from selecting entries which would print
beyond this 80 column limit. NOTE! if you have a printer that can
handle more than an 80 column line, GRADE GUIDE will let you change this
80 column default. See the section in this documentation entitled
CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS for details. If you set up GRADE GUIDE so
that it will let you write a 120 column line, for example, it still only
lists the first 80 columns of your roster when you list your roster on
the screen.
OPTION M -- Writing Letters
This option allows you to write one or more letters in a manner
similar to the mail merge options available on many word processors. To
use this option, you must have first created a LETTER file which is a
DOS text file containing a form letter. This form letter may contain
special codes which instruct GRADE GUIDE to insert special information
into the letter in place of the special codes. This information could
include the date, a student's name, a grade, a list of grades, an
average, or other information which you may want to include in a letter
about a student. You can use any word processor or text editor which
allows you to create a standard DOS text file (that is, a file with a
carriage return symbol at the end of each line and no special embedded
word processor command symbols.) You must give the LETTER files you
create the file extension "LTR". The LETTER files must be stored in the
same directory as the class file containing the students for whom you
want to write the letters. You may create as many as 12 different
LETTER files at one time. GRADE GUIDE allows you to select the LETTER
file you want to use. You may, for example, want to have several form
letters prepared: one for exceptionally good students, one for good
students, one for average students, and perhaps several for students
with various problems.
Note that this letter writing facility can also be used to tailor
your own grade report format if you do not like the format already
supplied by GRADE GUIDE in MAIN MENU OPTIONS H or L.
When you select OPTION M, GRADE GUIDE displays a menu with seven
choices. Choices A and B allow you to see letters displayed on the
screen with an option to send the letters to the printer (or GRADEOUT
file.) Choices C, D, E, and F write the letters on the printer (or
GRADEOUT file) without first allowing you to preview the letters on the
screen. With choices C and D, GRADE GUIDE lets you choose a different
form letter for each student. With choices E and F, GRADE GUIDE writes
a letter to each student using the same form letter. With any of these
choices, while a letter is being printed, it is also echoed to the
screen so that you can easily follow what is being printed.
Page 33
If you select any of the choices except Q to quit, GRADE GUIDE will
ask you for the name of the first student for whom you wish to write a
letter. If you enter a blank name, then GRADE GUIDE will begin with the
first student in the class. Choices A, C, and E will allow you to step
through the students in alphabetical order by name while choices B, D,
and F allow you to step through the students by alias.
If you use choices A, B, C, or D, for each student GRADE GUIDE
displays for you a summary of the student's averages and a list of
LETTER files from which to choose. If you want to write a letter for
the currently displayed student, just select one of the LETTER files by
pressing the appropriate keyboard letter. You may also go on to the
next student or quit writing letters altogether. If you use choices E
or F, GRADE GUIDE displays a list of LETTER files before it lists any of
your students. From that list you may choose a letter to send to each
of your students.
When you select a LETTER file, GRADE GUIDE reads the file from the
disk, replaces each of the special codes on the file with the
appropriate information for that student, and displays or prints the
resulting letter. GRADE GUIDE will insert a form feed character at the
end of each letter.
To create a LETTER file, just create a letter with your word
processor or text editor. GRADE GUIDE requires that each line of the
letter contain no more than 250 characters. There are several kinds of
special codes that you can insert into the letter which mean something
to GRADE GUIDE. Each special code must begin with the two characters
"@[" and end with the two characters "]@". You may use one or more
blanks between the words in the special code. The code must fit
entirely on one line; that is, you may not have part of a code at the
end of one line and the remainder of the code at the beginning of the
next line. There can be many special codes on each line. Special codes
can be written in either upper or lower case letters. You may reuse a
particular code as many times as you want to in a letter. The next page
shows a list of the codes that GRADE GUIDE accepts and the information
that GRADE GUIDE inserts for each of the codes.
Page 34
CODE GRADE GUIDE WILL INSERT THE
---- ---------------------------
@[ DATE ]@ current date
@[ NAME ]@ student's full name
@[ FIRST NAME ]@ student's first name
@[ LAST NAME ]@ student's last name
@[ ALIAS ]@ student's alias
@[ category name grade number ]@ student's grade for the given grade
number in the given category
@[ category name grade number POSSIBLE ]@
maximum possible grade for the given
grade number in the given category
@[ category name grade number WEIGHT ]@
weight for the given grade number in
the given category
@[ category name grade number LABEL ]@
label for the given grade number in
the given category
@[ category name TOTAL ]@ total number of points given to that
student in the given category
@[ category name AVERAGE ]@ student's average for the given
category
@[ category name GPA ]@ student's grade point average if the
category contains LETTER grades
@[ category name POSSIBLE ]@ total score possible in the given
category
@[ NOTE number ]@ student's NOTE for the given NOTE
number
@[ category name NONE ]@ student's number of NONE grades
assigned in the given category
@[ category name NUMBER ]@ number of grades in the given
category
@[ NONE ]@ student's number of NONE grades
@[ GRAND TOTAL ]@ student's grand total
@[ GRAND AVERAGE ]@ student's grand average
@[ GRAND TOTAL POSSIBLE ]@ total possible for the grand total
@[ NUMBER ]@ number of grades in all the
categories
@[ GRADE LIST ]@ list of all the student's grades
@[ COMMENT ]@ comment from you
When you preview letters on the screen, GRADE GUIDE will show you
what it is putting in place of each of your codes except for the COMMENT
code. When you send the letter to the printer (or GRADEOUT file), GRADE
GUIDE pauses at each COMMENT code and allows you to insert a comment up
to 78 characters long. When you preview letters on the screen, GRADE
GUIDE will warn you if it finds a code within your letter which it does
not understand. When you send the letter to the printer (or GRADEOUT
file), you do not receive such a warning; the incorrect codes are simply
ignored.
NOTE if you plan to use FIRST NAME and LAST NAME, make sure that
each student's name is either entered in the form of last name followed
by a comma followed by first name or entered in the form of last name
Page 35
followed by a space followed by first name. This is necessary for GRADE
GUIDE to determine the correct first and last names. Do not make the
mistake of entering Joan Van Frank's name as "Van Frank Joan". That
would give her a last name of "Van" and a first name of "Frank Joan".
Use the form "Van Frank, Joan" or "Van.Frank Joan".
As an example, you might create a letter file called GOOD.LTR which
contains the following form letter.
@[Date]@
To the parents of @[ First Name ]@ @[ Last Name ]@:
Your child is in my MATH 001 course this year. So far this year,
your child is doing very well. After @[EXAM NUMBER]@ exams @[Note 1 ]@
has obtained an average of @[EXAM AVERAGE]@. The important grade on the
semester's first project was @[PROJECT 1]@. The project was concerned
with @[NOTE 20]@.
Here is a list of the grades he/she has earned so far. @[GRADE LIST]@
It has been a pleasure having @[ First Name ]@ in my course.
@[ COMMENT ]@.
Sincerely,
This would work nicely if for each student NOTE 1 was the word "he" or
"she", depending on the student's sex, and NOTE 20 was a description of
the student's PROJECT.
Each of the special codes in the form letter gets replaced by the
appropriate student's information. To help you position where on the
printed line that replacement information will go, GRADE GUIDE allows
you to format the special codes. A format code consists of a letter L
followed immediately by a column number or a letter R followed
immediately by a column number. A format code can be included at the
end of any special code. Its effect is to move the replacement
information to the indicated column number on the line. For example, if
you use the special code "@[ HOMEWORK 5 ]@", GRADE GUIDE will simply
replace the code with the student's HOMEWORK 5 grade. If you include
the format code L24, that is "@[ HOMEWORK 5 L24 ]@", GRADE GUIDE will
print the HOMEWORK 5 grade beginning in column 24. If you use the
special code R24, that is "@[ HOMEWORK 5 R24 ]@", GRADE GUIDE will print
the HOMEWORK 5 grade ending in column 24. That is, the L format codes
are used to LEFT JUSTIFY the replacement information while R format
codes are used to RIGHT JUSTIFY the replacement information. GRADE
GUIDE will use the format codes only if there is room to print the
information in the requested columns. The format codes can be used to
construct a customized grade report table. For example, you could
construct a LETTER file which looks like this.
Page 36
@[ name ]@ @[ date r70 ]@
EXAM POSSIBLE
---- --------
@[ EXAM 1 R10 ]@ @[ EXAM 1 POSSIBLE R18 ]@ @[ EXAM 1 LABEL L20 ]@
@[ EXAM 2 R10 ]@ @[ EXAM 2 POSSIBLE R18 ]@ @[ EXAM 2 LABEL L20 ]@
@[ EXAM 3 R10 ]@ @[ EXAM 3 POSSIBLE R18 ]@ @[ EXAM 3 LABEL L20 ]@
@[ EXAM 4 R10 ]@ @[ EXAM 4 POSSIBLE R18 ]@ @[ EXAM 4 LABEL L20 ]@
@[ EXAM 5 R10 ]@ @[ EXAM 5 POSSIBLE R18 ]@ @[ EXAM 5 LABEL L20 ]@
----- --------
@[ EXAM TOTAL R10 ]@ @[ EXAM POSSIBLE R18 ]@
GRADE GUIDE would replace the codes and print something like the
following.
Smith, John December 11, 1988
EXAM POSSIBLE
---- --------
95 A 100 Chapters 1-3
88 B 100 Chapters 4-5
71 D 100 Chapters 6-8
87 B 100 Chapter 9
185 A 200 Final Exam
----- ---------
526.00 600.00
OPTION Q -- Quitting and Returning to the FILE MENU
This option causes the FILE MENU to be redisplayed. If your file
has been changed since the last time a copy of it was written to the
disk, GRADE GUIDE makes a final updated copy of your file at that time.
When the FILE MENU has been displayed, you may select any of the options
available with that menu including choosing another class or quitting
the program.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
= CHANGING DEFAULT SETTINGS =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
GRADE GUIDE was designed to be easy to use. To do this, many
decisions had to be made about how users would want the program to work.
If these decisions had not been made, then users would have to make them
while running GRADE GUIDE and the program would be harder to use. On
the other hand, some users may wish to tailor GRADE GUIDE to function in
ways better suited to their own needs. Therefore, GRADE GUIDE allows
you to change some of the ways that it operates.
You can change many of GRADE GUIDE's operating characteristics by
using the DEFAULT MENU. You can get to the DEFAULT MENU by selecting
OPTION D from the FILE MENU. The DEFAULT MENU looks like this:
Page 37
.......................................................................
: DEFAULT MENU :
: :
: SET DEFAULTS FOR THE :
: :
: A : disk drives, directories, and back-ups :
: B : methods of grade calculations :
: C : answers to operating questions :
: D : displaying of information :
: E : keyboard definitions :
: :
: Q : quit and return to the FILE MENU :
:.....................................................................:
If you select any of the choices from the DEFAULT MENU, GRADE GUIDE
displays a menu from which you can select default settings to change.
DEFAULT MENU OPTION A -- Setting up default directories and back-ups
Selecting OPTION A from the DEFAULT MENU causes the following menu
to appear.
.......................................................................
: SET DEFAULTS FOR DRIVES, DIRECTORIES, AND BACK-UPS :
: :
: Set the Default for the :
: :
:A : directories :
:B : disk drive .unset. (A through Z or unset) :
:C : directory changing On (Off or On) :
:D : back-up time interval 10 (1 through 250 minutes or NONE):
: :
:Q : quit and return to the DEFAULT MENU :
: :
:Drive Default Directory for the Drive :
: A .unset. :
: B .unset. :
: C .unset. :
: D .unset. :
: E .unset. :
:.....................................................................:
Choice A : directories
If you keep class files in a particular directory on a particular
drive, you can request that GRADE GUIDE look at that directory every
time you select that drive. Choice A from this SET DEFAULTS FOR DRIVES,
DIRECTORIES, AND BACK-UPS menu allow you to set a default directory for
up to five disk drives. Before any defaults are set, GRADE GUIDE
assumes that the five disk drives are A, B, C, D, and E although these
drive names can be changed to any five different letters. If you choose
A, GRADE GUIDE enters change mode and allows you to change the drive
names and corresponding directories listed on the bottom of the screen.
If the directory has not been set or has been set to blank, the screen
displays the name ".unset." GRADE GUIDE checks that the five drive
names that you enter are all different. GRADE GUIDE does not check to
see if your computer has the appropriate drives or whether the default
directory names that you associated with the drives are legal directory
Page 38
names. If you enter any illegal directory names, GRADE GUIDE will
ignore the names when it comes time to use them.
Suppose for example that you have set the second line of the list
of default drives and directories to read "B \grades". Then
whenever you select drive B when you use OPTION A in the FILE MENU,
GRADE GUIDE automatically switches to the directory "\grades" on that
drive. If you have the default for directory changing (see choice C
below) set to "On", then GRADE GUIDE still gives you the chance to
change directories in case you do not want your chosen default
directory. If you start GRADE GUIDE by using a command line parameter
(see the note about command line parameter use in GETTING STARTED WITH
GRADE GUIDE -- OPTION B), then a directory given in the command line
parameter, will be used in preference to the directory set by default.
If you enter an empty string when entering a default directory,
then GRADE GUIDE returns the default setting to "unset". When the
setting is "unset", then GRADE GUIDE does not automatically change the
directory for you when you change drives. It leaves you in the current
default directory on that drive when it asks you to enter a directory
name in FILE MENU OPTION A.
NOTE! if you enter a default directory name beginning with a back
slash, "\", then you are entering a full DOS path name for the
directory. If the directory name does not begin with a back slash, then
it is only a relative directory name as explained by the DOS path name
rules. If your default directory for drive A is named "grades", then
whenever you choose to change to drive A, GRADE GUIDE will attempt to
add "grades" to the CURRENT directory name for drive A. If the current
directory is the root directory, "\", then GRADE GUIDE will change it to
"\grades". But, if the current directory is "\students", then GRADE
GUIDE will change it to "\students\grades". This is compatible with
standard DOS rules for changing directories.
Choice B : disk drive
If you keep your class files on a different disk drive than your
GRADEGID.EXE and GRADEGID.OVR files, then you may want GRADE GUIDE to
automatically change drives when it begins. For example, if you keep
your GRADEGID.EXE and GRADEGID.OVR files on drive C but your class files
on drive A, then every time GRADE GUIDE begins you will have to change
the drive from C to A. With choice B from the SET DEFAULTS FOR DRIVES,
DIRECTORIES, AND BACK-UPS menu, you can tell GRADE GUIDE that you want
drive A (or any other drive) as the drive to look at for your class
files. Then, whenever GRADE GUIDE begins, A automatically becomes the
drive name. Again, a drive specified in a command line parameter takes
precedence over the drive set as default.
If the default setting for choice B is ".unset.", then GRADE GUIDE
will not change drives when it begins. If you enter a <CR> when
choosing the default drive, then GRADE GUIDE will set the default drive
to ".unset.".
Choice C : directory changing
When you choose C from the SET DEFAULTS FOR DRIVES, DIRECTORIES,
AND BACK-UPS menu, the default shown on menu next to choice C changes
from "On" to "Off". Pressing C again switches the setting back to "On".
Page 39
If the setting is "On", then whenever you select OPTION A from the FILE
MENU, GRADE GUIDE asks you to "Enter the directory name : ". If you
never use subdirectories or you do use subdirectories but you have told
GRADE GUIDE exactly which subdirectories you do use, then the request to
"Enter the directory name : " is unnecessary. If OPTION G is set to
"Off", then GRADE GUIDE does not ask you to enter a directory name when
you change drives.
Choice D : back-up time interval
When you make changes to your class files, GRADE GUIDE keeps track
of how long it has been since the last time it wrote a copy of your
class file to the disk. GRADE GUIDE does not let you work for more that
10 minutes before it backs up your class file. This is to protect you
from losing too much of your work if your computer should experience a
power failure or other hardware problem.
If you would like GRADE GUIDE to back up your class files more or
less often than every 10 minutes, then choice D from the SET DEFAULTS
FOR DRIVES, DIRECTORIES, AND BACK-UPS menu allows you to enter the time
interval that you want. If you enter NONE, then GRADE GUIDE will stop
making backup copies of your file except, of course, when you exit from
the MAIN MENU back to the FILE MENU, just before you create TEMPORARILY
CHANGED GRADES, or when you exit GRADE GUIDE with <Ctrl-Break> or
<Ctrl-C>.
DEFAULT MENU OPTION B -- Changing the Methods of Grade Calculations
Selecting OPTION B from the DEFAULT MENU causes the following menu
to appear.
.......................................................................
: SET DEFAULTS FOR METHODS OF GRADE CALCULATIONS :
: :
: Set the Default for the :
: :
:A : grand average weighted On (Off or On) :
:B : value of an empty category NONE (0%, 100%, or NONE) :
:C : basis of grade from average 100 (0 to 250) :
:D : converting of letter values After (Before or After GPA) :
:E : letter grade percentages :
: :
:Q : quit and return to the DEFAULT MENU :
:.....................................................................:
Choice A : grand average weighted
When GRADE GUIDE calculates the GRAND AVERAGE grade for your
students, it normally uses the category percentages that you have
supplied. For example, you might have set up three grade categories
EXAM 70% of the grade
QUIZ 20% of the grade
HOMEWORK 10% of the grade
Perhaps you have entered 2 EXAM grades, 4 QUIZ grades, and 10 HOMEWORK
grades for each student. When the GRAND AVERAGE is calculated for a
student, it is calculated from the category averages using the
weightings of 70%, 20%, and 10%. Suppose each exam were worth 100
Page 40
points, each quiz 20 points, and each homework assignment 10 points.
Suppose that one student's grades were
CATEGORY GRADES TOTAL AVERAGE
-------- ------ ----- -------
EXAM 80 100 180 90 %
QUIZ 15 14 16 19 64 80 %
HOMEWORK 7 9 8 6 3 5 8 9 7 8 70 70 %
The GRAND AVERAGE is calculated by weighting the category averages (90%,
80%, and 70%) by the category weightings of 70%, 20%, and 10%. Assuming
that all grades entered were given a weight of 1.000, one would get
GRAND AVERAGE = 90% * 70% + 80% * 20% + 70% * 10% = 86.00 %.
By selecting choice A from the SET DEFAULTS FOR METHODS OF GRADE
CALCULATIONS menu, you can turn "Off" this weighting of the GRAND
AVERAGE so that the GRAND AVERAGE is calculated on the basis of total
points only. The above calculations would then become
TOTAL POINTS = 180 + 64 + 70 = 314
TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE = 200 + 80 + 100 = 380
GRAND AVERAGE = 314 / 380 = 82.63 %.
By selecting choice A a second time, you can turn the weighting of the
GRAND AVERAGE back "On". NOTE! if you have set the percentages for all
of the categories for a particular class to zero, then, for that class,
GRADE GUIDE will calculate the GRAND AVERAGE on the basis of total
points.
Choice B : value of an empty category
Consider the example given above for choice A. Suppose that
instead of having given 2 EXAMS, 4 QUIZZES, and 10 HOMEWORK, you had
given 2 EXAMS, 10 HOMEWORK, but no QUIZZES. Suppose that a student had
been given the grades
CATEGORY GRADES TOTAL AVERAGE
-------- ------ ----- -------
EXAM 80 100 180 90 %
QUIZ no grades 0 0 %
HOMEWORK 7 9 8 6 3 5 8 9 7 8 70 70 %
If the GRAND AVERAGE is being weighted, then GRADE GUIDE acts as if the
category QUIZ never existed and calculates the GRAND AVERAGE by
WEIGHTED SUM = 90% * 70% + no grades + 70% * 10% = 70%
TOTAL CATEGORY PERCENTS = 70% + 10% = 80%
GRAND AVERAGE = 70% / 80% = 87.50 %
There are two other ways that this calculation might be done. One way
would be to assign an average of 0% to the QUIZ category to get
Page 41
WEIGHTED SUM = 90% * 70% + 0% * 20% + 70% * 10% = 70%
TOTAL CATEGORY PERCENTS = 70% 20% + 10% = 100%
GRAND AVERAGE = 70% / 100% = 70.00 %
Another way would be to assign an average of 100% to the QUIZ category
to get
WEIGHTED SUM = 90% * 70% + 100% * 20% + 70% * 10% = 90%
TOTAL CATEGORY PERCENTS = 70% + 20% + 10% = 100%
GRAND AVERAGE = 90% / 100% = 90.00 %
By selecting choice B from the SET DEFAULTS FOR METHODS OF GRADE
CALCULATIONS menu, you can change the way empty categories are treated.
Selecting choice B once changes the method of treating empty categories
from the first way (default setting "NONE") to the second way (default
setting "0%".) Selecting choice B again changes the way that empty
categories are treated to the third way (default setting "100%".)
Selecting choice B a third time changes the method of treating empty
categories back to the original way (default setting "NONE".)
Choice C : basis of grade from average
When using MAIN MENU OPTION B to create a number grade from the
GRAND AVERAGE score, GRADE GUIDE calculates for each student a GRAND
AVERAGE expressed as a percentage. This results in each student's
average being in the range from 0 to 100 (unless the student has enough
extra credit that the student's average is more than 100 percent.) That
percentage is used as the student's new grade. If you want to have this
grade expressed as a percent of some number other than 100, then you
should use choice C from the SET DEFAULTS FOR METHODS OF GRADE
CALCULATIONS menu. For example, if the basis of grade from average is
changed to 25, each student's grade will be a percentage of 25 where the
percentage is determined by the student's GRAND AVERAGE.
Choice D : converting of letter values
The use of choice D will not make sense until you understand the
use of choice E described below. By using choice E discussed below, you
have a great amount of control over the numeric values assigned to the
various letter grades. The default values for these numeric settings
can always be seen in the letter values table which appears when choice
E is selected. Even after these values are set, there is still another
choice that can be made concerning how GRADE GUIDE calculates the
average of letter grades. The question is one of whether GRADE GUIDE
should make the conversion to your choice of letter grade values before
or after it calculates a grade point average.
Suppose, for example, that a student has received the four grades
A-, B, C+, and D. GRADE GUIDE would first calculate a grade point
average treating A- as a 3.667, B as a 3, C+ as a 2.333, and D as a 1,
then the GPA would be
Page 42
(3.667 + 3 + 2.333 + 1) / 4 = 2.5
(The values for the A- and C+ were determined by the LETTER GRADE +-
FRACTION set on the letter values table discussed below in the section
about choice E.) This average is half of the way between a C and a B
which is equivalent to the grade BC.
Now GRADE GUIDE has to determine a PERCENTAGE AVERAGE for this list
of four letter grades. Suppose that on the letter values table
discussed below in the section on choice E you had set the letter grade
percentages as follows.
GRADE PERCENT GRADE PERCENT GRADE PERCENT GRADE PERCENT
----- ------- ----- ------- ----- ------- ----- -------
A 96 % A+ 98 % A- 93 % AB 92 %
B 88 % B+ 90 % B- 85 % BC 82 %
C 76 % C+ 79 % C- 73 % CD 68 %
D 60 % D+ 63 % D- 45 % DF 40 %
F 20 % F+ 30 % F- 0 %
According to this table, a GPA equivalent to a BC should average to be
82 %.
But suppose that GRADE GUIDE first converts the letter grades into
percentages and then finds the GPA. Then GRADE GUIDE would take the
average of the four percentages 93%, 88%, 79%, and 60% to get
(93% + 88% + 79% + 60%) / 4 = 80.00 %
Clearly the percentage is different depending on whether GRADE GUIDE
converts to your chosen percentages BEFORE calculating the GPA (80 %) or
AFTER calculating the GPA (82 %). The only time that it will make a
difference is when the percentages assigned to the letter grades are not
evenly spaced. In the above example the spacing between the settings
for A and B is 96% - 88% = 8% while the spacing between the settings for
B and C is 88% - 76% = 12%.
Therefore, GRADE GUIDE allows you to choose whether you want to
convert to percentages before or after the grade point average is
calculated. The current default choice is AFTER. By selecting choice D
from the SET DEFAULTS FOR METHODS OF GRADE CALCULATIONS menu, you can
change the default to BEFORE. GRADE GUIDE still reports a grade point
average (GPA) calculated on the standard 4.0 scale as shown above.
Choice E : letter grade percentages
If you use letter grades, you may associate a numeric percentage
with each of the letter grades. GRADE GUIDE, for example, assigns A a
value of 95%, B a value of 85%, C a value of 75%, D a value of 65%, and
F a value of 55%. These choices may or may not be compatible with the
values that you would want assigned. When you select choice E from the
SET DEFAULTS FOR METHODS OF GRADE CALCULATIONS menu, GRADE GUIDE
displays the following letter values table.
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.......................................................................
: Set the Default for the :
:A : letter grade +- fraction 33.333 % (0 to 50 % of 1 point) :
:B : values for converting letter grades to numeric averages :
: :
: Grade Percentage Fractional & Mixed Grade Percentages :
: A 95.000 A+ 98.333 A- 91.667 AB 90.000 :
: B 85.000 B+ 88.333 B- 81.667 BC 80.000 :
: C 75.000 C+ 78.333 C- 71.667 CD 70.000 :
: D 65.000 D+ 68.333 D- 61.667 DF 60.000 :
: F 55.000 F+ 58.333 F- 51.667 :
: :
:C : ranges for converting numeric values to letter grades :
: :
: TOP BOTTOM TOP BOTTOM TOP BOTTOM TOP BOTTOM:
:A Maximum 90.000 A+Maximum 96.667 A-93.333 90.000 AB 92.5 87.5 :
:B 90.000 80.000 B+ 90.000 86.667 B-83.333 80.000 BC 82.5 77.5 :
:C 80.000 70.000 C+ 80.000 76.667 C-73.333 70.000 CD 72.5 67.5 :
:D 70.000 60.000 D+ 70.000 66.667 D-63.333 60.000 DF 62.5 57.5 :
:F 60.000 0.000 F+ 60.000 56.667 F-53.333 50.000 :
: :
:Q : quit and return to the DEFAULT GRADE CALCULATIONS MENU :
:.....................................................................:
By changing the entries on this table you can change the way GRADE GUIDE
treats LETTER grades.
When determining a grade point average (GPA) from a list of letter
grades, GRADE GUIDE assigns a grade point value to each letter grade.
For example, the letter grade B is assigned the value 3.000. When you
use a plus letter grade like B+, GRADE GUIDE assigns that letter grade a
value which is one third of a point greater than the assignment made for
a B. This assigns to a B+ the value 3.333. Similarly, GRADE GUIDE
assigns to a B- a value which is one third of a point less than the
assignment made for a B. This assigns to a B- the value 2.667.
By selecting choice A from the letter values table you can change
the fraction that GRADE GUIDE adds or subtracts when a plus or minus
letter grade is used. The value is expressed as the percent of one
point. Thus GRADE GUIDE's chosen fraction of one third is expressed as
33.333 %. If you want the fraction changed to one fourth, for example,
you would select choice A and enter 25.000. This would result in a B+
receiving a value of 3.25 and B- receiving a value of 2.75. The
fraction that you enter must be between zero and 50.000 %. If the
fraction is set at 50.000 %, a B- will have the same value as a C+ and
the same value as a BC.
When determining an average for a list of LETTER grades, GRADE
GUIDE uses the table listed under "B : values for converting letter
grades to numeric averages." For example, if a student receives the
letter grades A, B-, and B (all with weight 1.000), GRADE GUIDE would
calculate and average by replacing A with 95 %, B- with 81.667 %, and B
with 85 % to get
(95 + 81.667 + 85) / 3 = 87.222 %.
By selecting choice B from the letter grade table you can change these
percentages. To decide what values to enter, you should decide first
Page 44
what each letter grade is worth. Take the grade B+, for example. If a
student were to receive B+ for every grade ever given, what average
would you want that student to receive? A 92 % ? An 87.5 % ? Whatever
percentage you decide is correct for that student who earns a B+ for
every grade is the percentage you should assign to B+.
After selecting choice B, GRADE GUIDE enters CHANGE MODE and allows
you to change the percentages for the base grades, A, B, C, D, and F.
When you finish with the percentages for those five grades, press the
<Esc> key.
Then GRADE GUIDE will ask you if it should adjust the values of the
fractional grades (the plus and minus grades) by using the LETTER GRADE
+- FRACTION set in the table in part A. If you want, GRADE GUIDE will
set the percentages for those plus and minus grades to be compatible
with the LETTER GRADE +- FRACTION and the base grade percentages that
you just finished setting. Whether or not you ask GRADE GUIDE to make
that adjustment for you, GRADE GUIDE will then enter CHANGE MODE and
allow you to adjust the percentages for the plus grades of A+, B+, C+,
D+, and F+ if you want. When you are done with those adjustments, press
the <Esc> key again.
Then GRADE GUIDE will allow you to adjust the percentages of the
minus grades of A-, B-, C-, D-, and F-. When you are done with those
adjustments, press the <Esc> key again.
GRADE GUIDE will then ask if it should adjust the percentages for
the mixed grades of AB, BC, CD, and DF by making them half way between
the appropriate base grade percentages. Whether or not you ask GRADE
GUIDE to make that adjustment, GRADE GUIDE will then enter CHANGE MODE
and allow you to adjust the percentages for the mixed grades. When you
are done, press the <Esc> key for one last time.
When using MAIN MENU OPTION B to create a grade from the GRAND
AVERAGE, you can create for each student a new grade in a category of
your choice based on the value of the student's current GRAND AVERAGE.
If the chosen category contains LETTER grades, then GRADE GUIDE has to
convert the numeric GRAND AVERAGE into a LETTER grade. To do this,
GRADE GUIDE uses the table listed under "C : ranges for converting
numeric values to letter grades." For example, if a student's GRAND
AVERAGE is 84.35 %, GRADE GUIDE would assign a grade of B. If you wish
to change these grade ranges, select choice C from the letter grade
table. If you do, GRADE GUIDE will enter CHANGE MODE and allow you to
set the bottom limits for the ranges for A, B, C, and D. NOTE! that the
grade ranges for the five base grades of A, B, C, D, and F completely
cover the values from 0 up to 200 so that any average between 0 and 200
can be assigned to one of the letter grades, A, B, C, D, or F. If an
average falls on a border between two grades, the higher grade is
assigned. When you are done adjusting these ranges, press the <Esc>
key.
Then GRADE GUIDE will let you adjust the bottom limits for the
grade ranges for A+, B+, C+, D+, and F+. NOTE! that the ranges for
these plus grades must lie at the top end of the ranges you set for the
corresponding base grades. That is, for example, the range for C+ must
be the top portion of the range for C. When you are done adjusting
these ranges, press the <Esc> key.
Page 45
Then GRADE GUIDE will let you adjust the top limits for the grade
ranges for A-, B-, C-, D-, and F-. NOTE! that the ranges for these
minus grades must lie at the bottom end of the ranges you set for the
corresponding base grades. That is, for example, the range for B- must
be the bottom portion of the range for B. When you are done adjusting
these ranges, press the <Esc> key.
Finally, GRADE GUIDE will let you adjust the top and bottom limits
for the ranges for the mixed grades of AB, BC, CD, and DF. NOTE! that
these grade ranges for the mixed grades must cover the border of the
grade ranges for the two associated base grades. That is, for example,
the top value for the AB range must be in the range set for A, and the
bottom of the AB range must be in the range set for B. When you are all
done setting the range limits, press the <Esc> key.
When you are done adjusting numbers on the letter values table,
press Q to return to the "SET DEFAULTS FOR METHODS OF GRADE
CALCULATIONS" menu.
DEFAULT MENU OPTION C -- Answers to Operating Questions
There are several questions which GRADE GUIDE needs to ask you
while you are operating the program. For several of these questions,
you can tell GRADE GUIDE that your answer will always be the same. Then
GRADE GUIDE will no longer need to ask you for your answer.
Selecting OPTION C from the DEFAULT MENU causes the following menu
to appear.
.......................................................................
: SET DEFAULTS FOR ANSWERS TO OPERATING QUESTIONS :
: :
: Set the Default for the :
: :
:A : grade confirmations Optional (Off, On, or Optional) :
:B : treat none grades as zero Optional (Off, On, or Optional) :
:C : labeling of categories Optional (Off, On, or Optional) :
:D : listing grades with labels Optional (Off, On, or Optional) :
:E : grade report form Optional (Totals, Averages, or Opt) :
: :
:Q : quit and return to the DEFAULT MENU :
:.....................................................................:
For each of the choices A through E on this menu, the current setting is
"Optional". This means that each time that GRADE GUIDE needs to know
how you want it to operate, it must ask you an appropriate question. By
changing the default settings, you are telling GRADE GUIDE that your
answer to the question will always be the same, so GRADE GUIDE no longer
needs to ask the question.
Choice A : grade confirmations
Whenever you use GRADE GUIDE to enter grades using MAIN MENU OPTION
B, you are asked
Do you want to confirm inputs (Y/N) ?
By selecting choice A from the SET DEFAULTS FOR ANSWERS TO OPERATION
QUESTIONS menu you change the default setting from "Optional", which
Page 46
means that GRADE GUIDE asks the question every time grades are entered,
to "Off" which means that GRADE GUIDE assumes you never want to confirm
grades. Selecting choice A a second time turns the default setting to
"On" which means that GRADE GUIDE assumes that you always want to
confirm grades. Selecting choice A a third time returns the default
setting to "Optional".
Choice B : treat none grades as zero
At several places (in MAIN MENU OPTIONS E, H, K, L, and M) GRADE
GUIDE asks you
Do you want NONE grades given the value of ZERO (Y/N) ?
Just as in choice A above, you can use choice B to answer this question
so that GRADE GUIDE will not have to ask it. Selecting choice B once
turns the default setting to "Off" so that NONE grades are never treated
as zero. Selecting choice B again turns the default setting to "On" so
that NONE grades are always treated as zero. Selecting choice B a third
time turns the default setting back to "Optional" and GRADE GUIDE will
continue to ask the question.
Choice C : labeling of categories
Each time that you establish a new category in MAIN MENU OPTION C,
you must specify whether or not the category should be LABELED. If you
either want all of your categories LABELED or all of your categories NOT
LABELED, then choice C will set your choice automatically for you.
Selecting choice C once turns the default to "Off" so that all NEWLY
established categories will be automatically made NOT LABELED.
Selecting choice C again turns the default setting to "On" so that all
NEWLY established categories will be automatically made LABELED.
Selecting choice C a third time turns the default setting back to
"Optional" and GRADE GUIDE will need to be told whether or not new
categories are to be LABELED.
Choice D : listing grades with labels
If your class has at least one category which has some grades in it
and is LABELED, then when you use MAIN MENU OPTIONS H and M, GRADE GUIDE
will ask you
Do you want to list using grade labels (Y/N) ?
Displaying or printing a grade list with labels takes up more room than
listing the grades without labels. Selecting choice D once turns the
default to "Off" so that labels are never used. Selecting choice D
again turns the default setting to "On" so that labels are always used.
Selecting choice D a third time turns the default setting back to
"Optional" and GRADE GUIDE will need to be told whether or not to use
labels on grade lists.
Choice E : grade report form
At two places (in MAIN MENU OPTIONS K and L) GRADE GUIDE asks you
Do you want TOTALS rather than AVERAGES (Y/N) ?
Page 47
You can use choice E to answer this question so that GRADE GUIDE will
not have to ask it. Selecting choice E once turns the default setting
to "Off" so that you will never get TOTALS; you will always get
AVERAGES. Selecting choice E again turns the default setting to "On" so
that you will always get TOTALS; you will never get AVERAGES. Selecting
choice E a third time turns the default setting back to "Optional" and
GRADE GUIDE will need to ask if you want TOTALS rather than AVERAGES in
MAIN MENU OPTIONS K and L.
DEFAULT MENU OPTION D -- Changing the way GRADE GUIDE displays
GRADE GUIDE allows you to change in several ways the manner in
which it displays information on the screen or on the printer.
Selecting OPTION D from the DEFAULT MENU causes the following menu to
appear.
.......................................................................
: SET DEFAULTS FOR DISPLAYING OF INFORMATION :
: :
: Set the Default for the :
: :
:A : start in color mode On (Off or On) :
:B : lines per page NONE (5 through 250 lines or NONE) :
:C : maximum roster width 80 (30 through 250 columns) :
:D : statistics grade list Show (Show or Suppress) :
:E : statistics histogram list Show (Show or Suppress) :
:F : roster statistics Show (Show or Suppress) :
:G : histogram print character * (42) (Any Character ASCII 32 to 255):
:H : total decimal digits 2 (0 through 7) :
:I : average decimal digits 2 (0 through 7) :
:J : letter grade display names :
: :
:Q : quit and return to the DEFAULT MENU :
: :
: Letter Grades : A B C D F :
: Letter Grades Displayed As : A B C D F :
:.....................................................................:
Choice A : start in color mode
If your computer has a color graphics card, then whenever GRADE
GUIDE begins, it writes to the screen in color. If your computer has a
color graphics card but does not have a color monitor, then you will
likely choose FILE MENU OPTION H every time that you run GRADE GUIDE.
If you select choice A on the SET DEFAULTS FOR DISPLAYING OF INFORMATION
menu, this default switches to "Off". Then the next time GRADE GUIDE
begins, it will begin in monochrome mode rather than in color mode.
Selecting choice A a second time switches the default back to "On".
NOTE! selecting choice A does not change GRADE GUIDE into monochrome
mode; it only requests that GRADE GUIDE begins in monochrome mode IN THE
FUTURE!
Choice B : lines per page
Normally when GRADE GUIDE prints, it does not count the number of
lines being printed. Therefore, GRADE GUIDE often writes right on top
of the page perforations on the printer paper. This is because the
default setting for choice B on the SET DEFAULTS FOR DISPLAYING OF
Page 48
INFORMATION menu is set to "NONE". If you select choice B, GRADE GUIDE
allows you to enter a number of lines that you want GRADE GUIDE to use
as the maximum number of lines that are written on any page.
For example, standard 11 inch long paper has room for 66 lines
written at 6 lines per inch. If you want GRADE GUIDE to avoid writing
on the last 6 lines of the page, use choice B to set the maximum number
of lines per page to 60 (or any other number less than 66.) Then GRADE
GUIDE will not write more than 60 lines before writing a form feed to
make the printer jump to the top of the next page. GRADE GUIDE will not
put the page jumps in at random places. If you are printing students'
grades using MAIN MENU OPTION H, then GRADE GUIDE will not print some of
a student's grades on one page and some more grades on the next page.
If a student's grades do not all fit on the current page, then GRADE
GUIDE will jump to the next page before printing that student's grades.
When GRADE GUIDE is printing lists, it tries to print a multiple of five
lines on each page.
Choice C : maximum roster width
GRADE GUIDE assumes that your printer prints 80 characters per
line. Some printers can print many more characters than 80 per line.
If you would like GRADE GUIDE to allow you to write a roster report to a
printer which can handle more than 80 characters per line, then choice C
on the SET DEFAULTS FOR DISPLAYING OF INFORMATION menu allows you to
enter a different number of characters. You can even ask GRADE GUIDE to
restrict your reports so that they are forced to have fewer than 80
characters per line by entering a number less than 80.
NOTE! you may want to reset this default when you are writing
reports to the GRADEOUT file. Files can be written with up to 250
characters on one line.
NOTE! even when you create a roster report with more than 80
characters on each line, only the first 80 characters are displayed when
you show the report on the screen.
Choice D : statistics grade list
Each time that GRADE GUIDE lists statistics in MAIN MENU OPTION K
it gives a list of all the scores obtained by the students and the
associated Z-Scores (see the discussion of MAIN MENU OPTION K.) If you
want to suppress this listing, you can do it by selecting choice D on
the SET DEFAULTS FOR DISPLAYING OF INFORMATION menu. Selecting choice D
once changes the default to "Suppress". Selecting the choice a second
time returns the default to "Show".
Choice E : statistics histogram
Each time that GRADE GUIDE lists statistics in MAIN MENU OPTION K
it gives a histogram graphing the distribution of values obtained (see
the discussion of MAIN MENU OPTION K.) If you want to suppress this
histogram, you can do it by selecting choice E on the SET DEFAULTS FOR
DISPLAYING OF INFORMATION menu. Selecting choice E once changes the
default to "Suppress". Selecting the choice a second time returns the
default to "Show".
Page 49
Choice F : roster statistics
Each time that GRADE GUIDE makes a roster listing (using MAIN MENU
OPTION L) containing number grades, totals, or averages, it lists five
lines of statistics at the bottom of the listing (see the discussion of
MAIN MENU OPTION L.) If you want to suppress these statistics, you can
do it by selecting choice F on the SET DEFAULTS FOR DISPLAYING OF
INFORMATION menu. Selecting choice F once changes the default to
"Suppress". Selecting the choice a second time returns the default to
"Show".
Choice G : histogram print character
When the statistics histogram is displayed on the screen, GRADE
GUIDE uses the block graphics character with ASCII value 219. This
causes the bars on the histogram chart to be completely filled in. When
GRADE GUIDE writes a histogram on the printer, it does not use the block
graphics character because most printers do not use this character.
GRADE GUIDE uses instead the asterisk "*" with ASCII value 42, a
standard character available to almost all printers. If you want to
choose a different character to be printed on your printer, select
choice G on the SET DEFAULTS FOR DISPLAYING OF INFORMATION menu. GRADE
GUIDE will allow you to enter one character with any ASCII value from 32
to 255. To enter a character not available on your keyboard, hold down
the alternate key, <Alt>, and enter the ASCII code for the character
using the numeric keypad on your keyboard. Finally, release the <Alt>
key. Do not be disturbed if the character displayed by GRADE GUIDE on
the screen is not the same as the character you expected to show on your
printer. Characters with ASCII values greater than 127 are not
standard; the display of those characters on the screen may well be
different from the display of those characters on your printer.
Choice H : decimal digits for totals
When GRADE GUIDE displays or prints a TOTAL, it shows the number
with 2 decimal digits. You may change the number of digits by selecting
choice H on the SET DEFAULTS FOR DISPLAYING OF INFORMATION menu. When
you select choice H, you can set the number of decimal places for all
TOTALS at any number from 0 to 7.
Choice I : decimal digits for averages
When GRADE GUIDE displays or prints an AVERAGE or GPA, it shows the
number with 2 decimal digits. You may change the number of digits by
selecting choice I on the SET DEFAULTS FOR DISPLAYING OF INFORMATION
menu. When you select choice I, you can set the number of decimal
places for all AVERAGES and GPA'S at any number from 0 to 7.
Choice J : letter grade display names
GRADE GUIDE uses the five letter grades A, B, C, D, and F. Choice
J on the SET DEFAULTS FOR DISPLAYING OF INFORMATION menu allows you to
change those letters to any other system of five letters. For example,
some schools use an A, B, C, D, and E system. Other schools use the O,
G, S, U, and F or the E, G, S, U, P systems. Whatever system of five
grades you choose, GRADE GUIDE will allow them. Simply select choice J
and enter the five letter grades that you want to use. Make sure that
the grades are entered in order from high grade to low grade. GRADE
Page 50
GUIDE shows you what the corresponding A, B, C, D, and F grades are.
After you make the change, GRADE GUIDE begins to use your chosen letter
grades both when it displays and reads grades. From then on you must
use your chosen letters when you enter grades.
DEFAULT MENU OPTION E -- Changing the Use of the Editing Keys
Whenever you enter or change information in GRADE GUIDE, you can
use the editing keys. The key use is
KEY USE
--- ---
Up Arrow Key cursor up between entries on the screen
Down Arrow Key cursor down between entries on the screen
Left Arrow Key cursor left between entries on the screen
Right Arrow Key cursor right between entries on the screen
F9 cursor left within an entry on the screen
F10 cursor right within an entry on the screen
F2 clear an entry on the screen
Esc escape from change mode
F5 alternate key for Up Arrow
F6 alternate key for Down Arrow
F7 alternate key for Left Arrow
F8 alternate key for Right Arrow
The alternate keys (F5, F6, F7, and F8) are provided for those users who
like to use the numeric key pad. On many keyboards you cannot use the
arrow keys at the same time that you use the numeric key pad. The Del
and Back Space keys are also used by GRADE GUIDE for deleting
characters.
If you would prefer a different handling of these keys, GRADE GUIDE
will allow you to use the arrow keys, Home, End, PgUp, PgDn, Esc, Ins,
and the function keys in any of the uses listed in the table above. To
change the way GRADE GUIDE uses the editing keys select OPTION E on the
DEFAULT MENU. To change the keys first press the letter A to indicate
that you are ready to change keys. Then just enter one key for each of
the key uses listed on the screen. From that point on, GRADE GUIDE will
begin using your choice of keys.
DEFAULT MENU OPTION Q -- Quitting and Returning to the FILE MENU
When you select OPTION Q, GRADE GUIDE asks you
Make These Settings Permanent (Y/N) ?
If you respond with N, then the current default settings are used by
GRADE GUIDE while the program is running. However, when you quit using
the GRADE GUIDE program, GRADE GUIDE forgets all the changes you made in
the default settings.
If, on the other hand, you respond with a Y, then GRADE GUIDE
writes a new file called "GRADEGID.DFT". The file is placed in the same
directory that was the current default directory when the program began
execution. Every time that you begin running GRADE GUIDE, it looks for
Page 51
the "GRADEGID.DFT" file in your current default directory. If that file
is found, then GRADE GUIDE reads it and finds out what the default
settings are. In this way, you can set the default settings on the
DEFAULT MENU once and never need to go back to the DEFAULT MENU again
unless you want to change the default settings. NOTE! if the default
settings that you chose are the same as the default settings that GRADE
GUIDE has chosen to use (see the DEFAULT MENU listed above), then no
"GRADEGID.DFT" file will be needed and none will be written. In
particular, if you have an old "GRADEGID.DFT" file, and you change the
default settings back to the original GRADE GUIDE default settings, then
your old "GRADEGID.DFT" file will be erased.
If you have used the DEFAULT MENU to change some of the default
settings, you can undo all of your changes and return to using GRADE
GUIDE's choice of default settings. This is done by deleting the
GRADEGID.DFT file. This cannot be done from within the GRADE GUIDE
program but can be done in DOS by typing ERASE GRADEGID.DFT as a DOS
command. When giving a copy of GRADE GUIDE to a friend, you should give
them a copy of GRADEGID.EXE, GRADEGID.OVR, and GRADEGID.DOC. If you do
not give them a copy of your GRADEGID.DFT file, then they can begin
using GRADE GUIDE with the standard default settings.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
= MEMORY REQUIREMENTS =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
When GRADE GUIDE is working on one of your classes, it reads the
entire file of information for that class into the computer's memory.
This allows GRADE GUIDE to execute very fast. If you try to read a file
into memory which is too large for the memory of your computer, GRADE
GUIDE displays a warning message and does not allow you to continue
processing that class. This could happen if you record information
about a class using one computer and then try to process that class
using another computer with less internal memory.
GRADE GUIDE Version 3.00 has been tested with a class which has 120
students with 400 grades and 20 NOTES assigned to each student. It was
also tested with a class which has 230 students with 40 grades and 20
NOTES assigned to each student. This worked fine on a computer with an
internal memory of 256 K bytes. On a computer with 640 K bytes of
memory, GRADE GUIDE worked for a class of 500 students. Since most
classes do not have anywhere near this much information to store, GRADE
GUIDE will almost never run into memory problems. The use of NOTES
increases drastically the amount of memory required to handle your
classes. If you do not use NOTES or use only a couple of short NOTES
for each student, you can expect to handle a class of several hundred
students on a computer with an internal memory size of only 256 K bytes.
GRADE GUIDE constantly checks whether or not your computer has the
memory capacity to continue processing. If you attempt to add one more
new student or try to record a new set of grades and there is not enough
memory in the computer to allow that, GRADE GUIDE stops you and prevents
you from making those additions to your class. You can continue
processing normally as long as you do not try to add the new informa-
tion. If you need to add the new information, there are several things
that you can try. First, you could move your work to a computer with
more memory. Second, you could delete some less important information.
An easy way to get more room, for example, would be to stop using
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LABELED categories. Another way would be to drop an unneeded category
or some students who are no longer attending your class. Third, you can
delete some NOTES that you have left for students. Student NOTES take
up a large amount of memory space, so if your computer is low on memory,
do not put a lot of information in NOTES. Finally, if you are using a
RAM disk or a memory resident program which takes up some of your memory
space, you could try running GRADE GUIDE without those utilities
present.
There are three MAIN MENU options which require some extra memory
to be allocated in your computer. They are OPTIONS E (drop grades), K
(display statistics), and L (display class roster when sorting is done
with a number entry). In addition, GRADE GUIDE must check the memory
used when it combines two classes with FILE MENU OPTION E. If you ever
try to use one of these options when your computer does not have enough
available memory, a warning is displayed and you are not allowed to use
the option. Normal processing can continue as long as you avoid using
those options.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
= INPUT/OUTPUT PROBLEMS =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
When reading from or writing to the disk drives, there is always a
possibility that problems will occur either due to hardware problems
with the disk drive or the diskette, due to the diskette's being full,
or due to your removing the necessary diskette from its drive before
GRADE GUIDE is done with it. GRADE GUIDE tries to catch each of these
kinds of errors and will display a warning message whenever it finds a
problem. It may ask you to choose to
A:abort GRADE GUIDE or R:retry ?
Choose to abort if you want the program to stop. Choose to retry if you
want to start the reading or the writing of the file over again. If you
receive this message because GRADE GUIDE was writing the class file and
your floppy disk ran out of free space to write the file, you can
replace the floppy with a different formatted floppy disk which does
have enough free space on it. Then press R to have GRADE GUIDE retry
writing your class file.
NOTE! GRADE GUIDE makes updated copies of your class file while you
are working and changing your class information. This is done so that
if you experience a power loss or other serious hardware problem, there
will be a fairly recent version of you class file stored on the disk.
It is recommended (as it is for all information stored on a disk) that
after a session with GRADE GUIDE, you use the DOS COPY function to make
backup copies of your class files.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
= SUGGESTIONS =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
It is often convenient to run GRADE GUIDE on a disk which also
contains the DOS boot routines. This allows you to put the GRADE GUIDE
disk into the A drive, turn your computer on, and immediately begin
processing with GRADE GUIDE. To do this, you must first format a disk.
Put a new disk into drive A and type FORMAT A:/S . When the disk is
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formatted, copy the GRADEGID.EXE and GRADEGID.OVR files onto the newly
formatted disk. You could also type
COPY CON A:AUTOEXEC.BAT
GRADEGID^Z
where the ^Z is the character obtained by pressing Z while the Ctrl key
is being held down, and where you press the carriage return, <CR>, after
typing each line. If you do, then GRADE GUIDE program will
automatically begin running every time that you boot your computer with
the new disk.
If you wish to use GRADE GUIDE for a class and do not want to
separate your grades into categories, just establish one grade category
and call it GRADES.
If you are entering a new class name using FILE MENU OPTION B, and
the new class name is similar to the name of a class already in the list
of classes, you can move the cursor to the old name and edit that name.
For example, if one of the names in the list of class names is MATH-145
and you want to enter the name MATH-146, move the cursor to MATH-145,
press the <F9> key, the Back Space key, and the 6. Then press <CR> or
<Esc> to select the new name.
If you have a category where you give two grades for each
assignment, you could establish two categories for those grades. For
example, if you assign one grade for form and one for content, then you
can establish two categories such as THEME-form and THEME-content.
Similarly, if you like to assign number grades and letter grades to the
same assignment, and you do not assign letter grades strictly on the
basis of a cutoff (that is, someone with a 93 gets a B while someone
else with a 92 still gets an A), then you can have two categories for
those assignments, one for the number score and one for the letter
score.
If you want a GRADEOUT file to be written to a directory that is
different from the directory containing your class file, then do the
following:
1) using FILE MENU OPTION A, change drive and directory to the
directory in which you want the GRADEOUT file to appear.
2) then use OPTION G to tell GRADE GUIDE that you want to write a
GRADEOUT file.
3) then use OPTION A again to change to the drive and directory where
your class file is listed.
If you like to analyze grades in more than one way--such as a
friend of mine who prefers to either weight the midterm exam to be one
half the value of the final exam or weight the final exam to be one half
the value of the midterm exam depending on which way turns out better
for the student--then you can analyze and print the grades using one
scheme, use MAIN MENU OPTION I to change weights, and then analyze and
print the grades using the other scheme.
If you want to list students' grades using MAIN MENU OPTION H but
you would like each student's grades to appear on a separate page, then
set the default page length to 5.
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If you want to write a roster report which is wider than 80
columns, but your printer does not write more than an 80 column line,
then write two roster reports and tape them together.
If you have more than one section of one particular course and you
would like to have the two sections listed together because they have
the same assignments and take the same tests, then you can establish one
class file for all the sections. If you want the students from one
section to be listed on your class list separately from those students
in another section, just use a prefix for each student's name when you
enter the student's name. Jerry Smith from your first section could be
entered as "1 Smith, Jerry" and Sally Jones from your second section
could be entered as "2 Jones, Sally". In this way the names from your
first section will be separated from the names from your second section
when the names are alphabetized.
Another way to separate students into sections is to use the ALIAS
for the section number. Then if you list students alphabetically by
ALIAS, they will be listed alphabetically by name within their separate
sections. Still another way would be to create a NOTE for each student
indicating the student's section number and name. Then roster listings
which include that NOTE could be sorted by section number and name.
If you begin teaching a course which has the same list of students
as a course you have previously taught, then you can easily begin
working with the new class without having to reenter the students'
names. Suppose that you have just finished teaching MATH-001 and are
about to begin teaching MATH-002 with the same students. Before using
GRADE GUIDE use the DOS copy command to copy the old class file to a new
file. For example:
COPY B:MATH-001.GRD B:MATH-002.GRD
Then use GRADE GUIDE to work with class MATH-002. Begin by using MAIN
MENU OPTION F to delete the old categories. If you wish to use the same
categories as in MATH-001, you can drop the grades from each of the
categories. If you want to establish new categories, you should drop
the entire categories. Now the class MATH-002 file will contain all the
student's names and aliases that class MATH-001 had.
If you like to drop grades at the end of a semester or year, but
you would also like to show students how well they are doing before the
end, you can TEMPORARILY drop some grades and get a listing of grades to
show the students, but do not make the TEMPORARILY CHANGED GRADES
permanent. You can wait till the end to make them permanent so that if
students receive lower scores later in the semester, the new lower
scores can be dropped and the old scores will not be lost.
If the time has come to assign final grades in a course, you may
wish to get a listing of all your students' grades with MAIN MENU OPTION
H, get a listing of the maximum possible scores and grade cutoffs with
MAIN MENU OPTION I, and get one or more statistical reports using MAIN
MENU OPTION K. Together, these lists will give you as much information
as possible to aid in your final grade assignments.
If you want GRADE GUIDE to write a report to be posted at the end
of the term which contains your students' final grades, then establish a
category called FINAL GRADE. Establish that category to store LETTER
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grades and assign it a category percent of 0%. Then, at the end of the
term you can put one grade into that category containing the final grade
for each student. Give that grade a weight of 0.000 so that it will not
affect the calculations of the GRAND AVERAGE. Then print your report
showing the FINAL GRADE. There is a convenient trick that you can play
if you plan ahead and enter FINAL GRADE as the first category for the
class. At the end of the term use MAIN MENU OPTION B to enter one FINAL
GRADE. Before actually entering each of the final grades using OPTION
B, exit from GRADE GUIDE and save the file so that all students will
receive a NONE grade. Then using MAIN MENU OPTION H you can list the
students' grades on the screen and use CHANGE MODE to change the FINAL
GRADE from NONE to what you want. The advantage of entering FINAL GRADE
as the first category is that FINAL GRADE will appear at the top of the
screen when you list grades. This makes it easier to change the NONE
grade when you are in CHANGE MODE.
If your course runs for several quarters, semesters, or grading
periods, you may wish to establish a new class file for each grading
period. You can establish a category in each class called QUARTER GRADE
and enter your quarter grade into that category (perhaps by using MAIN
MENU OPTION B, choice G.) If you make the QUARTER GRADE category a
labelled category, you can label the grades as "QUARTER 1", "QUARTER 2"
and so forth. Then when the course ends, you can combine the class
files using FILE MENU OPTION E which will show you all the grades which
your students received throughout the course. If you want to list the
grades but have the GRAND AVERAGE reflect an average of the QUARTER
GRADEs, then use MAIN MENU OPTION J to change the category percents so
that all categories except the QUARTER GRADE category have a percent of
zero. You may also have to use MAIN MENU OPTION I to change the weights
of the QUARTER GRADES to 1.0 if they had been given weights of 0.0. You
can now use MAIN MENU OPTION B, choice G to calculate a final grade
based on the QUARTER GRADES.
Suppose that you are working with a class that is so large that
there is not enough memory space in your computer to allow you to
produce statistical reports using MAIN MENU OPTION K. Remember that you
can get some statistical information regarding grades, totals, and
averages by creating a roster listing containing the desired values
using MAIN MENU OPTION L.
You can use NOTES to help you classify your students into groups.
For example, suppose that you had a class where each student was working
on one of five independent projects. Suppose you wanted to get a list
of all of the students working on project number 3. If you enter each
student's project number as a NOTE, say NOTE 2, you could then obtain a
roster listing using MAIN MENU OPTION L which was sorted by NOTE 2.
This roster would list the students according to their project
assignment.
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