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GRADEBOOK (Copyright 1990) Version 1.2 by Bob Hunter GRADEBOOK: A complete grade and absence/tardy management system for teachers. Highly flexible, you may add/drop students at any time, enter tests out of sequence, and enter absences for a test grade (when a student missed a test) and later add the score. GRADEBOOK comes with several reports that summarize student scores, absences, tardies as well as give individual test results. For speed and ease of use, most operations are accomplished with the mouse and buttons on the screen. SHAREWARE: GRADEBOOK is not public domain software; rather, it is Shareware. That means that my wife will never let me spend this much time programming on the Amiga again unless you send some money. If you use the program, please send a check for $15 to: Bob Hunter P.O. Box 641 O'Fallon, IL 62269 Include your name, address, phone number, and version of the software. I'll add you to my mailing list for updates and for other teacher software that I'm working on ("Monster Study Hall Helper" for managing large study halls and possibly a Lesson Plan writing aid). VERSION 1.2 CHANGES: - ADD a new class option now gives you a method for carrying over the student names, ID numbers, and remarks from another class list you have already built. - REPORTS have been reformatted to fit page breaks better. - When you use the UP/DOWN arrows to look at different sections of your student list, the section number is shown. - "DeckBrouser" is not required for running the program. VERSION 1.1 CHANGES: - Allows you to completely erase a student's grade and cause a corresponding decrease in total points (the student is not penalized for missing this test) - BACKUP DISK option changed to look first to see if you have a drive df1: and choose it to save the backup data to; if you only have a df2:, GRADEBOOK will use that for the backup; if you have no external drives, it will ask for df0:. INSTALLING: The following files are contained in this archive: Gradebook Gradebook.info Example.grades Example.tests Arrow.pntr Zzz.pntr Up1.br Up2.br Down1.br Down2.br Left1.br Left2.br Right1.br Right2.br Gradebook.doc Classes.txt Copy all of these files to the same directory on your disk. The Example files and Gradebook.Doc are accessable from the GRADEBOOK program. When you no longer need the example files, delete them (using the delete feature of the program). STARTING A GRADEBOOK: The first screen you see is the Class Selection or creation screen. To create a blank gradebook for your class, click in the double outlined square and type in a name for your class. For example, you could type Math, Math - Period 1, Math 101, etc. GRADEBOOK will prevent you from accidently entering a duplicate class name. Then click on the ADD button. GRADEBOOK will ask you if you want to use a list of names from another class you've already created (to carry over the students from a previous class or previous term that are the same for the class you are creating). If you want to do this, click on the name of the class that have the student names you want to use; otherwise, just click in the box asking you the question and GRADEBOOK will create a blank gradebook for this class and take you to the Student Info screen. STUDENT INFO: You may enter up to 36 students, 12 at a time in this screen. The order you enter them is the order they will appear throughout the gradebook and in most reports. Enter the student's name and ID number. Leave the ID number blank if you don't need it. The student ID is used for your convenience and for one report that prints out student grades by ID number without student names (for confidentiality). You also have some space to enter any comments you wish about the student. This info is not printed out on any reports. If you have more than 12 students, click on the DOWN arrow after entering the 12th student and the next 12 blank lines will be visable. The UP arrow will take you to the previous screenful of students. Throughout GRADEBOOK, an UP arrow at the top of the list will wrap you around to the bottom of the list and similarily with the DOWN arrow button. At the top of the column of names is a number that shows if you are viewing the first, second or third section of names. Once you've entered the student info, you may either go back and create another gradebook by clicking on the CLASS SELECTION button, go to the gradebook itself by clicking on the GRADEBOOK button, or go to the reports section by clicking on the, you guessed it, the REPORTS button! If a student joins your class late, add the student to the gradebook as you would any other students. As long as no marks of any kind are entered in the gradebook for the tests he missed, these tests won't be held against his total score. If you wish a student to make-up missed tests, then enter an "A" (absent) in the square for the missed tests and GRADEBOOK will treat it as a 0 on the test until made up. DELETING A STUDENT: If you have entered only the information on the student info line for the student, simply use the backspace or DEL key to delete the data. If you are trying to remove a student that has been in your class for a while and has scores or absences/tardies in the gradebook, you need to use the DELETE STUDENT button to remove all of the grades in addition to the student's name. To delete a student, click on the student, then click on the DELETE STUDENT button and you will be given a chance to either change your mind or delete the student and all of his grades. DELETING A GRADEBOOK: Once you've finished a semester, you may delete a gradebook. Go back to the CLASS SELECTION screen and then click on the name of the class from the list of classes in the requester and click on the DELETE button. You will be given a chance to change your mind or delete the class and all of the grade information. Be sure you have a printout or backup disk of all the info you need before doing this as the data cannot be retrieved. BACKUP DISK: Just in case something goes wrong with the disk you are using for GRADEBOOK, you should periodically use the BACKUP DISK feature (on the Class Selection screen) to save your gradebooks to another disk. First, select a disk to be your backup disk and put the entire GRADEBOOK program on it too (so you can run from the backup disk if the main disk is faulty). Then whenever you want to backup the gradebooks, click on the name of the class and click on the BACKUP DISK button. GRADEBOOK will prompt you to put your backup disk in df0: (the internal Amiga drive) where it will save the grades and tests for the selected class. DEFAULT DATE: This displays the system date carried in your Amiga. The date is used at the top of reports and as the pre-canned date for tests, absences, etc. If it isn't correct (today's date), click in the box and change it appropriately. Be sure to keep it in the format displayed. Throughout GRADEBOOK you can easily change the date displayed for tests, absences, etc. SELECTING A GRADEBOOK: If you previously created several gradebooks and you now want to select one of them to enter grades, print reports, etc., then click on the name of the class in the requester and then click on the GRADEBOOK button to go to the gradebook, STUDENT INFO button to view/change student info, or the REPORTS button to print reports. As a time saver, you may also double click on the class name and GRADEBOOK will take you directly to the gradebook for the selected class. GRADEBOOK: After you have selected a class and clicked on GRADEBOOK, the gradebook screen will appear. The names of the students are shown on the left, 12 at a time. To change the section of the gradebook you are viewing, click on the UP or DOWN arrows as desired. The section number is shown at the top of the column of names. Across the center of the gradebook is a spreadsheet-like display with the last page that has any entries showing, and the students' averages displayed in the right- hand column. At any time you may click on the student names and change their spelling, etc. or click on any of the grades and update/change them. The average will automatically be updated when you click on another square/button or hit the <RETURN> key. AVERAGES: GRADEBOOK displays grades in three different modes, selected by clicking on the AVERAGES key: Raw - the number of questions answered correctly; Points - correct number of answers times a weighting factor (called "multiplier"); and Percent - percent correct. The overall average displayed represents the weighted points divided by the weighted possible points. Example: If one test has 10 questions and is just a quiz, you might give it a weight of 1. If the student got 6 correct, the raw score would be 6, the points 6 and the percent 60. If a second test was given, also 10 questions, but a chapter review - you might weight it twice as much as the quiz. If the student got 8 correct. The raw score would be 8, the points would be 16 and the percent would be 80. However, the overall average would be 6 + 16 = 22 points out of a possible 10 + 20 = 30 points for a 73 percent average. ENTERING A SCORE: Click on the SCORE button (or in any square of the next blank column) and you will be taken to the TEST INFO screen. Enter a short title of your test (this will be displayed at the top of the gradebook column for that test). The next block contains the default date from the CLASS SELECTION screen. This is the date the test was given and the test will be sorted with the other tests according to this date. If it isn't correct, click in the box and change it appropriately. Be sure to keep it in the same format as displayed. The next box is a test description where you can enter more info about the test. You may leave it empty if you wish. The next square is the possible points (raw) for the test. The final square is the multiplier. You can enter any number up to 99. You must enter at least a 1 in this square. Each time you hit <RETURN>, the cursor will move to the next square; or you can click in any square you wish to enter/change data. Once the info is correct, click on the GRADEBOOK button to enter this test into the gradebook or the CHANGED MY MIND button if you were just looking. The gradebook will be displayed with the new test title and a blank column where it fits chronologically with the other tests. Click on the blank square under the test and across from the student and enter the RAW score. Hitting return will take you to the next student; but, you can click on any student if you wish. If a student was absent, you can enter an "A" (that's a capital "A") and the student will receive a 0 on the test until it is made up (when you return to this display, it will show a "0 A"). If you choose to leave the square blank, the test is ignored for that student (if you select Points with the AVERAGES button, you will see that this student has fewer total possible points than the other students). You may enter the score at a later date if you wish. If a student was marked absent and later made up the test, enter the correct raw score in place of the 0. You should leave the "A" to so your total absences will be correct. CHANGING THE TEST INFO: From the gradebook screen, if you click on either the short title of the test or the date, it will take you back to the TEST INFO screen for that test. You can change any of the test info including the multiplier and all of the grades will be re-figured accordingly. This powerful feature allows you fix goofs, reweight tests for the "grading on the curve", etc. ENTERING ABSENCES/TARDIES: If you want to enter only absences or tardies and not test info, click on the ABSENCES button. This will skip the TEST INFO screen and create a column in the gradebook for entering the attendance information with the default date and a "-" in the short title block. Enter an absence with a capitol "A" and tardy with a capitol "T" - this is important as the report that counts all of the absences and tardies is looking for capitol A's and T's in the test columns. You may enter any additional codes you wish such as eA - excused absence or uA - unexcused absence, etc. If you want to change the date of the absences, click on the title block (with the "-" in it) or the date block and you will see the TEST INFO screen for the absence. Change the date appropriately, keeping it in the same format as shown. Do not change the multiplier or possible points as they are set to what the program expects for an absences/tardies column. Remember, you can also enter absences/tardies in the same column as a test when a student misses a test due to an absence. When you have the make-up score, just replace the 0 on the test with the make-up grade. PRINT THE GRADEBOOK: The PRINT button at the bottom of the gradebook prints the grades just as they are shown on the screen (in the same matrix format with averages at the end). The printed version shows all students in your class rather than just the 12 showing on the screen. This allows you to print a page full of entries and store it in your folder at school for reference. As you fill more pages, print them out and add them to your folder. PRINT TEST RESULTS: To get a printed report of how each student did on the test and the class average, enter the scores for all the students, then click on the test name or date and you will be taken back to the TEST INFO screen. Click on the PRINT button and you will get a report that shows the student's name, raw score, points, and percent for that test. The students' names will be sorted with the lowest score at the top. At the end of the report is the class average. REPORTS: From many of the different parts of the gradebook, you can go to a reports menu by clicking on the REPORTS button. To print a report, click on the desired report button. The different reports available are: the INDIVIDUAL STUDENT SUMMARY report (prints student name, test name, date, and percent, overall weighted average, total absences and total tardies for each student); STUDENT AVERAGES (student name and overall weighted average); ID AVERAGE (student ID number and overall average); and ABSENCES/TARDIES (student name and number of absences and tardies). HELP: You can get a short reminder of all of the gradebook functions any place in the program by pulling down the HELP menu and highlighting the item you are interested in. This documentation is also available from all help menus. ------------------------------------------------------- FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS: * Ability to enter partial credit (right now you can't enter 2.5 correct, only 2 or 3) * Ability to enter letter grades * Link to other teacher support software I solicit your support; if you have any improvements or features you'd like to see added to GRADEBOOK, or if you have ideas for any other teacher support software you'd like to see, send me a letter and I'll see what I can do - provided my wife see's some advantage in me spending all this time at the Amiga ($$$).