NEW! SIMnet Gradebook Friday, May 19th
#announcements #instructors #new-features
The new gradebook and current gradebook will be available together between May 19th and July 28th. After July 28th the current gradebook will be removed from SIMnet.
OnFriday, May 19th SIMnet will be rolling out a new and improved Gradebookto all schools. This new gradebook features quicker loading times and an enhanced feature set. We are rolling out the new Gradebook alongside our current Gradebook so that users can get a feel for the new features without throwing their current courses off track.
The new grade book appears directly below the current gradebook on the left-hand menu, with the textGradebook (new).
Simply click the Gradebook (new) option to access it. Select your class from the class list to view all the associated grades.
The first thing that you will notice is that the gradebook loads dynamically. Only information on the screen will load at a given time. Courses with many students and many columns will load significantly faster than before.
The first new feature is the option toFiltercolumns, users, and grades. To access the filter results, click theFiltericon right below the gradebook selection. When you click the filter button the filter options are displayed.
You can filter byUsers(using any of their data – first name, last name, email, username or student ID) to see the grades of a specific student. Simply type the name of the student you want to see. As you type the course list updates with those who are still included in that search.
You can filter byColumnsto view how the whole class did on a particular assignment. Type the name of the column you wish to view. The columns will automatically refresh as you type to only include valid columns according to your search criteria.
You can also filter by grades within a specific column, or columns using theGradesfilter. Click the**+next to the drop down button in the Grades section. Choose a column from the drop-down list; then choose a calculation; then choose points. You may want to filter like this to see students who did poorly on a midterm exam. You can add additional grades to the search by clicking the+button again and adding a new column, calculation and points. If you are searching multiple grades, use themeet ALL conditionsselection if you want only results from students who meet each criterion set. Usemeet ANY conditions**if you want results from students who meet any criterion.
For example, you may elect to search by a PowerPoint and Excel Exam to see students who did well on both. To do this you would add two Grades. First you would select the PowerPoint Exam column. Select the >= calculation and then select 8/10 points. Then you would select the Excel Exam column, select the > calculation and then select 7/10 points. If you had themeet ALL conditionsselected you would see students who got better than 80% on the two exams.
To remove a filter, delete the criteria from the text box or simply click the minus button next to the individual grade filter.
To remove all filters, click theClear Filtersbutton at the top of theFilterssection.
If you have noticed through your filtering that a number of students are doing poorly in your class, you can email them directly from the gradebook. Click the check mark by the student’s name and click theEmail Selected Usersbutton.
The gradebook now provides increased information all from the main view. Each column has the total points available in the assignment displayed to give grades a better context for the instructor.
By hovering over a grade column, you can get statistics about that grade, including the high, low, average, standard deviation and how many students have yet to submit their grade.
For gradebooks with many grades you can click the right and left arrows (in addition to the scroll bar, and arrow key shortcuts) to navigate the gradebook.
Selecting a student brings up their user profile where you can see important information like their email address, recent activity and ADA information. If the student is missing modules for their course, theClick to view missing moduleslink will bring you to the Students section and show any missing licenses based on assigned courses.
Selecting theView Reportlink at the top of the User Settings menu displays the student’s data for the course. This report is now printable so that it is easier to share.
Instructors can make sure that grades go from SIMnet directly to a paired LMS in the gradebook in three different ways.
First, by selecting a single student the LMS Pairing option displays with that student’s data. Click on theSync all user gradesbutton for any paired student to pair all of their grades to the LMS.
Second, an individual grade can be sent to the paired LMS by selecting the desired grade and clicking theRe-sync gradebutton.
Last, instructors can sync an assignment by selecting the entire column. The current status of a synced assignment will display grade sync statistics and inform instructors whether a sync is required. If it is, simply clickRe-sync all grades.
There are a number of new features associated with the options in the top right corner of the gradebook.
The first option isFull Screen Mode. The gradebook will expand to hide the URL and take up the whole screen. This is designed to show more grades and students for large classes.To exit Full Screen Mode hit theEsckey.
The second option willRefresh axes & grades. This option is designed to pull in fresh data from a new filter or calculation without reloading the entire gradebook. This can be useful when students are completing an exam and want to confirm submission.
The third option isExport Data.You can download the gradebook data. This option will download the entire gradebook in CSV or Excel form as you desire. Excel formatting has been updated and improved to work better with newer versions of Excel.
TheHelp & Infoselection will show a legend for icons in the gradebook.The icons are divided between User Icons, which appear next to a student’s name; Column Icons, which appear on a column; Grade Icons, which appear next to an individual grade.There are many icons and keeping them straight can be difficult. Bringing up this cheat sheet makes finding the correct icon simple.
In addition to the Icons, the new gradebook allows forKeyboard Shortcuts, which are available on this screen. Use keyboard shortcuts to navigate the gradebook and make edits to individual grades or columns.
The last button is theGradebook Actions & Settingsmenu. From this menu you can edit columns, scales, scale templates and preferences on a new screen.
Column Order
TheColumn Ordertab contains options to change the order of columns in the gradebook. Columns are listed vertically from 1 to the last column in the gradebook. Click and drag theicon on each column to move it to the desired location in the gradebook. You can click theSelect in gridbutton to move directly to the column in the gradebook. TheSettingsbutton will take you directly to theColumnstab with that particular column’s settings displayed.
You can also use the Column Order tab to pin columns to the left side of the gradebook screen. Set the columns that will be pinned so that they are at the start of the gradebook, starting with column 1 and going through all columns that will be pinned. Then enter the number of pinned columns in the**# of pinned columns**text box. Pinned columns will appear yellow with a pushpin icon on the right of the column.
Columns
TheColumnsselection will let you change how individual gradebook columns behave. Each column is displayed on the menu on the left. Selecting a column displaysGeneral,Display,DataandGridsettings for that column.You can change the title, calculation display, or hide the grade until a certain date. You can also change the calculation based on a certain number of points; make the assignment extra credit; or freeze the column after the due date.
Making an assignmentextra creditis a new feature for the gradebook. The assignment points will increase a student’s grade if they are completed but will not harm the student’s grade if incomplete.
Each of these options is also accessible by clicking the column heading in the gradebook.
You can add new calculated columns which calculate the grades of other columns or custom columns which you can use to enter data manually. To edit column defaults, select the desired column and click theDefaultsbutton. Defaults automatically apply to any column that is the same type. To add a column click theCreatebutton at the bottom of the list of columns. To remove a column, click theDeletebutton.
Scales
Scales allow the gradebook to quickly sort the class into grade ranges. Typical scales are the A, B, C, D, F scale or the Pass/Fail scale. From the Scales menu you can Edit, Create, or Delete a scale.
To Edit a scale, select the desired scale from the left. The scale’s details are displayed on the right. You can change the name of the scale in theNametext box. Edit parts of a scale by selecting them and entering new values. Remove elements of a scale by clicking theMinusbutton. Click theAdd Itembutton to add a new level to the scale. Remember toSaveyour scale after editing.
Scale Templates
Scale templates are scales that are visible across a campus. A scale template starts as an easy jumping-off point for instructors to use when displaying their gradebooks. Create, Edit, or Delete a Scale Template the same way you create a template.
Show Hidden Columns
If you have elected to hide a column in the column’s preferences, it will not show in the Gradebook by default. You can quickly view hidden columns by selectingShow Hidden Columns. This selection will show a check when active.