The GR System User Manual Version 3.1 Copyright 2000 Academia Software Solutions All Rights Reserved All contents of this manual are copyrighted by Academia Software Solutions. The information contained herein is the exclusive property of Academia Software Solutions and shall not be copied, transferred, photocopied, translated on paper, film, electronic media, or computer readable form: or otherwise reproduced in any way, without the express written permission of Academia Software Solutions company,
CONTENTS 1. First steps Initializing the course account 1.1 Enter the course account 1.2 Assigning your password 1.3 Enter an active email address 1.4 Disable an email address 2. Managing the student list 2.1 Add a new student 2.2 Edit student details 2.3 Remove a student 3. Managing columns/grades 3.1 Add & Define a column 3.2 Edit a column 3.3 Remove a column 3.4 A column s position 3.5 Column Visibility option 3.6 Function based columns 4. Feeding student evaluations 4.1 Automatically 4.2 Manually 4.3 Text file 4.4 Excel files 5. Statistics and standardization of grades (factor) 5.1 Presenting grades 5.2 Viewing column histogram and statistics 5.2.1 Standardization of column grades (factor) 6. Generating evaluation reports 6.1 export evaluations to an Excel file 6.2 Generating a publishable report 6.3 Generating an open report 6.4 Generating an final grades report
1. First Steps The GR system manages student grades and evaluations in university s courses. The grades and evaluations for each course are kept in the course account. Initializing the course account For the first use of a course account, make sure you have the following details available: A password to the GR system given by the faculty operator. (in case you do not know your Faculty Operator, or get passwords in a different way, please contact your institute s local GR administrator) Your course number. An active personal email address. 1.1 Enter the course account In the Login screen of the GR system (see Image 1) Fill in the relevant input fields. Choose Course Staff in the Position field (no.1), choose the relevant semester; enter your course number and password, select the interface language and press proceed. (Image 1) 1.2 Assigning your password For security reasons, you are first asked to change the initial password given, to a new personal password. To do so, Stand with the cursor on the security icon, and choose change your password from the options below (see image 1.2). (Image 1.2)
The password screen will be opened. Enter the current password in the current password field, and enter twice a new password (the second time for confirmation). The passwords you type are not seen on the screen, as a protection measure, and instead only * marks are shown. Note: Your new password must be at least 8 characters long. It must have at least one Upper-case letter, one Lower-case letter, one digit, and one punctuation mark. When done, click on the proceed button. 1.3 Enter an active email address Every course account in the GR system must be familiar with at least one email address. The email address is one of the methods the GR system use, to verify the identity of a person entering the account. Note: Changes in evaluation data can be reported automatically by the GR system through an email message to every active email address entered to the system (see require report option in the column details section 3.2). To enter your email address to your course account, stand with the cursor on the security icon (see Image 1.3), and choose emails. (Image 1.3) The emails screen will be opened. Enter one email address in the text field, and click proceed. At this point, an automatic generated email message, with a confirmation code will be sent to this email address. Find the confirmation code, write it in the text box which appear in the actions column (see Image 1.3), and click proceed. Note: To add more email addresses, repeat the above steps. (Image 1.3)
1.4 Disable an email address Your course account must have at least one active email address. If more than one email address exists, any mail message will be sent to all active emails. You can disable any addresses, as long as at least one address is left active. Stand with the cursor on the security icon, and choose emails from the options below and click on the disable button next to the email you wish to disable (see Image 1.4). (Image 1.4)
2. Managing the student list Add a new student An initial list of students registered to the course are usually fed automatically from the student administration system of the university. It is possible to add new students to the course account, which are not registered within the student administration system. Note: Students added this way, are marked in blue in the student list (see Image 2.1). (Image 2.1) 2.1 To add a new student to the students list, stand with the cursor on the students icon, and choose add from the options below (see Image 2.1.1). (Image 2.1.1) The add screen will be opened; fill in the new student details. The red fields indicate mandatory fields - these details must be filled- when finished click proceed. View result - A result screen will appear allows you to verify the student s details you just added. Edit student details 2.2 To edit student details, stand with the cursor on the students icon, and choose edit from the options below (see Image 2.2). (Image 2.2) To select a specific student whose details you wish to edit, fill in his ID or name and click proceed.
Note: You can fill only part of the student s ID number or his name. If more than one student has the same part of the ID or name, a list of all those students will appear in the Selection screen. If you choose to leave the Box empty and click proceed, the complete students list of the course will appear in the Selection screen. Choose the student whose details you wish to edit by mark the select box in his row (the left column) and press proceed for the edit screen. 2.2.1 In the edit screen, you can update the student s details. Remember not to leave the mandatory fields blank (click here (2.1) for more details). Once updates have been entered, click proceed. View result- A result screen will appear allows you to verify the student s details after the editing process. Remove a student 2.3 To remove a student from the students list, stand with your cursor on the students icon, and choose remove from the options below (see Image 2.3). (Image 2.3) To select the student you wish to remove from the students list, fill in his ID or name and click proceed. You will be asked to mark in the select column and to click proceed for the confirmation screen. Note: Only student added manually to the student s list can be deleted. Students that are registered and automatically fed to the system cannot be removed. Note: You can fill only part of the student s ID number or his name. If more than one student has the same part of the ID or name, a list of all those students will appear in the Selection screen. If you choose to leave the Box empty and click proceed, the complete students list of the course will appear in the Selection screen. Choose the students you wish to remove by mark the select box in their row (the left column) and press proceed for the confirmation screen. 2.3.1 Confirmation screen - The details of the students you chose to remove from the list are shown for your confirmation. To activate the remova l feature click proceed. To return to the selection screen, click Cancel. Once proceed is clicked, the selected students are removed from the list.
3. Managing columns/grades Student s evaluations in the GR system are fed into columns. A column, just like the student list, is a vertical list of grades or evaluations that correspond to the student list. A column is therefore assigned for each grade-subject such as a home-work assignment, a final exam, a mid-term exam, and can also be a function of existing columns (see function based columns (3.6)). Add and Define a column 3.1 To add a column, stand with the cursor on the columns icon, and choose add from the options below (see Image 3.1). (Image 3.1) Enter the column name. For example: HW1 for home assignment no. 1, or Mid-term for the mid-term exam. Note that the column name must not repeat an existing column name, include a space character or begin with a digit. Choose from the list of types, the type of the column. (Open the list by clicking on the little gray arrow at the right of the word Homework ). See Image 3.1.1. (Image 3.1.1) Then, select the position of the new column among other columns if exists by marking in the required position. If the new column should contain grade which are a function of other existing grades, mark the option I want this column to be a formula of other columns and click here (3.6) for more instructions. Click proceed
Edit a column 3.2 To edit a column, stand with the cursor on the columns icon, and choose edit from the options below (see Image 3.2). (Image 3.2) Choose the column you wish to edit by clicking its name from the list of existing columns. (Open the list by clicking on the little gray arrow at the right of the first column name). When done, click on the proceed button. Change column name to change the column name simply click in the name text field and type the new column name. Change column type -to change the column type, choose the new type from the list of available types. (Grade types are used for statistics). Treat no grade as 0 in formula calculations - Choosing yes in this option causes no grade in this column to be treated as zero when a function-based column (3.6) participate this column in its calculation. For example, if the column name is Home- Assignement1 and there is a column defined to calculate the average grade of all Home Assignment columns, the grade in this home assignment will be calculated as zero. Require report - Choosing yes in this option causes the GR system to send an automatic email message whenever a change in a grade in this column is made. The email message will be sent to every active email address that is fed to the GR system (to learn more about emails, click here (1.3)). When finished click proceed Remove a column 3.3 To remove a column, stand with the cursor on the columns icon, and choose remove from the options below (see Image 3.3). (Image 3.3) Choose column name - Choose the column you wish to remove by clicking its name from the list of existing columns. Open the list by clicking the little gray down arrow at the right of the first column name. When done, click the proceed button. Confirm removal - For safety reasons, you are asked to verify whether you wish to remove the column, you chose along with all its data. Click proceed to confirm and to remove the column or click cancel to abort the action. A column s position When viewing the course evaluations, the columns are arranged in the order of which they were created. However, you can set the column s position in an order that you find most convenient.
3.4 To set a column s position, stand with the cursor on the columns icon, and choose position from the options below. Choose the column you wish to move by clicking its name from the list of existing columns. Specify the new position of the chosen column by marking next to the column you wish to reposition the chosen column. For example, if you wish a column named Exam_B to be after the ID column, mark next to the ID sign. When done, click proceed, to complete the action. Swap Columns - To swap the positions of two columns use the swap columns option. Simply choose the names of the two columns you wish to swap, and click proceed. Column Visibility option The GR system has the option to enables students to view their grades. In order to enable this feature the column of the grades should be visible. When creating a new column, it is automatically set to invisible mode so the grades are visible to the course staff only. Changing the column s visibility to visible mode e nable each student to view his/her grade in that column alone. 3.5 To set a column s visibility mode, stand with the cursor on the columns icon, and choose visibility from the options below. Set visibility mode for each column - At the visibility table, each line sets the visibility mode for a single column. To set the visibility mode of a certain column, choose the desired mode by marking in the visible or invisible option in its row. Type a message for the students (optional) - If you wish to announce a message, which the students can read alongside their evaluations, type in the message at the right text box. An example for such a message can be that the grades are after a factor of 10 points per each grade, etc. When done, click on the proceed button. Function based columns A function based column is a column that its grades are calculated according to other existing columns. Such column can be defined as the average of other column grades, worst or best between other column grades, or any other complicated function. 3.6 Define a new function based column - To add a function based column follow the same instructions of adding a regular column (see instructions here (3.1)), mark the option I want this column to be a formula of other columns and click proceed. Enter the function - In the text field at the bottom of the screen, enter the function. The function can use the following mathematical expressions: * multiply + add - subtract
/ divide sqrt(<expression>) square root. ** power of, for example 2**8 means 2 to the power of 8. The functions can also use the following: Avg (<column_name 1>, <column_name 2>,...) Average between specified column names. SumBest(<number>, <column_name 1>, <column_name 2>,...) The sum of the best <number> grades in the specified columns. SumWorst(<number>, <column_name 1>, <column_name 2>,...) The sum of the worst <number> grades in the specified columns. HasGrade(<column_name>) 1 if the student has a grade in the column < column_name> or 0 otherwise. Choose (<column_name 1>, <column_name 2>,...) The first grade that exist (from the left) among the list of specified columns. Min (<column_name 1>, <column_name 2>,...) The minimum grade of the columns specified. Max (<column_name 1>, <column_name 2>,...) The maximum grade of the columns specified. Ceil(<expression>) The result of the expression (3.6.1) rounded to the closest integer from above. Floor (<expression>) The result of the expression (3.6.1) rounded to the closest integer from below. Round (<expression>) The result of the expression (3.6.1) rounded to the closest integer. When done, click on the proceed button to add the new function based column. 3.6.1 An expression - An expression can be any mathematical formula. It can be simply a column name or any other expression. For example: (<column_name1>*0.1 + <column_name2>*0.9) * 0.5.
4. Feeding student evaluations Feeding student evaluations Automatic feeding - The automatic evaluation feeding enables a quick and convenient way of feeding evaluations according to a given ID number. This way is recommended the most. It is suitable when only a paper list of ID numbers and grades is in hand. 4.1 To feed evaluations automatically, stand with the cursor on the feed grades icon, and choose automatic from the options below (see Image 4.1). (Image 4.1). Choose column name - Select the column that the evaluations are to be fed into. Choose the column name from the list. If the column was not defined yet, learn how to define a column (3.1). When done, click on the proceed button. Enter evaluation data - For each student, enter the ID number in the text box (see Image 4.1). The automatic feeding is designed to try matching a single student even though not all the digits were entered. (Image 4.1) When enough digits are entered to determine the referred student, the text box becomes yellow (see Image 4.1.1) and a beep is heard. If there is no student with the ID number (or part of the ID number) that was entered, the text box becomes red.
(Image 4.1.1) When the right student is located, his details are presented automatically (see Image 4.1.1). At this point, the cursor is already in the grade field, so that you can simply enter the evaluation. When done, press ENTER on your keyboard, and the student with the new evaluation will be added to a list at the lower part of the screen. Note: It is highly important to press ENTER after entering the evaluation in order to submit the grade into the system. Repeat these actions for every student in the list. When done, press the Submit grades button (see image 4.1.2). Note that this button appears only when the text box is gray, so if the text box is yellow or red, you required to finish enter the evaluation first. (Image 4.1.2) When the approval message appears, click on the Review and submit grades button, at the bottom of the screen (see Image 4.1.3). (Image 4.1.3) Reviewing evaluations - A list of the student s ID numbers and evaluations appears for your confirmation. If you find a mistake, you can choose not to save the evaluation, by uncheck at the end of the row and press, proceed. Manual feeding
4.2 To feed evaluations manually, stand with the cursor on the feed grades icon, and choose manual from the options below. Choose column name - Select the column that the evaluations are to be fed into. Choose the column name from the list and click proceed. Select students - You can either select up to 10 students by specifying their names/ids, or select all the students according to a specific lecture group, or select all the students in the students list. By names/ids - To select students by their names/ids, simply enter the ID numbers or names (part of the m can also be entered), in the 10 available spaces and Click on the Feed grades button By lecture group - To select students from a specific lecture group leave the 10 spaces mentioned above empty, and type the lecture group number only in the appropriate place and Click on the Feed grades button. To select all the students in the list, leave both IDs/names fields and lecture group number field empty. You can sort the list of selected students by any one of the following parameters, as most convenient to you: ID, name, grade columns, and more. To do so, simply select the parameter from the initial sort list (to open the list click on the little gray down arrow at the right or the word ID). Click on the Feed grades button. Feed evaluations - Enter the evaluation at the available text box for students in the list. Note that you may leave students with no evaluation for future grading, or change an existing evaluation. When finished, click proceed to view the new evaluations, or to confirm the changes you have performed. Feeding from a text file It is possible to feed evaluations from a text file (a file with a.txt extension), or an Excel file (with an.xls extension). To learn about feeding evaluations from an Excel file click here (4.4). 4.3 To feed evaluations from a text file, the file should include the students I.D numbers, and the evaluations. Every row in the file should include information about one single student, in the following order: < Student ID > <evaluation> For example, an evaluation file may include the following lines: 033115497 92 331546875 78 165487995 86
Note: It is important that the evaluation file would not include any other lines rather than evaluation lines as shown above. Select Feed evaluations from file - To feed evaluations from a file, stand with the cursor on the feed grades icon, and choose file from the options below (See Image 4.3) (Image 4.3) Enter parameters - To feed evaluations from a file, first specify to which column the evaluations refer, by choosing the column name from the list of columns. Specify the exact location (path) of the evaluations file in your computer. You can do this by typing the location (for example: C:/grades.txt), or by clicking on the browse button. When done, click on the proceed button. View result - In the result screen the number of valid evaluations that were fed to the system is presented, along with the number of evaluations that were updated, and errors (if found in the evaluation file). Feeding from an Excel file The GR system enables to import and export evaluations to and from a Microsoft Excel file. Both actions are done completely automatically by the GR system, and therefore certain rules must be kept in order for a successful completion of these actions. 4.4 To import evaluations from an Excel file, make sure the file follows these requirements: o The columns to which the evaluations are to be fed exist in the course account (they were already created). o The evaluation data are in the first sheet of the excel file. o The first row in the excel file contains only the names of the columns. All other rows in the excel file contain only data for each column. o One of the columns in the excel file is named ID (the word ID must appear in the first row), and this column should contain the I.D numbers of the students. o It is not possible to import evaluations to a column that is defined as functions based column (3.6). Choose import - To import evaluations from an Excel file, stand with the cursor on the Excel icon, and choose import from the options below (see Image 4.4).
(Image 4.4) Specify Excel file - Type the path of the Excel file on your PC (for example C:/Grades.xls ) or use the browse button to specify the file s location and click proceed to activate the import action. View result - View the results of the import action. In the result screen, error messages such as missing I.D column, import to a function based column and other will appear.
5. Grades Presentation, statistics and standardize (factor) Presenting grades One of the most fundamental features of the GR system is evaluation presentation. You can always view the complete grades table. The GR system enables you to view the grades and evaluations in many other different forms, according to different criteria that you enter. For example: you can view only grades in home-work columns of students from lecture group 3, or you can view only the final grades of students from a certain faculty, etc. 5.1 To view the evaluations that were fed into the course account, click on the view icon (see Image 5.1). (Image 5.1) Enter criteria data - To view the complete table of evaluations, click on the proceed button. To view evaluations according to certain criteria, enter the relevant data: ID numbers To view only the grades of one student, enter the student s ID number, or name, and click proceed. Entering a partial ID number or a partial name selects all the students in the student list whose ID numbers or names contain these parts. Lecture group To view only the grades of students from a certain lecture group, enter the lecture group number. Faculty In courses in which students from more than one faculty can attend, you can view the grades of students from a certain faculty. Simply choose the faculty from the list of faculties. Selected columns To view only the grades of certain columns unmark the columns you do not wish to view. Sorting the evaluation table You can sort the table by any column. The default sort is ascending ID numbers; however, you can sort according to any other column rather than the ID number column. Choose the sorting column from the list of columns, and specify whether the sort should be in ascending order or descending. When done, click on the proceed button to view the evaluation table. Note: Another sorting method is available in the evaluation table itself. To sort according to a specific column, click the column title. Another click on the same title sorts in the reverse order (ascending instead of descending).
Presenting column histogram and statistics The GR system enables to view the following statistics for every column: A user defined histogram A diagram that shows for each grade or group of grades in the grade scale, how many students received this grade. Number of students registered to the course. Number of failures and its percentage among the total number of students in the course Average grade Highest grade Lowest grade Median grade For courses in which students from more than one faculty can attend, you can choose to view the data for all the students, for students from one specified faculty, or data per each faculty. 5.2 To view a column s statistics and to add a factor, click on the histogram button (see Image 5. 2). (Image 5.2) Choose column name and enter viewing parameters. - Choose the column name from the list of existing columns. Mark the include non registered students option, if you wish to include the students that were registered manually from the GR system, and are not registered to the course in the university main computer. Mark the treat students with no grade as if they have zero option, if you wish that a student with no grade would affect the statistics. Mark the separate column for grade 100 option if you wish to view the number of students who got 100 separately in the histogram. Change the number of the X axis gap option to make the histogram wider (with more details) or narrower (with less details). For example, 10 will split the histogram range to 10 groups (first group for grades 0-9, second for grades 10-19, etc.), while 5 will split the histogram range to 20 groups (first group for grades 0-4, second for grades 5-9, etc.). Click proceed to view the statistics. 5.2.1 Standardization of column grades (factor) - To standardize column grades enter the standardization function near the option Give a new factor F(x)=. x in the function stands for the existing grade, so, if you wish, for example, to standardize the grades by adding 10% for each grade, enter x * 1.1 as a function.
Click proceed to view the standardized column statistics. If you wish to standardize the grades again, repeat this step. To save the standardized grades, enter a new column name, and click the Add as column button. Note: To view the data per faculty, refer to the lower text box. This option enables to view statistics in courses that students from more than one faculty can attend, according to each faculty.
6. Generating evaluation reports With the report generation mechanism, it is possible to receive grades and evaluation charts designed especially for publishing or for internal staff usage. 6.1 One option is to export evaluations to an Excel file The GR system enables to export the complete course account database into an Excel file. During the export action, the GR system automatically creates a new excel file that contains the list of I.D numbers of all registered and non-registered students, their complete names, and all evaluation columns that were fed to the course account. To generate the export file, stand with the cursor on the Excel icon, and choose the export option from below (see Image 6.1). (Image 6.1) Other options to generate evaluation reports are as described below: The publishable report (6.2) is a chart that includes only student ID numbers, and evaluation data. This report is therefore appropriate to be published on message boards and on the Internet. The open report (6. 3), and the final grades report (6.4) include also student s information such as names, and therefore is more appropriate for staff usage. The reports are generated in a PostScript or PDF file formats. 6.2 Generating a publishable report - Stand with the cursor on the reports icon, and choose to publish from the options below (see Image 6.2). (Image 6.2) Enter report parameters - Choose the column of evaluations that you wish to publish in the report. If you wish to use the default parameters for the report, (not include students with no grade, or constraint the grade value to the 0-100 common standard, or include the
generation date in the report and the title of the report is the column s name), click on the proceed button. To change these settings, just mark the required option. For example: if you wish to include students that have no grade, mark in its row as shown in Image 6.2.1. (Image 6.2.1) You can also add a title message to the report. This title message appears instead of the column name, on every page of the report. It can also be used to explain grades standardization, appeal dates, etc. Choose the report file format, and click proceed to generate the report file. 6.3 Generating an open report - Stand with the cursor on the reports icon, and choose with student info from the options below (see Image 6.3). (Image 6.3) Enter report parameters - Choose the column of evaluations that you wish to publish in the report. If you wish to use the default parameters for the report, (include only student with no special status: Undergraduate students, that were not registered to the course manually by the course staff, and that have a grade in the course), click on the proceed button. To change these settings, just mark the required option. For example: if you wish to include students who do not have a grade, mark as shown in Image 6.3.1 below. (Image 6.3.1) Choose the report file format, and click proceed to generate the report file.
6.4 Generating Final grades report - Stand with the cursor on the reports icon and choose final grades from the options below. A final grades report screen will open showing the course histogram including important statistics. Electronic submission of the grades you can submit the grades automatically to the main computer system by clicking on the submit grades electronically button in this stage you operate it only once so if you want to change some grades will be asked to do it manually. A confirmation screen will appear with the student s details and grades. A written report you can send a report with your signature by clicking on the get a written report button.