What's New in the CoursePlus Gradebook
The CoursePlus Gradebook has just received a major update. From vastly improved speed to a lot of handy changes, here's the list of everything that has changed:
- Enter Grades Area
- Load time for the main "Enter Grades" page in the Gradebook has been significantly reduced.
- All activity related to a student grade is now logged and displayed in the grade history. Previously, only changes to a grade were logged. Now, if a file is uploaded for student feedback, that is logged. If a grade is deleted after one has been entered, that is logged.
- The "Grades by Activity" view now displays 50 students per page, up from 25.
- Page load time on Gradebook items linked to the Quiz Generator is significantly faster.
- Uploading large ZIP files with more than 100 student submissions is now handled better by the Gradebook.
- A warning is now given that grades will be deleted if you change the setup for an item in the Gradebook where grades exist.
- A "give all students full credit" option has been added to the grading view.
- A warning is now displayed on the "Enter Grades" view when feedback has already been sent to students that any changes in feedback automatically result in an email with the updated feedback being sent to students.
- When editing existing text feedback, the "Write new text Feedback" button has been removed and replaced by a "Save Text Feedback" button. Faculty and TAs would sometimes click this button thinking it was a save button, but instead it would delete existing feedback and allow them to start with an empty slate.
- When you manually override a grade pulled in from the Quiz Generator, the "Email Grade/Feedback to this Student" button does not appear for students who have not yet been sent feedback, as feedback for items in the Quiz Generator should be sent from the Quiz Generator. You can only email a grade for an quiz/exam from the Quiz Generator from the Gradebook if you manually override a grade created in the Quiz Generator.
- When you upload a ZIP file of files to return to students, the Gradebook attempts to match students to their files by the student JHED ID in the file name, if one exists. This ensures that students with the same first and last name (i.e.; Chin Chin) get the correct file assigned to them as JHED IDs are unique.
- Student Gradebook Page
- A new, streamlined view of the individual student Gradebook page has been implemented. We've removed a lot of the repetitive text and visual clutter and made it easier for students to see their grades and feedback in a simple, grid format.
- Feedback/files are only displayed to students on the student Gradebook page only after feedback/files are emailed, or if the "Display grades on student view" checkbox is checked. If the feedback/files have been sent to students, but the "Display grades on student view" checkbox is not checked, the feedback/files are displayed on the student view, but not the grade.
- If an item is excluded from calculation in the final grade, and the "Show grade in student view" option is deselected, then the row for that item and the grade for that item will not appear in the student view of the Gradebook. This allows for completely hiding certain items from the student view in the Gradebook while using the Gradebook to track those items.
- Gradebook Setup
- A warning is now given if the overall grading method for the Gradebook is percentage-based, but the items in the Gradebook do not total to or go over 100%.
- Deselecting "Display the grade for each activity in the student view" on the Gradebook setup page now correctly deselects the appropriate checkbox all the way down the chain, including all checkboxes next to each student name for each graded item in the Gradebook.
- A spinning circle indicator now appears when you add or edit an activity in the Gradebook to provide visual feedback that your request to add or edit an activity is being processed.
- Final Grade Page
- You can no longer alter the automatically calculated percentage value on the "Prepare Final Grade" page. Previously, you could change this value but it would not be saved when the "Save All Grades" button was clicked, confusing many people.
- The "Prepare Final Grade" page now has a "Save Only" option that saves any manual adjustments that faculty have made to an individual final grade.
If you have questions about any of these changes, remember that there's extensive help built into the Gradebook itself, and CTLT Help is just a click away!