The Gradebook records grades, calculates averages, and sets Subjective Performance Indicators. Every time a teacher adds an assessment in the Class feed or Planner a column is added to the Gradebook.
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Entering and Sharing Grades, Assessment States and Comments
Dropping a Grade from a Student’s Average
When Assessment Information is Shared
Gradebook Indicators and Icons
The Gradebook has a Regular mode and a Details mode. The Regular mode (top) lists all assessments in a grid and enables teachers to enter the grades for one or many assessments, while the Details mode (bottom) enables teachers to focus on one assessment.
Navigate between the two modes by clicking the Details button at the bottom of the Gradebook, clicking the Esc key, or clicking the name of the assessment.
Teachers can jump to other gradebooks by choosing the class from this list.
To view the links to Setup, Perspective, Seating Plan, and Planner hover over or click the shade handle.
Entering and sharing grades, assessment states and comments
Grades remain private until the teacher clicks the Share button. After the grades are shared any changes are immediately visible to the student and parent.
Grades can be unshared by clicking the Shared indicator.
Comments are entered in the Details mode. In the Regular mode, a blue triangle in the cell indicates a comment.
In addition to grades and comments, teachers can record student work habits by setting an assessment state. Students and parents see assessment states in the student’s My Work Report. Assessment States will not alter a student’s average. They are for teachers to keep track of who has submitted what and when and to inform students of the status of their assignments. Use the state that best fits each student’s unique situation.
To set an Assessment State, hover over a cell and click the blue arrow. Additionally, the status can be set by clicking a cell, hitting the spacebar, and typing the letter that is underlined. For example, to set the state to Overdue, type O and to set the state to Received Late, type L.
Using Overdue, Not Done, or Reschedule will display the assignment at the top of the student’s Home Screen Calendar. In the My Work Report, students will see the specific Assessment State. Each of these States are found under the Incomplete and Ungraded filters. However, the Overdue State will create an additional Overdue filter. Using Overdue, Not Done, and Reschedule enable teachers to keep track of assessments that are late and have not been handed in, assessments that students have not finished, and assessments that need to be rescheduled. None of these assessment states will affect a student’s average or grade for that assessment.
The Incomplete and Absent States are recorded in My Work and are found under the Incomplete and Ungraded Filters. They are not displayed at the top of the student’s Home Screen Calendar. The Incomplete State enables teachers to keep track of assessments that students did not complete or hand in. The Absent State enables teachers to keep track of which students were absent on the date of the assessment. Neither of these Assessment States will affect a student’s average or grade for that assessment.
Excused will mark the student as having completed the assignment even if no marks are assigned. The State is recorded in My Work and is found under the Ungraded filter. The Excused State enables teachers to keep track of which students have been excused from an assessment and that assessment will be dropped from the student’s average and no grade will be calculated.
Received on Time and Received Late will not display any additional information other than the state in My Work. They are found under the Ungraded filter. These Assessment States do not affect a student’s average and only enable teachers to keep track of which students handed their assessments in either late or on time.
Choosing Drop from Average will drop the grade from a student’s average after an assessment has already been marked.
Filling in a column with the same grade
To give all students the same grade,
- Enter the grade,
- hover over the lower right corner of the cell until the crosshair cursor appears,
- click, hold and drag the handle up or down to fill the other cells in the column.
Yellow exclamation point
A yellow exclamation point highlights a grade that does not fit the assessment’s marking scheme. For example, letter grades entered in the cell of a percentage marking scheme will be flagged with a yellow exclamation point.
If a grade is entered is more that 120% of value of the assessment a yellow exclamation mark will also appear. Click the yellow exclamation mark to override this limit.
For multi-column assessments, the yellow exclamation mark will appear if one of the categories does not have a grade. Examples of multi-column assessment would include the Stranded and KTCA grading schemes in Ontario and assessments by Outcomes in Saskatchewan.
Clicking on the yellow exclamation point displays a dialog box that enables the teacher to override the default behavior. Once overridden, the category is treated as dropped and the assessment contributes to averages and is shareable. Teachers can return to default behavior by clicking the yellow exclamation point. Entering a grade will automatically clear the override.
In the illustration below, row A has the Override enabled and the Reading and Writing grades are being used in the strand averages, while the Oral Communication strand has no data. Row B does not have the Override set and the assessment isn’t contributing to the strand averages.
On the Perspective only the strands with grades are visible (row A). For row B, the assessment is ungraded.
Dropping a grade from a student’s average
In the Details mode, click the Status cell and select Drop From Average. In the Regular mode, click the arrow or an existing assessment state and select Drop From Average. The grade can be undropped by selecting Drop From Average.
Dropped grades appear with diagonal lines in the cells.
Subjective Performance Indicator (SPI)
The Subjective Performance Indicator enables teachers to convey student progress independent of calculated averages. Initially the SPI is blank, but whenever the indicator is changed, the information is immediately shared with the student and parent.
E = Excellent
G = Good
S = Satisfactory
N = Needs Improvement
Gradebook sidebar
When students ask private questions about an assessment, the questions are visible in the gradebook. After the first question, the Gradebook includes a side bar that lists all of the students’ questions. Clicking on the blue control will reveal or hide the side bar. Unread items are highlighted.
In the Details mode, student questions are highlighted with a blue speech bubble.
When students are permitted to submit online assessments, the Gradebook sidebar alerts the teacher of new submissions. The assessments can be downloaded by hovering over the file name.
For more information about online submissions, click here.
Gradebook Filtering
Gradebook filtering enables teachers to filter the assessments in their Gradebook by reporting period, formative vs summative, units, and types. The student roster can be filtered by grade-years, course enrollment, and dropped students. Multiple tabs can be created for various sets of filters.
Accessing Gradebook Filters
To filter your Gradebook, use the filters at the top of the default Gradebook view.
Clicking the Assessments drop-down enables teachers to filter by term, assessment method (summative vs formative), or assessment type. Multiple can be chosen.
Clicking the Students drop-down enables teachers to filter by grade, course enrollment, and dropped students. Multiple can be chosen.
Creating Gradebook Tabs
By default, your Gradebook begins on the main tab. Any filters applied on this tab will remain when the Gradebook is navigated away from. However, additional tabs can be created to host different filters.
To create a new Gradebook Tab, click the + next to Main at the bottom left of the Gradebook.
The tab can be renamed by clicking its name and typing a new one in. Any filters created in each tab will remain unless later changed.
This teacher has a number of tabs set up. They can filter to only formative assessments,
The couple of grade 10 students in their Class,
And filter to the quizzes they have created throughout the year.
When assessment information is shared
What |
Where the information is entered |
When visible in My Work |
| Assessment grade | Regular and Details modes | After the Share button is clicked. |
| Comments | Details mode | After the Share button is clicked. |
| Assessment state | Regular and Details modes | Immediately. |
| Discussion note | Details mode | Immediately. |
Teachers Making Submissions
Teachers can also upload their own submissions to an assessment on behalf of a student or to upload a marked version of their assessment.
To make a submission, click the assessment state or drop-down arrow within the given student’s cell. Select Make Submission.
Using the upload icons, select the file you wish to upload as a submission. Add a comment. Click Submit.
The file will be submitted. The student can view your submission in their My Work Report.
Note: Making a submission will automatically mark the student as having completed the assessment, even if they have not made their own submission.
What the students see
In the Classes panel, the student is notified of a new discussion note or a new shared result. Clicking on the notification opens the student’s My Work.
Gradebook indicators and icons
Tips for Online Teaching
Creating a Missing Homework Tracker
Try creating a missing homework tracker in your class Gradebook. Use the Out Of field in the assessment form to determine how many homework items students can miss before the Gradebook sets a flag.
For example, if you allow students to miss 2 homework items throughout the semester, set the Out Of to 2.
If you enter anything greater than 2, meaning the student has missed more than 2 homework items, the Gradebook will flag the cell with a yellow exclamation point.
Place the Tracker at the beginning of your Gradebook and update it if students miss any homework. Easily see at a glance which students have missed too many.
Gathering Student Reflection
If you are teaching online, you are likely providing your students with materials for them to view on their own time outside of your regular class meetings.
Follow up with your students by setting up an assessment where they can provide a reflection on the material you gave them. This not only shows you how the students are managing the material, it also encourages your students to work through all supplementary materials as they know you will follow up with them about it.
You can also enable File Upload on the assessment to have students quickly upload a picture of the work they have done.
Keep track of which students have submitted their homework by looking at the file icon next to each student.
Click here for more suggestions on using Edsby for online learning.