Requirements Specification Prototype Design Implementation Testing Administration Documentation

This introductory scenario shows an instructor creating a grade book. An instructor usually creates a grade book at the beginning of each school term. In these scenarios, the instructor is assumed to be registered with Student Information Systems (SIS) at Cal Poly. Each grade book starts off with a blank roster, unless an instructor has decided to load a saved grade book template (covered later in this section).

The instructor can download student rosters or create templates in either order. Downloading student rosters updates the current grade book roster, deleting and adding students as necessary. Further information about updating the student roster is given in Section 2.4. In the current scenario, the instructor downloads the student roster before creating assignments.

To download students from the roster SIS provides, the instructor selects 'File->Download Roster.' In response, the system displays the dialog shown in Figure 13. The figure shows a form that contains fields needed to connect to SIS. The 'Host Name' field is the name of the SIS server where the instructor can receive and submit grades. The 'User Name' field is the user name Cal Poly gives the instructor, which is the same as his/her Cal Poly e-mail account. The 'Password' field is the instructor's password for the user name's account. All fields must be completed to download the rosters.

Figure 13

Figure 14 shows a completed dialog. Click 'Connect' to continue.

Figure 14

As soon as the instructor is connected to SIS, a dialog window appears, as shown in Figure 15. This lists the class rosters available for download. Click 'Finish' to download the rosters.

Figure 15

When the roster finishes downloading, the two leftmost columns fill up with students' information. The third column is the name of the class, under which the instructor can create Categories and Grade Items. The instructor is ready to start creating assignments. Figure 16 shows the resulting roster. The bottom rows contain the Mean, Median, Standard Deviation, and Range for each Grade Item, a viewing feature described in more detail in 2.6.2.

Figure 16

When the instructor selects 'Class->Add->Category,' a dialog window shown in Figure 17 appears. The figure has several optional fields, with 'Name' being mandatory to enter. The field 'Parent' has a drop down menu of parent category items, in this case, the class itself. The field 'Due Date' contains the due date of the assignment and is a Grade Item feature; once the the Category has any children Grade Items, this field is disabled for the Category. The following five fields are optional features a Category can have by clicking the check box next to 'Inherit.' Further details about each field is explained in Section 2.3.3 . The 'Grace Period' field is a Grade Item feature that allots a certain amount of days a student can turn in work for full credit. 'Late Policy' has a drop down menu that allows instructors to decide whether or not to allow students to turn in Grade Items late but with a decayed value. The field 'Points Possible' lets instructors enter the raw points available for the Category or Grade Item. Another Grade Item field is 'Weight,' which has a drop down menu of items where the instructor can determine whether the grading is absolute (relative to 100% of the class) or parent-relative (relative to 100% of the parent item). The 'Grading Scheme' drop down menu lists four ways to grade the Category. The field 'Extra Credit' gives instructors the ability to add extra credit either by bumping up the points a student can receive on a Grade Item, or by actually incrementing letter grades. The box underneath 'Children' contains a tree of the children Grade Items or Categories within the current working Category. Click 'OK' to create a Category, or click 'Make Graded Item' to create a Grade Item within this Category. In this scenario we will continue to create a Grade Item.

Figure 17

Continuing from Figure 17, the 'Make Grade Item' button makes the Category into a Grade Item, which pops up the new dialog window 'Grade Item Properties.' If there was any information on 'Category Properties,' clicking this button will transfer all information that was on 'Catalog Properties' to 'Grade Item Properties.' Many of the fields, as seen in Figure 18, are identical to 'Category Properties.' Several of the differences in a Grade Item is that it can use the 'Due Date' field, it automatically inherits the 'Grading Scheme' field of its parent Category, and it and does not have children. Instead of the 'Make Graded Item' button, this dialog has a 'Make Category' button that pops up the previous window 'Category Properties.'

Figure 18

Figure 19 displays how the instructor can see the available Category items to select as the Grade Item's parent. In this scenario, the instructor selects "Programs" to be the Grade Item's parent.

Figure 19

After entering several fields, Figure 20 shows a completed Grade Item named "Program 1" with a Due Date of "10/15/2007." It also doesn't have a Grace Period, Late Policy, or Extra Credit. The points possible for this Grade Item is 40 points, and there is no current Weight set. Click "OK" to continue.

Figure 20

This returns the instructor back to the Category Properties. Figure 21 displays the result of adding several Grade Items under the "Programs" Category.

Figure 21

Figure 22 shows the result of adding several categories and grade items.

Figure 22

At this point, the instructor has the option to save the assembled assignments for future use as a template. To save the sheet, the instructor selects 'Class->Save Category as Template.'  Figure 23 shows the dialog window that pops up. The field 'Name' accepts strings and titles the template. The field 'Save in folder' gives the instructor the option to choose which folder to save the template to. The instructor is ready to begin grading.

Figure 23