etudes pilot

Thank you for writing! The gradebook is the simplest tool of Etudes. We adopted this one from UC Berkeley. It meets the needs of most faculty, but we recognize that there are others, like yourself, we would like more power. We are aware that it’s limited in what it does and plan to design a new gradebook in about 2-3 years.

In Etudes, grading happens in context, and scores are sent to the gradebook automatically from there. I don’t expect us to change that in the future, as it’s much more helpful to be giving feedback to students and scoring their work where it was posted and submitted. I know this may be a different workflow from what you are used to from other systems, but I trust that once you get used to it, you will see its great advantages.

You probably know the following, but just in case, I thought I’d share it with you. It may be helpful.

1)      You can see the students’ overall average and grade-to-date (current average) under Final Grades in the gradebook. To benefit from the grade-to-date, you have to assign scores to everything.

2)      You can see ALL of the work (scores earned, date of submissions, # of tries, etc.) of an individual student in Activity Meter. Go to Activity Meter and click on the student’s name. In fact, in that view, you get to see their progress in a much better way than other gradebooks show. It includes tracking information for modules they’ve visited what they completed, what they missed, etc. It’s awesome.

3)      As in #2, you CAN see all of a student’s work and progress in one page. In fact, this is the SAME view that they see in Course Map. You can have student conferences and go over their work. They can be looking at Course Map, and you their view in Activity Meter, and can discuss their progress – things they have missed, areas where they can improve, etc. A progress summary is at the top of the page.

4)      Here is how to set up extra credit in AT&S:
http://etudes.org/help/ats.extra-credit.htm

You can also set up extra credit in the gradebook, but I think setting it up in AT&S is better, as you can also include detailed instructions, handouts, etc. when explaining the extra credit, and give feedback in addition to points to students who complete it. Adding Extra credit in the Gradebook is much faster, however, if all you need is just a place to log scores. If that’s all you need, see this tutorial: http://etudes.org/help/gb.extra-credit.htm

I hope the above information and ways to make the best of Etudes in these areas help.

 
I would like to let you know about grade book issues that I find difficult in the hopes that they can be resolved as Etudes continues to update its grade book.

In Etudes, I would like to have the grade book page open with students' names on the left and the page showing all assignments for the semester in columns with a total overall average at the right. Both Moodle and eCompanion offer this. Yes, Etudes has the "Rooster" page, but it fails to show an overall average that is current. Instead, the last column shows the cumulative points, which does not tell me their standing in the class.

Instead, I would like to have that last column show the student's overall average. Moodle's grade book page does show the same view as the "Roster" view, but gives the overall average throughout the semester in the last col on the right. This way if students come to discuss their grade, I can see everything on one page. Plus I want to see it.

Also, when I enter grades using Moodle, I go to ONE page with all the assignments on it. eCompanion has this same ability, although I do have to click "show all." I prefer being able to enter grades on a single page that contains all grades for the semester for each student so I can see what is going right or wrong for the student. I also do not like having to switch pages, which Etudes requires.

Another feature I greatly miss from Moodle, is that I could click on the student's name in the grade book and a box opens that shows every assignment and the overall average exactly as the student sees it. I like being able to see the shell exactly as students see it without having to log out and on as a test student, which does not work in all views of the grade book.

Also, I would like Etudes to allow me to offer extra credit points as eCompanion does, which is a separate column that only affects the students who do extra credit. Moodle does not offer this.

I brought up these points to the Distance Ed committee, and they suggested that I send the suggestions to you in the hopes that they can be incorporated at some point. I am not sure if I am the only teacher using gradebook? I doubt it. But I just recorded another set of exams and wanted to send these suggestions to you while I am thinking about it.

I am hopeful my suggestions will help Etudes. They are not meant as criticisms in any way!