USING THE GRADEBOOK PROGRAM GRADES. COPYRIGHT 1997, by Timothy J. Allen 3931 Lochlaurel Drive Jacksonville, FL 32277 General Comments. This program is designed to help keeping track of grades easy and inexpensive. This is an unregistered copy of grades. If you find the program useful you should register the program. See register.txt for more information. The program includes the ability to: 1. Transfer students between classes along with their grades and place them in a seating chart. 2. Add as many students and grades as computer memory allows. (That is a lot of grades.) 3. Design seating charts. 4. Design grids with names and categories. (Project.Col included with this program is an example.) 5. Generate a random list of student names. 6. Print out grades by ranking or by name. 7. Print user designed Warning Notices for students whose average is below a predetermined value. 8. Print user designed Progress Reports for selected students. 9. Print makeup work required for each student. 10. Print attendance sheets with days of the week and dates. 11. Print grades sheets where selected grades can be written temporarily. The program splits grades up into 6 categories: tests, quizzes, homework, labs, and 2 other categories that the user can rename. (The default names are extra1 and extra2). Each category can handle any number of students or grades limited only by system memory. Two grading systems are supported, the point system and the weighted system. Installing Grades on your hard drive. If using Windows 3.1 start Windows and click on File in the upper left hand corner of Program Manager. Select Run and type and enter A:\install. If using Windows 95 click on Start in the lower left hand corner and then Select Run. Enter A:\install. If the source files are in a drive other than A drive substitute the appropriate drive and path. Install will copy the program files to your hard drive and create a Program Group and the appropriate icons. The program is started by clicking on the grades icon in the grades Program Group. Help is available by selecting Help Index from the Help Menu or by clicking on the question mark on the top margin. Any number of numerical grades plus a letter grade can be printed in either the current name order or in a ranked order. Names are automatically assigned an identity number from 1 to 999 if you want to have the grades printed according to the number instead of by name. The program will also provide a distribution of grades, average for each grade, and the class average. Menu Items File|New Menu Item To start a new class select New from the File Menu. You will be asked for the class title, instructor's name, and class time period. Enter students, first name in the first input box, and second name in the second. When completed with all students in the class click on Cancel. You may now change the grading system if desired. Select either points or weighted and whether plus and minus grades are appropriate. Enter the weighted percentages for each type of grade. Finally, enter the grades limits. The computer does not round off so if an A is 90 and you round enter 89.5 for an A. File|Open Menu Item This menu item will open a previously saved class. Use the mouse or keyboard to select the file of interest. File|Save Menu Item To save a class file choose this option. Whenever anything major is done to the class file it is saved automatically. If the class does not have a name you will be asked for one. Use a single word with no spaces of 8 letters or less. File|SaveAs Menu Item To save a class under a different name while retaining the class with the former name use this option. You will be asked for a filename. Use a single word with no spaces of 8 letters or less. File|Print Menu Item Printing Grades Select Print|Grades from the File Menu to print out the grades of all members of a class. Select the grades to be printed on the first dialog box and indicate whether you want the students grades to be printed out in the current order or highest grade to lowest grade. Omit the First and Last name from the report including only the ID# if you want to keep the identity of the students unknown. The grade report will consist of the course title, instructor, time period, date, the selected scores, averages for each selected score, a distribution of grades and an overall class average. Printing Progress Reports To print progress reports select Print Progress Reports from the File Menu. Progress reports for those students that are checked in the class window will be printed, two to a sheet of paper. The format of the progress reports can be changed . To check the checkboxes to the left of each students name click the left mouse button while the cursor is on top of the checkbox. Printing Warning Notices To print warning notices select Print Warning Notices from the File Menu. Warning Notices for those students with an average below the selected value will be printed. Two copies of each student's notice will be on a single sheet of paper. The format of the warning notice can be changed . Printing a Random List Select Print|Random List from the File Menu to print out a random list of student names. Enough sets of names will be printed to fill one page of paper. Random lists are excellent for choosing students for any of a number of tasks. Printing a list of names and ID's Select Print|Name and ID from the File Menu to print out a list of student names and their ID numbers. Printing a List of Makeup Work Select Print|Makeup Work from the File Menu to print out a list of student names with any makeup work due. Students with a score of zero will have the grade title of each grade missed. If a student actually did receive a zero and you do not wish to have it classified as makeup work enter the grade as 0.01 instead of zero. Printing Grade Sheets Select Print|Grade Sheets to have forms printed with all student names and a grid which can be used as a traditional Class Record Book. Printing Attendance Sheets Select Print|Attendance to have forms printed with all student names and a grid which can be used as a traditional attendance sheet. Days of the week and dates are included on the sheet. Up to 50 days may be included on the sheet and the sheet can start on any day Monday though Friday. File|Exit Menu Item This command will terminate the program. Edit|New Grade Menu Item To enter a set of new grades for the currently active class select New Grade from the Edit Menu. Enter the appropriate grade in the dialog box. If the grade is not to count for a student either enter no grade at all or enter N/A. The grade will not be counted for that student when the average is determined. Edit|Add Students Menu Item To add students to a class select Add Students from the Edit Menu. Enter the name of student to the dialog box. The ID number is a random number from 1 to 999 which is not possessed by any other student in any other class for all class files on the same directory as the currently active class. The ID number may be changed if desired. ID numbers are useful when printing up a list of grades but the identity of each student should be kept private. After all students are entered click on Cancel. New students will receive a score of N/A for any existing grade. The grade can be changed. If desired the class list can then be alphabetized. Edit|Change Item Menu Item To change any information displayed in the class window the Change Item option must be On. The option is always on when the program is first started. To change a grade, edit a name, or rename a grade title double click the left mouse button on the item to be changed. An appropriate dialog box will appear and the information changed. When the Change Item option is off double clicking on an item will have not effect. To change from On to Off or Off to On select Change Item from the Edit Menu. Edit|Delete Item Menu Item To delete any information displayed in the class window the Delete Item option must be On. The option is always on when the program is first started. To delete a grade, remove a student, or delete a grade list click the right mouse button on the item to be deleted. If deleting a student the student may be transferred to another class. Grades that match of between classes will be transferred, all others grades will be given an N/A( grade does not count ) . The student will also be included in the destination class seating chart, if one exists. Edit|Grading System If you wish to change the grading system of the currently active class window select Grading System from the Edit Menu. The grading system may be a point system or weighted. If you select weighted you must indicate what weighting percentages you desire for each type of grade. Edit|Class Information Menu Item If you wish to change class information such as the course title, instructors name, or period/time of the class select Class Information from the Edit Menu. Edit|Progress Report Menu Item Select Progress Reports from the Edit Menu to change the format of the progress reports that can be printed using the File|Print|Progress Reports Menu item. Enclose the following in braces to have them printed on the progress report: {lastname} {firstname} {instructor} {course} {date} {grades} When your changes are completed click on OK. The changes will be saved to disk. Edit|Warning Notice Menu Item Select Warning Notices from the Edit Menu to change the format of the warning notices that can be printed using the File|Print|Warning Notices Menu item. Enclose the following in braces to have them printed on the warning notice: {lastname} {firstname} {instructor} {course} {date} {grades} When your changes are completed click on OK. The changes will be saved to disk. Changing a Grade To change a grade double click the left mouse button on the grade you want to change. A dialog box will appear containing the grade you want to change. Change the grade as desired. If you don't want this grade to count for this student then either clear the input box completely (press delete until the cursor is to the left of the box) or type in N/A. Change Option must be on in order for the procedure to function. Deleting a Grade To delete a grade click the right mouse button on the grade you want to delete. The grade will be deleted for all students. Delete Option must be On in order for the procedure to function. Changing Student Information To edit student information such as the first name, last name, or id number double click the left mouse button on either the last name, first name, or id number of the desired student. Edit the information as desired in the dialog box. Change Option must be on in order for the procedure to function. Removing a student from a class To remove a student click the right mouse button on the last name, first name, or ID# of the student of interest. You may either drop the student completely or transfer the student to another class. If the student is transferred to another class a dialog box with a list of class files will appear. Select the class you want to transfer the student to from the list. If a seating chart exists for the destination class you will be asked if you want to assign the seat yourself or allow the computer to assign a seat. The student plus his/her grades will be transferred along with all information regarding the student. If the student has not taken a particular test, quiz, or other object he/she will be assigned a grade of N/A which means the grade does not count for this student. To change the grade double click the left mouse button on the grade you want to change. Options|Alphabetize Menu Item To alphabetize student names select Alphabetize from the Options Menu. Names will be arranged by last and then first name if the last name is identical. Options|New Grading Period To create a list of student names identical to the currently active class window with no grades select New Grading Period from the Options Menu. Enter an appropriate name for the new class when asked. Options|Seating Chart Menu Item Seating charts for a class can be created by selecting Seating Chart from the Options Menu. If a Seating chart does not exist for this class you will be asked for the configuration of seats in your classroom. You may have up to 7 rows and 50 seats. Use the mouse to select the checkboxes where a seat located. You may select the seats for each student or have the computer select them for you. If you select the seats enter the number of the seat desired. A window will appear containing your seating chart. You may Print the chart by selecting Print from the Options Menu, switch seats by selecting Switch Seats from the Options Menu, or Close the Seating Chart by clicking on Close of the Options Menu. Display Menu The Display Menu can be used to either change the grades that are displayed in the grade window or change the name of the grades type for the two extra types of grades. To change the items displayed in the class window select Options on the Display Menu and then check the grades you want displayed in the class window. Grades not displayed are still included in the average but are not displayed. To change the name of the to extra grade types (default names are extra1 and extra2 respectively) select Change Extra1 or 2 name from the Display window. Replace the current name with the new name. Assignment Grid Menu The assignment grid menu is used to create, print, and open assignment grids. An assignment grid is a table with headings which can be used for any of a number of things. An example is contained in the file PROJECT.COL. To start a new grid select New from the Assignment Grid Menu. Enter the number of columns desired in the dialog box presented. (Up to 50 columns). Enter the heading for each column and the number of spaces desired. The number of spaces cannot be less than the number of letters in the heading. You are limited to 75 total spaces. You may print and/or save the assignment grid at this time. To open an existing grid select Open from the Assignment Grid Menu. Select the file desired and the grid will be printed for the currently open class. To delete an existing grid select Delete from the Assignment Grid Menu. Window Menu You may cascade, tile vertically, tile horizontally, or close all current classes by selecting the appropriate item from this menu. If you have any problems or questions my E-mail address is ALLENT@mail.firn.edu. I hope you find the program makes maintaining your grades easier. Timothy J. Allen DISCLAIMER ---------- THE GRADES CLASSROOM ORGANIZER PROGRAM IS SOLD "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES AS TO PERFORMANCE OR ANY OTHER WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. BECAUSE OF THE VARIOUS HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENTS INTO WHICH THIS PROGRAM MAY BE PUT, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OF THIS SOFTWARE BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THE THIS PROGRAM. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS' LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES EVER EXCEED THE PRICE PAID FOR THE LICENSE TO USE THE SOFTWARE, REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF CLAIM. THE PERSON USING THE SOFTWARE BEARS ALL RISKS AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE. THIS AGREEMENT SHALL BE CONSTRUED AND ENFORCED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA.