ANGEL Community Hub

The Locked option when used with Gradebook assignments that are associated with ANGEL content items (quiz, drop box, discussion forum, etc.) allows you to "lock" and manually overwrite a student grade to ensure it will not be overwritten by updates to the associated ANGEL content item.

For example, an instructor creates a quiz in ANGEL that students can take multiple times. She wants the first one to count as a grade and also wants the students to be able to practice the for the mid-term by taking the quiz multiple times. To do this she sets the "Max Attempts" in the Quiz settings to unlimited and sets the "Calculation Type" in the gradebook assignment editor to first submission. Students can then take the quiz multiple times but only their score for the first time they submitted the quiz will be recorded in the gradebook.

The Gradebook affords instructors the ability to associate a gradebook assignment with a content item under the Lessons tab. This can be done in three places:

-Under the Lessons tab. Go into the content item settings and select the Gradebook Assignment option and complete the appropriate fields.

-When going through the Gradebook Setup Wizard.

-In the gradebook assignment settings. Note: This option is available when the Advanced button is selected.

A benefit of associating items is that grades can be entered in the Lessons tab and the gradebook records them. This is so for grades that the instructor manually enters under the Lessons tab such as a drop box or discussion forum, as well as items that can be automatically graded, such as a quiz.

Two new features are now available on the Hub. If you look to the side-bar on the left you'll find a "Helpful Links" block. This is place place to go for some timely information, such as a link to the 2007 TLT Symposium, as well as some standard resources, such as ANGEL Help. Additionally, there is a link to the Community Hub podcasts including the V7 vodcasts Allen Gyorke and I have been doing.

You can also upload a picture to the Community Hub that will appear with both your blog postings and comments. To do this:
-Select the "My Account" link
-Select the "Edit" tab
-Use the "Upload a Picture" utility
-Click the "Submit" button

Does anyone know if there is a way to use attendance manager with gradebook? For example, 1 point is given for each class attended. If Attendance Manager is used to track attendance, can this info be used in Gradebook where 1 point is given for each attended class?

If you are new or have questions regarding setting up the gradebook check out Mary Janzen's post on accessing the documentation.

Firefox, Mozilla, and Netscape users may find that grades entered for discussion forums in the "Grade Forum" tool are not saved or shown in either the Discussion forum utilities or the gradebook. This issue will be resolved in a future update to ANGEL. As a workaround, if using Firefox, Mozilla, or Netscape, please enter your grades directly in the gradebook (the grades will stick there where they matter most). Another option is to use Internet Explorer until the issue is resolved.

The updated Community Hub is here! Membership is once again open. Individuals with PSU Access Accounts or Friends of Penn State Accounts can log in using their userid & password. Friends from outside of PSU can sign up by selecting the "Sign Up" link on the right-hand menu. Enjoy! I am looking forward to this next phase of our community's growth!
-Jeff

I am happy to say that the Community Hub continues to grow! Membership continues to increase as well as content and contributions. We truly are a growing community.

To meet the needs as we grow we are in the process of redesigning the Community Hub. The changes include:

-A cleaner look that will make the information and conversation more accessible
-Using Web Access to take advantage of Single sign-on and security
-More use of "Books," the wiki-like component of Drupal that enables content creation