gradebook

Using formulas to adjust grades

I have been struggling with getting my gradebook to "assign" an additional X points to my students, after re-evaluating an assignment. This would be a tide intended to lift all ships, so it would seem the Formula Editor would be the way to go.

I enter what would seem to me to be the appropriate function:
{ASSIGNMENT:USER:SCORE}

and modify it to add (let's say) 8 points, so it then reads:
{ASSIGNMENT:USER:SCORE} + 8

It was giving me far more points than I am giving, and it depends on the original score (but I can't figure out exactly what yet. A score of 77.94, for instance, ends up well into the 8000's).

After digging around, I found a link that explained it a bit better. (http://www.personal.psu.edu/exe136/faqs/formulas.htm)

Qi Dunsworth's picture

Assignments and Category

For a long time, I have always believed that if a number of assignments are lumped under one category, and if there are more than one category in the gradebook, those assignments must bear equal number of max points or the calculation would not be correct. It seems that there are exceptions.

Exception 1: there is only one category called "course grade" and the gradebook is in "point" mode.
Exception 2: there are more than one category, and the gradebook can be of "point" or "percentage" mode, but the weight of each category are numbers in terms of points, such as "auto-calculate." That is the last line on the Category screen shows the total points of the course (such as 600) and 100%.

Any others?

Question on ANGEL/ E-Lion Interaction

I have heard that there have been issues with faculty importing grades from ANGEL into E-Lion. I would like to know if there is something specific that I can look at in the ANGEL grade book to make sure that it will import into E-Lion successfully. Is there something that has to be a certain way in order for the import to work that would be easy for an ID to find and help the faculty correct?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Assignment Formula for Specific Instance

How do I develop a formula for this scenario:

If a student receives 70%-100% on a quiz, they receive 2 points
If a student receives 50%-69% on a quiz, they receive 1 point
If as student receives 0-49% on a quiz, they receive 0 points.

The gradebook is set up for points, so I am making the quizzes worth 100 points to cover the percentage. I thought the faculty could go in and manually change the percentages to points, but for some reason, ANGEL won't let her do it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Dropped students and assignment averages

I have an instructor that noticed the averages for a few assignments in his Gradebook were lower than what he calculated. He had a student that dropped the course, and had received zeroes for those assignments - so he was wondering if dropped students' grades are included in average calculations, even when they are no longer part of the course roster. Anybody know?

Qi Dunsworth's picture

need suggestions

Here is an email I received from a faculty:

"Very often, in fact I'd say most of the time, when I try to download or
export a file from ANGEL at home, I get a Message Box saying "Getting File
Information Default.asp from cms.psu.edu. It just sits there, I've waited 15
minutes at times before cancelling. Today, I wanted to export the responses to
a survey. I have not had this happen at Behrend. I am connected to the
Internet via Roadrunner using a cable modem. This is seriously affecting my
ability to use ANGEL. "

He had tried the following as adviced by ANGEL Support:
1) Disable any and all firewalls. This includes window's firewall and/or
any 3rd party firewall you may be using. Once disabled, please try to access
ANGEL again. - No luck.

Qi Dunsworth's picture

Category weight when using drop the lowest x

I saw a gradebook built like the following:

  • Quizzes category intended to weigh 40%. It has 12 quizzes in it, 10 points each. The lowest 2 should be dropped.
  • Labs category intended to weigh 40%. It has 11 labs in it, 10 points each. The lowest 1 should be dropped.
  • One final exam in the Final category that should weigh 20%.

    My question is what number should be put in for the weight of category Quizzes and Labs? I would assume 100 points (after the 2 quizzes dropped) and 100 points (after the 1 lab dropped). But currently the prof. has 40 and 40 in - he must have treated these numbers as percentages, see attached. However, it seems to work. So should the weight be % or the sum of point values? Is there a rule to follow at all? Thanks!

    Qi

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