OVERVIEW:

• This gradebook will allow you to record as many different items as you wish to use for assessment, and automatically calculate grades.
• You may indicate when an item has been used for assessment, so that it is included into grade calculations, for current standings.
• Each item may be scored on the basis of 100 points, for ease in determining relative scores within an instrument, but each item may be weighted to vary the affect on overall grades. One item may be 10% of the overall grade, another may be 40%.
• The breakpoint on each letter grade can be set, and may be changed by the instructor, to massage grade distributions.
• There are attendance sheets for classes that meet either 2 or 3 times a week, which can be used to generate an attendance score.

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Don’t try to changed colored text!
• Red values are pulled from another area of the workbook.
• Blue values are generated by calculations
• if you want to see what either colored cell is doing, click on it and read the code in the formula bar at the top of the window
• A green outline indicates values you must fill in so other calculations work

SETUP:

Download a copy of gradebook.xls

• Click to download: gradebook-v2.xls
• Determine where to save the file on your hard drive
• Give it a new name based on the class for which it will be used
• Open the new gradebook file

Full address for gradebook.xls:
http://abacus.bates.edu/ils/learn/gradebook/gradebook-v2.xls

Add students: scores tab

• Click on the scores tab
  (lower left corner)
• Adjust rows based on number of students:
  default is 15

• To add students:
• click on the row number to select row 16
• drag the square handle in the lower left corner of the selection
• down to enclose all of the extra rows for additional student names

• To remove students:
• click to select excess rows, Edit: Clear: All

• Replace the student names with ones from your class roster

• follow the instructions for data from Banner
• or type them in manually from a current roster

Add columns to record grades: scores tab

• figure out how many items you will use to evaluate the students

• Add columns:

• click on the letter of column E to select it
• Insert: Columns  (repeat to add as many as you require)
• change the names of all columns to suit your needs
• (don't worry if suddenly the grades all turn to VALUE!)

• Clear old scores:

• click & drag to select all of the cells where scores will be recorded
• (do not include Cumulative Score, or anything to the right of it)
• Edit: Clear: Contents

Add columns for weighting assessments: items tab

• Click on the items tab (lower left corner)

• click on the letter of column D to select it

• Insert: Columns 
  (repeat to add exactly the same number as the last step)
• change the names of all columns to match what you have on the scores sheet

• click & drag to select column C rows 2 through 12

• drag the square handle in the lower right corner of the selection to the right to enclose all of the new columns
• (this copies the coding into all of the new columns

• when student grades are recorded, basic stats are calculated automatically for each assessment

Set the break points for grades: breaks tab

• Click on the breaks tab (lower left corner)
• in the Score column
• alter the numerical values to reflect the breaking points for each grade

• when student grades are recorded, the graph at the bottom gives an overview of the grade distribution for the entire class

USE:

Record student grades: scores tab

• Click on the scores tab (lower left corner)
• type in the numerical value each student received on the assessment

Calculate student grades: items tab

• Click on the items tab (lower left corner)

• in the Use? row

• enter a 1 for an assessment that should be used for calculations
• enter a 0 for an assessment that is not yet being used

• in the Weight row

• enter a numeric value that represents how much of the total grade each assessment is worth (think of them as percentages of 100)

• in the Points row

• enter the total number of possible points for the instrument

• Return to the scores tab to see the student grades

Review the grade distribution: breaks tab

• Click on the breaks tab (lower left corner)

   

the graph at the bottom of the page shows the distribution of class grades

Things to remember:

• The assessment columns must match exactly on the items and scores tabs
• Grades are only calculated if there is a value on the scores tab,
  AND the assessment has been marked for use on the items tab,
  AND has a weight and point value associated with it
• Adding columns to the scores and items pages should be done in the middle of the existing columns to make sure that the calculations copy correctly, so try to add as many columns as you are likely to need at the outset.
• At the end of term you can massage the data by altering the weights of different assessments in order to get an appropriate distribution of grades
• Do not put anything but numerical values in the areas to record grades on the scores sheet or the Use, Weight and Points rows on the items tab
• This gradebook is set up to record grades for single score assessments.  If you have a multiple part or repetitive grading structure or a more complex grading process based on intermediate calculations, the gradebook will need to be modified to work properly.