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In-progress grades

Joe Sprinkle

September 19, 2010 00:58

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So far as I can tell, the system does not easily allow either a professor or a student to know an accurate in-progress grade. For example a student who has skipped an assignment or two sees his/her grade as the average of what has been turned in, even if that is a fraction of what was due. Assignments past the due date should for average grade purposes be counted as zeros.

At midterms and at the end of semesters it would be nice to say what a student's grade would be if no further work were turned in. A way to show that is to have a column showing show how many points have been earned of the X number of total points in the course. That would indicate the final grade were the student to quit turning in work or not complete late work, which in turn could also tell a student how many late assignments or bonus work was needed to achieve a desired grade.

I fear some will misread the scores and be disappointed when the final grades appear since the in-progress grades are misleading. 

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4 comments

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  Isaac Grauke September 20, 2010 23:23

  Joe, if a student misses/skips an assignment you can give them a 0 by putting 0 for that assignment in the grade book. This will count the entire assignment against them and the in-progress grade will be correct.

  As you've noticed, if a student misses an assignment and you are not counting it against them, just leave the grade blank and Populi will ignore it for the grade calculation.

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  Joe Sprinkle September 21, 2010 12:27

  I would still like to know how many points have been earned as compared with the total points in the course at any given point.  That in turn can be used to figure out what is required to make a certain final outcome.

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  Joe Sprinkle September 21, 2010 12:32

  The problem I found with putting in zeros is that some  students interpret that as the final grade and that late work will not be accepted and so just give up. That's why I recently quit putting zeros into the grade book, unless it really is too late to make it up. But the down side is that means the in-progress grade is invalid.

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  Lois Solberg October 29, 2012 18:42

  It would be so helpful if we could assignments per class by STUDENT and not by ASSIGNMENT.  When you've got a gradebook of assignments that aren't even due yet, and thirty students and you want to see what Joe Smith in particular needs to do to bring his grade up to passing (and thus eligible to participate in special activities) , it's cumbersome.  Cumbersome, I tell you.