University of Wyoming Instructional Computing Services
What Software is Available for Keeping Grades in Classes?
Last Update: R. Hill, 2 November 2004
Instructors often want to keep grades for each student in a format similar to
the old written gradebook, which a row for each student, and a column for each
graded assignment, with some engine for computation. The types of products
available include:
- Programs that attempt to grade English compositions, using standards for
sentence structure and algorithms that measure relevance and who-knows-what. My
advice as a professional in computer science: Forget it!
- Course management software that just delivers up the grades online (after
entry by the instructor) so students can view them, and maybe computes some
intermediate values and statistics. We handle these online platforms.
- Spreadsheets-- the direct way to handle numeric scores, weights,
intermediate values (like an overall homework grade separate from the total
percentage), simple or elaborate formulas for computations, and so forth. I
cover this in the "Spreadsheets for Grades" workshop. You should look at the
notes to get some idea if this is what you want. At the "Instructional Computing
Services" website, scroll
down and click on "Technology Workshops;" then go to "Past Workshop Schedules"
(find it in Feb. 2004).
- Myriad commercial products that don't actually grade, but help you manage
due dates, file types, annotations, charts, and student records, all of which
can be done straightforwardly with office-suite software. See www.annotateit.com
and www.gradebookwizard.com. Many of these seem to be targeted at K-12 teachers.
What you probably want is a spreadsheet. See us for help.
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