Comprehensive Grading Program (offered free to faculty)
by Ken Culp

Thursday, January 29, 2004
4:00 p.m.
New Science 1209

Ken Culp in the Computer Science department has developed a comprehensive grading program over the last several years that is integrated with Northern’s computer system for the import of student information.  This program is being offered free to all faculty members at Northern.  Ken will demonstrate the program and have copies for installation at a Seminar on Thursday, January 29 at 4:00 pm.  Included will be instructions for importing class rosters from Northern’s computer system.  Below are just a few of the features of the program:

§         Track grades quickly using a straight per grade item weighting system or on a category percentage basis (exams 50%, final 25%, etc.).  Use the numeric key pad for quick and easy entry of grades.

§         Track attendance on an exception basis (you mark only those that are absent or tardy).  You can also generate a daily sign-up sheet to simplify your record-keeping or print a summary report of absences.

§         Maintain high touch with students through email.  You can an individualized email to all students, selected students (like those that missed class), or individual students with just a few clicks of a mouse.  Use email for progress reports (grades and attendance), warnings on missing classes, notices of the next unit, or whatever.

§         Generate neatly formatted reports.  Reports are formatted using various fonts for ease of reading.  Also, you can attach reports to an email, save them as Microsoft Word readable document, or print them as needed.  Progress reports can also be attached to student emails.

§         Export data to Microsoft Excel.  The program will build an Excel workbook with a separate page for each class listing students in the rows and grade items in the columns.  Attendance can also be exported.

§         Demonstration Database.  A demo database is included in the production version that illustrates the two ways of tracking grades (per unit weighting or category percentages).  Use it to learn the system before creating your own classes.

§         Future Plans.  Uploads to Web/CT and an improved data import are planned future enhancements.  At some point, it is hoped that you will be able to download all your classes and students in one operation.  This will be done once Northern can deliver the information to the program in a single file.

If you would like more details of the program, the on-line manual is at http://math.nmu.edu/~kculp/GAT-help

            If you would like to download the demonstration version of the program, it is at http://math.nmu.edu/~kculp/GAT-help/Install.zip.  This version includes a demo database illustrating the two ways of tracking grades (per unit weighting or category percentages).  It can, however, not be used for entering new classes.  The production version will be available at the seminar.

            Ken will also describe a little of how the program was developed using Microsoft’s new development platform called Visual Studio .Net.  The grading program is built on this system using both Visual Basic and C# languages in a single solution.