New Etudes Gradebook 1.0 – Released!

I am very pleased and excited to announce the release of the new Etudes Gradebook 1.0!

The new gradebook will be the default in all Summer and Fall 2015 sites. Going forward, new development sites will have the new gradebook, too. [It is also possible to swap the old gradebook with the new one in existing sites. Ask us!].

For a brief overview of Etudes Gradebook 1.0, please see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PavwD01dVLc

Feature highlights include the following, prioritized based on input received by Etudes users:

• Ability to grade by weighted categories (%) and create custom categories (i.e. essays, labs, etc.). Ability to adjust the weights at any point in the term.
• Ability to align assessments to weighted categories and elect to distribute weights by points or equally.
• Ability to define the labels of your categories (i.e. change “Assignments” to “Essays”) and organize them in a custom order. Your default order is what students will see in their view of the gradebook.
• Ability to benefit from categories, without touching at all any of the previously-mentioned features! 🙂
• Drop any number of low scores from any category (i.e. quizzes, assignments, etc.). Includes the ability to un-drop low scores from any category at any point.
• Ability to boost overall grades by a certain point value or a percentage. Includes the ability to remove the grade booster.
• Better handling of extra credit. You can now move assessments to the extra credit category in the gradebook, and Etudes will include the extra points (or weight) for the extra credit submissions only to students who did them.
• Complete grade summary for each student. Individual student summary lists all assessments by category, and overall grade and points earned by each student. (exportable to CSV)
• Ease of viewing class grades – by single student or by category.
• Ability to see the point value of each assessment, as well as open and due dates from the gradebook.
• Show grades by section – for overall grades, assignment grades, or all assessment grades.
• Export grades by section – for an assessment, a specific student, all assessment grades or for overall grades.
• Student view of gradebook, without having to log on as a student.
• Ability to show overall points-to-date, with no letter attached to it (optionally).
• Ability to see dropped or blocked students’ grades in the gradebook.

You will find our tutorials (still a work in-progress) under the “New Gradebook” section of our Help pages: http://etudes.org/help/instructors/

If you have any questions about how to use a feature of the new gradebook or experience any difficulties, please reach out to us in the Users Group forums.

We hope that you enjoy the new Etudes gradebook.