Using Online Grades with Easy Grade Pro

From Online Grades Documentation

Contents 1 Section One -- Preparing Easy Grade Pro 3.6 (EGP) for Online Grades 1.1 Field 1.2 Comments 2 Section Two -- Uploading Your Grades to Online Grades 3 Section Three -- Obtaining Student Passwords 4 Section Four -- Leaving Notes Class Notes 4.1 Personal Notes 4.2 Easy Grade Pro Student Notes 5 Section Five -- Assignment Notes 5.1 MISC3 tags 6 Section Six -- Setting Preferences 7 Section Seven – Feedback

[edit] Section One -- Preparing Easy Grade Pro 3.6 (EGP) for Online Grades

NOTE: If you are using Easy Grade Pro 4.0 see Using_Online_Grades_with_Easy_Grade_Pro_4.0 instead.

The first step to using Online Grades is to provide Easy Grade Pro with the necessary information about your classes so that the Online Grades software is able to display them online. Some of the information you will provide is critical to the proper operation of Online Grades, so you want to make sure you correctly complete this portion of the setup. These steps will only be required when you initially set up your classes in Easy Grade Pro. After that you will simply be able to export and upload your grades. The screen shots in this manual are from the Windows version of Easy Grade Pro 3.6. If you are running the Macintosh version your screens will look slightly different due to the different styling applied to the Macintosh version. All functionality is still the same.

Before proceeding, make certain that you have your Online Grades username and password (these should have been provided to you by your Online Grades administrator).

Open your Easy Grade Pro grade book. We are assuming that you have already created your classes and entered your students (if you have not you should do that portion now). Make sure you enter a Student ID for each student, as supplied by your school. While the way the student’s name is spelled is not critical (it is for your use only), the Student ID is part of what is exported to the Online Grades system:

hi

From the top drop-down menus at the top of the program, choose the "Chart" menu and then select the "Records" sub menu. A dialog box will appear that will look similar to the following screen shot. (Assuming you have not already modified this area.)

The “Custom Labels” (center column) will need to be entered exactly as shown below:

Enter the three custom data field values for each of your classes. You should have something similar to the following screen-shot when you are finished:

The following table takes you step by step through these changes:

[edit] Field	[edit] Comments
Course Code [REQUIRED]	You will need to replace the Custom 1 text with Course Code . This field should contain a course-code that identifies the class and is one of the most critical fields to enter. You must be certain that the information in this field is accurate, as it is when inserting the grades into Online Grades. The course code must not have any spaces . The value in this field, combined with the section number (which you will insert in a moment) must be different than the values used by any other teachers in your school. Your course code and your section number will usually be provided to you to prevent duplication.
Course Name [REQUIRED]	You will need to replace Custom 2 with Course Name . The Course Name field should contain the title of your class. You may enter whatever you wish in this field. This information will appear on the Online Grades grade display.
Section Number [REQUIRED]	You will need to replace Custom 3 with Section Number . This is a critical field and must be entered accurately. This is typically a 2-digit code (such as 03) that is used to identify the different sections of similar classes. If a single digit is used, a zero will automatically be added to the left of the digit to force 2-digit values. Later, you will need to make sure you include this when you make the actual export file.

To create the report, click on "File" and then the "Internet" option. There is also an option on your graphical toolbar menu that you may use: Or, you can type the keyboard shortcut, ctrl-i.

In the Internet Reports box, click the "Other" tab, and select "Basmati":

In the box labeled School, type the name of your school and click "Next". This field is not required for Online Grades. On this next screen we will set the options for the report. The most important three options are Teacher, Email, and Tchr ID: Teacher is how you want your name displayed.

Email is your Online Grades ID given to you by your administrator. Note: The email field may or may not include the “@example.com” portion. Your Online Grades administrator should let you know what to place in this field. Regardless, this field is not the email address that is shared with students and parents so that they can email you from within the Online Grades system. That email address is set either by your Online Grades Administrator when they created your account, or by you by setting your preferences in the web interface (if your administrator allows this).

Tchr ID is your password, also given to you by the administrator.

Also change the pull downs on the left so that "Course" is set to Class Custom 1 and "Section" is set to Class Custom 3. It is very critical that the course code and section number are entered accurately the first time. If corrections to these fields are required, you will need to delete the classes via the Online Grades web interface and re-upload the files.

Teacher [REQUIRED]	The Teacher Name field should contain your name, as you would like it to publicly appear on Online Grades report screens.
Email [REQUIRED]	This field contains your user name as provided by your Online Grades administrator. You must type this exactly as it appears. (This may or may not include the portion including and after the @ sign.)
Tchr ID [REQUIRED]	This field contains your password as provided by your Basmati administrator. You must type this exactly as it appears. (This field is case-sensitive.) If this field is inaccurate, your grades will not post to the internet!
Phone [Optional]	If you would like your phone number to show up on the grade reports enter it here. Otherwise, feel free to leave this field empty.
Course [REQUIRED]	“Course” is set to “Class Custom 1” as shown in the example above.
Section [REQUIRED]	“Section” is set to “Class Custom 3” as shown in the example above.

Once you hit the "Create" button you will be asked where you would like to save the file. Save it somewhere that you can easily find it. It is suggested either on your Desktop, or in your "My Documents" folder.

[edit] Section Two -- Uploading Your Grades to Online Grades

After you've created your export file(s), you'll need to upload them to Online Grades. Follow the steps below:

1. Log into the faculty section of Online Grades using your username and password. This is the same user name and password that you entered earlier into your grade book file.
2. Click the link titled "Submit File".
3. A page will appear with a section titled "Locate your export file..."
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4. Click the "Browse" button.
5. A dialog box will appear asking you to locate your EGP export file. Locate the file and click OK or “Open”.
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6. The filename (and path) will appear in the box next to the Browse button.
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7. Click the "Submit File to Online Grades" button.
8. If everything goes well you should receive a notice indicating that your grades were updated. If you encountered errors, please try to correct them or contact your local Online Grades administrator.

Any invalid student IDs (such as those containing letters) will be converted to a student ID of 0. Look carefully through the grade confirmation table to make sure that you don't see any zeros or other error messages. You will need to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.

Most often, errors will occur because of missing information in the Chart --> Records --> Classes section of Easy Grade Pro. Please review section one of this document for more details if you need to double-check your setup.

You can review the uploaded classes by clicking the "Show Current Classes". Make sure there are not any duplicates, and if so, delete them.

[edit] Section Three -- Obtaining Student Passwords

Note: Your Online Grades administrator may have disabled this feature for your site.

Once you've submitted grades to Online Grades, you can obtain passwords so that students can access their own grades.

1. Log into the faculty section of Online Grades using your user name and password.
2. Click the "Show Current Classes" link. A list of your classes should appear:
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3. Click the "Students" button to obtain a list of passwords for a particular class.
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4. Click the “Obtain Importable List of Passwords” link to bring up a list of just the student ids and passwords. Print this page, cut it up, and hand the slips out to your students. (Make sure your school policy allows for this!)
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[edit] Section Four -- Leaving Notes Class Notes

Starting with version 3.2.0 teachers are able to post class information (memos) on a per-class basis. Previously this information could only be posted on a per teacher basis.

The class memos are accessible from the main class display screen by clicking on the “Memo” button for each class:

You can edit your class memo, including inserting basic HTML. If your grade book program supports it, the class memos can be exported with your grade export information and automatically inserted into Online Grades. If this is the case you will not want to make changes to your class memos via the web interface since any changes you make will be overwritten the next time you upload grades from your grade book software.

Once you have saved your class memo it is displayed the same way it will be to a student or parent. You can go back and make further edits if needed.

[edit] Personal Notes

1. Log into the faculty section of Online Grades using your username and password.
2. Click the "Show Current Classes" link to bring up your list of classes:
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3. Click on the class name link to pull up a list of students in your class and click on the “Private Notes” button to add a private note.
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4. Type your personal note here or use the "Quick Notes" links below to insert commonly used phrases:
   1. EAE = Excellent attitude and effort.
   2. EWH = Excellent work habits.
   3. WII = Work is improving.
   4. WNI = Work habits need improving.
   5. FOT = Frequently off task.
   6. FDR = Frequently disrespectful.
   7. LOE = Lack of effort.
   8. FNM = Forgets needed materials.
   9. FAD = Frequently a disturbance.
   10. MIA = Missing or incomplete assignments.
   11. PAT = Poor attendance or tardiness.
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5. Click "Submit" to save your note.
6. If you wish to clear your note hit the "Clear Note" checkbox and then the "Submit" button. It is not necessary to remove all the text out of the note box when using the clear note checkbox.
7. Some grade book software allows for inserting these free text comments from inside the grade book software. If the software you use allows this you will not want to make any changes in the web interface since those changes will be overwritten the next time you upload your grades.

[edit] Easy Grade Pro Student Notes

EGP allows for exports of student notes. The key for the notes can be seen at "Edit --> Class Options --> Footnote."

Easy Grade Pro only exports the number for the note, not the entire note. Your Online Grades Administrator sets up what text the footnote codes corresponds to. Usually they choose to use the default Easy Grade Pro footnote text. Up to three footnotes can be exported per student.

The footnotes can be added in Easy Grade by right clicking on the grade box and selecting from the pop-up list:

The pop-up list:

The notes will be displayed to the students at the bottom of their grade sheet:

[edit] Section Five -- Assignment Notes

Online Grades allows you to leave notes to students and parents on the assignment level. These notes are not personal; they are shown for every student in your class where the note is made. Example notes that you might leave are things like, "Remember, a rewrite is available to improve your grade on this paper."

There are two locations in EGP where you can enter these assignment notes. One is the assignments tab in the main Easy Grade window. As shown below the left most column is the notes field. Simply type whatever you wish into this field.

The second location is the record detail page. You can access this page by double clicking on an assignment record. The note field is on the bottom left.

The notes are automatically uploaded with the rest of your grades. The results, as seen by a student, are below:

[edit] MISC3 tags

MISC3 tags are used to turn on and off certain Online Grade student grade display features. To send Online Grades direction to suppress certain parts of the student grade display enter the correct code in the MISC3 section.

-comlist	Turns off the "canned" comments that appear at the bottom of a grade sheet.
-disc	Turns off the disclaimer message that appears at the bottom of a grade sheet.
-mail	Turns off display of the faculty email address link.
-percent	Turns off display of the “Percent: ##% --“ text that shows at the top of a grade sheet.

Multiple MISC3 tags can be used; separate multiple tags with spaces.

[edit] Section Six -- Setting Preferences

Note: Your Online Grades administrator may have disabled this feature for your site.

If available, click on the "Change Personal Info" link. You will be able to change your Full Name, user name, email address, and password via this form:

[edit] Section Seven – Feedback

If you have any feedback on this manual or the Online Grades software, our web site is http://www.OnlineGrades.org. Comments and suggestions are welcome!