[LON-CAPA-users] loncapa as your CMS, use of gradebook?

[Gerd Kortemeyer]

On Mar 8, 2007, at 8:57 AM, James Sullivan wrote:

> This is a rather general question regarding those of you who use  
> loncapa as your sole CMS. I am currently using Blackboard and  
> loncapa for my courses. The primary reason I use Blackboard is for  
> the ease of entering grade information for non-loncapa assignments  
> (handwritten homework, labs, etc.). For ease of maintenance of my  
> courses, I would like to give up the use of BB entirely so that I  
> only have to maintain my loncapa courses.
>
> For those of you using loncapa as your sole CMS, how do you handle  
> entering of grades for non-loncapa assignments? Advice,  
> suggestions, etc. would be much appreciated.

The real difference in LON-CAPA is that every external grade needs to  
be represented by at least one problem part in a document in the  
course - the assignments are embedded into the content. There is to  
my knowledge nothing that the BlackBoard gradebook can do that LON- 
CAPA cannot - but being LON-CAPA, it's "different."

I just use the grade upload form in DOCS, or make the assignments  
into handgraded responses, or use essay.

GRADE UPLOAD DOCS

Probably the simplest way. In DOCS, use "Special Documents", "Score  
Upload Form" - one for every gradeable external item in the course.  
Students can see their score by NAVigating to the form.

HANDGRADED RESPONSES

I have weekly recitations, which are graded by the TAs. The sheets  
for the recitations I generate in LON-CAPA, see for example

  /res/msu/kortemey/physicslib/recitations/capacitorspost.problem

so that different students get different sheets - but the computer  
does not grade this, and the students don't enter anything online.  
The recitation has the code in it:

<parameter part="0" name="handgrade" id="31" type="string_yesno"  
default="yes" display="Hand Grade [Part: 0]" />
<parameter name="weight" id="11" type="float_pos" default="24"  
description="Weight" />
<parameter name="scoreformat" id="14" default="1f" type="string"  
description="Format for display of score" />
<script type="loncapa/perl">
$weight=&EXT('resource.0.weight');
if ((!defined($weight)) || ($weight eq '')) { $weight=1; }
$awarded=&EXT('user.resource.resource.0.awarded');
if (!defined($awarded)) { $awarded=0; }
$scoreformat=&EXT('resource.0.scoreformat');
if (!defined($scoreformat) || $scoreformat eq '') { $scoreformat="2f"; }
if ($awarded) {
    $points=$awarded*$weight;
    $message="You have $points out of $weight possible points."
} else {
    $message="$weight available points."
}</script>

<startouttext />
<web>$message</web>
<endouttext />

- the grades from the TAs I upload using a spreadsheet in PGRD.  
Students can see their score by NAVigating to the recitations.

ESSAY UPLOAD

I also have honors reports that I handgrade. For those, I am using  
the same problem over and over, one problem for every week of  
reports, with titles corresponding to the assignments.

  /res/msu/kortemey/physicslib/honors.problem

<problem>
<startouttext />
<h1>Honors Option Report</h1>
You are required to work through the online material and problems  
ahead of the course schedule for eight chapters of this course, and  
submit a detailed report regarding technical problems, unclear  
formulations, inconsistencies, spelling, mathematical and grammatical  
errors.<endouttext />
<essayresponse id="11">
     <responseparam name="uploadedfiletypes" type="string_fileext"  
default="doc,pdf,txt" description="Allowed File Extensions for  
Uploaded Files" />
<textfield></textfield>
</essayresponse>
</problem>

I grade from PGRD, using the option "with ungraded responses."  
Students can see their score by NAVigating to the upload forms.

- Gerd.