[LON-CAPA-users] CourseWeaver? Feedback needed!

Carl Lira lira at egr.msu.edu
Mon Jan 14 17:27:50 EST 2013


I have looked at the conversion table. I am not sure how to interpret the
gradebook comments on the conversion table regarding spreadsheets. I
interpret that the spreadsheet operations would be replaced by bundling
options within the new gradebook for category weights. This is good.

 

I agree with the comment that exporting of scores should still be supported
for those that want to do grading with their own spreadsheet - though I
would not want to do that myself. Students want to see how they are doing
and it is easiest in the online environment to comply with FERPA. I like to
save my scores after the course is over in the event that I need to write
recommendations for students, and I do that with spreadsheets.

 

In terms of lon-capa documentation, I am a newbie to lon-capa, and one of
the barriers to the documentation was understanding the structure and the
'big picture'. For example, in the grade book documentation, on pg 49, the
discussion starts by assuming that the instructor is ready to start entering
grades, and that the instructor has already created the upload forms.  A
short paragraph about the default structure of lon-capa (everything one
point) and everything in one category would have been helpful. Also, as I
understand the gradebook, lon-capa problems or a score upload forms for
content must be included in the course content folders to have an item
appear in the gradebook. (simple concept, but not documented that I could
find). The terminology 'score upload form' unfortunately does not convey
that it can be used for manual grading. A more general term like 'score
form' would be more clear to newbies.

 

About the gradebook, the ability to drop the lowest x scores from a category
is important to include.

 

Thanks,

 

Carl Lira

 

Associate Professor

Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

2527 Engineering Building

428 S. Shaw Lane

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI 48824-1226

Phone: (517) 355-9731

FAX: (517)432-1105

www.egr.msu.edu/~lira

chethermo.net <http://www.chethermo.net> 

 

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