[sims] Creating colour coded marksheets in relation to targets

[jmel27]

Hi All,

 

Towards the end of the 17/18 academic year we started implementing colour coding onto grade sheets (mainly mock grade sheets) to show at a glance how well the students were doing.

We have a separate aspect in SIMS that reflects their target grades for each subject and all I did was use the "Nested If Then Else" to compare the exam result to the target grade.

 

 

What our headteacher wants now is for 5 colours to be put onto all of our Effort & Attainment grades, rather than 3 seeing as the nested if then else can only do greater than, equal to or more than and it caused issues when kids had target grades of 9, therefore couldn't get a "green" sheet as they couldn't actually get higher.

What he wants is the colours to reflect how far above or below target they are, as exampled below:

2+ Grades below - Red

1 Grade below - Light Red/Orange

On Target - Light Green

1 Grade above - Green

2+ Grades above - Blue

 

Does anyone know if this is possible? Will it require tons of formulae on every marksheet this is present on?

 

Thanks very much!

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

Yes, this is possible, we do this sort of thing for our supported schools all the time. I'd recommend going on the Assessment Manager training offered by your SSU/Capita to get familiar with how to do it and the quickest ways to do it. Capita's courses run to 3 days in total so to even just cover the bits you'd need would take a while over the forums and you'd probably miss most of the subtleties you get by attending a good training course.

 

Based on the limited info provided I would say it can be done with 4 formula columns on each template, though cloning may reduce the need for doing it on all templates.

Edited August 20, 2018 by Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun

[RootsSchImp]

Hi @jmel27,

 

Yes this is possible and yes it does require loads of columns. Use the data review using formula columns and the 'difference' formula to subtract each target from the actual. Then do nested if then else to look at those difference columns ( if less than -1 red etc).

 

To do this in a reasonable time I recommend using the keyboard as much as possible. N takes to the next screen of the column making process. Tab your way through the buttons of nite, hit enter to open lists and start typing to get to the right column.

 

If you're used to the mouse it can feel weird at first but once you get the hang of it it's much faster.

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

Using the keys can be more efficient, but only if supported by a coherent naming convention for both column headings and for aspect names/result sets. Without those, you are still resorting to stopping and scrolling up and down lists of names (usually with a mouse) looking for the item you want. This is why it is good practice to generate a master template layout with naming conventions before you start.

[jmel27]

Hi Roots,

 

Thanks for the info. I thought it could well be something along those lines.

 

This may well make sense for our mock grades, but setting it up for each individual subject and Year Group (7 Year Groups multiplied by on average 15 subjects = 105 different marksheets to do this for, plus 4 reporting periods per year) doesn't look to be plausible I don't think.

 

Really appreciate the feedback, now I can go back to our Senior Management and tell them it's not really viable. Just the standard If Then Else might be but even so, still a lot of work for something that really isn't hugely necessary.

 

Thanks very much,

 

James

[Skelacia]

Hi Roots,

 

Thanks for the info. I thought it could well be something along those lines.

 

This may well make sense for our mock grades, but setting it up for each individual subject and Year Group (7 Year Groups multiplied by on average 15 subjects = 105 different marksheets to do this for, plus 4 reporting periods per year) doesn't look to be plausible I don't think.

 

Really appreciate the feedback, now I can go back to our Senior Management and tell them it's not really viable. Just the standard If Then Else might be but even so, still a lot of work for something that really isn't hugely necessary.

 

Thanks very much,

 

James

 

Hi @jmel27

 

I had this exact set up in the school I worked in (and got it set up in 4 weeks from the start of term to the opening of our first reporting cycle) and many of the schools I now support as part of my role at an LASU do this or similar too. Setting this up for each subject is very viable now that cloning has been enhanced in recent years and it's disappointing that you're going to give your SLT a message about SIMS Assessment Manager which isn't strictly true. As @Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun says, I can't recommend enough that you do a full Assessment Manager training course to understand the potential in the system and how customisable it is. If you can't access in person training then there is an online course and associated resources here (run by an Edugeek member)

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

For 7 year groups and 15 subjects assuming there were only colour formulas (and their prerequisites) for 4 data drops then I estimate I could do them all in about 4 hours with the processes and tools I have available to me. Add in another hour for testing and another 2-3 hours for documentation and marksheet configuration plus categorisation you are probably looking at a little over a days work (depending on how detailed you make the documentation).