SIMS - Editing Marksheet Templates in XML

[Galandrath]

Morning all - I have been looking at playing with Assessment stuff in XML and have read many threads in here that have made me want to look more at this. The only problem is I can’t seem to find anything anywhere that actually guides you through what to do and what not to do. I have got to the point of having the XML for a marksheet up on the screen ready to edit, I have looked up what everything is and figured a lot out on my own. But not too sure where to go from here.

 

My initial aim is just to bulk clone mark templates and reassign to a different result set - this sounds easy in theory and and from what I have read. I would love to be able to actually bulk create aspects and all sorts from scratch but baby steps.

 

If anybody can help then that would be great - or at least aim me in the right direction.

[blueday]

You need to be really careful about playing around with the xml as it's too easy to break things, especially as there are numerous ID's to consider. If you just want to change resultsets then don't forget there's already a Find and Replace option in AM7 for that and also when you clone templates you get the option to substitute different aspects.

[Galandrath]

This is why I am lookup for some guidance. I do not want to break SIMS

 

I currently have 2 marksheets set up for each subject for each year group for each of the first 2 progress reviews. This equates to a lot of marksheets. The original set up was done using a template (I create template aspects with Xx as the subject and then use these to create my template marksheet). I have just finished cloning these from Progress Review 1 to create the Progress Review 2 sheets. This was quite time consuming and I don't look forward to doing this again for Progress Reviews 3 and 4.

 

We are going through quite a few changes at school at the moment and I will probably have to set up quite a lot of new tracking systems for various people. Hopefully they will stick with what we set up but I can see me having to change and tweak things after the summer and again - from everything I have seen this could be done quicker on a larger scale through XML than one marksheet at a time in SIMS. I'm starting off small at the moment and learning how to do things bit by bit.

[blueday]

I've only ever tried amending the xml to do minor things like changing the External ID number or for changing the order of columns or whether they are hidden or not. If you are planning anything more complex, then I'm not sure how much time you will save, as you need to ensure that you replicate any changes through the node structure for Gradesets, Resultsets, Aspects and Columns. Good luck!

[Jonsi]

Might it be better considering putting all the progress reviews onto one template rather than separate ones? That is what we do. It's much easier for staff to see past data and progress and are able to copy and paste data. If you remove the subject name from the aspect Column Heading in the template or use the Heading Substitution facility, you will easily be able to use the substitute aspects facility to clone across subjects or the replace result sets facility to clone across years. Edited December 17, 2018 by Jonsi

[Galandrath]

Unfortunately that isn't an option. SLT here have decided that we want to make things less busy and simpler for teachers. This does however mean that there is more work for me to do. The main set of trackers that teachers use for data entry have no result set against them. This way they can amend a students grade ongoing throughout the year.

 

I then have a second set of marksheets that I use to take a "snap shot" of the data. e.g. French - I have the marksheet "KS4 Y11 Fr Tracker" and then "Snap Shot Y11 PR1 Fr", "Snap Shot Y11 PR2 Fr" and I will have "Snap Shot Y11 PR3 Fr" and "Snap Shot Y11 PR4 Fr" when I get around to sorting them. The main tracker is attached to the classes where as the snap shot one have a course link and are attached to a year group type group (it's actually a dynamic group that I have created through discover that basically copies the year group but means only I have access to the marksheets).

 

This all means that I have a bit of work to do each Progress Review but the teachers don't have long complicated looking trackers.

 

I have played around with lots of different set ups - this is what SLT have decided on. Now it's a case of me trying to find quicker/better ways of doing my end of it. Hence the interest in XML (might be a dead end but until I try it I won't know - and unfortunately I am not one to let go of something until I have tried it). I am also looking at the scheduled reports option - which is something that we have never used and we have had SIMS for quite a few years (have data going back to 2002 in there).

Edited December 17, 2018 by Galandrath

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

I helped write a tool many years ago that does exactly what you are trying to do and we use it regularly for the schools we support. Unfortunately, Rochdale Council holds the copyright and I don't have the authority to distribute it. If you are interested you can PM me and I can make inquiries about letting others outside Rochdale LA use it.