[sims] Aspects - assessment Manager

[rh91uk]

Hi all, (posted this on to capita forums)

 

A "newbie" question in regards to Assessments ... just trying to make sure I dont mess anything up!

 

If we have several end of unit tests which require different marks .. e.g.

 

Exploring England

Cabbages and Kings

Settling Down

 

Would we have to set up an Aspect for each one of these and would marks be carried over?

 

Please be nice!

Rich

[Ian_ICTDS]

Hi Rich,

 

If these are one off tests that a student would only do once I would probably have one aspect called something like "End of Unit Test" and a number of resultsets for each subject.

 

If they take the test more than once then I would have an aspect for each subject and a result set for each reporting period.

 

As long as you always use some sort of combination of aspect and result set you should not run into too many problems in the future. The only time I've had trouble is when I've ignored resultsets and relied on result date.

 

I hope this makes sence,

 

Gool Luck

 

Ian.

[rh91uk]

Exactly what I was looking for Ian, thanks so much

[Ian_ICTDS]

Glad I could help.

[rh91uk]

So just to confirm as I had a response from a Capita Lady on Supportnet (once I posted it had been resolved...) that I can use one aspect and different result sets for each test? Cheers

[vikpaw]

So just to confirm as I had a response from a Capita Lady on Supportnet (once I posted it had been resolved...) that I can use one aspect and different result sets for each test? Cheers

 

Are you ok now then? i read that as confused...

 

The choice is up to you, and what you want to do with the data afterwards. Aspects will show the type of data and Resultsets are usually used as a parameter to link to the aspect to represent a point in time or repetition period.

 

If the scores for all the tests are the same type i.e. all numeric, or all grades A through G or any other set you want, then you could use just one or a couple of generic named aspects. These could be used for a range of subjects ( or are you at primary level where it isn't subject based?). By doing this you have to know in the future that the tests are always done at a set time in the year, and you could use the resultsets to aid that, by them being called for example term 1 - 6. This would cause confusion down the road if you ever change the order of units or when the tests are done. so the question is how do you want to report on that data and when, also will you want to look back to previous years, in fact will the same topics come up in different years..?

 

If any of those questions are relevant, you might want to make your aspects more tailored and individually named, it's more work that way, but would then allow you to pluck out a specific topic in a report.

 

In Ian's example if the resultsets are named by the subject, using a generic aspect of unit test, you might still want either aspect or resultset to show the year group of study, or the teaching level if mixed.

 

I'm hope i'm not confusing you more, just that you need to think quite far ahead into what you will want to do in the future, so that your setup now is meaningful and reusable in the future as you add to the system. It's worth looking at what you have now if anything.

 

There was a brilliant thread sometime ago, about general guidance on using assessment, with a huge list of essential things to think about by i believe Matt Mitchell. I'll try and search it out when i get to the office later.

[rh91uk]

Makes things a lot clearer ... I know what I want to do now. Guess I was panicking, more don't want someone to turn around and say "Oi, you need to do it that way!:.

 

Thanks Vik! If you could dig that out I would be greatful...

[vikpaw]

Okay, i've found it. It took a while, because i'm having problems with the search facility, it's almost like its throttled or only showing very recent posts, so i had to look manually.

 

The thread i was thinking of is this one:

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/43559-good-am7-data-structure.html

 

You may also find the next two useful, as once you set up the underlying system you need to give staff access which is a whole different set of issues depending on your pastoral/academic structure and timetable:

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/43373-assessment-manager-7-assigning-marksheets-teachers.html

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/35596-historical-data-sims-net.html

 

There are some others out there i think depending on what you need.

Don't forget big changes afoot with Discover, and as of Summer release you can now pull colour through from marksheets to reports.

 

EDIT: By the way, no-one is going to say 'you should have done it that way!', well they might, but really, if you plan and think about what you'll want in the future, you can design the system the way your school needs it. so long as they know what they want! it's good to see another school's system sometimes. I know i and a few others have gone into a new school and taken over the assessment system and had to make big changes to get it to work with the long term goals.

Edited July 21, 2010 by vikpaw
addition

[rh91uk]

Thanks for this Vik. I think I will go for creating Aspects for each test - whereas this might look massive, have lots of aspects, overloaded - it seems like it will give a better audit trail. Thanks.

[Ian_ICTDS]

@Vik, thanks for that information. Really usefull.

 

@rh91uk, I agree, in your situation having lots of aspects does sound best. The only thing I would add is that make sure you use some sort of result set / sets with those aspects. I've got myself in all sorts of messes in the past without them.

[rh91uk]

@Ian_ICTDS - yes, I will use a result set for this case for every year group as I have lots of tests/unit for different yeargroups

 

@Ian_ICTDS and @vikpaw - thanks again both of you for your sound advice.

[Sivadam]

LOL.

You had your answer on SupportNet 10 minutes after your intial post and 43 minutes before you posted it here!

And well before you posted the second thread on the same theme!

[MattMitchell]

LOL.

You had your answer on SupportNet 10 minutes after your intial post and 43 minutes before you posted it here!

And well before you posted the second thread on the same theme!

 

Another win for supportnet!

 

Joking aside, I'd recommend that you use one aspect per subject for each type of information, e.g. "subject internal exam", "ks3 target", etc, as this will make creating and changing your marksheets easier, and then use resultsets to "tag" the info - think web2.0, except each piece of info can only have one tag...

[rh91uk]

LOL.

You had your answer on SupportNet 10 minutes after your intial post and 43 minutes before you posted it here!

And well before you posted the second thread on the same theme!

 

Sometimes, Sivadam - I feel two different points of view (Granted half of you are on support net) are good.