[sims] Electronic Markbook

[m19cpb]

Does anyone know if SIMS can be used easily to store teachers homework / class work grades & marks. We already use Assessment Manager for data entry so would like to be able to use something similar that keeps track of class changes but allows staff to create their own columns to store the results of their classes. Ideally these results would also be able to be seen by their HOD.

 

If not in SIMS, does anyone use any other system?

 

Thanks in advance

[GREED]

Not really, as markbooks in SIMS need to be set up by the Assessment Manager in the school, so would need to set up a hell of a lot of aspects for all teachers. Would not be dynamic to allow teachers to enter new columns as they needed. Imagine it, some teachers have a few for a few homeworks, other have loads. Not just homework, could be any work. AM in SIMS is, in my history (and I am sure other have been more successful with it than I was), useful for the formal assessments, the end of term and end of year marks for reports etc, or things that are common to groups of classes.

 

Other systems are more dynamic to allow this.

[vikpaw]

Does anyone know if SIMS can be used easily to store teachers homework / class work grades & marks. We already use Assessment Manager for data entry so would like to be able to use something similar that keeps track of class changes but allows staff to create their own columns to store the results of their classes. Ideally these results would also be able to be seen by their HOD.

 

If not in SIMS, does anyone use any other system?

 

Thanks in advance

 

The next best place would be your VLE, which hopefully isn't Sharepoint. Sharepoint isn't best geared to do it either, however most others do, and if you have one that is syncing to SIMS, then it saves any hassle with changing classes and keeping the lists up to date.

[GREED]

Moodle would be a good one for this, given its inherent structure.

[bossman]

+1 for Moodle on this

[rpwillis]

The next best place would be your VLE, which hopefully isn't Sharepoint. Sharepoint isn't best geared to do it either.

 

I'll have to disagree with that. You could very easily store grades in a custom list. You could even set up content types for different types of grades so that they only need setting up once. Easy enough to get the students in as well using a csv import, opening the list in Excel, scripting it or using a 3rd party tool.

 

If you are already running SharePoint definitely have a look at that. Bringing in any sort of system such as SharePoint or Moodle just for this would probably be overkill and would really need to be considered in terms of using the platform as whole across the school in multiple areas and the overall school IT strategy. If you just wanted to record the grades an Excel spreadsheets on a share would work and could be an interim solution wil deciding on strategy.

[GREED]

I'll have to disagree with that. You could very easily store grades in a custom list. You could even set up content types for different types of grades so that they only need setting up once. Easy enough to get the students in as well using a csv import, opening the list in Excel, scripting it or using a 3rd party tool.

 

If you are already running SharePoint definitely have a look at that. Bringing in any sort of system such as SharePoint or Moodle just for this would probably be overkill and would really need to be considered in terms of using the platform as whole across the school in multiple areas and the overall school IT strategy. If you just wanted to record the grades an Excel spreadsheets on a share would work and could be an interim solution wil deciding on strategy.

 

Remember the requirement is for the teachers to control their mark book, to add columns when they need to etc etc. sharepoint is far too admin heavy for teachers to be expected to do this. Moodle can go some way towards this. Shame it is a separate system just for doing this though, needs to be integrated.

[m19cpb]

Thanks all for your comments. I didn't think I had missed anything in SIMS!

 

We don't currently have a VLE as it was getting so little use

 

Whatever we use has to be VERY easy for teachers to use and control - anyone use any such systems for electronic mark books?

[rpwillis]

Remember the requirement is for the teachers to control their mark book, to add columns when they need to etc etc. sharepoint is far too admin heavy for teachers to be expected to do this.

 

If it's set up correctly for them then it could just be a case of clicking add column on the ribbon and choosing the grade type. You could probably create a button with the Content Editor Web Part if you wanted it on the page.

[vikpaw]

If it's set up correctly for them then it could just be a case of clicking add column on the ribbon and choosing the grade type. You could probably create a button with the Content Editor Web Part if you wanted it on the page.

My view was actually guided by conversations we'd had which was why I was looking at moodle for that feature. I guess I didn't ask the right question

 

There are quite a few gradebook systems out there, many online and even for iPads etc. the issue will always be maintenance of the data. Somebody recently pointed me in the direction of Schoology which could be worth a look. Didn't notice a gradebook but it should have one.

Edited May 16, 2012 by vikpaw