Last Friday, several of us from Technology Services attended the quarterly Aeries advisory group meeting. These meetings are hosted by Eagle Software in order for them to get input from schools about new features and to hear requests for improvements and upgrades. At this meeting, I presented a list of nine requested enhancements for Aeries Gradebook, based on conversations I have had with teachers and administrators. Here are the items we talked about, and the responses from Eagle Software and other school district representatives in the room.
Teachers should be able to share gradebooks with other teachers, either for viewing or for updating.
Just as with a Google Doc, you ought to be able to share your gradebook with a counselor, co-teacher, special education teacher, or coach, either "read-only" or allowing the other teacher to update grades. This would be completely at the discretion of the teacher; gradebooks would still be private by default, and teachers could revoke sharing at any time. This was received positively by the other districts, whose teachers also want to be able to do this. Eagle seemed positive about this as well, looking at adding a "Sharing" option to the Manage Gradebook page.
Teachers should be able to copy a grading scale from one gradebook to another, just as they can copy gradebook options.
Tired of typing in grade scales for each gradebook? So is everyone else. We requested a simple button to copy the grade scale for one gradebook into your others. That way you only have to type it once. Other districts and Eagle were positive about this as well.
When submitting grades, the grade scale from the gradebook needs to be automatically provisioned.
Eagle continues to maintain that the grade scales should be pulled in correctly, and that if they are not, it is a configuration issue in our system. That is entirely possible and we will investigate before the next grading period.
Teachers should be able to transfer a student, with grades, from one linked gradebook to another.
Well, this is embarrassing. You can already do this! I'd never seen it, and neither had a lot of people in the room. It's hidden in the "Drop" menu under "Manage Students", and only appears if you have linked gradebooks. Eagle agreed that the option was hidden and hard to find, and they said they would explore moving the button to a more easily visible location. (I'll write a detailed post later with instructions for how to transfer students.)
Need a report for teachers to see student progress by standard.
Good news! This is already in development and should be released in a couple of weeks, according to Eagle. Elementary gradebooks will include a view of students grades by standard, as an option in the gradebook alongside view by class, by student, or by assignment.
Teachers should be able to link gradebooks with those of other teachers.
We've had this problem with co-taught classes, but we're one of the only districts who does. Eagle explained the difficulties with allowing this feature, and offered us some solutions for managing sections that eliminates the need for this. We will look in to this before schools create schedules for next year.
Teachers should be able to choose the mark type of grade scale when creating a gradebook. Currently only Achievement is supported.
Just as with a Google Doc, you ought to be able to share your gradebook with a counselor, co-teacher, special education teacher, or coach, either "read-only" or allowing the other teacher to update grades. This would be completely at the discretion of the teacher; gradebooks would still be private by default, and teachers could revoke sharing at any time. This was received positively by the other districts, whose teachers also want to be able to do this. Eagle seemed positive about this as well, looking at adding a "Sharing" option to the Manage Gradebook page.
Teachers should be able to copy a grading scale from one gradebook to another, just as they can copy gradebook options.
Tired of typing in grade scales for each gradebook? So is everyone else. We requested a simple button to copy the grade scale for one gradebook into your others. That way you only have to type it once. Other districts and Eagle were positive about this as well.
When submitting grades, the grade scale from the gradebook needs to be automatically provisioned.
Eagle continues to maintain that the grade scales should be pulled in correctly, and that if they are not, it is a configuration issue in our system. That is entirely possible and we will investigate before the next grading period.
Teachers should be able to transfer a student, with grades, from one linked gradebook to another.
Well, this is embarrassing. You can already do this! I'd never seen it, and neither had a lot of people in the room. It's hidden in the "Drop" menu under "Manage Students", and only appears if you have linked gradebooks. Eagle agreed that the option was hidden and hard to find, and they said they would explore moving the button to a more easily visible location. (I'll write a detailed post later with instructions for how to transfer students.)
Need a report for teachers to see student progress by standard.
Good news! This is already in development and should be released in a couple of weeks, according to Eagle. Elementary gradebooks will include a view of students grades by standard, as an option in the gradebook alongside view by class, by student, or by assignment.
Teachers should be able to link gradebooks with those of other teachers.
We've had this problem with co-taught classes, but we're one of the only districts who does. Eagle explained the difficulties with allowing this feature, and offered us some solutions for managing sections that eliminates the need for this. We will look in to this before schools create schedules for next year.
Teachers should be able to choose the mark type of grade scale when creating a gradebook. Currently only Achievement is supported.
This was another that seemed to be only an issue for SVUSD. When I explained that teachers wanted "effort" grades to be shown in the parent and student portals, they suggested a couple of work-arounds, including setting up "effort" standards. Along with the new "by standards" view, that should get us what we want. Again, we will investigate this in our office.
Standards-based grades should have multiple scoring methods, such as highest, most recent, average, decaying average, power law, etc.
There was a surprisingly long conversation about this, and about what the "correct" or "best" way is to calculate students' standards-based grades. My point was that teachers should have options rather than having a software company decide what the calculation should be. I don't think there were many in the room who agreed with me. Don't hold your breath for this one.
Option for Gradebook Missing Assignments report to print one page per student, no matter how many gradebooks.
Standards-based grades should have multiple scoring methods, such as highest, most recent, average, decaying average, power law, etc.
There was a surprisingly long conversation about this, and about what the "correct" or "best" way is to calculate students' standards-based grades. My point was that teachers should have options rather than having a software company decide what the calculation should be. I don't think there were many in the room who agreed with me. Don't hold your breath for this one.
Option for Gradebook Missing Assignments report to print one page per student, no matter how many gradebooks.
Everybody else wants this one as well. Eagle is looking at adding a "page break by student" on the missing assignments report.
I should emphasize that no promises were made. Eagle Software has not committed to implementing any of these suggestions, nor to any timeline for the improvements if they do. Still, there are not many companies that regularly take face-to-face feedback from their customers about what features and improvements they would like. Eagle Software should get a lot of credit for doing that much.
When changing from gradebook to gradebook while entering a particular student's grades (i.e. a pile of absent work for different subjects) the gradebook should stay on the same student's name and not go back to the first student in the gradebook.
ReplyDeleteThis is something we have requested for a while. I believe it is on Eagle's list of improvements, but probably not a very high priority based on how long we've waited for it.
DeleteI actually knew about transferring a student, but how about being able to view by "Student" if the student is not actually mine. I have students enrolled in my gradebooks because we departmentalize subjects, but I can only view by assignment, not by student. I am missing something?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I understand what you are trying to do. Are you talking about students in your gradebooks that you try to "View by Student"? That should work fine. Or are you talking about trying to see student demographics for students who are not rostered to you? Please email me and let's talk about this.
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