SchoolDESX Knowledgebase

A number of Grade Book features are located on the "Options" menu that appears on the Main Menu when the Grade Book form is open. These options are described below.

• Export to Spreadsheet: This option allows the current Grade Book that is displayed with all recorded grades/scores to be exported to an Excel spreadsheet so that the grades/scores can be added or edited "off-line" or wherever the teacher has access to Excel. Only grades/scores can be altered in this spreadsheet, whereas no changes can be made to the Grade Book's structure. Once a User chooses this option, the spreadsheet will open, suggesting Excel is installed on the computer. Simply save the file and email it, move it to a flash drive, burn it to a CD, etc., whatever the User desires. Remember to Import it back into SchoolDESX once changes are made…
  
  
• Import from Spreadsheet: This option simply retrieves and imports the grade changes from the spreadsheet that was exported in the function indicated above. When this option is selected, a file locate dialog appears for the User to identify the Exported Excel file to be placed back into the Grade Book. Once "Save" is selected, the changes will be made.
  
  
• Recalculate All Grades: Some Users may elect to have the auto recalculation turned off because their computer is slower and their Grade Books have so many Grade Activities that recalculation as each grade/score is entered takes an undesirable amount of time to complete. If the auto calculation function is off, then this option can be used to recalculate all the grades within the Grade Book whenever desired. Users may find this option useful after re-importing an Exported Grade Book.
  
  
• Toggle Private Mode: At times an Instructor may desire to show a Student their current grades without printing a progress report. The Instructor may ask the Student to come up to their desk to see their current grade displayed in the Grade Book. Using the Toggle Private Mode option, the instructor is able to hide all other Student grades/scores except the currently selected row (Student) in the Grade Book, basically preventing the Student from seeing other Student grades while reviewing their own. All a User must do is click once on the desired Student's name and choose Options > Toggle Private Mode from the Main Menu. Using the "up" and "down" arrow buttons on the keyboard, the User may move from Student to Student.
  
  
• Toggle Override Mode: The Toggle Override Mode selection allows the Grade Book to be placed into a mode where the normally protected Group or "calculated grades" can be manually edited by a User. Once the Override Mode is selected, the "shadowed" Group Grades become "un-shadowed" allowing the direct entry of normally computed group grades. Once a Group Grade is overridden, changing a child grade of that parent group will have no effect on the value of the Grade Group and it will be displayed with a yellow highlight to make the User aware of the overwritten grade. If it is desired to have the Grade Group be once again calculated, then the override checkbox on the Student's Grade Detail form must be manually unchecked. For more information on the Student Grade Detail form, see "Understanding the Student Class Grade Detail Form" section. To turn this feature off, simply select Options again and choose "Toggle Private Mode" to release.
  
  
• Apply Default Grade: Applying a Default Grade allows the User to automatically populate all Student grades/scores for a particular (currently selected) Grade Activity. For example, if all Students in the Class get 100 Points for a certain Grade Activity, and the Default Grade for the Grade Activity is set at "100", then the Instructor can simply select the desired Grade Activity column and choose this option to apply the 100 Points to all Students at one time.
  
  
• Toggle Competency: Selecting the Toggle Competency option changes the Grade Book display from Grade Book Activities to Competency Grades in order for the User to easily input Competency Hours and Grades. Once the Grade Book is in the Competency display, this option will change to "Toggle Grade Book". To learn more about entering Competency information, see the "Assigning and Grading Competencies" chapter and especially the "Scoring Competencies" section.

Tip: Another option that is offered to Users is the ability to right click on a Grade Activity column header in order to display different Class calculation options. From the menu, the User can choose between viewing the Class Average, Class Median, Highest Grade, and Lowest Grade for any Grade Activity in the Grade Book. The result of these calculations is displayed at the bottom of the form.