MarkBook®  section 7-2
New Evaluation Entry Heading Screen - No Sections

Reach this upper screen by clicking on the New Entry button in the lower half of the main operating screen, section 3-1. Use this screen to categorize/classify/weight any new assessment prior entering marks/grades/scores for each student.

Or, reach the Multiple New screen by clicking on the Multiple New button in the lower half of the main operating screen.




SINGLE CATEGORY ENTRY

Mark/Grade Entry Screen In this example, the teacher has entered classification data describing a new entry - the 42nd for this class so far. The teacher has named this new assessment, recorded the date, entered the base mark (Out Of: 6), cross-classified it into a Unit, and selected a Category. Note that Unit and Category have drop-down toggles to permit rapid access to any previously entered item.

Regardless of which weight system was selected, the Out Of will have to be filled in. In MarkBook's Category Weight system, you can select a default to have the weight equal the base or "out of" mark. Check the Weight = 'Out Of' box. You can easily change the weight of this entry now or later.

If you wish to enter marks as letter grades (e.g. A+, C, B-, etc.) or as equivalent levels (e.g. 4+, 3-, 2-, etc.) instead of numbers, make sure that the equivalent percentages are set to your liking in the Setup as described in section 7-1.


While most assessment descriptions will be single items, your new assessment may be divided into parts using the Number of Sections selector. If you type or click an integer from 2 to 12, Description lines will appear enabling a division of the assessment into component parts. See section 7-3 for details.

When the description details are complete, click on Next at the right (not shown in this screen image). You will be passed on to the next screen, as described in section 7-4, to enter individuals' marks/grades for this item. If no mark is entered for any student, the information on this Entry screen will NOT be saved. Entering one mark for one student on the mark entry screen as in section 7-4 will cause the information on this screen to be saved as the 42nd entry. Use this trick to place-hold an entry in the sequence of assessments. Fill in the missing data later.

MULTIPLE NEW or MULTI-CATEGORY ENTRY SCREEN

Depending on the structure of the category system used, some assessment items may fit into multiple categories. For instance, most tests would include items in Cognitive Knowledge and Cognitive Skills. If your categories included these two, then it would be appropriate to enter the test into these two categories simultaneously. The following example puts the results of a test into four categories. You could also use this screen to enter up to five unrelated individual items simultaneously including items in the same category.

Multi-category Mark/Grade Entry Screen

To set up a multi-category entry, click the Multiple New button on MarkBook's main screen, section 3-1. The first two New Entry cells are automatically checked and you may add the third to the fifth by checking the cell labeled in red Click here to start another new entry. Enter the Title for the entry in the top row - number 31 in this example. Select a Unit (or other term from your Block Title selection), select a Category, and type an Out of: number. Double click your cursor in the next title cell.  The title from the first row auto-fills the cell. Again, select a Unit, a Category, and an Out of.  Repeat as often as required until up to five rows are full.

Note in this example that the Wt = 'Out Of' button at the lower right is checked. In this case, the Wt: cell automatically fills. If not checked, you will have to fill in a weight. See section 7-6 for descriptions on weighting. To edit the Date, put your mouse over the date for each entry and click.

Once the above items are set up, enter individuals' data on this same screen. Type a number up to one decimal in the Mark: cells. Use the Enter key to move from cell to cell. A Remark can be selected from the drop down menu. When finished one student, click your mouse on the next student or use the down arrow on your keyboard. If the Overall mark cell is checked at the lower right, a summary for the current individual shows at the top right.

Students may ask to see the results of the test. Of course, since this is a multi-category entry, it's technically four tests. There is a way to accomplish this if the test has four or fewer categories. Set up the next entry as per the following image. Once the first four entries are made, and the Overall mark button is checked on, enter the student's sum from the top right (47 out of 58 in this example). Note that this entry has a weight of zero to prevent it being counted twice. However, you'll still be able to print a class report for the test as if it were a single entry.


SEQUENCE OF ENTRIES

MarkBook maintains all assessment data in the order entered. This is useful for good communication with students because it's the way that students understand assessment and maintain their personal assessment result records. Commercial student planners or agendas typically have a mark recording section designed for chronological, sequential input. Since MarkBook puts assessment data into teacher-defined divisions (categories, units, Mark Sets), it's not necessary to attempt to re-order the assessment data. The Class Report and Student Report screens enable any user to view a summary of any subset of their data, e.g. Unit 3 results or Test results.

It IS possible to maintain a particular order for assessments. For instance, a teacher may wish to enter the results of a major test immediately following the other entries for that unit. However, it takes a long time to grade tests and there are other smaller items to enter in the interim. Rather than delay entry, we suggest entering a heading for the test including a Title, a Date, and an "Out Of". Then, put in any estimated mark for one student (MarkBook will drop a new entry heading if there is no data). Now, the other assessment items can be entered but the sequential position of the test is held pending further data input. Once the test results are known, use the Entry Heading and Entry Data In buttons on the main operating screen, section 3-1, to edit this heading as necessary and complete the entry of everyone's test data. Another technique is to enter data for a fake student. Delete that student before printing class reports. Undelete after the printing is done.

DELETING AN ENTRY

See the end of section 7-4.

TEMPLATES

In the first image in this section, the teacher has more than one class taking this same course and all of these classes have the same assessments. To save time, a Template has been made by selecting the Save button and then double clicking on Line 1 in the template box. This stores all of the classification data entered for Entry #42 so that it can be recalled when the next classes' identical assessment is being set up. To recall this description once the next class is open, click on the New Entry button, click on the Load button and then double click on Line 1. To remove templates once used, click on the Clear button and then double click on the appropriate template line. Up to 100 templates can be stored.

CLONING EVALUATIONS

There is also a Clone button in case you wish to use this same assessment heading and student data in another category or in another Mark Set. For instance, a major project in the Science course above may also generate learnings in Math and English. Consequently, the teacher could have this same assessment data count in all three subjects with cloning.

Once the science project mark has been entered for each student, and you are back on the main screen, come back to this same Entry XX Heading screen above and click on Clone #XX. Click Cancel to get back to the main operating screen. Move to another science category and/or new Mark Set (e.g. Math), click on New Entry, and then click Load Clone. The same heading and all student results will be repeated in the new category or Mark Set. You can repeat the Load Clone command as often as you wish. The new assessment's title will begin with an asterisk to indicate that this is a cloned item. If you wish to remove the asterisk or alter the assessment title in other ways, click on Entry XX Heading to edit the entry's title.

Cloned Evaluations This teacher is keeping a separate Mark Set to track students' Learning Skills. Each of the assessment entries is a clone of an item entered into another Mark Set - note the asterisk prefixing each assessment's title. In effect, each entry is a repeat of another entered item involving a learning skill. Now, this Learning Skills Mark Set tracks students' skills exclusively.

Manual: go to section 7-3 to see how to categorize an assessment with multiple sections.


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