MarkBook® section 1-3
Creating Your First Class MarkBook® section 1-3
Creating Your First Class 
MarkBook will create one folder for each of your classes for the current year. Eventually, MarkBook will create a series of files inside this folder for such items as your class list, student
personal and demographic data, a seating plan/chart, attendance, text books issued, marks/grades, anecdotal comments, and so on. To begin your first class, or any new class, click on
the New Class button on the OPEN a CLASS screen as seen in section 2-1. If you are in the main operating screen, section 3-1, click on File at the top left corner of the main operating screen, and select New Class. In either case, you will get this
next screen. If you start a new class from the welcome screens, you will get a simple series of screens (not shown here) which ask you to set some defaults. These can be re-set later if you are unsure at present.
STEP 1: Start by typing a
Class Code in the NEW CLASS - Enter a Class Code window. The teacher in this example has decided to type in
BIO3DO-02. This cryptic description indicates Biology at the school's 3rd Year/Form
grade level, academic (D), class section 02. This teacher is confident that this description will distinguish this class from all others
in the school. In other words, MarkBook will create a class folder with
BIO3AO-02 as the unique folder name. The description of each of your classes is entirely up to you! However, your character limit is
10 letters or numbers. Be careful about zero 0, versus the letter O. Teachers could use a year/grade/form and letter (e.g. class 3C). Or a year and room number (e.g. 6R11). Or just a number.
Any name that's unique in the school will do. Existing classes
will appear in the Folder window at the bottom center. Each folder is a group of files for one class and its name begins with
MB and ends with the start of the academic year in which this class was created. In between are the letters used to distinguish each class. The class that is currently being created in this example will eventually be saved as a folder called
MBBIO3DO-0204. MarkBook will create
these folder names for you. We recommend putting the new class in the MkBk200X directory, not in the samples folder. However, you can store the new
class folder anywhere you like such as on a diskette, on a USB Mass Storage
device, or in your personal space
on the school's network drive. Locate this class more easily by clicking the Save As Default Path button. Now, MarkBook will automatically hunt this location each time it's launched. Click Next
to get to this STEP 2 screen:
The Heading will appear automatically and reflect the information typed in on the previous screen. The other three fields may need filling. Should you wish to change the
course code in the Heading, click the Back button at the lower right to edit. As necessary, fill in the teacher name, school name, and the school phone number. If you have a telephone extension number decide whether or not to use it as in the example -
x342. The phone number and extension will print on report cards. If you plan to create more classes, click the Save as Default button and these three fields will auto-fill next time.
You may come back to this screen to edit fields at any time. This may be handy
for shared courses - the new teacher simply edits the name field to take over
the class part way through the year. Decide whether you wish to keep one attendance list for the whole class, or separate lists for each Mark Set. A "Mark Set" is a subset of your class, or another subject taught to this class. See section 4-3 for more information on Mark Sets.
Similarly, decide whether you wish to keep one seating plan/chart for the whole class or separate plans for each Mark Set. If unsure about these two items, use the defaults supplied - you can change them any time later. Click Next. The following STEP 3 screen will appear. If this is your first time using MarkBook, we strongly recommend entering no more than two student names at this stage. Any entered
data can be edited or deleted later. The rest of the names can be added after the class folder is created and saved.
The following five "fields" (yellow rectangular cells) are mandatory for each student: Last Name, First Name, Gender, Home Form, Student Number. All others are optional and can be filled in later as desired. If your school system does not use Home Form (aka "Home
Room", "Home Class", "Home Base", "Tutorial Group", "Teacher Advisor Group", etc.), put in any letter or number. Similarly, if there is no meaningful student number in your system, fill in any number or letter.
Alternatively, you could put in students' first names in the Student # field. This will give you the option of printing postable class reports using student first names. The Enter key and the Tab key on your keyboard will move the cursor from field to field. After typing data into the first five fields for each student, click the Enter Name button at the bottom of the screen. Or, push the keyboard Enter key twice. Once Enter Name is pushed or clicked, the new name will appear in the center white column in its proper alpha sequence, and it will be highlighted in blue as is Donni Brooke in this example.
MarkBook automatically sorts the names into alpha order. If you have a comma or tab-delimited ASCII or .txt file with student names and other data, you may use the Import Students button to avoid typing the data. See section 4-4 and section 4-5. Importing must be done before typing in any names. WARNING: importing is
very fast but it's not any easy procedure the first time. Once the second name is entered, click Next to move to STEP 4, the NEW MARK SET screen.
Fill in a Code (up to 4 letters) and push the
Tab button on your keyboard. In this example, the teacher selected
BIOlogy. If you teach multiple subjects to one class, make your code a short subject description for one of them e.g. MAT or
ENG, etc. The Full Code will appear automatically but you can edit it now or any time later if necessary.
The full code may be used in bar coding attendance sheets and in submitting
summary data electronically. Type a Description for the class. This description is entirely up to you and should reflect the common name for your subject course. Fill in the room number, day number (use 1 if there is no day numbering in your school), and period number.
Use the toggle to
edit the Block Title as you wish. MarkBook's supplied default is Unit but you can edit this now or any time later. If you wish to
cross-classify your assessment data into other groupings, this is the place to do it. Alternatives include Quarter,
Semester, Division, Block, Strand, Term, etc. If your choice isn’t present, type up to 6 letters for
your own Block Title. For instance, use the word ‘Type’ to cross-classify assessment
instruments into Tests, Labs, Notebook, etc. Or, use ‘Source’ to cross-classify
data into such groups as e-assessments, in-class assessments, government tests,
etc. Future analysis is possible if the data is cross-classified. Your course is likely divided into assessment sub-sections referred to as categories or strands. This
Biology example shows a division for a senior science course with
five categories. Other potential categories include such items as assignments, presentations, essays, skills of all types, vocabulary, fluency, participation, etc. Learning Skills such as initiative, co-operation, work habits, etc. could be set up as categories as well.
Or, they could be isolated into a separate Mark Set as in section 4-3. The choice of categories may be up to you, or it may be a decision of your department, administration, board, district, LEA, or other jurisdiction. If your jurisdiction mandates particular categories or strands for reporting purposes, you would be wise to set up your categories accordingly. See chapter 10 on Electronic Report Cards and section 4-3 on Mark Sets for more examples of Categories and Strands. When you first get to this screen, the only category shown for your new class is Misc. (100). This indicates a miscellaneous category counting for 100% of your course. To add new categories, block the contents of the Category Desc. box and type in a new category name. Push Enter on your keyboard. Type a target percentage in the Target% cell. Push Enter on your keyboard again. Your new category will appear in the list for this class at the lower left of your screen. The
percentages and the category names can be edited later. The category and percentage will also appear in
alpha order in the Master List at the lower right. Note in the example that Appl'ns counts for
22.5% of this course, the Exam 30%, and so on. It is not necessary for the Target total to equal 100. It can be less than or more than 100.
MarkBook will convert all of your summary assessment data into percentages on a
pro-rata basis. See section 7-6 for more information on weighting categories and individual assessment entries. If this teacher has created other classes, all previously-used categories now appear in the Master List at the right. If there are
suitable categories in this list, double click on the category name to copy it into the left class list for this course. If necessary, edit the target percentage and push Enter on your keyboard to save the change. Don't be concerned about perfection in creating categories or assigning target percentages. More categories can be added later and any current ones can be edited as described in section 2-2. Delete a category from the left list by grabbing it with your mouse and dropping it on the trash can.
Note that this
user has deleted the Misc category. Warning: once you have assessment data in a category, MarkBook will not allow you to delete that category. You must first edit the headings of these assessment(s) to re-classify them into other categories. See section 7-4. Once all are re-classified, you can
then drop the category. Click Finish in the lower right of the screen.
MarkBook has now saved this class as an MB...04 class folder. Whenever you click Finish or Save in MarkBook, your data will save in
this class folder.
As indicated on the screen, you
may now continue entering data for this class or you may create another class folder. Click Yes or No. If Yes, you will go to class creation screen as at the top of this section. If No, you will go to the main operating screen, section 3-1. From there, you will be able to add
more student names or select a wide variety of other MarkBook functions.Asylum Software's Home Page | Send Us Email | LockerManager | MarkBook CNX for handheld computers | Why Use Class Management Software? | Start of the MarkBook Manual | Order a printed MarkBook Reference Manual | LogiNotes (MarkBook En Français) | Bar Coded Attendance | MarkBook's Home Page | Electronic Report Cards | Order MarkBook