MarkBook®   section 3-1
MarkBook's Main Operating Screen

MarkBook works with one class at a time. You get this screen automatically when you open a class folder from the Open Class Screen, section 2-1. You will automatically return to this screen when you finish with a function in other operating screens.

This screen has three parts:
The upper half manipulates the class roster, enters attendance, communicates and builds reports.
The lower half enters and manipulates assessment data.
The Menu Bar at the top of the screen accesses numerous other functions.


On this sample screen is a fictitious English class, 7X. The 33 students are listed in the upper 7X - 200X window. Their 40 assessments to date are listed in the lower English window. The smaller yellow windows underneath these titles display the teacher name and classification details about the selected assessment. As with all Windows software, there are functions that can be accessed using the words in the Menu Bar at the top of the screen (not shown) e.g. File, Class, Mark Sets, Working On, Reports, Comments, RubricBuilder, Setup, and Help. However, there are buttons on this screen that permit direct access to some of these functions.
MarkBook's Main Operating Screen

OPTIONS FROM THE UPPER HALF OF THIS SCREEN:
If you have entered student birth dates as in section 4-2, the letters in front of some names indicate upcoming birthdays in a, b, c, ... order. To print a birthday list, see the Class menu below or click the Printed Forms button. Highlight any student's name by clicking on it. Then right click to see the birth date. If today is a birthday, the student's name and age will automatically show in the upper right as in this example screen.

Send Email messages to selected individuals, groups, or the whole class with the Email button.

Add new students to the class or delete current students by clicking the Class button as in section 4-1. Edit or delete any information on any student (name, HF, student number, telephone numbers, code name, etc.) by clicking on the same button as in section 4-2.

Build or edit Anecdotal Notes by clicking the button of that name as in section 3-3. Print several different forms by selecting the Printed Forms button. The Seating button goes to a screen for constructing and printing a seating plan/chart, including one with photos.

Produce Class Summary Reports as in section 8-1, by clicking on the Class Report button . There are several styles of reports including ones that can be posted in the classroom using anonymous code names as the only identification of individuals. HTML class reports can be produced as well.

Produce individual report cards by clicking on the Student Report button as in section 9-1. There are several options for these reports including an age calculation, a trend graph, selected or custom comments, an attendance summary, a signature section for parents to complete, achievement by category or strand, and other useful selections. All are described in section 9 of this Reference Manual. With a single command, print report cards one at a time, for the whole class, or for a selected cohort of the class.

Record or analyze attendance by clicking on the Attendance button as described in section 6-2. Options include printing blank attendance forms (including bar coded forms), printing individual attendance summaries, and analyzing the attendance from the seating plan grid.

To switch from the current class to another, click on the Open a Class button at the upper right OR click on the class title (7X 200X in this example). A list of classes in this same directory will appear. Double click the new class selection to open it.

Access and incorporate data collected on your handheld computer with the CNX for PalmOS or CNX for Pocket PC button. Change the default PDA under Setup in the upper menu bar.


OPTIONS FROM THE LOWER HALF OF THIS SCREEN:
To put data in for each new assessment or New Entry being recorded, as in section 7-2, click on the New Entry button. To classify the assessment data into several categories/strands, click the Multiple New button.

To change marks/grades for any assessments, click on the Update button. The Update Screen, section 7-5, is one of several ways of changing a mark (e.g. for a late item, or to correct an error). Similarly, the Multi Upd button enables updates for several assessments simultaneously.

The Weight button, section 7-6, accesses one of the most powerful features of this software - the ability to adjust the importance/value of any assessment and any category/strand towards the overall mark or grade. Edit the weight of any assessment to zero to delete it.

The Entry XX Heading button accesses the title and classification screen, section 7-3, for the blue highlighted assessment (#40 in this example screen) and permits changes to how it is named, dated, and classified if you wish.

The Entry XX Data In button permits a rapid revision of previously entered marks or the entry of incomplete marks (called NoMark by the software) for the assessment highlighted at the right (#40 in this example). See section 7-5 for an example.

For an analysis of any individual assessment, highlight it and click on Entry XX Analysis. To analyze the overall performance of the class on all assessments or on a category of assessments (e.g. tests, labs, homework), click on the Class Report button, section 8-1, in the upper half of the screen.

To switch from the current Mark Set to another, click on the Open a Mark Set button. The button will be grayed out if there is only one Mark Set for this class.

To Clone an entry, click the Clone Entry XX button as in section 7-2. To make a copy of the class in another location click the Backup button. See section 3-2 for backup details.


OPTIONS FROM THE MENU BAR AT THE TOP OF THE SCREEN:
Each word/phrase at the top of the screen accesses a number of MarkBook features. Click on a selected word e.g. File or hold down the Alt key on your keyboard and click the underlined letter in the selected word e.g. Alt - F. In either case, a menu of options will pop down as in the following examples. When options are grayed out, insufficient data is available for you to run those options.


MarkBook's File Menu



MarkBook's Class List MenuThe Class menu has the following options:
MarkBook's Mark Sets Menu

MarkBook's Working On Menu
The Working On menu has the following options:

MarkBook's Reports MenuThe Reports menu has the following options:

Produce a Class Report - see section 8-1.
Produce individual report cards - see section 9-1.
Combine two or more Mark Sets into one report - see section 8-2.
Transfer summary data to an SIS like Trillium - see section 11-2.
Transfer summary data to MarkBook Admin Edition. Counsellors, department heads, and administrators will have instant access to current academic and attendance data for all students. For more details, download the Admin Edition manual from this web site.

 

MarkBook's Comments MenuThe Comments menu has the following options:

MarkBook's Comments MenuThe RubricBuilder menu has two options: