MarkBook® section 7-6
MarkBook's Two Weight Screens MarkBook® section 7-6
MarkBook's Two Weight Screens 
If not already done during Setup for this class, you may assign OR edit category weights here.
Click on any category's Target
number. A small edit box opens as per this example. Type in an integer or a single
decimal to edit the existing value. Push Enter on the keyboard and repeat for any other
categories until done. The sum of the Target weights does NOT have to total 100. The maximum Target for any category is 999. MarkBook will convert each of the weights
entered to a percent in the Actual% column based on the pro-rata contribution of each category to the
Target total. If there is no assessment in a category,
the category will be automatically counted as zero
in the Actual% column until it receives one or more
assessments. This teacher could intentionally set any of the categories to count as zero by editing the Target to zero. Any category weighted at zero can be used to store data such as mid-term report for future reference. Since the category has no weight, these stored marks do not contribute to the current overall grade. Sometimes, a category weight is mandated to two decimals.
For instance, it may be necessary to count the Labs category as 8.75% of the
overall grade. In this case, double all of the Target percentages so that labs
count for a Target of 17.5 out of a Target total of 200. MarkBook will then
report the correct 8.75% in the Actual% column. The pie graph gives you a visual of the current status of your weightings. The selected category
(Qu Tests in this example) is shown as an exploded sector on the pie graph. To change Weighting
Method, click
the appropriate cell at the lower left. To change from the Entry Weight method to the Category Weight method, you must have at least one category already set up.
No matter which method is selected, use the Check for Problems button to warn you of potential difficulties. To change the weight or value of an individual assessment, select its category as in the screen above, and click on the upper tab
labeled Edit Weights for Entries in ... You will get this screen:
Check the relative weights for all assessments within that category. In this sample, the left window lists all
of the assessments in the highlighted "Assmts" category. Use the vertical scroll bar to view any selected item. Each assessment has a weight (Wt.)
column. These weights can be altered and the Weight Table at the right of the screen presents some examples of what higher and lower weights will do to assessment #
28 if you adjust the current weight in the Wt. column up or down from its current value of
30. Note that the eight integers displayed are lower and higher than 30 by 10%, 20%, 50% and 75%.
Click on any number in the Wt. column that you wish to adjust, type the new weight, and click Enter on your keyboard. Or, double click a displayed weight in the Weight Table to replace a highlighted weight. In the Options
section at the lower right, choose a selection by clicking on it. Permanent Save will save your new weights until you decide to alter them again. Cancel if you do not wish to keep the new weightings
just created. Temporary Save will hold your new weightings
temporarily to enable an examination of their effects in other screens. Return to this screen and click Permanent Save if you wish to keep the new settings. Or, click Restore to return to your previous weight settings. Return to the category weights
screen by clicking the Edit Category Weights tab at the upper left.
MarkBook will identify potential problems
when you click on any Check for Problems button.
In this first example, the total of category weights is not 100.
Similarly, messages will appear about zero-weighted items, zero-weighted
categories, etc.
If there is a single item
that "overpowers" all others within a category, MarkBook will identify it.
In this example, the item is so heavily weighted that it dominates the category. If this is not intended,
go to the Edit Weights
for Entries in .... screen above and edit the weights of the items in this
category to
provide a better balance. The first way to use MarkBook for progressive
weighting is to select an ever-increasing weight for assessments within selected categories. Note the
numbers in the Wt. column
in the following example.
Within the Labs category, this teacher is teaching a skill -
how to write good lab reports. The skill is being measured exclusively in the Labs category.
The labs were entered in chronological order and each lab counts for ~20% more in weight than the previous one. How "fast" you wish to increment the weights is up to you or your school system. Use the chart at the right of the screen to
estimate how much weight to give the next assessment. In this example, the question is how much weight to give assessment
#27 above. By selecting the previous entry, #18 with a weight of 17, the Weight Table chart shows eight weight integers approximately 10%, 20%, 50% and 75% above AND below 16.
"20" is ~20% higher than 17. Now click on #27 and edit its weight from
1 to 20. As each new weight is edited in this
progressive manner, the contribution of all previous entries decreases but the
weight of the whole "Labs" category remains fixed at its
pre-determined target. Note
that it doesn't matter what the base mark or "Out of" was for each
item in this category. In the example above, entry #6 may have been scored out
of 100 and entry #17 scored out of 5. However, weighted as shown, entry #17
counts for ~40% more than entry #6 regardless of the base. Note the summary
numbers in the % of Cat. and % of SEN columns. This teacher has
copied some of these same lab entries into other categories using MarkBook's Cloning capability - see section 7-2 and section 7-3. Since these are cognitive knowledge categories, progressive weighting
was not used. As above, use a button in the Options box to the right to return to your previous screen. A second way to
implement progressive weighting is through the creation of specific categories.
Each Mark Set may have as many as 30 categories. It's possible to
set up categories to cover specific time periods. For instance, Labs1 and
Labs2 or Tests1 and Tests2 would be categories covering
entries for two terms. Enter data into the appropriate category term. Then
weight the second term categories more heavily than the first to achieve progressive
weighting. 
A third way to implement Progressive Weighting is through the use of Mark Sets.
See class 8D in the sample classes provided as in section 1-2.
This class has two subjects, each with three terms. The assessment data is divided into
2 X 3 = 6 independent Mark Sets.
See section 4-3 for details on Mark Sets. Select Reports in the menu bar and then select Combined
Mark Sets. Or click the Combined Report button on the main screen. Click on the Set Weighting tab to get the following screen.
Click any number in
the Target column to edit the weight. This teacher has set weightings to
make term 3 count for as much as terms 1 and 2 combined. It's also possible to zero-weighted the first and second terms
by editing the Target to 0. In that case, only term 3 would count towards the final grade.
It's also possible to isolate a grade for Math by weighting all Science Mark
Sets to zero.