grading program for teachers

[hattricks11]

anyone heard about the grading program that is supposed to be coming out? my nz has been ordered and i want to transfer my grades ASAP.

[swagner]

I have tried a whole bunch of them. None are outstanding. Very few have a desktop companion for them or can sync with popular desktop programs.

[hattricks11]

are there any you might recommend, and where would I find them?

[pixelpainter]

I've always crated mine in Excel and used Quickheet. You can also use the equivelent from dataviz or another.

[Disgruntled]

Originally posted by pixelpainter
I've always crated mine in Excel and used Quickheet. You can also use the equivelent from dataviz or another.

agreed...or you can create a database in think DB or the like.

[Noodles Hovar]

I use Sheet to Go and it's great!

I walk around the room taking grades after assignments and enter them right into the Clie. I have the subjects average up and I have individual student report cards always averaged up to the minute.

I have always found that grading programs do some things well, but always miss something else important.

[swagner]

Use MS Access to create a DB on your desktop. Take your time and make it just the way you want, but be sure it keeps most of your data in one table. Then use Smartlist (formerly thinkDB) to sync it to your Palm. Spreadsheets with quicksheet or Docs to Go will work just as well.

[jmg_NX21]

I have a spreadsheet for grades... wow, I shoudl try it out...

[Civil]

Hi!

I develop palm applications, and I'm always on the look-out for the next idea. I see from the posts that there doesn't seem to be a good application for grading. Is this something that you all would like to see? Do you feel that there is a demand for a good grading program? If so, I would greatly appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on what features you would especially like to see.

I've made programs that manipulate databases, filter, calculate, etc, and I have also included a Windows companion for two of them. Mainly, I used the desktop program to synchronize the data with an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file, but it is also possible to allow the user to edit the palm data from the desktop program.

Just a thought. Let me know what you think.

-Civil

[Noodles Hovar]

Hi Civil.
In the grading programs I've used, the biggest drawbacks have been these:

1. The setup routine is often tedious because the software tries to do too much. I never want to enter everyone's addresses & phone #s just to do grades.

2. Many times the programs don't allow a student to not have a grade for a paper without receiving a "0" grade. If I get a kid who went to Florida or had the flu, I often don't count less important assignments.

3. An interface that looks like a gradebook and is presented like a spreadsheet with a column frozen would be easiest to use.

4. Flexibility should be included for different quarter/semester lengths. I looked at a great Windows shareware grader once, but it only handled (3) 9-week semesters in a year!!

5. The ability to replace low grades/include extra credit work is often missing

6. Letter grade to number grade conversion is a good idea, but I never found these programs to agreed with my idea of what a B or A was.

I have more ideas, bit I am rambling. If you are truly interested in more, let me know.

[hattricks11]

These are great ideas, noodles. I have several also and would love to give some input into the development of such a program.

[Vidge]

I used Teachers Pet last semester to handle my grades. It does an adequate job and the developer is as responsive as possible when it's a small organization. One of the things he wrote was a script to dump the data into Excel for manipulation. You can d/l a demo from here (http://www.coffeepotsoftware.com).

Probably the best software available (they even talk about it on the Teacher's Pet forum) is Easy Grade Pro. I haven't used it but apparently, it is professionally done, especially the reporting side. Take a look here (http://www.orbissoft.com/about.html).

Hope that helps;)

[Civil]

Great ideas, Noodles. I think it is so neat that teachers are using Handhelds in the school. I am finishing a program right now in multiple languages, but that should be done in a couple weeks. In the meantime, I would love to begin the framework for a grading program. Your feedback and ideas are great for me to get the framework of what the program will do.

Allowing the user to set the limits for each grade will be easy. Likewise, setting specific semester lengths can be handled. So, please ramble on. Maybe we can do this out of the forum via email - or private messages here. If you're willing, I'd like to get some more ideas on what was good and what was not.

Thanks!
Civil

[Talula]

I use HanDBase for just this sort of thing. SO customizable. It has a desktop companion, and it can be exported to access which is what my district is using for their report cards now.

Really wonderful for me.

Talula

[LanMan]

I have used Teacher's PET for over a year, and it suits my needs well. There is a 3rd party desktop available for it, and TPET can beam student assignment grades directly to the freeware prog Due Yesterday (nice feature). I recommend that you take a look at it www.coffepotsoftware.com

Forums: www.coffeepotsoftware.com/vbb

It is the best available Palm OS grading software that I have found, and I checked ALL of them before making my decision. TPET will have an OS5 version available very soon.

[DaveTN]

I would have to recomend Handbase by DDH Software (DDHsoftware.com). Although I don't use it for grading, I found that you can create almost any type of database you want. And if you can't create it, you can probably download it from their website.

David:)

[lammer]

If you're looking for a solid reliable marks program for teaching, then I would strongly recommend Teacher's PET. I've been using it for over two years now... I wouldn't be without...

[hattricks11]

Thanks for the great input everyone. I'll check them out and see what suits my needs the best. you guys have been very helpful!

[Cliefanatic]

Without a doubt the best software out there bar none is Easy Grade Pro and Easy Grade Pro Clipboard. It is intuitive and works very well. I am on a four person team and the other three have imac laptops and I can do anything they can do with more portability.

[LanMan]

I also use Due Yesterday to keep a simple list of what assignments that I have graded vs not graded. Once I've graded them I check them off. I is also a handy reference for an assignments due date and point value. It saves me opening my more complex grading software when I just need a quick check.

[LanMan]

I looked a Easy Grade Pro and Clipboard, but decided to go with Teacher's PET instead. I am ajunct faculty, which means that I don't have a permanent desk at the college. Therefore I needed a grading solution with maximum portablity. I believe that Teacher's PET offers a complete grading package for the handheld, whereas Easy Grade's Clipboard is more of a data gathering solution for interface to their desktop. So if you are looking for a complete solution on your handheld, I suggest you check out TPET. If you are looking for an interface to Easy Grade, then Clipboard is you only solution.

TPET also has a desktop option made by a 3rd-party called Media-X. www.media-x.com
Media-X's product is called Teacher's Desk.

[KJPenny]

I'd like to see a program that will allow a Palm or Clie User interface with Integrade PRO by NCS Pearson. That's the software our district uses.