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SIS 2000+ Mark Reporting

Step 9, Enter, Scan, or Post Marks

When it comes time to enter marks that students have earned in their courses, either the Student Marks Editor or Class Marks Editor application may be used for manually entering marks into the database using a teacher's computer terminal. Or, as an alternative to manual entry, marks may be scanned in to the database via the Read Marks Scanforms application or posted to the database via the Gradebook application.

The Student Marks application is used to manually enter Marks for one student at a time. This is done with a spreadsheet style grid displaying rows for each class the student is enrolled in and columns for each marking point in the Timeline. Class Marks is used to enter Marks for a course, one course section at a time, in a spreadsheet style format with a class roster listing for each course section in the selected track. The Scan Marks program can enter the marks for a single student, a set of students, a set of course sections, or all students during a single scanning session. The results of the marks scanning procedure will be displayed in both the Class Marks and Student Marks applications.

In both Marks Editor applications, the spreadsheet grids where marks are entered are essentially the same. The columns displayed represent the Mark Reporting points that were defined through the Table Editor and Mark Reporting set-up applications (Steps 1-7). Through that process, a 'Mark Reporting Timeline' was created that defined when, during the school year, marks would be collected and processed. The "type" of Marks to be collected ('Academic', 'Citizenship', 'Effort', etc.) at each Timeline Point was also specified as well as exactly what those marks would be ('Mark Values').

Particular points in the Timeline were grouped together into 'Mark Definitions'. Then, courses were linked to these Mark Definitions. This defined which Timeline Points would be associated with each class; and in turn, the order in which these points would be displayed in the columns seen in Student Marks and Class Marks.

The following illustration (Fig. 75) is an example of how the Timeline created in the Mark Reporting set-up process translates into what is displayed on the Mark Entry screen:

Fig. 75 - Student Marks entry screen showing a student's schedule and
the Timeline Points with corresponding Mark Types.

Prerequisites:
The Mark Reporting set-up process, Steps 1-7, need to have been completed prior to the actual entry of marks. These steps involve tables that must be defined and other set-up operations that must occur in order to run any of the three mark entry applications. If the set-up is complete, but the Mark Entry applications do not launch successfully, review Steps 1-7 to ensure that the procedures were performed correctly.

Choose a Mark Entry Method:
This document is divided into three sections. Go to the appropriate starting point according to the mark entry method desired:

• To manually enter Marks per class (course section) go to Steps 9.1 - 9.5.8
• To manually enter Marks per student, go to Steps 9.6 - 9.10
• To scan marks using scan forms and a scanner machine, go to Steps 9.11 - 9.17
• To post marks from a teacher's grade book, go to Step 9.18.

The Class Marks Editor provides an edit form for Mark Reporting that displays faculty and their courses along with a grid for entering Marks. This application allows the user to select a course section from the Master Schedule and enter the Marks for the students that are scheduled in that section (class).

Prerequisites:
Remember Marks can only be entered for courses that have been associated with Mark Definitions. This association must already have been performed in the set-up process in Step 5 or Marks cannot be entered for those courses. If this has not been done, the entry screen will give a message stating, "No Data".

9.1 Launch Class Marks Editor
From the Mark Reporting Menu click on the Class Marks icon button. The Class Marks Editor will open to the first track in the school site, then the first teacher in the track, and the first course section taught by the teacher - all sorted in ascending alphanumeric order (Fig. 76).

Fig. 76

The student roster for the course section appears on the left side of the grid. Students who are enrolled as teaching assistants are listed at the end of the roster with a (TA) flag before their name. Note that the Mark Entry Grid is displayed with columns in Timeline Point sequence order, then alphabetically based on the Mark Type Codes. The cells where the student lines and the columns intersect are called "grade buckets".

In the sample above (Fig. 76) the course selected is associated with the 'Semester 1' Mark Definition. Therefore, the Timeline Points, in sequential order, within that Mark Definition are displayed across the top of each column along with their corresponding Mark Types.

9.2 Select a course section to grade
All course sections are grouped by Track and then Faculty.

9.2.1 Select Track
Select a Track from the drop-down list in the Track field.

9.2.2 Select Faculty
There are two methods that can be used to locate a Faculty:


• Method #1

Scroll forward or backward through Faculty records with the VCR buttons. Faculty names are sorted in ascending alphabetical order.
• Method #2

Activate the Faculty Search Form (Fig. 77) by clicking on the Find command button. Enter the Faculty ID# or any portion of the Last Name or First Name. Click on the Find command button within the form to initiate the search, or Cancel to abort. Use the Clear command button to clear all search strings and start over.


Fig. 77


9.2.3 Select Course Section
There are two possible methods for selecting the target course section to grade:

• Method #1

Select a course section from the drop-down list of the Class field (Fig. 78).


Fig. 78


• Method #2

Select a course section from the selection list (Fig. 79) activated by the List command button.


Fig. 79


Verify that the proper course section has been selected in the main screen by looking at the data in the Class field (a combination of Course ID number, Section number, and Course Title).

Possible "No Data" error:
A Class Marks Entry Screen stating "No Data" (Fig. 80) indicates a Mark Definition was not associated with the selected class. If "No Data" is displayed, or the wrong Mark Definition is displayed, refer back to the Mark Reporting set-up process in Step 5 and assign the course to the appropriate Mark Definition.


Fig. 80

9.3.1 Initiate
Click on the Select command button at the bottom of the main screen to open the query dialog (Fig. 81)

9.3.2 Set parameters


Fig. 81 - query dialog screen


• Select -

There are four query categories in the Select field: Mark Sets, Mark Terms, Mark Types, and Report Card. All criteria within each category will be displayed as columns in the Class Entry grid unless specific criteria are selected for viewing. To apply a query to a category, select the category in the Select list box until it is highlighted in gray (Fig. 81). Then click on the Edit command button. All the criteria within the selected category will appear in a list (Figs. 82, 83, 84, 85). Select a specific criterion to display by clicking on the name until it is highlighted in gray. To select more than one, hold the Ctrl key down while clicking. Click on the Done command button in each dialog to apply the query, or Reset to reset the default selections, or Cancel to abort. When all queries are applied the view will return to the query dialog screen. Codes will be displayed after each Select category indicating the current criteria applied (Fig. 81). Review the parameters. If all are satisfactory, continue to the Report Period field. If editing is needed, simply click on a category until it is highlighted in gray and then open the criterion selection dialog again. Edit the criteria and click on Done to save and return to the column query dialog screen.

• Mark Set -


Fig. 82

• Mark Term -


Fig. 83

• Mark Type -


Fig. 84

• Report Card -


Fig. 85 - default selections

When a single Mark Term is selected, columns for the various types of Report Card Comments will appear as columns in the grid. All of the types of Comments will be displayed unless they are deselected in this dialog.


• Report Period -

The default selection in the Report Period field is "< All >". With this selection, all Timeline Points will be displayed in the grid by default. Select a specific point to view from the drop-down list in the Report Period field. If a specific Report Period is selected, the Include Previous field will be enabled. Put a check mark in the Include Previous field to include the previous Reporting Periods in the grid. This feature is useful for making a comparison with previous marks while you are entering the current marks.
• Enrollment date range -

Use the enrollment date range feature to filter which students to be displayed in the class roster. This date range will filter out students who have enrolled late or have not remained enrolled for a minimum duration. The filter is only for display purposes; it does not remove students permanently from the roster. Use the drop down calendars activated by the field buttons to define a date range as follows:
• Include students enrolled before -

This field defaults to today's date. Set the date to the latest date of enrollment to be included in the class roster. This is a cutoff date that will exclude those students who enrolled in a class too late.
• Include students withdrawn after -

This field defaults to today's date. Set the date to maximum date that student must remain enrolled in a class to be included in the class roster. This is the cutoff date that will exclude those students who dropped a class too early.
9.3.3 Save parameters
Click on the Done command button in the column query dialog to save the custom parameters and return to the main Class Marks Editor screen.

Sample:
The illustration below (Fig. 86) is the results of the query applied in the previous steps to display only 'Academic' Marks for the 'Quarter 1 Progress' reporting period. All the default Report Card Comments have been left in; they are displayed in the columns to the right of reporting period column. Any combination of these selections may be applied to suit particular needs for data entry. It should be noted that the Comments and Notes columns will only be available in this view when there is only one Mark Term selected for display. (See steps 9.5-9.5.8 for more information on Comments.)


Fig. 86 - read-only mode

9.4.1 Activate the edit mode
Click on the Edit command button to activate the edit mode, signified when the editable cells turn from gray to white (Fig. 87). (Marks displayed in bold red indicate they have been posted to history and are not editable unless the Edit History field is checked.)

9.4.2 Data Entry
The grid can be navigated using the mouse, keyboard arrow keys, tab key, or enter key. Simply move to the target cell (also called "grade bucket") and enter a Mark (or edit an existing Mark). While entering Marks for each student in the selected course section keep in mind that during the set-up process in Step 6 Mark Values were assigned to each Mark Type. The Mark Values are what is actually entered here. Marks that were not defined through the Mark Values application in the set-up process cannot be entered. (For example, for 'Citizenship' Marks only 'O', 'S', 'NI', or 'U' can be entered.)


Fig. 87- sample Class Entry grid with marks entered for 'Quarter 1 Progress Report' ('Q1p') with both 'Academic' ("A") and 'Citizenship ("C") Marks'.

Valid Marks windows:
If a Mark is entered that was not defined as a 'Value' for the Mark Set, or an invalid letter or number is entered, the Valid Marks pop up window will appear (Figs. 88 & 89). This window displays a list of all valid Marks for the Mark Set in progress. The window can be activated at any time by pressing Ctrl+Enter or double-clicking the target grade bucket. Choose a Mark from the list and click on the Select command button to automatically enter it in the cell, or Cancel to abort.


Fig. 88 - Possible Mark Values for the 'Academic' Mark Set ('A'').

Fig. 89 - Possible Mark Values for the 'Citizenship' Mark Set ('C')

If there is ever any uncertainty of which Mark Values belong in a column, the Valid Marks window can be activated at any time during the entry process. To do this, simply double-click the target cell with the left mouse button (or press Ctrl+Enter on the keyboard when the focus is on the target cell). Select the proper Mark from the list that appears and continue the entry process.

Edit History - A Mark displayed in bold red indicates that the data has been posted to history (to transcript). As a safety precaution, these marks cannot be edited unless the Edit History box is checked. After corrections are made and the Save command is executed, the changes will be automatically posted to history, overwriting the old data in the transcript.

Fig. 90

9.4.3 Save Marks
Click on the Save command button to post Marks data. Return to this application at any time and edit or add Marks to any grade bucket.

Prerequisites:
During the Mark Reporting set-up process, report card comments were entered into the Comments application, grouped by language. If this was not done, go back to Step 7.

9.5.1 Select Target Course Section
Select the target course section in the Class Marks Editor. Apply queries if applicable.

9.5.2 Select Target Cell
Activate the edit mode and navigate to the cell where a comment is to be entered. (Select the student and Mark Reporting Timeline point that the comment will be applied to. All related Points will receive the same comment.)

9.5.3 Activate Report Card Comments screen
Right click with the mouse on that cell to open the 'Report Card Comments' entry screen (Fig. 91).


Fig. 91

9.5.4 Verify Timeline Point
Check the fields at the top of this screen to verify the student's name, course section, and term before entering the comments.

9.5.5 Enter Comments
A maximum of four comments can be entered for each student. Use the drop-down lists to select pre-defined comments for the selected Timeline point

9.5.6 Enter Notes / view other data fields
The Report Card Notes field may be used to enter unique comments that were not covered by the pre-defined comments in the previous step.

9.5.7 View or edit Credits data
The data in the various credits fields on the lower left is automatically generated by the execution of the Credit Calculation & Posting procedure. This data may be edited in this screen.


• Graduation Credits Attempted -

The "worth value" of the course towards graduation requirements. This value is retrieved from the District Courses database.
• Graduation Credits Awarded -

Credits earned towards graduation. This value is calculated when a Mark is entered.
• GPA Credits Attempted -

Total credits attempted by this course towards Grade Point Average. This value is retrieved from the District Courses database.
• GPA Credits Awarded -

Credits earned towards Grade Point Average. This value is calculated when a Mark is entered.

9.5.8 View or edit Attendance data
Attendance data fields on the lower right will automatically display attendance for this course only after the Calculate Attendance procedure has been executed (See Step 10). The data may be edited in this screen.
• Periods Enrolled -

Total number of periods this course will meet during this Report Period. This data is calculated after the Calculate Attendance procedure is executed (See Step 10)
• Periods Present -

Number of periods this student was present in this course during the Report Period. This data is calculated after the Calculate Attendance procedure is executed (See Step 10)
• Periods Absent -

Number of periods this student was absent from this course during the Report Period. This data is calculated after the Calculate Attendance procedure is executed (See Step 10)
• Periods Tardy -

Number of periods the student was tardy to this course during the Report Period. This data is calculated after the Calculate Attendance procedure is executed (See Step 10)

9.5.9 Save
Click on the Done command button to exit the Comments screen and return to the main screen (or Undo to cancel). Then click on the Save command button to save the data and return to the read-only mode (or Undo to cancel).

9.5.10 Edit Comments from the grid
Once saved, the Report Card Comments, Notes, Credits and Attendance data will not be visible from the Class Marks grid. There are two ways to view the Comments for editing:


• Method #1 - In the Unqueried mode

In the normal, unqueried mode of the grid, right click on the target cell to open the 'Comments' screen (Fig. 91). Use the TAB key to move from field to field. Edit data. Save data by clicking the Done command and then the Save command.
• Method #2 - In the Query mode

Comments entered apply to all Mark Sets in one Report Period (Timeline point). Use the Select command button to select a specific Report Period (See Step 9.3.2). After the query is applied, all the fields from the 'Comments' screen relating to the selected Report Period will appear in the grid as columns to the right (Fig. 92). Clicking on the Edit command button to activate the edit mode, indicated when the first column turns from gray to white.


Fig. 92 - edit mode, showing Comments fields for selected Timeline Point

The 'Report Card Comments' entered in Step 9.5.5 will be indicated only by their codes in the columns named cmt1, cmt2, etc. To edit the Codes, click on the target cell to select from a drop-down list of pre-defined Comments (Fig. 93)


Fig. 93 - list of pre-defined comments for the cmt1 field.

The Report Card Notes entered in Step 9.5.6 may be viewed in a dedicated screen (Fig. 94) by clicking on the Note command button in the 'note' column. (Green font on the Note button indicates the presence of text in the Note field; yellow font indicates an empty notes field.)


Fig. 94

The other Comments data can be edited directly by shifting the focus to the target cells in the following columns. Use the horizontal scroll bar to view all the columns to the right.


• crd at = Graduation Credits Attempted
• crd aw = Graduation Credits Earned
• gpa at = GPA Credits Attempted
• gpa aw = GPA Credits Awarded
• pd enr = Periods Enrolled
• pd prs = Periods Present
• pd abs = Periods Absent
• pd tdy = Periods Tardy

Student Marks Editor

The Student Marks Editor provides an edit form for Mark Reporting that displays students and their schedules along with a grid for entering Marks. The Student Marks Editor is particularly useful for going back to specific students after Marks have been entered and making changes or corrections.

Many of the commands and data entry techniques are similar to the Class Marks Editor interface documented above. See Steps 9.1-9.5.10.

9.6 Launch Student Marks Editor
From the Mark Reporting menu, click on the Student Marks icon button. The opening screen (Fig. 95) defaults to the first Currently Active student in the school site's database, sorted alphabetically by last name.

Fig. 95 - read-only mode

The student's schedule of classes is listed on the left side of the grid. If a student has a class in his or her schedule in which they are enrolled as a teaching assistant a (TA) flag will be displayed between the Course ID number and the section number (Fig. 96).

Fig. 96

Note that the Mark Entry Grid is displayed with columns in Timeline Point sequence order, then alphabetically based on the Mark Type Codes. The cells where the courses and the columns intersect are called "grade buckets".

9.7 Select a Student
An individual student record can be located by scrolling forward or back through student records with the VCR buttons, or by performing a Student Search via the Find command or the List command. The search may be narrowed by using the Student Group buttons in the banner at the top of the form (Fig. 97) to select Currently Active students (default), Inactive students, Active and Inactive students, Future students, or a user defined Student Group. See document titled Student Banner for more details.

Fig. 97-89

9.8 Apply Select Queries (optional)
In a similar manner as the Class Marks Editor, the Student Marks Editor form includes a Select command button that calls the query dialog screen (Fig. 81) that allows the user to filter the displayed grade buckets on Mark Term, Mark Type, Mark Set, Report Card, and Reporting Period. When the user selects a Reporting Period other than "All", the Include Previous check box is enabled. When this box is checked the filter includes the Reporting Period selected as well as all previous periods. When the box is not checked (the default) only the selected Reporting Period is included in the filter. When viewing a query with only one mark Term selected, the Comments data will be displayed as columns from left to right.

This procedure is identical to the procedure used in the Class Marks Editor. See Step 9.3 for further details.

9.9 Enter or Edit Marks

9.9.1 Activate the edit mode
Click on the Edit command button to activate the edit mode, indicated when the grade buckets turn from gray to white.

9.9.2 Data Entry
The grid can be navigated using the mouse, keyboard arrow keys, tab key, or enter key. Simply move to the target cell (grade bucket) and enter a Mark (or edit an existing Mark). While entering marks for each student in the selected course section, keep in mind that during the set-up process in Step 6 Mark Values were assigned to each Mark Type. The Mark Values are what are actually entered here. Marks that were not defined through the Mark Values application in the set-up process cannot be entered. (In other words, for 'Citizenship' Marks you should only enter an 'O', 'S', 'NI', or 'U'.)


Fig. 98 - edit mode


Data entry shortcut using Valid Marks windows -
As an alternative method to manually entering marks, the Student Marks Editor calls a pop up form ('Valid Marks Window') which displays the valid marks (the Mark Set) for the current grade bucket's Mark Item. This pop up form can be accessed while in edit mode via a double-click on a cell, pressing Ctrl+Enter, or when the user enters an invalid mark. This procedure is identical to the procedure used in the Class Marks Editor. See Step 9.4.2, "Data Entry, Valid Marks windows" for further details.
Edit History -
A Mark displayed in bold red indicates that the data has been posted to history (to transcript). As a safety precaution, these marks cannot be edited unless the Edit History box is checked. After corrections are made and the Save command is executed, the changes will be automatically posted to history, overwriting the old data in the transcript. See Step 9.4.2, "Data Entry, Edit History" for further details.

9.9.3 Save Marks
Click on the Save command button to post Marks data. Return to this application at any time and edit or add Marks to any grade bucket.

Scan Marks

In this procedure, mark reporting scan forms are printed using the Mark Reporting Scanforms application (found in the Reports Menu of the Mark Reporting program module). The scan forms are then distributed to the teachers. The student's marks are filled in by the teachers using the bubble method and then returned. The forms are then scanned into the SIS 2000+ database via the Read Marks Scanforms program. This program acts as an interface between SIS 2000+ and the scanning machine. The results of the scanning can be reviewed in either the Class Marks or Student Marks applications.

9.11 Print, distribute, and collect Mark Reporting scan forms
Scan forms are printed with mark reporting overlay data according to the set of students or courses to be graded. To print the forms, follow the procedures outlined in the document titled "Mark Reporting Scanforms". After the printed forms have been distributed to the teachers and returned with the marks filled in, continue with Step 9.12.

If Report Card Comments will be entered on the scan forms it is helpful to distribute a copy of the Report Card Comment Legend along with the forms so that the teachers will know which numerical codes represent which comments. See "Reports & Reporting/Mark Reporting/Report Card Comment Listing" for further details.

9.12 Configure Scanner
Using a file manager utility or text editor, go to main SIS 2000+ Directory and open the 'bin' folder (Fig. 99). Find the 'Scanner.ini' file. (You may see other scanning related .ini files in your bin. These are used to store sample values that can be entered in the 'Scanner.ini' file. They are not used by the Scanning application. It only looks at the 'Scanner.ini' file.).

Fig. 99

Open the 'Scanner.ini' file with a text editor (Fig. 100).

Fig. 100

There should only be one line of data in this file. The values in this file are dictated by the values used when setting-up and initializing your scanner. For a Scantron machine, a configuration sheet should have been included with your printer. Values are entered on that sheet, based on the machine you have, and that sheet is scanned before you can use the machine to do any scanning.

These configuration sheet values may need to be obtained from Scantron if you do not already have them. The values bubbled-in on that configuration sheet then need to be entered in the 'Scanner.ini' file via text editing so that SIS 2000+ knows how your scanner is set up, as follows:

• Scanmark -

Refers to the name of the scanner.
• COM 2 -

This refers to the port to which the scanner is hooked up (the Com Port number can be changed as needed to match where the machine is connected).
• 9600 -

Represents the baud rate of the scanner.
• 8 -

Represents the value selected on the configuration sheet for 'Word Length'.
• N -

Represents the value selected on the configuration sheet for 'Parity'.
• 1 -

Represents the value selected on the configuration sheet for 'Stop Bits'.

NOTE: It is a good idea to copy the updated 'Scanner .ini' files to a disk for safe keeping. Then, if the files are accidentally changed at some point, you can reload a copy of your original configurations and not have to manipulate the settings in these files.

Hardware Setup -
Before you begin to scan, make sure that the machine is properly set-up:

1. Make sure that the connection between the scanner and the workstation is solid.
2. Make sure that the Com Port you entered in the ''Scanner.ini' is the same Com Port number that the machine is actually connected to.
3. Turn the scanner on before you boot your workstation to make sure that it recognizes that the scanner is connected to its Com Port.
4. Make sure that the form feeder (or the form hopper) is completely locked down into the scanner. (There is a connection between the feeder and scanner that must be made for scanning to work.)

Fig. 101

9.14 Load scan forms
Place the bubbled scan forms in the scanner's hopper. When placing the forms into the feeder or hopper, the black guide marks (rectangles along one of the sides of the Scanform) must be positioned towards the bottom of the tray.

9.15 Select parameters
Select Scanner Model and Form Type (Fig. 101).

9.16 Scan
Click on the Scan command button to begin scanning the forms. The indicator lights on the scanner should flash and the forms should begin to be read. For an automatic form feeder, the forms will be scanned and fed automatically once you click Scan. For a manual hopper, you will have to load a form and click Scan. Then load the next form and click Scan, etc.

The progress of the scanning procedure, such as the number of forms read and the number of marks posted, will be displayed in the memo field (Fig. 102). Use the vertical scroll bar to view the entire list of events in the order in which they occurred.

Fig. 102

Troubleshooting the scan process -
If the forms do not seem to be scanning, there are several things that you should check:
• Check the scanner set-up:
• Check that the scanner is turned ON.
• Make sure you turned the scanner on BEFORE you turned the workstation on.
• Check that the cable is connected securely to both the scanner and the workstation.
• Check that you are using the proper cable, and that it is not damaged.
• Make sure that you have scanned the configuration sheet from Scantron.
• Make sure that the feeder or hopper is connected securely to the scanner.
• Make sure that the forms are loaded properly:
• That the black guide marks are along the bottom of the feeder.
• Make sure that the forms are not upside down.
• Make sure that the forms are marked properly:
• Make sure the teacher returned the proper form.
• That the marks were made with a pencil.
• Make sure that there are no stray pencil marks on the Scanforms, particularly none on the black guide marks.

Troubleshooting scan results -

• Scantron Corporation does not claim a 100% accuracy rate for scanning. If it looks like the posted marks are 'off', you may want to check the forms that were scanned for any errors in the marks that were made on the forms.
• Make sure that the correct forms were scanned