Assessment Calendar

Gian Toyos

Hello. My first post here.

Our high school is looking to create a place within the platform where a schedule or calendar can be created where teachers (by grade) can post when are they assigning a major assessment. For years we have tried different methods of having this to avoid big tests or projects due the same day. Ideally, all the teachers from a particular grade will see what others are expecting the students to complete of study for.

I have tried creating Activity Groups for each grade, that seems the best option I have found. Or perhaps creating a calendar, this will require someone to manage it and post the information that teachers send.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Kathy Hannon

Our Faculty are required to check the "Roster Major Assignment - By Section" report to see what major assignments are schedule for their students. This has works great for us - the report shows when the assignment was created (Inserted date) so we can tell if a faculty member didn't check this report and scheduled a Major assignment when there was already another one on the “calendar.” We allow 2 major assignments on a day for students. We moved from a shared Outlook calendar to this report and teachers like the report - they don't have to remember to add to the “Test Calendar.” Some of our seasoned teachers create their major assignments at the beginning of the school year to hold their spot.

Geoffrey Goodfellow

We also started with the solution Kathy Hannon suggested but people wanted to see the major assignments in a monthly view to get the lay of the land, but the report is more a list view. Therefore, we did create a shared calendar within Core that is only visible to teachers at the high school division, and it is place they go to see days might be good to offer a major assignment, and then they book their own “appointment” with that course name and assignment before heading to their gradebook to setup the assignment/assessment details. It has worked relatively well.

Gian Toyos

Hello Kathy, this is very helpful. I was not aware of this report. While investigating and looking for a solution I found out that a similar question was asked back in 2015 and the response was the same as yours. This image was shared, but my question is where do you see the option of this report now?

Gian Toyos

Thanks Geoffrey, this is very similar to what I had planned. The other option I explored was creating activity groups by grade and including the respective teachers in each group. The good thing about using the calendar as you describe is that you can see who created the event (assessment). I am glad to know we are not the only ones dealing with this issue. This is a suggestion we can ask Blackbaud to add to the platform.

Kathy Hannon

Hi Gian - it's on the Assignments tab - Reports