Encouraging/Incentivizing Gradebook utilization

Lauren Henderson

Does anyone have any brilliant ideas for how to encourage teachers to use the Gradebook throughout the term? I'm not a teacher so don't see the intricacies that they do, but am looking for features that could help encourage those still using a paper gradebook to switch to the one built in to the LMS for all grading, instead of just entering the required grades right before grades are due. Thanks!

Brian Gray

@Lauren Henderson - We (alas) don't require teachers to use the gradebook, but we do require them to create all assignments for the class in the LMS (so that the assignment appears on the student's Assignments tab and Assignment Center). We tell teachers:

• If you have to create the assignment anyway, there is very little additional work required to use the gradebook.
• Using the gradebook makes it much easier to submit report card grades, because a couple of clicks will copy the grades from the gradebook to the report card (Grading tab) via the Calculate button.
• You still have full control over the report card grade, because you can manually change the report card grade after you pull it from the gradebook.

I also tell teachers that using the LMS gradebook is the easy way to preserve continuity when a teacher becomes unavailable mid-year (prolonged illness, etc) and someone else has to take over the class.

If I were king of the school, using the LMS gradebook would be a requirement for getting a paycheck.

Kathy Hannon

@Lauren Henderson all our teachers use the gradebook and are required to (grades must be posted within 7 days of assignment due date at the upper school). Our lower school uses gradebooks but they are not open for parents to see until the quarter ends. There are many benefits - we have many integrations - google assignment, Gradecam (our assessment grading tool), Turnitin, Ed-tech are a few); students and parents can run reports on missing assignments and stay up-to-date on where they are with their grades - no surprises; Administration monitors the gradebooks to make sure that the courses are on track and can catch potential issues early. The list goes on and on!

Jeff Gaudet

@Lauren Henderson - Completely agree with Brian. I am not really sure why some faculty refuse to use the grade book, especially if you have faculty still using manual-style grade books and hand-entering all the assignments each year. Here is my advice on how to get them to use it more.

If for every year they are manually entering assignments into their book, they are taking several extra steps. Creating sections for each class, entering the names of all the students, and entering each assignment. Once that is done, they are manually recording each grade for each student. If the assignment requires any type of submission, they need to keep track of that submission, grade it, and return it. Now at the end of each marking period, they need to make sure that each student's assignment has been handed in, if it is late, then what is the grading penalty? Finally, correctly calculate the final grade according to the school's grading (GPA) formula. This is done year after year. My guess is that the assignments don't change that much each year as well.

Here is my presentation to teachers who are not using the gradebook. First, there is no entering of each student into your class roster. The system takes care of that already. Second, there is no calculation of the weighted average for each assignment. The system takes care of that already. Third, if you teach the same class each year, or even each semester, trimester, or quarter, you don't have to enter the assignments each time. The system can take care of for you (assignments can be imported year after year, even if the class has not been offered for a period of time). The ability to give instant feedback for each assignment is a great advantage as well. They can still discuss in person with the student regarding an assignment, but there is also a digital copy for the student to go back to for a better understanding of how to improve their work and grades.

The time and energy that is used and wasted by not using the gradebook should be accentuated. If you ask one teacher to set up their grade book the old way, and you set up the same grade book in the LMS, I guarantee that they will see the amount of time difference.

This may be a little long-winded, but it has been something that I have been stressing with my school for several years. Hope this helps, and Best of Luck!!

Ben Taylor

@Lauren Henderson A lot of what others have said is spot on for us. We don't totally require it, we require any major assignment. However, combining that with the report card grade calculating feature has organically drawn…94+% of faculty into putting everything in there. The hold-outs are complicated.

The other in that shot up some usage for us is that we did a bunch of PD around Grading for Equity. Teachers came out of that searching for ways to implement new grading strategies. While BB is not entirely set up to do GFE practices, as gradebook admin I was able to build tools that support teachers in that work, which they've latched on to. Answering pedagogical, philosophical “asks” with technology has been surprisingly effective in drawing in users, and may have gotten us to a place where we can confidently move towards larger requirements.

We also, I should note, only have assignment grades visible to advisers and students and not parents. No cumulatives are shown (besides report cards themselves), though some people are now ASKING to have it shown to facilitate their new pedagogy, which is a fascinating turn of events.