Explore the World of Software 2: Kids, Adults, Educational

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GRADESCAN (Version 2.1) USER'S GUIDE FOR IBM PC, XT, AT, AND COMPATIBLE COMPUTERS Developer: C. Robert Blum Educational Consultant: Joan Barnett Blum A Product of CROFTON BINARY CONCEPTS 1722 Golden Court Crofton, Maryland 21114 (301) 261-3177 Copyright (C) 1988 by C. Robert Blum NEEDED EQUIPMENT IBM PC, XT, AT, or Compatible Computer At least one disk drive Printer (optional) FILES REQUIRED FOR COMPLETE PROGRAM README.DOC NOTICE.DOC REGISTER.DOC MANUAL.DOC GRDSCN.BAT GRDSCN.EXE CYA.BAT CYB.BAT CYC.BAT PRINTOPT.PRF INSTALL.BAT CONGRATULATIONS Your purchase of GRADESCAN will make your record keeping and grade computation much quicker and easier, giving you more time to devote to lesson planning, preparation of new instructional methods, counseling of students, and - who knows? - maybe even a little relaxation. GRADESCAN was designed with the teacher in mind. It was developed by a former teacher, under the close guidance of his wife, who happens to be a very busy teacher. You don't have time to master a complicated computer program that taxes your patience and threatens destruction of your valuable records at every turn. You need a program that is so simple it can be used with full confidence the very first time. That's what GRADESCAN is all about. After using it for several weeks, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it. It is a professional product and will respond like commercially distributed software. Its user interface is so sophisticated that it does not require you to memorize arcane syntax or constantly think about the operation of the program while you are recording or examining grades. You will quickly discern that the low registration fee of this product ($25.00) is a delightful bargain in professionally developed software. GETTING STARTED Let's get one thing straight from the outset. You don't need this USER'S GUIDE unless you literally don't know how to turn on a computer. While we suggest you read through it quickly, you really can go right to the program and experiment for several minutes until you feel confident enough to insert your class records. It's that simple! HOWEVER, just for the record, here is how to "boot" the program (that's computer jargon for loading the program into the memory of your computer). o Turn on the monitor. o Turn on the computer and let it run until it completes its "power-on self test". o MAKE A BACKUP COPY OF THE GRADESCAN PROGRAM DISK. DO IT NOW. Some of the procedures set forth below will alter or add material to the program disk. It is important that you have at least one unaltered copy of the program disk as a safeguard against loss. INSTALLING GRADESCAN FOR USE ON A HARD DISK DRIVE o Insert the GRADESCAN program disk in the floppy ("A") drive. At the ">" prompt, type "a:install" (without the quotation marks). o Remove the program disk from the floppy drive and file it away. We suggest you make a backup copy using the DISKCOPY command from your computer's Disk Operating System (DOS). o Type "GRDSCN" (without the quotation marks) to begin the program. It does not matter whether you type upper case or lower case letters. RUNNING GRADESCAN FROM A FLOPPY DISK DRIVE o If you do not have a hard disk, you will have to run GRADESCAN from the floppy drive. The program disk will have to remain in the floppy drive throughout operation of the program, and your class files will be written to the program disk. o At the prompt (">"), type "A:" (without the quotation marks) to log on to the "A" drive. o Once you have logged on to the "A" drive you will again see the system prompt (">"). At the system prompt, type the word "GRDSCN" (without the quotation marks). This will invoke the program. NOW, FOR A TEST DRIVE We have included several sample classes on the program disk. If you're the impatient sort, this is a good time for you to try your wings. Unfortunately, once you do, you may no longer feel a need to read this manual. That's understandable and we'll forgive you! After invoking the GRDSCN command you should be at the main menu. It has nine choices on it. Press "1" (SELECT CLASS), to bring up a submenu with three more choices. From the submenu, Press "2" (SELECT CLASS) and you will be given a list of several sample classes. Select one of these by entering the number. (Go ahead! Get it out of your system! Enter some key other than a 1, 2, or 3 so you can see what happens.) The class you selected will be loaded into memory and you can experiment with all aspects of the program without hurting a thing. Come to think of it, that might be the best way to learn this program. It will take all of about ten minutes to become thoroughly familiar with it. Meanwhile, back to the USER'S GUIDE... THE MAIN MENU Now you are ready to explore GRADESCAN in more depth. After you have entered the appropriate start-up commands at the system prompt (C > GRDSCN), you will be presented with the GRADESCAN logo screen. Press any key to invoke the Main Menu. The Main Menu looks like the following: GRADESCAN 1. SELECT CLASS 2. ENTER ASSIGNMENTS 3. ENTER GRADES 4. EXAMINE DATA 5. ADD NEW STUDENTS 6. PRINT REPORTS 7. SAVE DATA TO DISK 8. FILE MAINTENANCE 9. QUIT ENTER THE NUMBER OF YOUR SELECTION: Your use of the program is closely keyed to the Main Menu. You choose the option you need from the menu and proceed to the appropriate program module. In each module you will be guided by the prompts (that's computer jargon for instructions that appear on the screen) as to what to do. If you make a mistake by entering something unacceptable to the program, such as a letter when you should be entering a number, the program either lets you reenter the number or returns you to the menu. Either way, you get as many chances as you need to make the proper entry. And by the way, if you enter a module that you didn't mean to enter (by selecting the wrong option from the Main Menu), you can easily return to the menu. Now let's look at each of the menu options. 1. SELECT CLASS Selecting this option from the Main Menu brings up a submenu that allows you to do one of the following: 1. CREATE NEW CLASS 2. SELECT CLASS 3. RETURN TO MENU The third option returns you to the Main Menu, in case you ended up in this module by mistake. The second option allows you to select from a list of existing classes. We will discuss it in a moment. Use the first option, CREATE NEW CLASS, to enter your new classes into the program. You are permitted to have up to 17 classes. Selecting this option will bring up a prompt asking you for the name to be assigned to the class (i, e., the subject). GRADESCAN does not permit you to create a class without any students in it. Therefore, your next task will be to enter the names of the students. You may need to type the names in at the keyboard, but not necessarily: if you have entered other classes, you may have the same group of students for other subjects you teach. This is common in the elementary schools. For example, you may teach the same students for English and Mathematics, or perhaps you have the same students for all subjects. Therefore, GRADESCAN will allow you to use the names from another class that is already stored on disk. You will not have to type the names separately for each class. If grades have been entered for the class, these will not be brought forward into the new class. Only the names are transferred. So, you will be presented with three options: 1. ENTER NAMES FROM KEYBOARD 2. ENTER NAMES FROM ANOTHER CLASS 3. ABORT PROCESS - RETURN TO MENU After you have entered the name of the subject, select the method you will use for entering the names of the students. If you elect to enter the names from the keyboard, you will be presented with an input screen. You are allowed up to 50 students, with up to 25 characters (letters, commas, blank spaces, etc.) per name. You may enter last names first or first names first - it doesn't matter. Also, you may include middle initials, or any other designators, as long as you stay within the limit of 25 characters. The program will not permit you to exceed the limit, so there is no need for you to count the number of characters used. After you have entered the names, press [enter]. The program will then allow you to proceed or cancel the entire effort. If you have made a mistake in one of the names that has already been entered, or if you entered a name that you didn't mean to enter, there is a way to correct it easily. We will discuss that under Option 4 of the Main Menu. Any of your entries in any part of the program can be easily revised or deleted. To use the names from an established class in the class you are setting up, select the option worded as "ENTER NAMES FROM ANOTHER CLASS". A list of all established classes will come up on the screen. Pick the one you want to use and enter its number. The program will then duplicate the names into a class roster for the class you are establishing. New classes will automatically be stored to disk as part of the process of establishing the class. No extra step is required. Option 2, SELECT A CLASS, brings up a list of classes on file. Simply type in the number of the class you want to load into memory. But one important thing here. THE CLASS CURRENTLY IN MEMORY WILL BE REPLACED BY THE NEW CLASS. MAKE SURE YOU SAVE THE CURRENT CLASS TO DISK USING OPTION 7 FROM THE MAIN MENU. If you don't do this, any changes you have made to the data since you last saved the data to disk will be lost. All those grades you just entered over the past twenty minutes will not have been saved to disk. Of course, if you don't want to retain the new data, you would not save it to disk prior to calling a new class into memory. 2. ENTER ASSIGNMENTS Option No. 2 on the Main Menu allows you to enter a description of each assignment. The word "assignment" is used here in its broadest sense to include any task given to the student, whether it be an examination, test, quiz, homework, project, or report. You may enter up to 40 assignments during each grading period. You must enter the assignment before going to Option No. 3 on the Main Menu, whereby the grade on the assignment is recorded. You are permitted to describe up to 14 assignments at one time before entering the grades, but we recommend that you keep things manageable by entering assignments regularly so your work doesn't pile up (more than it already is). Three types of information are required for entry of assignments: DATE (mm/dd/yy) DESCRIPTION (up to 40 characters) WEIGHT (1 to 50) The weighting of assignments requires special mention. Some assignments probably should count more than others. If you elect to weight a pop quiz with a weighting factor of 1, you probably want to assign a larger weighting factor to a major examination - 2,4,10, or whatever you may think the assignment is worth. GRADESCAN uses these weighting factors in calculating the student's average for all assignments. If you assigned a weighting factor of 4 to the major examination, GRADESCAN will treat the examination as if the student received the grade on four assignments each having a weighting factor of 1. Although the display screen identifies the range of weighting factors as being 1 to 50, there may be occasions where you want to record a grade for students without having it count in their calculated average. There is a way to do this. Enter the weight as zero. GRADESCAN will accept the zero weight, but be careful when using it. Assignments with a zero weight will not count in the average. When you have finished entering assignments, press [enter] and GRADESCAN will automatically bring you to Option No. 3 on the Main Menu: ENTER GRADES. 3. ENTER GRADES GRADESCAN accepts only those grades that are expressed as a percentage. You may exceed 100% if warranted (up to 999%). Each student's name will appear on the screen and you will be prompted to record the grade for each assignment for the student before proceeding to the next student. If a student was excused from an assignment, either temporarily or permanently, enter the letter "x" (either upper or lower case) instead of a grade. Grades recorded as "x" do not count in the average, but allow you to keep track of which students have work which must be made up. If the student makes up the work, you can enter the grade through the methods contained in Option No. 4 of the Main Menu, whereby data can be changed. After all grades have been entered you will be prompted to press any key to return to the Main Menu. After entering grades, when you arrive at the Main Menu, it is time to store the new grades and assignments to disk. Select Option No. 7 from the Main Menu to save your new data to disk. If you select another class before having saved you data to disk, you will lose your data for the present class and have to reenter it! 4. EXAMINE DATA This module is the core of GRADESCAN. This is where GRADESCAN tells you what data has been recorded, informs you of the averages of your students, and allows you to revise data as required. Selecting Option No. 4 brings to the screen a submenu containing the following options: 1. SUMMARY AVERAGES 2. GRADES 3. ASSIGNMENTS 4. LIST OF SUBJECTS 5. RETURN TO MENU We will look at each option in turn. SUMMARY AVERAGES: Now to really put the program through its paces. This is probably why you bought the program in the first place--to save you from the laborious task of averaging your grades. This menu option produces summary averages on the screen for each student. It does not show you the individual grades on each task that went into that average. Option No. 2 from the submenu does that (and it also computes the average). With the current option you can view the averages on the screen at any time during the marking period. You can even generate a printed report of these summary averages using Option No. 6 from the Main Menu: PRINT REPORTS. Option No. 6 will produce a submenu, of which one option will be the summary averages. EXAMINE GRADES: This option from the submenu allows you to do more than just examine grades. It allows you to change two types of data: the names of the students, and the grades themselves. A list of students in the class appears on the screen. Using the bottom-line menu on the screen, you indicate whether your want to examine the grades (E) or change the data (C). The only data on this screen that can be changed is the names of the students. Once you select an "E" or "C" the prompt will ask you to indicate the number of the student involved. If you entered a "C" to change the data, you will be given the option of changing the student's name or deleting the student from the class. Deletion is a very permanent procedure. Make sure you have a record of this student's progress on hard copy or on a back-up disk before deleting the student. If you entered an "E", you will be presented with the student's achievement on each assignment, along with a calculated average. Again, you will be presented with a bottom-line menu that allows you to change data (the data here is the student's grades). This is where we can correct erroneous grades or record the grades for assignments for which the student has been temporarily excused - the ones we entered an "x" for previously. Entering a "C" to change data allows us to carry out this procedure. You can print hard-copy reports of the grades of the entire class or of individual students using Option No. 6 from the Main Menu. We will defer the instructions for printing until we discuss that option from the Main Menu. The bottom-line menu allows you to return to the roster to select other student's for examination of grades, or to return to the submenu or the Main Menu. ASSIGNMENTS: Selecting this option from the submenu brings up a screen displaying all assignments recorded to date. It shows the date, description, and weight associated with each assignment. In the bottom-line menu, you are given the option of changing any of the data. To do this, enter a "C" at the prompt. You will then be given the option of changing the date, description, or weighting factor, or of deleting the assignment entirely. You may choose to delete the assignment entirely, but if you do, you will erase any record of the grades earned by students on the assignment. These grades will no longer count in the students' averages. Other prompts on the bottom-line menu allow you to return to the submenu or the Main Menu. LIST OF SUBJECTS: Selecting this option from the submenu brings up a list of all subjects on file. Again, you are given the option of changing the data. To do so, enter a "C" at the bottom-line menu. You will then be given a choice of changing the name of the subject or deleting the class entirely from your records. Other prompts on the bottom-line menu allow you to return to the submenu or the Main Menu. 5. ADD NEW STUDENTS (and DELETING STUDENTS) What about that new student who comes to your class from another school or the student who transfers in to your class from that of another teacher? This menu option does the trick. You may add students to the class at any time during the grading period, as long as you do not exceed the limit of 50 students per class. All assignments entered before the addition of the new student will be automatically recorded for the new student as if he or she was excused. They will not be calculated in the student's average. One additional point. Instead of wanting to add a student, what if you want TO DELETE A STUDENT. To delete a student, you need to bring up a roster of the class. To do this, use Option 4, EXAMINE DATA, from the main menu. From the submenu, select Option 2, GRADES. This will produce a roster of the class. From the bottom line menu, select "C", CHANGE DATA. This will produce a question asking whether you want to revise the student's name. Answering "no" will produce a question asking whether you want to delete the student entirely. Answering "yes" to this question will delete the student from the class. 6. PRINTED REPORTS This option produces a submenu with the following options 1. GRADES, ENTIRE CLASS 2. GRADES, ONE STUDENT 3. SUMMARY AVERAGES 4. ROSTER 5. OPTIONS 6. MENU Naturally, the sixth option on the submenu will return you to the main menu at any time. The fifth option allows you specify whether, in printing the grades for an entire class, you want to begin each student on a new page or print the records contiguously to save paper. The default is contiguous records. Options 1 and 2 from this submenu permit you to produce those valuable reports from Option 4 on the Main Menu, showing the student's grade on each assignment and the average of all grades. You may want to distribute these to students at least once during the marking period to prevent any surprises at report card time ("but you never warned me"). They are also useful for parent-teacher conferences. In printing the report of the GRADES FOR ONE STUDENT, you will be presented on screen with a roster of the students. Indicated the student whose grades are to be printed by using the EXAMINE GRADES option from the bottom-line menu (i.e., enter "E", then the number of the student). You are indeed examining the grades, only this time you are doing it on hard copy. The option for a printed roster will give you a formatted spreadsheet on which you can record attendance, payment of fees, turn-in of books, or a myriad of other checklist items. 7. SAVE DATA TO DISK After you have entered new data into the class files or changed data already in the files, your new data will be lost if you exit from the program or select a new class. You must therefore save any new data to disk. The data will be saved to the same disk on which you are running the program. 8. FILE MAINTENANCE Selecting this option brings up a submenu with the following additional options: 1. BACK UP ALL CLASSES 2. SET UP NEXT MARKING PERIOD 3. ERASE ALL CLASSES 4. MENU Option 1 should be used frequently. Once you have suffered a disaster you will understand that. EVERY COMPUTER USER HAS HAD AT LEAST ONE DISASTER FROM FAILURE TO BACK UP HIS OR HER WORK. If you are running GRADESCAN from a hard disk, back up your files to a floppy disk in Drive A or Drive B (if you have a Drive B). If you are running GRADESCAN from a floppy disk, back up your files to a floppy disk in the unused disk drive. If you are running GRADESCAN from a computer that has no hard drive and only one floppy drive, you will not be able to use Option No. 8 from the Main Menu. You will have to use make your copies by exiting the program and using the DOS "COPY" OR "DISKCOPY" commands. When making back-up copies, we recommend that you devote a complete floppy disk to the back-up files. At any rate, do not mix GRADESCAN files with other files having a ".DAT" file extension. If GRADESCAN finds insufficient space on the destination disk when making the back-up copy, it will erase all the ".DAT" files it has written to the destination disk, along with all other ".DAT" files already on the destination disk. For this reason, we recommend that you devote one floppy disk to GRADESCAN back-ups and not place any other files on that floppy disk. Option 2 allows you to set up your files for the next marking period. It performs two tasks: o It makes a back-up copy of all your class files. o It purges all assignments and grades from you class files so you can enter new assignments during the new grading period. Its operational procedures are identical to those for making back-up copies. Option 3 erases all your class files. This is a complete erasure and no trace of the data is left: not the subject, student names, assignments, or grades. o Use this option to erase the practice files that came with the program, or to erase all files after the school year is completed. o Using Option 1, make a copy of the files before you erase them. This will prevent you from losing class records or practice files that you might want to refer to in the future. 9. QUIT This option allows you to exit from the program. Make sure you SAVE ALL NEW DATA before exiting from the program. CHANGING YOUR DATA Although we have discussed how to make corrections and revisions to data entries in our discussion of the individual menu topics, special mention is necessary so that the user understands the approach taken by the program in permitting easy modifications and revisions to previous entries. The gateway to all data revisions is Option 4 on the Main Menu. Option 4 permits you to examine data. That data may be in the form of summary averages, grades, assignments, or names of subjects. Although you entered the data through one of the other menu options, if you need to revise it you must do so through Menu Option 4. The forms which these changes may take are described below: - Correcting the names of students or deleting students Select Option 2 (GRADES) from the submenu. Select "Change Data" from the bottom-line menu. This will allow you to correct the student's name or delete the student from the class roster. - Correcting grades (including the entry of make-up grades when the student was previously excused from an assignment Again, select Option 2 (GRADES) from the submenu, but this time, select "Examine Grades" from the bottom-line menu. You will be prompted to identify which student's grades you want to examine. After you respond to this prompt, you will be presented with the grades. From the bottom-line menu of this screen, select "Change Data". You will then be prompted for the changes you wish to make. - Revising information about assignments, or deleting the assignment from the record Select Option 3 (ASSIGNMENTS) from the submenu. You will be presented with a list of all assignments on record for the class in memory. Select "Change Data" from the bottom-line menu. This selection will permit you to change the date, description or weighting factor of the assignment. If you respond negatively to each of these options, you will be asked if you want to delete the assignment. If you say "yes", you will be warned that deleting the assignment will erase the record of the assignment and all grades earned on the assignment for every student in the class. - Modifying the names of subjects, or deleting classes entirely Select Option 4 (LIST OF SUBJECTS) from the submenu and select "Change Data" from the bottom-line menu. You will be asked whether you want to change the name of the subject. If you respond in the negative, you will be asked if you wish to delete the class entirely. Electing to delete the class causes the erasure of all data associated with the class: the students' names, the assignments, and the grades. LICENSE GRADESCAN, its component files, and its documentation are copyrighted. They are licensed for use by a single registered user after payment of the appropriate fee, except as provided for under a thirty-day trial period during which the user may determine the applicability of the program to his or her needs. Users may make backup copies to protect against physical damage to the principal working copy, and may make copies to share with others for the purpose of permitting others to evaluate the program. This program may not be modified in any way without the express written consent of Crofton Binary Concepts. Site licenses are available from Crofton Binary Concepts. Distributors may charge a nominal fee for copying and distributing the program under normal shareware arrangements. Crofton Binary Concepts 1722 Golden Court Crofton, Maryland 21114 WARRANTY GRADESCAN has been developed and tested to ensure that it performs correctly and produces accurate and reliable results. It is developed,produced, and distributed with the understanding that it is high quality software and will work as intended. It is designed to facilitate the work of the teacher by providing an easy, yet powerful device for maintaining records of student performance. Nevertheless, this program is sold and distributed without any warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The developer and distributor (Crofton Binary Concepts) is not responsible for any damage caused by this program to equipment, other software, or humans and is not responsible for the accuracy of its results. GRADESCAN REGISTRATION FORM REQUIREMENT GRADESCAN is shareware, but it is not free of charge. If, after a reasonable evaluation period (usually 30 days), you decide to use GRADESCAN on a regular basis, or as you primary software for recording grades, you are obligated to register the program with the developer. In addition to providing you the legal rights to continue use of the program, registered owners receive notification and significant discounts on any future versions of GRADESCAN and telephone hot-line privileges. LAST NAME________________________________________________________ FIRST NAME_______________________________________________________ MIDDLE INITIAL_____________ ADDRESS___________________________________________________________ CITY__________________________________ STATE_____________________ ZIP CODE____________________ ( ) $20.00: Registration Fee ( ) $25.00: Registration Fee + Program Disk and Printed Manual ( ) 5 1/4" Disk ( ) 3 1/2" Disk ( ) $5.00: Program Disk and Printed Manual for Previously Registered Owner (One per customer, if not purchased as part of registration.) Registration fee to be enclosed in form of check or money order. MAIL TO: Crofton Binary Concepts 1722 Golden Court Crofton, Maryland 21114