Yes, you read that right. This weekend (May 2, from 6am to 2pm), cuLearn will undergo its annual upgrade and this year a number of improvements to the gradebook will refine the user interface and enhance system capabilities. As a sneak peak to what is being improved, some of the most significant changes that will affect the teaching and learning body will be highlighted below.
First up are a few changes in terminology and reorganization of how the gradebook is assembled. What is currently called the ‘Categories and Items’ tab, will now be called ‘Setup’. Within ‘Setup’, two tabs which previously appeared on the main tab list now appear on this page: ‘Course grade settings’ and ‘My Preferences’. This reorganization places within the same area and cleans up the overall appearance. As well, there used to be Simple View and Full View options on this page, but now the extra options have been placed within the ‘Edit Settings’ menu for each category in the gradebook, thus eliminating clutter.
One more notable feature change: Now, when adding grade items or categories to the gradebook, you can add their weights during the setup, as opposed to coming back to the main page, then adding them there. This is a move to streamline the setup process and will prove to make things simpler when it comes to weights of specific items, and hopefully make things clearer for those trying to put their gradebooks together.
Next, the grader report will now allow the header and footer, as well as the names column to be fixed and the rest of gradebook area can be scrolled through to find a specific cell. This means no more frustrating up and down scrolling looking for the precise cell because you can’t see which column or row you are in.
There are a few new reports that add the overall capabilities of the gradebook and were both often requested. Grade history allows you to track revisions of an individual’s grades or specific grade items, and Single view allows you to enter grades for only a single grade item or user in order to prevent grades from accidentally being entered into a different column or row. Both of these new features have been added as a result of repeated requests from throughout the community. For the Single view, there is a shortcut next to the users’ name on the Grader report. It is located next the User report shortcut. Speaking of the User report, it has been revamped by adding an extra column called ‘Contribution to course total’ and now there should be less confusion from students as to what their grades mean within the context of the course.
Overall, these adjustments represent notable changes to the gradebook and how instructors will work with it. There are certainly differences from the current state, but many of the common complaints about the gradebook have been addressed and we feel that you will agree that these changes are for the good.
For an outline of these and other changes in the upcoming Moodle 2.8 version of cuLearn, please visit the cuLearn updates page on the cuLearn support site.