To: acadforum-l@mtu.edu
From: Walter Milligan <milligan@mtu.edu>
Subject: Electronic Grade Submission - Important
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:05:22 -0500

Colleagues,

Sorry for the length of this message.  Please
don't give up in the middle of it, because we need
replies from you that are explained towards the
end.

thanks
walt

--
Walter W. Milligan
Chief Information Officer
Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI  49931
(906) 487-2015, milligan@mtu.edu
www.mtu.edu/oit

Dear Colleagues,

Fall semester was the second "test" phase for the
electronic grade submission project.  In Spring 2007,
a dozen or so pre-selected faculty members conducted
the first test.  In the Fall semester which just ended,
we allowed anyone to submit grades electronically.
This communication summarizes what we learned
from that exercise, and introduces our plan for
the required submission in Spring 2008.  We need
feedback from you, as discussed at the end of this
communication.

We were very pleased with the turnout.  Out of 1802
CRN's, 330 participated in electronic grade submission
(18%).  Grades were submitted electronically by
approximately 120 instructors in 33 different
departments.

The new procedures will reduce mistakes, and we now
have data to prove that.  Mike Meyer, who coordinates all
the physics labs, asked his TA's to fill out bubble sheets.  He
submitted grades electronically instead of submitting
the bubble sheets, and he learned by comparing the
two afterwards that 4 mistakes had been made in
filling out bubble sheets from the WebCT grade sheets.
In previous semesters, these four mistakes would have
made it all the way to the student report cards.

The process was NOT smooth for everyone, in some
cases due to problems that we created, and in other
cases due to unforeseen problems that are easily fixed.
It should go much more smoothly in the Spring.

Three improvements are now in place that will
make faculty jobs easier:

1.  All courses are "pre-built".  When faculty log in to
courses.mtu.edu, every course that has been assigned to
them will be present and will be populated.  (In the past,
instructors had to "build" each course.)

2.  The gradebooks are pre-populated with proper columns
for mid-term grades and final grades.

3.  The rosters and gradebooks will be updated daily
by Banner for the entire semester.  If a student is dropped
and then re-added, any data or assignments that were submitted
or entered before dropping will be recovered automatically.

In addition to these upgrades, we have fixed some
programming errors that caused undue pain at grade
submission time.

Three important issues are discussed below:
training, "grade coordinators", and faculty who are
incapable of participating in this for one reason or
another.

1.  Training

Within the next three weeks, we will have developed
a self-contained paper manual on how to submit grades electronically.
It will be a step-by-step manual, not skipping any steps, and
with screen-shots.  We learned a couple of valuable lessons
this semester, and they will be addressed in this publication.

After this is completed, I will be happy to visit department meetings
for 30 minutes or so and go over the process prior to mid-term
grade submission.  I can also do it later in the semester if
you prefer.

As discussed below in (3), we will also be "training the
trainers".

2.  Grade Coordinators

Currently, most departments have a staff member
assigned to keeping track of who has submitted grades and
who hasn't.  Department Chairs have said that they would like
to retain this function.  We will be developing electronic
reports that will be accessible online to the Grade
Coordinators for this purpose.

3.  Electronic Grade submission "helpers"

We have heard from numerous Department Chairs that
there are faculty who are going to be incapable of
submitting grades electronically.  Many other faculty members
will probably need a little help the first time through.

Discussion with a diverse group of people resulted
in the following recommendation, which solves both
problems.  We are asking each Department to assign
one or two "Grading Facilitators".  These can be tech-savvy
clerical staff, professional staff, technical staff, faculty, or
TA's.  These people will receive very good training,
and will be given the authority to submit grades on
behalf of faculty who are either incapable of doing it themselves,
or who are unavailable due to illness or travel or other
commitments.   Of course, we hope that most of their
function is helping faculty do it themselves, and we hope
that the fraction of faculty that submit their own grades
approaches 100% within the next year.

Note that, in some cases, the Grading Coordinator and
the "Grading Facilitator" could be the same person.

Action items:

Please e-mail the name(s) of your proposed "Grading
Facilitator(s)" to Sharri Karppinen in the Office of
Student Records and Registration, smkarppi@mtu.edu

Please let me know if and when you would like me
to spend 30 minutes with your faculty going over the
process.  milligan@mtu.edu

As always, feel free to call if you would like to discuss
these issues.   487-2015

thanks
walt