Improve grading in the Sakai Attendance tool

[alanpepperprof]

First, thank you for contributing this great tool. It has helped me as an instructor and it helps the professors at my institution tally attendance.

Second, I would very much like to see a simpler way to automate grading. The current method is too difficult to use. I have to enter an unnecessary number of rules to otherwise accomplish a very simple process. If I simply want to award 1 point for every time someone is present or absent, I have to create a FROM/TO combination for each day for all possible combinations, which is utterly unacceptable. (I'm sorry, but it is!)

Please add an additional method for automated grading and call it "Simple Grading Method" (or equivalent). With this selection, just provide a simple table. One column has the category label (e.g. Present, Absent, etc.), and the second column is Points to Award for Each Instance (e.g. 1 point, .5 point, 0 points).

The grading would then award points for each attendance item (class 1, class 2, etc.) and each status (Present, Absent, etc.). That's it.

EXAMPLE 1:
A class will meet once a week for 16 weeks, no holidays. There are 16 total class periods and the instructor states that the total points possible is 16.

GRADING RULES:
Option: "Students start with zero points and earn points as they attend class."

Simple Grading Method
Category | Points to Award for Each Attendance Item
Present | 1
Absent | 0
Excused | 1
Late | .5
Left Early | .5

GRADING RULES APPLIED

Sally Student
Class 1 Present (1)
Class 2 Present (1)
Class 3 Late (.5)
Class 4 Present (1)
Class 5 Excused (1)
Class 6 Excused (1)
Class 7 Present (1)
Class 8 Present (1)
Class 9 Present (1)
Class 10 Left Early (.5)
Class 11 Absent (0)
Class 12 Absent (0)
Class 13 Present (1)
Class 14 Present (1)
Class 15 Present (1)
Class 16 Present (1)

Total = 1 + 1 + .5 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + .5 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 13 out of 16 = 81.25%

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EXAMPLE 2:
A class will meet once a week for 16 weeks, no holidays. There are 16 total class periods and the instructor states that the total points possible is 16.

GRADING RULES:
Option: "Students start with the total number of points and lose points as they miss class."

Simple Grading Method
Category | Points to Deduct for Each Attendance Item
Present | 0
Absent | 1
Excused | 0
Late | .25
Left Early | .25

Since the above table may be misinterpreted by some professors, I recommend to the right of each box, interpreting the entry. So, for an entry of 0 or a box left blank add a parenthetical "(no deduction)" and for an entry or 1 add a parenthetical of "(-1 or 1 point(s) deducted)" and for an entry of -.25 add a parenthetical of "(+.25 or .25 awarded)" so that someone could go, Uh oh, and change -.25 to .25 for a new parenthetical of "(-.25 or .25 deducted)". I hope that this makes sense. The same logic could be applied in Example 1 easily enough, but I felt that professors might need more guidance on Example 2.

GRADING RULES APPLIED

Sally Student
Class 1 Present (0 deduction)
Class 2 Present (0)
Class 3 Late (-.25 or .25 deducted)
Class 4 Present (0)
Class 5 Excused (0)
Class 6 Excused (0)
Class 7 Present (0)
Class 8 Present (0)
Class 9 Present (0)
Class 10 Left Early (-.25 or .25 deducted)
Class 11 Absent (-1 or 1 deducted)
Class 12 Absent (-1 or 1 deducted)
Class 13 Present (0)
Class 14 Present (0)
Class 15 Present (0)
Class 16 Present (0)

Total = 0 + 0 - .25 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 - .25 - 1 - 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = -2.5 + 16 = 13.5 out of 16 = 84.375% = 84.38%

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I hope that this makes sense. I know that having an option like this would make my life a lot easier and I feel like it would benefit the majority of professors that choose to grade attendance.

NOTE: I have known some graduate professors that choose to tally attendance but not "award" attendance. In that scenario, they would choose to set the total points possible to 0 points and use Example 2 to deduct points for behavior that detracts from the learning experience, such as absence, arriving late, or leaving early. In that situation, the graduate professor would allow a negative score (e.g. attendance grade of -2.5 so the student's overall grade would be reduced by 2.5 points). This style of grading may be more fringe but I wanted to share in case it helps with interpreting options or sending grades to the gradebook.

Thank you for considering this feature request.

[davidpbauer]

Thanks Alan for the detailed request!

The grading rules were created for specific use-cases at UD and are clearly not as easy and accessible as we'd like. We are in the planning stages of some major work to the tool, and I'll make sure to include you in any grading refactoring.

[drramsey]

David, any update on the grading refactoring work?