Activities from outside GradeChum

Introduction

Not everything you grade happens inside GradeChum. A group project, an oral recitation, a laboratory practical or a performance task is judged in the room. The scores still belong in your class record, and they still count towards your course outcomes.

That is what the Outside GradeChum activity type is for. Its own description in the app reads "e.g. projects, oral recitations, etc." It holds a total score and the learning outcomes the work is meant to reach, and nothing else. There are no items, no answer sheet and no answering screen. You bring the scores in yourself, then release them to your students.

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Steps

To record an activity done outside GradeChum, follow these instructions:

1. On your class, under the Activities tab, click Create activity > Create new.

2. Under Enter the activity name., give your activity a name. Then, under Select the type of activity., choose Outside GradeChum.

3. Under Set the total score of this activity., type the total this activity is out of. The total is required, and it is a number from 0 to 1000.

4. Under Select and set which outcomes are targeted by this activity., tick every outcome this activity measures. They sit under the course learning outcome they belong to, as "CLO 1:", "CLO 2:" and so on, with an ILO row each. Every one you tick gets a Contribution: box, split evenly. Change a number to weight them, as long as they add up to 100%.

5. Finally, click Create activity. There is no item step and no answer sheet step for this type, so the form is shorter than usual, and GradeChum goes straight to the Success modal.

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Entering the scores

Open the activity from your Activities tab. Instead of the usual Results, Analysis and Items tabs, an outside GradeChum activity opens on a Class record list: every student in the class, numbered, with Name and Score columns. A student with no score yet shows a dash in place of their score.

Use Search a student... to find one student. A search that matches nobody shows "No students found."

There are two ways to fill the Score column.

a. Type each score

1. Click the pencil button beside a student's score.

2. Type the score, then press Enter or click the green check. Press Escape or click the red cross to cancel.

3. The score must be a number from 0 up to the total you set for the activity. A score that is empty, not a number, below 0 or above the total shows a message beside the box, such as "Score cannot be more than 20".

4. Finally, GradeChum saves the score and confirms with "Score updated successfully". If it shows "Failed to update score" instead, type the score again.

b. Import them from your class record

1. Click Import scores from class record at the top of the list, then click Upload Excel/CSV or drag your file onto the box. One .csv, .xlsx or .xls file up to 100 MB is accepted, in any Excel or CSV format. Another kind of file shows "File type not supported. Please upload a valid Excel or CSV file."

2. If your file has more than one sheet, Select sheet to import opens. Choose the sheet that holds the scores, then click Import. A file with one sheet skips this.

3. If that sheet holds more than one activity column, Select activity to import opens. Choose which column belongs to this activity, then click Import. A sheet with one activity column is imported straight away.

4. Finally, GradeChum fills the Score column and confirms with "Scores imported!" Click Done.

If the import does not go through

No activity columns found in this file. GradeChum found no column of scores in the sheet you chose. Check that the sheet has a column of scores under the activity's name, then upload it again.

Something went wrong while reading the file. or Something went wrong while reading column names. GradeChum could not read the file you uploaded. Upload it again, or save it as a new Excel or CSV file first.

Something went wrong while importing scores. The scores were read but not saved. Click Upload Excel/CSV and import the file again.

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Releasing the scores

1. Click Release results. The button stays disabled until at least one score is recorded, and hovering it then reads "The results are not yet available."

2. GradeChum asks "Release results?" with "Are you sure you want to release the results for this activity?" Click Release, or Cancel to leave the scores unreleased.

3. Finally, the activity shows Released on with the date. Your students then see their score. Click Share results beside it to send the results out, as on After the activity.

If you need to take the scores back, click Update beside Released on. GradeChum asks "Unrelease results?" with "Are you sure you want to unrelease the results for this activity?" Click Unrelease.

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How the activity looks on your Activities page

An outside GradeChum activity's card carries an orange line reading "from outside GradeChum". It shows one statistic, Avg. overall score, which stays as "N/A" until at least one score is recorded. It carries no status badge, because there is no scanning or grading behind it. Its actions menu holds only Export results, Edit and Delete.

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What your students see

Your students see the same orange "from outside GradeChum" line on their card, with Results not released until you release the scores and Results released after. Once released, the card shows their Overall Score out of the total. There are no questions, answers or reviewer to open.

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And that's how you record an activity from outside GradeChum! Next, let's create one activity for several classes.