Online Grade Book
Catalyst GradeBook Coming in September
Learning & Scholarly Technologies will release the Catalyst GradeBook on September 10, 2008. Catalyst GradeBook will allow faculty and instructors to securely record, track, and post grades so that students can track their progress throughout the quarter. Created with the help of software engineers from Computer Science & Engineering and support from the Student Technology Fee Committee, Catalyst GradeBook will leverage a parallel effort with the Office of Information Management and the Registrar to enable online submission of class grades.
Click thumbnail to view full image. Initially, Catalyst GradeBook will let faculty:
- quickly set up a grade book for a class with automatically imported and updated class lists;
- easily record scores, track progress, and calculate grades;
- collaborate on grading with co-instructors and teaching assistants; and
- let students know where they stand by publishing scores for students to view securely online.
If you would like a demonstration or workshop for your department, send an email to catalysthelp@u.washington.edu.
Additional Autumn Quarter releases will add several features to Catalyst GradeBook, including importing and exporting grade data from spreadsheets, and adding scores automatically from Catalyst Tools such as WebQ or Collect It.
Project Background
In November 2007, the Catalyst Team began user research for the development of an online grade book. Catalyst developed the grade book in conjunction with software engineers from Computer Science and Engineering, to provide and enhance the functionality of their grade book to the entire campus. A parallel effort by OIM and the Registrar is underway to enable online submission of class grades. The Catalyst grade book application will be the first tool to take advantage of the online grade submission.
More than 350 faculty, students, and instructional staff responded to a survey on grading practices and the kind of features they would like to see. Over 95% of faculty, TAs, and instructional staff and over 98% of undergraduate and graduate students said that they would find an online grade book beneficial, with slightly more than 50% of instructors and almost 90% of students indicating that giving students easy access to information about how they are doing throughout the quarter is very important. Selected findings are shown below.
Click thumbnail to view full image. 
Click thumbnail to view full image. During Winter 2008, the Catalyst team completed user research efforts, conducting extensive interviews with faculty and teaching assistants to identify needs and understand common workflow. Combined with the survey data, these findings informed the features and functionality that will be developed for the first release of the grade book. The target release date for the grade book is early September, 2008.
