=== KB Gradebook === Contributors: adamrbrown Donate link: http://adambrown.info/b/widgets/donate/ Tags: education, gradebook, grades, school, teaching Requires at least: 2.0 Tested up to: 2.2.1 Stable tag: trunk Many instructors already use WordPress to run course websites. Now they can also use WordPress to let students securely check their grades. == Description == Students are frequently more concerned about their grades than they ought to be. Reduce some of their academic stress by letting them see what you've recorded for them in your grade book. If you're like me, you'll be surprised how frequently your students notice that you mis-recorded a grade. Includes an optional widget. = How it Works = From a special page in your Wordpress administration menus, you paste in your grades from a spreadsheet like Excel. One of the columns in your spreadsheet should contain each student's (or parent's) email address. The plugin generates a random password corresponding with each email address, which students use to log in and check their grades. When you want to update the online gradesheet, you just paste the spreadsheet in again, just like the first time. After pasting in your spreadsheet, you type up a message that will be personalized for each student. For example, if one of the columns in your spreadsheet is called "midterm" and another is called "final," your message might be something like this: > You got a #!midterm!# on the midterm and a #!final!# on your final. Obviously, individual students would see their grades substituted in for `#!midterm!#` and `#!final!#`. If you don't feel like typing out a message, you don't have to; when a student logs in, she'll just see an automatically generated table showing her all the grades you have recorded for her. After uploading a gradesheet, create a page containing `##!KB Gradebook!##` somewhere in the body. That's where your students will go to check their grades. There's also a sidebar widget included if that's your thing. = Features = * You can have several different courses at once if you want. Just give each one a unique name, like "Second period English" or "Econ 100, Fall 2007." It's okay if the same students are in more than one class. * Just paste your data straight in from Excel (or another spreadsheet). No need to export as CSV first or anything. = Limitations = This is BETA software, particularly the gradesheet importation part. Although the student interface should work on just about any recent version of Wordpress, you might have trouble importing your grades. I have tested the import functions using Excel/Firefox/Windows XP, but not on other setups. Please post a comment at the [KB Gradebook plugin page](http://adambrown.info/b/widgets/kb-gradebook/) if you have success/errors using other setups so I can get a feel for what more needs to be done to make the importation easier or smoother. = Support = If you post your support questions as comments below, I probably won't see them. If the FAQs don't answer your questions, you can post support questions at the [KB Gradebook plugin page](http://adambrown.info/b/widgets/kb-gradebook/) on my site. == Installation == 1. Make sure you understand the licensing terms, particularly if you're using Wordpress MU. 1. Upload `kb_gradebook.php` to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory. 1. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress. 1. Go to the new 'Manage => KB Gradebook' admin page. You'll find instructions for importing grades. Give it a go. It might take you 10 minutes the first time, but will only take a minute or two once you've got the hang of it. 1. Create a new page called "Grade Viewer" or something. Add `##!KB Gradebook!##` somewhere in the body. 1. Navigate to this new page. You should see a form for checking grades. You can test that it worked by adding yourself to your gradesheet before uploading it. Then, you can punch your own email address into the grade viewing page and see what happens. If you like, you can add the KB Gradebook widget to your sidebar at this point. It will want to know the URL of the grade viewing page, so make sure you create that first. == License == This plugin is provided "as is" and without any warranty or expectation of function. I'll probably try to help you if you ask nicely, but I can't promise anything. You are welcome to use this plugin and modify it however you want, as long as you give credit where it is due. Exception: If you are running a multiuser for-profit blog farm (i.e. you're using Wordpress MU) and are providing this plugin (or a derivative of it) to ten or more users, contact me and we'll discuss a suitable donation. Note that this applies only to people who are using my plugin on a for-profit site. This plugin didn't write itself, you know. An additional disclaimer: Your grade information is only as safe as your WordPress database. It remains your responsibility to decide whether using this plugin keeps your students' data adequately private. See the FAQs for more about security. == Screenshots == You can see an example at the [KB Gradebook plugin page](http://adambrown.info/b/widgets/kb-gradebook/). == Frequently Asked Questions == = Is my gradesheet secure? = To protect my legal rear end, I'll say that it is your job to look at the code and decide whether your data will be secure; I make no guarantees. But I do use this software myself and am comfortable doing so. If the MySQL database that holds all your WordPress information is secure, then your gradesheet should be secure. When students punch in their email address and password, they will see only their own grades on the next screen, not the entire gradebook. It is possible (but not likely) that something could go funny when you import your gradebook, and a student might end up seeing somebody else's grades instead of his own. To rule out this possibility, you will have the opportunity to check the imported gradesheet for errors before it becomes live on your site. (And even if this did happen, the student would probably have no idea whose grades he was looking at anyway.) The most likely way that data might be insecure would be if a student viewed their grades and then left them up on the screen and walked away. In this case, somebody else might see them. So you may want to post a note on your grade viewing page reminding students to close the browser after checking their grades to help prevent this. (But frankly, it would be your students' fault for not protecting their own data.) = I had students add/drop my class. Do I need to delete the old class and start over? = No. The plugin will notice the new students and generate passwords for them. The dropped students will remain in the passwords database, but they will no longer be able to log in and check their grades (since they won't show up in the gradesheet). = I'm having trouble importing my gradesheet = It works like a charm with my versions of Excel and Firefox, but I haven't tested other arrangements. Please let me know what error messages your getting (if any), what spreadsheet program you're using (and version), what browser you're using (and version), and what platform you use (Windows/Mac/Linux). I don't guarantee that I can fix it, though. = I have a question that isn't addressed here. = You may ask questions by posting a comment to the [KB Gradebook plugin page](http://adambrown.info/b/widgets/kb-gradebook/).