Project: Gradebook Enhancements Home

Project Overview

The Gradebook Enhancements Project is a joint effort between NYU, Notre Dame, Asahi Net International, and Longsight to make improvements to the current Sakai Gradebook by updating the UI. The aim is to provide easier and faster grading capabilities via spreadsheet entry, to simplify and consolidate the grade import/export process, and to improve the overall user experience of the tool.

Below is a project overview. Please see the Functional Requirements page for a high-level overview of the features that will be available in the enhanced Gradebook. For an overview of technical/accessibility features and considerations, see the Technical Overview page.

The Gradebook project team will be presenting on the enhanced Gradebook at Open Apereo 2015. In the meantime, please see the following video from the 2015 Sakai Showcase Webinar for project information and a detailed walkthrough of the tool:

Additional presentation videos are available on the Presentations page.

 

Background

The Gradebook Enhancements Project began as a response to user feedback NYU received from their faculty on the current Gradebook. Other Sakai community members expressed the need to improve the current Gradebook, and therefore these improvements were pursued as a collaborative project with Notre Dame, Asahi Net International, and Longsight. NYU analyzed data from faculty surveys and help tickets and received input from project partners and other members of the Sakai community, leading to the identification of common themes. From this input, a tight project scope was defined:

  • Spreadsheet entry capabilities
  • Consolidated and simplified import/export functionality
  • Improved accessibility/usability

Methodology

The following high-level steps were undertaken as part of the project:

  • User research

  • Competitive analysis

  • Defining requirements 

  • Prototyping

  • Technical review

  • Accessibility and Usability review

  • Iterative user testing and refinement of design

  • Development 

  • QA

Additional Information

See the following pages for additional information on the project: