This is an open forum to discuss the implications of a move from Gradebook2 to GradebookNG (result of the Gradebook Enhacements Project). If your institution is currently using Gradebook2, we encourage you to join the discussion and share your thoughts and concerns about the risks/advantages of switching to the new redesigned Gradebook.
Folks from Universidad de Murcia (Spain) and Texas State University (USA) organized an online BoF to start the discussion. If you could not attend, don't worry, it was recorded (available soon) and there is plenty of information for you to check afterwards.
BoF: Migrating from Gradebook2 to the new GradebookNG for Sakai 11 - JULY, 29th - 9am-10am EST
Link to the Meeting notes - Video recording available in Apereo's youtube channel
Next BoF: at Sakai Virtual Conference 15 - What do you expect from a Sakai grading tool?
Institutions using GB2
From the: Sakai Showcase Webinar: The Gradebook Enhancement Project
Outdated list of institutions using Gradebook2 - https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/SG2X/Institutions+Using+Gradebook2 (Needs to be updated)
Sakai Tools Survey 2014 results: https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/TCC/Sakai+Tool+Survey+Results+2014
Institutions considering migrating
Universidad de Murcia
Texas State University
Surely most of the Scriba institutions...
University of Notre Dame
Differences between Sakai Gradebook tools (Gradebook1, GradeBook2 and GradeBookNG)
GAP analysis between Gradebook2 and Gradebook (UNIVERSIDAD DE MURCIA)
Quick Check List (Thanks Former user (Deleted)). Please, feel free to add new rows if needed.
| GB1 [11.x] | GB2 [1.9.1] | GB NG | Related JIRA | Comments/Questions | |
| Weighted items | N | Y | N | ||
| Able to include an item in the final grade if such item is not visible to students | N | Y | N | ||
| Option to choose if grades are re-scaled when Gradebook Item Point Value is changed | N | Y | N | ||
| Student section awareness for items created from external tools | Y | N | N | Error rendering macro 'jira' : Unable to locate Jira server for this macro. It may be due to Application Link configuration. | Needs clarification (1). NOTE (January 2016). Tested in GradebookNG in trunk-oracle.nightly.sakaiproject.org |
| Export the final course grades in PDF format | Y | N | N | GBNG does not export to PDF format. | |
| Export the student's final points summation | Y | N | Y | ||
| Export the student grades to PDF format | Y | N | N | GBNG does not export to PDF format. | |
| Loading Dock | Y | N | N | Improved import/export process | |
| Import/Export the full Gradebook Structure (categories, weights) | N | Y | N | The student grades are not imported when using the 'Import from Site' option in GB1 and GBNG. | |
| Import more than one grade item | N | Y | Y | ||
| Import the "Gradebook Item Point Value" | N | Y | Y | Updated. GB1 doesn't have this capability. Please see below (2) | |
| Import/Export .XLS files | Y | Y | N | GBNG only allows importing/exporting .CSV files. GB2 allows importing/exporting .XLSX files too. | |
| Allow the category weights summation be different from 100% | N | Y | N | No one should do this anyway! | |
| Average course grade, Student final point summation, Category class average, Grade item class average, Student category average | Y | N | N |
| Also, will have more detailed grade stats in the future. NOTE (January 2016). GradebookNG only is missing 'Category class average'. |
| Ability to discard the highest grades or keep the highest grades in the Category | Y | N | N | NOTE (January 2016). Its only working for the final course grade but its not working for 'student category average'. | |
| Number of clicks to remove a Grade item | 4 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Set Ungraded Items to Zero: set all gradebook items included in the final grade to 0 | Y | N | Y | Added ability to set a given gradebook item to zero or another value. | |
| Give ungraded no credit: set only one grade item to 0 | N | Y | Y | Added ability to set a given gradebook item to zero or another value. | |
| Revert the action of setting grade items to 0 | N | Y | N | ||
| History log. Register events related to: grade items, categories or gradebook | N | Y | N | Goal is to have more detailed reporting in the future that could include this. | |
| Excel entry mode to input grades | N | Y | Y | ||
| Sort categories | N | Y | Y | ||
| Submit final grades through InstitutionalAdvisor | N | Y | Needs clarification (3) | ||
| Minimum score: It is the minimum score necessary to reach in the gradebook item to pass the course | N | N | N | ||
| Full support section awareness | N | N | N | ||
| 2 category levels (term course) | N | N | N | ||
| Weight items equally | N | Y | N | ||
| Weight items by points | N | Y | Y | ||
| 'Import from site' option: Import the full gradebook structure from one site to another | Y | N | Y | The student grades are not imported. | |
| Excuse individual students from the grade items | N | Y | N | ||
| Add a comment to a student particular grade in the external grade items | N | Y | N | ||
| Letter grading | Y (off by default) | Y | N |
(1) Students won’t see in GB1 items created from Assignments or Assessments for an specific group if they are not members of the specific groups. Please see the point 4 from GAP analysis between Gradebook2 and Gradebook.
(2) GB1 is not able to import the "Gradebook Item Point Value" from the Loading Dock. Please see the image below:
(3) InstitutionalAdvisor is a java bean interface that allows submitting the final grades from Gradebook2 to a final SiS or LMS system. That interface must be implemented by the institution. This option is called "Submit Final Grade" in the "Tools" option from the Gradebook2's toolbar.
Queries results - data analysis about GradeBook2 usage
Former user (Deleted) shared the following queries that can help to understand Gradebook2 usage at your institution: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/e628571e0f712490346e
You could share the results of those queries in the following page.
What features could be added to Gradebook to close the gap
- Weighted items within a category
- ...
Making GradeBook2 functional in Sakai 11 (getting it working with Morpheus...)
Portal handlers are not processing GB2 content properly, maybe it could be fixed but I don’t know how, so far. After achieving GB2 iframeless ready, other problems will come out, mixing GWT javascript with common portal javascript could cause problems, nothing tested, so far.
Quick Fix (by Former user (Deleted)): Still using iframes with GB2 adding this property to sakai.properties.
# Still IFRAMES with GB2
portal.iframesuppress=:all:sakai.rsf.evaluation:sakai.gradebook.gwt.rpc
version Gradebook2 1.8.1 working in the latest version of Sakai Trunk.
IMPORTANT: This fix is not going to work anymore, Sakai 11 is upgraded to Spring 4 and GB2 is not compatible, it has to be fixed in order to run in Sakai 11.
UPDATE: A new patch to fix GB2 problems was added in
Documentation to help users transition from GradeBook2 to GradeBook
- Please, add useful links or material here...