WebCT and online grade submission, Update

Walt Milligan, 9/4/2007

Michigan Tech is among the last universities in the nation to migrate to electronic grade submission. The vast majority of faculty have been begging for this and complaining about the bubble sheets for a very long time.

There are numerous mechanisms in place at other universities for electronic grade submission. Many universities use simple website applications, where a list of students is produced and the instructor enters a grade in a dialog box for each student. While this has the advantage of simplicity, in practice the only advantage over bubble sheets is that it can be done remotely. It will stlll be very time consuming for large sections.

Current practice for large sections is that instructors use the WebCT gradebook, which has calculation features and the ability to set up automatic grade assignments. For example, the instructor can decide that 86% - 90% is an AB. The instructors then export the WebCT gradebook to Excel, burn it to CD, and send it to OSRR, where some magic or another happens to obtain the grades.

A huge advantage of the new version of WebCT is that it is based on an Oracle database, the same as Banner. With some clever programming by the IT professionals in Administrative Information Services and Distributed Computing Services, as well as excellent collaboration with OSRR, it is now possible for Banner to talk directly to WebCT. This ylelds the following advantages:

  • Classes can be set up automatically. Class rosters can be updated in real time.
  • Grades can be submitted directly to Banner.
  • Rosters and grades are protected by a secure environment.

A successful trial of the system occurred in Spring 2007, including small sections, large sections, and multiple-section courses. Participants included Sarah Green (large chemistry section), Bob Weidman (large Physics section), Mike Meyer (multiple physics lab sections), Amber Kemppainen (multiple engineering fundamentals sections), Bill Yarroch (completely online distance learning course), and myself. This system was also used successfully for years at Georgia Tech.

Beginning in Spring 2008, electronic grade submission will be required via WebCT. It is my hope that instructors will see the power of the tool and utilize it for more than grade submission eventually.

Some problems which have routinely been noticed include the following:

  • Faculty log in and cannot find their courses. In every case, this has been due to the fact that the faculty member was not listed as the instructor of record in OSRR. This is going to require better communication between department coordinators and OSRR, earlier in the process.
  • Browser problems. Make sure pop-up blockers are turned off, and the webct sites are set as "trusted sites" in IE, otherwise file download may be blocked.
  • Java out of compliance. Check with your system administrator.

We are developing training materials, both online and in person. The in-person training sessions will be available starting sometime in the Fall semester, and continuing through Spring. Due to a shortage of staff, these resources were not available to start the Fall semester. This is the reason that we have put off the mandatory grade submission until Spring 2008.

A document that was distributed to the faculty and explains where to find resources may be found here.

We appreciate the support and understanding of the faculty during this transition.