Tip & Bug Report: Gradebook Setting

With our current version of ANGEL (7.3) there’s a Gradebook setting you don’t want to use. If you select Manage tab > Gradebook > Preferences, you’ll see the Show Grades for Dropped Students checkbox option. Don’t select it. This has always been the recommendation during iTeach Online training sessions (offered for JCCC fcaulty at the college). By default the setting is unchecked and there is no reason for faculty to ever check it because students who drop a course (in Banner--our system is integrated with our SIS) are automatically dropped from the course in ANGEL (so their grades won’t show no matter what you do). If the student is reinstated, all their work and grades reappear intact.

The bug is this: if you select the option, students who have not dropped will (randomly) disappear from your Gradebook. They’ll appear in the class Roster, just not in the Gradebook.

GRADE BOOK GRADING CAVEAT & UPDATE

Here’s a grading scenario that doesn’t work in ANGEL: A faculty member was using the Drop Box but not recording points (e.g., 85 out of 100), but was attaching a marked up file and/or including text in the comment box. She also selected the option to send to mail. When she clicked OK, she received an error message every time. She then logged in as a student, because she weren’t sure if her students were or were not getting the messages and files she was trying to send. As a student, she made a submission; then, returned as the professor and wrote a message in the box without entering a grade; the error message appeared as it did with other students. Then, she went back into the course to see if her "student view" displayed the comments or if she had a mail message; the comments did not appear and the email never came.

When grading in a Drop Box, if you leave the grade blank it generates a type mis-match error message. This has been reported to ANGEL. While the error is not very descriptive, it’s trying to signal that you need a grade in the field to continue. So the process includes these steps:

1. Open the course.
2. Go to Lessons and select the Drop Box ready for grading.
3. Grade a student’s work and leave the grade blank.
4. You see the error message.
5. Entering any number including 0 in the field will prevent the error.

This issue is addressed in the July 2009 ANGEL 7.3 Patch, which is currently being tested in a pre-production environment at JCCC. The July patch does appear to correct this problem so an error is not generated when faculty do not enter a grade but include comments on a Drop Box assignment.

ANGEL Issue Updates: December Release

We’re expecting a software release from ANGEL on Monday, December 15, 2008. The release includes two fixes that were requested by JCCC. As soon as the patch arrives, we’ll test and if possible install on production before the holiday break. Here are the details:

• Algorithmic Math Computation Error - In the algorithmic question type in Assessments, ANGEL is calculating natural logarithms incorrectly. As near as we can tell, ANGEL is rounding the argument before calculating the natural log. This error appears to be happening with all three versions of logarithms (log, ln, and log10) supplied by ANGEL.
  
  For instance, Angel is saying that the answer to the natural logarithm of 1.49 is 0. The correct answer should be 0.39878. However, the natural logarithm of 1 is 0, which fits the hypothesis that ANGEL is rounding the argument (1.49 in this case, rounded down to 1) before calculating the logarithm.
  
• LOR Folders: Can't Access Course Items When Linked From Inside Folder - When linking to a folder in a LOR, it seems to work okay until you try to view one of the items inside the folder, at which point you get an Access Denied error. Linking to a folder should work, as specified in the ANGEL documentation.
  
  Linking to the individual items in the LOR works, just not linking to the entire folder.

ANGEL Work-around: Course Tools Nugget

If you want to add the Course Tools nugget to your course, you need to “trick” ANGEL. Here’s an example of how you can do this:

1. Go to the Resources tab.
2. Select the Edit Page link, upper left corner of the screen.
3. Select the Add Components button.
4. When the Available Components window appears, scroll down until you find Course Tools item listed and select the check box the precedes the tool name.
5. Select the Add Selected button.
6. Click the User Preview button, select the Student radio button and click the Begin Preview button.
7. Go back to the Resources tab and you’ll see the Course Tools nugget visible.
8. If you go back to view the Resources tab as a Course Editor, you won’t see the nugget, but it is available for the student.

Note: We have reported this problem to ANGEL and they are working on a fix.