5 ms·

You're describing here a different problem, which I know from talking to teachers also causes them stress. The people who make the software cause this problem,

You're describing here a different problem, which I know from talking to teachers also causes them stress. The people who make the software cause this problem, not the teachers themselves. They often don't have a way to avoid this and they aren't the ones deciding what software is used.

emiliobumachar 8y ago
Seconded. Showing "F" as a placeholder for pending data entry is a very, very bad idea. Equivalent to a hypothetical email software that autofills "Fuck you" if you don't type anything.
kbenson 8y ago
I assume the simple way to avoid it would be to not create an assignment in the system ready for grades to be entered until you actually have grades to enter. While a way to put an assignment in a state that it doesn't affect overall grades would be good and annoying if missing, it doesn't seem like something that's impossible to work around.
- ams6110 8y ago
  The system simply needs to differentiate between a grade "not yet posted" and a zero. I'm not sure why this observation has not been made by LMS software designers.
- kaitai 8y ago
  But if you don't create the assignment, then it doesn't show up in the calendar, and if it doesn't show up in the calendar (even if it's in 28-point bold font with a date next to it on the main page) then students claim they didn't know there was an assignment due! One can create 'fake' assignment-like pages with the assignment details and then enter an event into the calendar that's not linked to the assignment-info-that's-not-the-assignment-so-it-won't-show-in-the-gradebook, but then you can't have the rubric for grading built onto it because only assignments can have the grading built in, and then you need to turn the assignment itself on at some point and make sure students know to submit there since it'll be a different link than the assignment-thats-not-an-assignment so you'll still have blank grades until the thing's graded, because you can't submit files through not-an-assignment pages. I've tried this and several other iterations.
Aeolun 8y ago
I don’t think it’s the people that ‘make’ the software. It’s the people that decide what software to make.

emiliobumachar 8y ago

Seconded. Showing "F" as a placeholder for pending data entry is a very, very bad idea. Equivalent to a hypothetical email software that autofills "Fuck you" if you don't type anything.

kbenson 8y ago

I assume the simple way to avoid it would be to not create an assignment in the system ready for grades to be entered until you actually have grades to enter. While a way to put an assignment in a state that it doesn't affect overall grades would be good and annoying if missing, it doesn't seem like something that's impossible to work around.

ams6110 8y ago
The system simply needs to differentiate between a grade "not yet posted" and a zero. I'm not sure why this observation has not been made by LMS software designers.
kaitai 8y ago
But if you don't create the assignment, then it doesn't show up in the calendar, and if it doesn't show up in the calendar (even if it's in 28-point bold font with a date next to it on the main page) then students claim they didn't know there was an assignment due! One can create 'fake' assignment-like pages with the assignment details and then enter an event into the calendar that's not linked to the assignment-info-that's-not-the-assignment-so-it-won't-show-in-the-gradebook, but then you can't have the rubric for grading built onto it because only assignments can have the grading built in, and then you need to turn the assignment itself on at some point and make sure students know to submit there since it'll be a different link than the assignment-thats-not-an-assignment so you'll still have blank grades until the thing's graded, because you can't submit files through not-an-assignment pages. I've tried this and several other iterations.

Aeolun 8y ago

I don’t think it’s the people that ‘make’ the software. It’s the people that decide what software to make.