Grading Software

Grading is inevitable for most teachers. It is a way not only to record progress and ability, but also to motivate or
punish students. Grading software is a wonderful tool to help teachers manage their records and communicate
graded performance back to their students.
The following is a simulation of grading done in MicroGrade, a grading software thats available in BYUH.

MicroGrade Workshop 1
I received the data below as part of a grading simulation in MicroGrade, and put it into the program to
generate the grades given below.

Category Weights
Homework
10%
Quizzes
25%
Midterms
30%
Final Test
35%
Total
100%

1. Grades can also be adjusted based on the category methods used. In this example, I made the
percentage weight of categories and assignments weighted by points.
Students
Carlton, Simon
Cornelately, Johnny
Fakaofaofa, Appleton
Jones, Tom
Pagulian, Sheena
Smith, Mu Jung

Letter Grade
AAB+
B+
B+
B

Ztevenzon, Kryzza

Percent Grade
92.4%
90.5%
87.5%
87.8%
86.5%
83.5%

A+

100.4%

2. MicroGrade can also drop assignments and tests from the final grade. In this example, one test,
one assignment, and one quiz were dropped from the students final grade.
Students
Letter Grade
Percent Grade
Carlton, Simon
A
94.2%
Cornelately, Johnny
A
94.5%
Fakaofaofa, Appleton
B+
89.6%
Jones, Tom
A92.4%
Pagulian, Sheena
A90.4%
Smith, Mu Jung
B
85.3%
Your Own Name

100.4%

3. Teachers also have the option of using the Total Point method, which gives slightly different results
than when grades are weighted by percentage.
Students
Letter Grade
Percent Grade
Total Points
Carlton, Simon
A
93.1%
417/448
Cornelately, Johnny
A
97.5%
370/409
Fakaofaofa, Appleton
B+
88.8%
398/448
Jones, Tom
A90.2%
404/448
Pagulian, Sheena
B
85.5%
383/448
Smith, Mu Jung
B81.5%
365/448
Ztevenzon, Kryzza

100.7%

451/448

MicroGrade Workshop 2
Often times a class begins and a few days or weeks later a new student arrives and is enrolled in your class. In
this example, Johnny Cornelately represents a new student added to the class a week after the semester began.
I added him to the system and excused him from assignments he was unable to complete.

MicroGrade Workshop 3
MicroGrade has several other features besides grading. It can be used to setup attendance, arrange a seating
chart, or make reports. In this workshop, I used MicroGrade to mark school holidays and keep track of class
attendance. In the screenshot, the image on the right side shows changes I made to the attendance records.

MicroGrade also comes with a seating chart feature, which can be an easy way for teachers to keep track of
attendance. Below are two screen shots of the seating chart feature in MicroGrade.

Many different reports can be generated in MicroGrade such as a student roster, overall class grades, or grades
by assignment. One useful report is a statistical report. Below is a sample of a statistical report showing the
class statistics for the Final Test.

Statistical Report

MicroGrade is only one of the various grading programs available. It meets the basic
needs most teachers have for grading, however there are other grading programs
available. I did a web search and found other types of grading software available.
ThinkWave http://www.thinkwave.com/educator.html has both a free gradebook
and an administrator version that can cost as low as $14/month. I like that it has
the option of a free gradebook, and that the gradebook comes with multiple ways
to grade papersincluding the check plus/check minus method.

Gradelink gradelink.com is a cloud-based grading software that allows teachers to

grade from any computer that has internet service. It costs $79/month for up to
fifty students. I like that the program is cloud-based and doesnt require
installation.