U-021, An Electronic Gradebook Package
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ty of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, copyright 1995. Please credit UVa,
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TITLE:Electronic Gradebook Package DOCUMENT NO: U-021
DATE: May 1, 1995 VERSION NO: 4
INTRODUCTION
The gradebook programs are designed to maintain classroom grades for
instructors and teaching assistants. These programs, which reside on the
RS/6000 computers, include a number of useful features, such as computing
weighted averages; optionally deleting the lowest grade from a set of
grades; producing a formatted gradebook to be printed; producing a histogram
of grades; and sorting the gradebook by name, by student ID, or by one of
the grades.
The commands in the gradebook package and their functions are:
gconvt - Convert a class list from the Registrar to gradebook format.
gnew - Create a gradebook and add or alter information.
gtype - Compute averages and print a formatted gradebook.
ghist - Create a histogram on a particular grade field.
gsort - Sort on any field in ascending or descending order.
gletter - Assign letter grades to a field in the gradebook.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Following is a list of some words and symbols used in this document and
their definitions:
field Unique name or title for each column in the gradebook file.
record A line in the gradebook file which contains information for a
person.
max Maximum score which can be earned for each test or assign-
ment. Each grade field must be assigned a non-zero maximum
value.
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 2
weight Weight of each field. This value may be any real number
greater than or equal to 0. Non-grade fields have a weight
of zero.
Ctrl Symbol to represent the control key. To enter a control
character, hold down the control key (labeled Ctrl on most
keyboards), press the letter key indicated, and then release
both keys (as in Ctrl-d).
<CR> Symbol to represent the carriage return key, often labeled
RETURN, ENTER, or .
CREATING THE GRADEBOOK
There are two methods available for creating the initial gradebook
file. One method is to type in the names and ID numbers using the gnew com-
mand. This interactive method works well if your class size is small. For
larger classes, a quicker (and hopefully less painful) method is to request
that the Registrar send you the names and Social Security numbers of stu-
dents in your class and use the gconvt command to create the gradebook file
for you. Both methods are explained below.
The default gradebook filename used by all the gradebook programs is
scores. However, you may name the file anything you choose. If you use a
name other than scores, you will have to tell the gradebook commands the
name you have chosen. Any valid Unix filename may be used. The input file
for all gradebook commands except gconvt must be in the special gradebook
file format, which is outlined in the Appendix.
Using Gconvt to Create the Gradebook
Through electronic mail, the Registrar's office can provide you with a
list of students who are registered for your class. The command gconvt
reorganizes this information into a gradebook file, keeping you from having
to type in each person's name and student ID.
You must first request this information from the Registrar's office,
and it will be sent to your electronic mail address. When the information
arrives in your mailbox, store it in a file and edit that file to remove the
mail headers. The format of the Registrar's file is shown in the Appendix.
To put the file in gradebook format, run the following command, typing < and
> as shown:
gconvt <registrar_file >grade_file<CR>
where
registrar_file is the file received from the Registrar's office with mail
headers removed; and
grade_file is the gradebook file in the proper format. If
>grade_file is omitted, the gradebook file will be printed
to your screen.
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 3
Using Gnew to Create the Gradebook
Use the following command to create a gradebook file interactively:
gnew -i grade_file<CR>
where grade_file is the name of the gradebook file you will create. The
name can be scores or any other name that you choose. The file should have
a unique name which is not already present on your account. After you enter
this command, you will see the message
gnew: can't open "grade_file", new gradebook?
This means that the file grade_file was not found. Since you want to set up
a new gradebook file, type the letter y followed by a carriage return. Gnew
will then prompt you for students' names (up to 32 characters with last name
first) and ID numbers (up to 12 characters). Enter each piece of informa-
tion on a separate line, ending each line with a carriage return. When you
have entered this information for all the students, stop the program by typ-
ing a Ctrl-d.
EXAMPLE
A sample session using gnew to set up a gradebook follows, with the
user input in bold print. In this example, Henry Wadsworth's student ID is
not known.
$ gnew -i scores<CR>
gnew: can't open "scores", new gradebook? y<CR>
gradebook created.
add student records to gradebook...
entry 1:
name (last, first) = Smith, Harry<CR>
student# = 112324085<CR>
entry 2:
name (last, first) = Elsworth, Garth<CR>
student# = 223006555<CR>
entry 3:
name (last, first) = Atkins, Maria<CR>
student# = 220157788<CR>
entry 4:
name (last, first) = Wadsworth, Henry<CR>
student# = <CR>
entry 5:
name (last, first) = Ctrl-d
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 4
UPDATING THE GRADEBOOK USING GNEW
To add or alter information in the gradebook file, use the following command:
gnew field_id [-i grade_file] [-f score_file] [-e error_file] [name score. . .]
where
field_id is one of the following:
o field title (as specified in the header line of the grade-
book);
o the integer number of a field, where the fields are numbered
from left to right, beginning with 1 for the name field; or
o one of the keywords fields, max, weights, adds, or drops.
-i grade_file
specifies the name of your gradebook file. If you use scores
as your filename, omit -i grade_file unless you are creating
a gradebook.
-f score_file
specifies the name of the file that contains student ID
numbers and scores for a new field. If the -f option is not
included on the command line, gnew assumes that you will be
entering the test scores interactively. See ``Adding a
Field'' below and the Appendix for more information.
-e error_file
specifies the name of the file that contains the mismatches
found between grade_file and score_file. If the -e option is
not used, the mismatches will be displayed as part of your
interactive session.
name is the name of a student.
score is the score of a test or assignment for that student. Note
that name and score must be paired.
When gnew prompts you for input, there are four responses you can make:
o Ctrl-d saves your changes and ends the program.
o Ctrl-c exits the program without changing the gradebook.
o A carriage return leaves the current line unchanged and prompts you
with the next line.
o Anything else becomes the new contents of a field.
Adding a Field
There are two ways to add new scores to a gradebook: you can enter
each score interactively, or gnew can read the scores from a file. To enter
the test scores interactively, type gnew field_id, where field_id is a new
field title that has not already been used in the gradebook file. You will
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 5
be asked if this is a new field; type y<CR>. The program will prompt you
for the maximum score, weight of the test, and the students' scores. When
each student's name is displayed on the screen, enter the score and press a
carriage return. After scores have been entered for all students in the
gradebook, you will be returned to the Unix command line.
Another way to add a new score field to the gradebook is to bring in
student IDs and test scores from a file. The format required for this file
is shown in the Appendix. This file can be produced by the test-scoring
program run by ITC/Carruthers Hall, or by the ts program which is available
on the RS/6000 computers (see document U-022, ``TS: A Test-Scoring Pro-
gram'').
To read scores in from a file, use the -f option on the command line.
Be sure that the field title you choose has not already been used in the
gradebook file. You will be asked if this is a new field; type y<CR>. The
program will prompt you for the maximum score and the weight of the test;
then it will read the students' scores from the file. Each student in the
gradebook file whose student# matches an ID in score_file will receive the
test score found in the matching entry. Students whose IDs do not appear in
score_file must have their scores entered interactively. Also, gnew will
display student IDs found in score_file which do not exist in the gradebook
file.
To save the list of mismatches between the gradebook and the
score_file, use the -e option on the command line. The list will then be
saved in error_file so you can have it available for making corrections to
the gradebook interactively.
Remember that neither the hyphen (-) nor the underscore (_) should be
used in field titles, and that the field title should contain at least as
many characters as the largest element in that field. Also, if the -d op-
tion of gtype will be used to drop the lowest of a group of grades, all the
field titles for those grades must begin with the same string of letters, as
in QUIZ1, QUIZ2, QUIZ3, etc.
If you specify the integer number of a field that does not exist in the
gradebook file, gnew will assume that you are adding a new field and will
prompt you for information for that field. You can reorder fields using the
rangelist option of gtype.
Changing Information in a Field
To alter existing data in a field of the gradebook file, enter the name
of an existing field on the gnew command line. Gnew will prompt you for all
information associated with that field, displaying its identifying informa-
tion and current value, and prompting for new values. You can enter new in-
formation to change the value of a field, a carriage return to keep the
value unchanged, or a Ctrl-d to exit the program, updating the gradebook
file. If you specify a valid integer number of a field, gnew will display
the field's title and current value, and will prompt you for a new value.
Changing the Gradebook Using Keywords
If you enter a keyword for field_id on the command line, you can modify the
gradebook file as follows:
gnew fields allows you to change the current field titles in the
gradebook file. The name and student# field titles may not
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 6
be changed. Press a carriage return at any prompt where
you do not want to change the field name.
gnew max allows you to change the current maximum of any field in
the file scores except for the name and student# fields.
Press a carriage return at any prompt where you do not
want to change the maximum value for that field.
gnew weights allows you to change the current weights of any field in
the file scores except for the name and student# fields.
Press a carriage return at any prompt where you do not
want to change the weight for that field.
gnew adds allows you to add additional students. For each new stu-
dent added, you will be prompted for each field that is
already defined in the gradebook. Press Ctrl-d when you
are finished.
gnew drops allows you to delete students. Be very careful to enter
the entire name of each student who should be dropped, in
order to avoid dropping other students who have the same
last name. If you make a mistake or leave a blank line,
press Ctrl-c to exit the program without changing the
gradebook. Press Ctrl-d to save your changes and exit the
program.
Changing Grades Using Name Score Pairs
To change a grade, enter name score pairs at the end of the gnew com-
mand line. For each pair listed, the program will select all records where
the gradebook's name field matches name, and will change field_id to score.
You must specify the entire last name. To make sure you change only one
record, type the last name and the first name enclosed in single quotes to
match the proper student, as in
gnew quiz1 'Smith, Harry' 18<CR>
In each selected record, the field listed on the command line will be
changed to the value given by score. Each updated record will be printed on
the screen. If no match is found for a name, gnew will display a message on
the screen. If more than one match is found, gnew will display a message on
the screen and make the changes to all records that matched.
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 7
File Backup
Before gnew updates your gradebook file, it makes a copy and puts it in
a file named grade_file.bak. If you use the default gradebook filename of
scores, the backup file is saved as scores.bak.
EXAMPLES
1. Assume that you are using the gradebook file scores described previous-
ly. To add the scores for quiz1 to the file, you would do the follow-
ing:
$ gnew quiz1<CR>
is "quiz1" a new field? y<CR>
max = 20<CR>
weights = 1<CR>
Smith, Harry = 20<CR>
Elsworth, Garth = 15<CR>
Atkins, Maria = 10<CR>
Wadsworth, Henry = <CR>
2. Now assume that you want to change the score on quiz1 for Maria Atkins
to 12. To do this, type
gnew quiz1 Atkins 12<CR>
or, if the last name ``Atkins'' may match more than one student, type
gnew quiz1 'Atkins, Maria' 12<CR>
GTYPE
Gtype prints a formatted summary of a gradebook file. This command has
options to display selected fields only, compute weighted averages, drop the
lowest score from a set of grades before computing the average, or revise
the gradebook with a reordered field list. It has the following format:
gtype [-i grade_file] [-o outfile] [-a] [-t] -s] [-d field_id]
[-r rangelist] [-n new_gradebook] [name ..]
where
-i grade_file specifies the name of the input gradebook file. This
option may be omitted if your gradebook file is re-
ceived through standard input or it is named scores.
-o outfile specifies the name of the file to which gtype will
write the formatted summary. If this option is omit-
ted, the formatted summary will be displayed on the
terminal screen. Since this file is not in the stan-
dard gradebook format, it cannot be used as input to
the gradebook programs.
-n new_gradebook produces a new gradebook file with any changes speci-
fied by the other gtype options; new_gradebook is the
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 8
filename you want the new gradebook to have.
The remaining options specify processing to be done to the input gradebook
before it is summarized or rewritten.
-a computes the average for each student in the gradebook.
Each score is converted to a percentage score by divid-
ing by the maximum score. These percentages are multi-
plied by the corresponding weights, and the sum of the
products is divided by the sum of the weights, yielding
a weighted average. The average score is listed at the
end of each student's record in the output and is named
average. A missing score is treated as 0 (zero) when
the average is computed. The -d option may affect this
computation. The average field has a maximum score of
100 and a weight of 0.
If the -a option is specified with the -n option, the
computed average will be added to the new file with a
title of average.
-t computes the total score for each student in the grade-
book. The values in all fields except for name, stu-
dent#, and average are summed and printed. If the -t
option is specified with the -n option, the total will
be added to the new file with a field title of total.
-s prints the name field of the gradebook in short format,
which is the name of each student up to a length of 16
characters, not including a comma. The name field nor-
mally occupies 32 characters. This option is meaning-
ful only when printing a formatted summary.
-d field_id drops the lowest score among the fields matched by
field_id from the average computation. A field is
matched by field_id if field_id is an initial substring
of the field name. For example, if the lowest score
from QUIZ1, QUIZ2, QUIZ3 is to be dropped, use QUIZ as
the field_id. This option implies the -a option; that
is, -a need not be specified if this option is used.
-r rangelist selects or reorders the fields for each student accord-
ing to rangelist. Rangelist consists of a list of
ranges separated by slashes (/). A range can be
o a field title, which expands into a list of all fields
that it matches (as described for option -d above);
o two field titles separated by a hyphen (-), which
selects all fields between the two mentioned, in-
clusive; or
o an explicit list of full field titles, separated by
slashes.
The period (.) matches the last (rightmost) field of the
input gradebook.
When the input gradebook is read, its fields are rearranged
according to the order of specified ranges in rangelist.
Fields may be deleted or duplicated using this mechanism.
Note that all the fields to appear in the output must be
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 9
explicitly specified. Rangelist could be used to produce a
formatted listing of grades without names (for posting).
It can also be used to create a new gradebook file with the
fields in a different order. If you do create a new grade-
book file, you must continue to specify name and student#
as the first two fields.
[name ...] selects only those students whose name field is matched
by name. The names on the command line should be
separated by spaces.
For example, this command would produce formatted out-
put for only those records in the input file whose
names contain Smith, Jones or Wood:
gtype Smith Jones Wood<CR>
If gtype is invoked with no parameters, it will read the file scores
and display the title of each field across the terminal's screen. It then
displays all information for each student.
EXAMPLES
1. To produce a formatted display of the contents of the scores file
described above, where the information is presented in order of name,
student#, and quiz1, type
gtype -r /name/student#/quiz1<CR>
The output will appear on the screen as follows:
name student# quiz1
Smith, Harry 112324085 20.0
Elsworth, Garth 223006555 15.0
Atkins, Maria 220157788 12.0
Wadsworth, Henry
2. To send the output of gtype to a file called scores.o so that it can be
printed, use the command
gtype -o scores.o <CR>
Scores.o can be printed using the lpr command. (For more information
on lpr, see TIB-23, ``Output File Routing.'')
3. Suppose you have added more information to the scores file, and you
want to compute the average for each student, display a short version
of the student's name, and create a new gradebook file called
scores.new which contains average as the last field. Type the follow-
ing command:
gtype -a -s -n scores.new<CR>
The results will appear on the screen as follows:
name student# quiz1 quiz2 test1 average
Smith 112324085 20.0 18.0 89.0 92.0
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 10
Elsworth 223006555 15.0 15.0 84.0 79.5
Atkins 220157788 12.0 20.0 68.0 74.0
Wadsworth 14.0 91.0 63.0
4. Suppose you want a formatted version of the file scores to be written
to the file scores.out including the average for each student, dropping
the lowest quiz grade, and omitting the students' names and identifica-
tion numbers. The command is:
gtype -o scores.out -d quiz -r quiz1-.<CR>
Remember that the field title period (.) matches the rightmost field of
the input gradebook. After executing the above command, the file
scores.out will contain:
quiz1 quiz2 test1 average
20.0 18.0 89.0 92.7
15.0 15.0 84.0 81.0
12.0 20.0 68.0 78.7
14.0 91.0 84.0
The file scores.out may be printed using the lpr command.
GHIST
Ghist prints a histogram of the class scores for the requested field in
the gradebook. Output includes the following items:
o number of missing (blank) scores
o number of exterior scores (those not included in the histogram)
o arithmetic mean (not including missing scores)
o median
o standard deviation
o raw score
o normalized score (raw score divided by maximum score)
o percentile
o frequency (number of occurrences)
The command has the following format:
ghist field_id [-low_number] [+high_number] [-s step_size] [-c number_of_bars]
[-i grade_file] [-o outfile]
where
field_id is the title of a grades field.
-low_number is a numeric value indicating the lowest score to be
printed in the histogram. The hyphen must be speci-
fied.
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 11
+high_number is a numeric value indicating the highest score to be
printed in the histogram. The plus sign must be speci-
fied.
-s step_size specifies the range of raw scores on each bar of the
histogram.
-c number_of_bars specifies the number of bars on the histogram. This
allows you to choose the number of distinct groups di-
played in the histogram.
-i grade_file specifies the name of the input gradebook file. This
option may be omitted if your gradebook file is re-
ceived through standard input or if it is named scores.
-o outfile specifies the name of the file to which ghist will
write the histogram. If this option is omitted, the
histogram will be displayed on the screen.
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 12
If neither +high_number nor -low_number is specified on the command
line, the histogram is printed from highest score to lowest score. The
count of scores outside the range is shown under ``exterior scores'' at the
top of the output; these scores are not included in the statistical computa-
tions. The -s and -c options are mutually exclusive; if both are specified
in the command line, the -c option is used and the -s option is ignored.
EXAMPLES
Two examples of output from a larger data file follow:
$ ghist quiz1 $ ghist quiz1 -c 4
5 missing scores 5 missing scores
0 exterior scores 0 exterior scores
mean: 70.772058823529 mean: 70.772058823529
median: 77.5 median: 77.5
stdev: 23.048398324607 stdev: 23.048398324607
raw norm %tile freq raw norm %tile freq
--------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------
> 0.0 0.0 0.0 2 || > 0.0 0.0 0.0 2 ||
<= 20.0 20.0 5.9 || <= 23.4 23.4 5.9 ||
--------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------
> 20.0 20.0 5.9 0 > 23.4 23.4 5.9 3 |||
<= 40.0 40.0 5.9 <= 47.2 47.2 14.7 |||
--------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------
> 40.0 40.0 5.9 7 ||||||| > 47.2 47.2 14.7 7 |||||||
<= 60.0 60.0 26.5 ||||||| <= 71.1 71.1 35.3 |||||||
--------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------
> 60.0 60.0 26.5 11 ||||||||||| > 71.1 71.1 35.3 22 ||||||||||||||||||||||
<= 80.0 80.0 58.8 ||||||||||| <= 95.0 95.0 100.0 ||||||||||||||||||||||
--------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------
> 80.0 80.0 58.8 14 |||||||||||||| [1] 0
<=100.0 100.0 100.0 ||||||||||||||
---------------------------------------
[1] 0
GSORT
Gsort sorts a gradebook's records in either ascending or descending
order by any field and produces a sorted gradebook file. It does not
display the sorted file. The program is called using the following command:
gsort [{ +/-}field_id] [-i grade_file] [-o outfile]
where
{+/-}field_id can be either a field number or a field title. A preced-
ing plus sign (+) indicates ascending order is to be used,
a hyphen (-) indicates descending order. When a field_id
is specified, either + or - must precede it. If no
field_id is selected, the sort will be done on the name
field in ascending order.
-i grade_file specifies the name of the input gradebook file. This op-
tion may be omitted if your gradebook file is received
through standard input or it is named scores.
-o outfile specifies the name of the file to which gsort will write
the sorted file. If this option is omitted, the sorted
file will be written to file sorted. If you want the ex-
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 13
isting file to be rewritten without changing its name, you
should specify outfile to be the same as grade_file. When
you do this, the old copy of the gradebook file is named
grade_file.bak before the update is begun.
EXAMPLES
1. The scores file is to be sorted in ascending order on the name field.
The command
gsort<CR>
will produce the file sorted. To see a formatted display of file sort-
ed, type
gtype -i sorted<CR>
and the following output will be displayed on the terminal screen:
name student# quiz1 quiz2 test1
Atkins, Maria 220157788 12.0 20.0 68.0
Elsworth, Garth 223006555 15.0 15.0 84.0
Smith, Harry 112324085 20.0 18.0 89.0
Wadsworth, Henry 14.0 91.0
2. The scores file is to be sorted in descending order by the field test1,
and the output is to be sent to a file named scores.sorted. The com-
mand
gsort -test1 -o scores.sorted<CR>
will produce the file scores.sorted. To see a formatted display of
this file, type
gtype -i scores.sorted<CR>
and the following output will appear on the screen:
name student# quiz1 quiz2 test1
Wadsworth, Henry 14.0 91.0
Smith, Harry 112324085 20.0 18.0 89.0
Elsworth, Garth 223006555 15.0 15.0 84.0
Atkins, Maria 220157788 12.0 20.0 68.0
To print the file scores.sorted, use the lpr command.
GLETTER
Gletter assigns letter grades to scores in a gradebook file and pro-
duces a report showing student ID number, letter grade, numeric score, and
name. You can set up the grading scale by specifying each grade and its
lower limit, called a threshold. The command has this format:
gletter field_id [-n] [-f scale_file] [<grade_file] [>outfile]
where
field_id is the title of the field containing the numeric score
to be assigned a letter grade. This field is required.
-n tells the program to sort the output by student name.
If this option is omitted, the output will be sorted by
student ID number.
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 15
-f scale_file specifies the name of a file that contains a list of
letter grades and lower grade thresholds. Each line
should contain one letter grade, a space, and the
numeric lower limit for that grade. If the -f option
is omitted, you will be prompted to set up a list of
letter grades and thresholds and given the option to
save this information to a file for future use.
<grade_file specifies the name of the gradebook file if its name is
not scores.
>outfile is the name of the output file to which the report will
be written. If >outfile is omitted, the report will be
shown on the screen.
EXAMPLES
1. You want to assign letter grades to the field test1 in the gradebook
file scores. The grades will be assigned using the standard ten-point
grading scale, which you will save in a file called std_scale.
$ gletter test1
Choose letter grade set by number:
1) A,B,C,D,F
2) A+,A,A-,B+,B,B-,C+,C,C-,D+,D,D-,F
3) custom
1,2,3> 1
Specify grade thresholds:
A = 90
B = 80
C = 70
D = 60
F = 0
Grade thresholds:
A = 90.0
B = 80.0
C = 70.0
D = 60.0
F = 0.0
OK? (y/n)> y
Save as (<return> for no save): std_scale
Grade thresholds saved to "std_scale"
SSNO GR SCORE NAME
A 91.0 Wadsworth, Henry
112324085 B 89.0 Smith, Harry
220157788 D 68.0 Atkins, Maria
223006555 B 84.0 Elsworth, Garth
2. You want to assign letter grades to the average field, which contains
the final grade for the first part of the semester. The following com-
mand will use the same scale that you just set up; sort the output in
order of name; read the information from the file scores.new; and send
the output to a file named finalgd.
$ gletter average -n -f std_scale <scores.new >finalgd
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 16
The file called finalgd would look like this:
SSNO GR SCORE NAME
220157788 C 74.0 Atkins, Maria
223006555 C 79.5 Elsworth, Garth
112324085 A 92.0 Smith, Harry
D 63.0 Wadsworth, Henry
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 17
SUMMARY OF COMMANDS
gconvt <registrar_file >grade_file<CR>
gnew field_id [-i grade_file] [-f score_file] [-e error_file] [name score...]
gtype [-i grade_file] [-o outfile] [-a] [-t] [-s] [-d field_id]
[-r rangelist] [-n [new_gradebook]] [name ...]
ghist field_id [-low_number] [+high_number] [-s step_size] [-c number_of_bars]
[-i grade_file] [-o outfile]
gsort [{_}field_id] [-i grade_file] [-o outfile]
gletter field_id [-n] [-f scale_file] [<grade_file] [>outfile]
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 18
APPENDIX: Format of Files
Gradebook File
The gradebook file must have two contiguous sections: the header sec-
tion, which contains three lines, and the grades section, which contains one
line for each student.
The first line of the header section contains titles of the fields. The
first two fields on this line always specify the student's name (up to 32
characters) and student ID number (up to 12 characters). These two fields
always have the titles name and student#. The remaining field titles are de-
fined by the user, typically one field per test or assignment. These fields
can be added to the file using the gnew command.
The hyphen (-) and underscore (_) should not be used in field titles,
and the field title should contain at least as many characters as the larg-
est element in the field, because the field will be as wide as its title.
Also, if the -d option of gtype will be used to drop the lowest of a group
of grades, all the field titles for those grades must begin with the same
string of letters, as in QUIZ1, QUIZ2, QUIZ3, etc.
The second line of the header section defines the maximum scores which
can be earned for tests and assignments. This line begins with the word max
followed by two colons. The colons indicate that the name and student#
fields have no maximum values.
The third line of the header section defines weights for each field.
It begins with the word weights, followed by two colons. The colons indi-
cate that no weights are applied to the name and student# fields.
The grades section begins after the third line of the header, on the
fourth line of the file. Information for each student should be on a
separate line. The student's name (last name first) and ID number come
first, where each field is terminated with a colon. Missing fields must
also be terminated by a colon, as in
Wadsworth, Henry::
It is not necessary to alphabetize the names as they are entered; the com-
mand gsort can generate an alphabetized gradebook.
EXAMPLE
Before any scores are entered, our example gradebook file would look
like this:
name:student#:
max::
weights::
Smith, Harry:112324085:
Elsworth, Garth:223006555:
Atkins, Maria:220157788:
Wadsworth, Henry::
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 19
The scores file used as an example throughout this document would look
like this:
name:student#:quiz1:quiz2:test1:
max::20.0:20.0:100.0:
weights::1.0:1.0:2.0:
Smith, Harry:112324085:20.0:18.0:89.0:
Elsworth, Garth:223006555:15.0:15.0:84.0:
Atkins, Maria:220157788:12.0:20.0:68.0:
Wadsworth, Henry:::14.0:91.0:
Registrar's Information
This is the format of the file that comes from the Registrar's office
via electronic mail, which contains a list of students that are registered
for a particular class. The program gconvt can reformat this file so the
gradebook package can use it. The entire record format of the Registrar's
information is shown below; however, only the student's ID number (Social
Security number) and name are used in the gradebook file.
____________________________________
|Columns Contents |
|___________________________________|
| 10-18 Social Security number |
| 19 First initial |
| 20-39 Name (last/first/middle, |
| blank delimited) |
| 47-50 Course abbreviation |
| 52-55 Course number |
| 57-60 Section number |
|___________________________________|
If you normally use mail on a machine other than the RS/6000s, you may
receive files from Carruthers Hall on your primary mail account instead of
your RS/6000 account. If this happens, forward the message containing the
data to your full address on the RS/6000. For instance, if you received the
data on your PC Mail account and your RS/6000 account (xyz8r) is on avery,
forward the message containing the data to xyz8r@avery.med.virginia.edu.
Then use the mailer on the RS/6000 machine to save the data to a file.
File of IDs and Scores
Two test-scoring programs at the University create a file of student
IDs and scores that can be used to update a field in an electronic grade-
book. One is run by ITC/Carruthers Hall; the other is the ts program on
RS/6000 computers. For more information on the ts program, see document U-
022, ``TS: A Test-Scoring Program.'' Use the -f option of the gnew command
to read this information into the gradebook file. The format of the file
containing student IDs and scores is the same regardless of which of these
two test-scoring programs you select.
U-021 An Electronic Gradebook Package 20
___________________________________________________
|Columns Contents |
|_____________________________________________|
| 5-13 Social Security number |
| 18-22 Test score, in COBOL format 999V99 |
|_____________________________________________|
COBOL format 999V99 means that there would be no decimal between the one's
place and tenth's place. For example, a grade of 100 would be shown as
10000, and a grade of 86.5 would be 08650.
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