Central Square John Meyer (Turn-Key Teacher)

ProgressBook User Group Meeting November 1, 2011

Attendees: Central Square – John Meyer (Turn-Key Teacher) Rebecca Craig (Turn-Key Teacher) Tully – Paula Harty (Coordinator) Skaneateles – Georgette Hoskins (High School Principal) MJ May (Turn-Key Teacher) Margaret Culkowski (Department Head) Auburn- Kathy O’Neil (Technology Staff Developer) George Cosentino (Technology Staff Developer) Hannibal- Chris Tynan (Assistant Principal) Dan Rupert (Turn-Key Teacher) Erin Simmons (Guidance Secretary) Lynn Waloven (Guidance Secretary) Tom O’Neil (Turn-Key Teacher) CNY RIC – Eric Hovater (Department Consultant) Marcia Fenocchi (ProgressBook Trainer) Brian Hidy (ProgressBook Trainer) Steve Andrews (ProgressBook Trainer) ProgressBook- Robert Ling Mark Ressing

Meeting Details

A navigation improvement, which was one of our top requests, has been implemented through the New Release 12.0 on ProgressBook. The update allows the ability to use navigation arrows on the Gradebook Grid and auto fill columns on the Gradebook Grid.

Top 5 Concerns:

Improvements need to be made by adding SAVE button locations in convenient locations and in a consistent fashion, especially at the top of the “Enter Report Card” screen. Need to display a warning message for users trying to navigate away from a page without saving their work or an automatic save when entering any data. A ‘time out’ warning is also very important. This still remains the number one feature request by all the Districts. It was implied by the ProgressBook personnel that this would be a function in the future, or at least there would be an auto save function.

Recurring assignments still a major concern for teachers. The ability to spot them when trying to delete is very difficult. They have requested a special icon or different colored title attached to them.

When sharing a class the primary teacher would like to have the option to allow "view only" to certain teachers. Substitute still allows updating ability. The same view the principals now have would be fine. In the future it may be necessary to be able to “view only” one student from that class. Marks over 100 are shown on the Parent Access (shown as the actual grade and the reported grade) for overall average not assignment average. Districts would like to be able to set a minimum and or maximum average allowed. Possible two columns – one with the actual mark and one adjusted. In addition to this the Districts would like to see in red any mark over 100 on the report card (Same function which is present now on the gradebook). An enhancement was requested.

The Administrators and teachers need the ability to track parents who are using ProgressBook. A report would be sufficient. Need to see a counter showing all activity by the parent, not just the last time they logged on.

Other District Concerns and/or suggestions:

The problem when a marking period grade is overwritten in the report card section but the gradebook does not reflect the override grade. Our suggestion to ProgressBook was a generic box could be offered that the teacher could use for whatever reason they choose. An option used by some districts is to show the report card on the Parent Access. This way the parents can see that the grades are different from the gradebook.

Personnel expressed difficulty when doing verifications of missing grades. Right now the easiest ways to do this is either through SISWeb or the ProgressBook report (teachers must hide their study hall and lunch classes to simplify this report). We will also see if it is possible to reformat the notices we receive during integration (the question is if it is possible to show the teachers ID or name first).

Teachers would also like ability to attach a global comment to an assignment. This is still very important to them.

This year we had many teachers who mistakenly chose the lab meeting time to enter grades instead of the lecture time. ProgressBook has created a special script which in the future will show all meeting times under the class alias. This should help the teachers.

More customized reports are still needed.

Parent Access issues and/or suggestions:

Retaining the Parent Passwords from last year worked very well for the districts.

This is a reminder that Parent Alerts are available. This functionality can be helpful to the teachers. An email is sent to the parents listing any missing assignments. Also DocSpot lists on line any documentation for ProgressBook

Any questions please let me know.

Next PBUG Meeting : The next ProgressBook User Group Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 23, 2012. 9:00 to 11:00 am. Conference Rooms 1 & 2, Rodax Building 2