The Book Bag : FAWeb

Faculty Access for the Web Support Roundtable on December 2

Katie Infinger — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:21:00 GMT

On Tuesday, December 2 from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. ET, we are having a Faculty Access for the Web Support Roundtable. Willow Schultz and Nate Hall, our Education Solution Product Support Leads, will discuss all things Faculty Access for the Web. The roundtable is broken into sections with a question-and-answer period in between. The sections cover:

Supervisor setup
Teacher setup
Posting grades, comments, and skills to Grades in The Education Edge
Comment approval

Comment Reviewing in FAWeb

Katie Infinger — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:58:00 GMT

Faculty Access for the Web comment reviewing allows peers, department heads, administrators, or advisors to review and approve teachers' gradebook comments before they are posted to The Education Edge. It's like having your own staff of editors to ensure you deliver the highest quality and most accurate comments! Let's take a closer look:

Before staff can review and approve comments, you must complete the following:

Decide who will have rights to review. To give a faculty member rights to comments, mark the appropriate school checkboxes on his record's Restrictions 1 tab.
Assign the appropriate group of reviewers for each school. The Supervisor selects the group on the Miscellaneous page in Faculty Access for the Web setup. The following groups are available for review:
- Peer reviewers are faculty/staff members with rights to access Gradebooks for the school in which a class is taught.
- Administrators are faculty/staff members whose security records include administrator rights for Faculty Access for the Web. You grant administrator rights by marking the Has administrator rights in Faculty Access for the Web checkbox on the Online Security tab of a user's security record in Administration.
- Advisors are faculty/staff members with the Current Advisor checkbox marked on the Bio 1 tab of their Faculty/Staff records.
- Department heads are faculty/staff members whose records list a Position on the Bio 2 tab that matches the position selected for department heads. You can select the position that designates department heads on the NetClassroom Registration Setup page in Configuration and the Miscellaneous page in Faculty Access for the Web Setup.
Set up teachers' gradebooks for review.
- If comment reviewers are based on peer review, teachers must select the faculty members who will review their Gradebook comments:
  1. In Gradebook, click Setup.
  2. Click Reviewer Setup on the navigation bar.
  3. Select the teachers to review the comments. Select Yes in the Can edit column if the teacher can edit comments.
- To make identifying grades with comments easier, click Customize on the Gradebook page and mark the Indicate Comments Present checkbox.
- When a comment is ready for review, teachers must change the Comment Status on the comment screen to Ready for Review.

Now that comment review is set up, it's time to get those comments report card ready! To review comments, the reviewer teacher logs into Faculty Access for the Web, selects Gradebook, and then clicks the Comment Approval tab. He can review comments by Course, Teacher, or Student. If he has edit rights, he can edit the comment in Comment box, or, if he only has reviewer rights, he can enter his comments in the Reviewer's Notes box.

To complete the review process, the reviewer teacher changes the comment status to Approved and then saves and closes the comment.

Your October Forums Roundup

Katie Infinger — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:53:00 GMT

Here's your forum post roundup for October:

Your voice counts! Don't forget to vote on our FAWeb Support Roundtable Topic Poll!

What Do You Want to See in the FAWeb Support Roundtable?

Katie Infinger — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:22:00 GMT

We're having a Faculty Access for the Web Support Roundtable in early December and want you to help decide the content. We've set up some voting options such as posting to Grades, Supervisor and teacher setup, and comment approval, or you can simply reply to the poll with your own requests. Vote today!

List Lady: Lists of Posting from FAWeb barriers

Willow Schultz — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:28:00 GMT

Lists of Posting from FAWeb barriers

Overwrite Existing Entries was not marked when posting
The class is not marked Ready to post

The posting status can be globally changed (BB555812)

The process was canceled during the post
Only the preprocessing report was run instead of the actual post
The course is marked as no longer offered
The Student has withdrawn or transferred to a different class

As a side note, you can try creating a new parameter and posting again. A new parameter gives you the opportunity select options again and might bring to light what stopped the grades from posting.

List Lady: Classes Not Appearing in FAWeb Gradebook: PART II

Willow Schultz — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:49:00 GMT

Because we weren't sure if you got enough the first time, introducing PART II:

Reasons why a class will not appear in Faculty Access for the Web Gradebook (BB76016) PART II:

Has the student taken the course multiple times? Check the business rule for grades and see if the course should be included if it is taken multiple times
Is the student included? Check the Students SPE and make there is one for the year selected on the GPA calculation
Does the student have the status selected in business rules for Grades and attendance
Does the course have a grading record for the selected year on the GPA calculation
On the course grading tab, is the GPA calculation included?

FAWeb Assignments

Nate Hall — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:02:00 GMT

I promised I would return and write a follow-up to my last post explaining categories, and here I am, true to my word! Well, maybe a couple of days slower than I originally planned, but better late than never, right? Last time we went over a few options in Categories; this time we'll take a look at Assignments.

Let's start with the different assignment dates. Most of these are self-explanatory; Student Date Due is the last day the assignment will be accepted, Show Assignment and Show Grade control when the information appears in NetClassroom, and Grades Date Due reminds you to enter the assignment grade. After that date, the gradebook icon turns red on your Home page. This ensures there's a grade showing when students check their grades in NetClassroom, so they won't bombard you with questions about how they did on the last test...or it at least reduces the amount of questions you get. I'm back in school now, and I'll admit I want to know my grades ASAP and am probably guilty of asking that question a time or two myself, I won't lie .

If you use NetClassroom and don't want a particular assignment or grade to show, then leave the Grades Date Due date blank. You may have reading assignments that don't have a graded assignment associated with them, but you would like the assignment to show up so students know what reading will be discussed in class. You can enter a Student Date Due so it will show in NetClassroom. Of course, what shows in NetClassroom depends on your assignment feature setup in Configuration. If you have dates entered and the assignments aren't showing for your students, you might want to check with your administrator to make sure the assignment option is marked for students.

As I mentioned last time, factors can be used to weight different elements in a group. You can also use factors to give weight to assignments in a category. For instance, you have a midterm exam you want to count twice as much as a normal test. You can give the midterm a factor of 2 and the other tests a factor of 1, and the calculation includes this factor. Here's an example:

Tests A, B, and D are regular tests and Test C is a midterm counting twice as much. I'll assign the factors as follows:

Test A, B, D: 1
Test C: 2

Erica got a 75 on Test A, an 80 on Test B, an 85 on Test C, and an 81 on Test D.

Test Average = ((Test A grade * factor of 1) + (Test B grade * factor of 1) + (Test C grade * factor of 2) + (Test D grade * a factor of 1))/(Sum of factors)
Test Average = (75 + 80 + (85 *2) + 81)/5 = 81.2

Without weighting the midterm, her test average comes out to 80.25.

As you can see, factors can come in handy if you need to put more emphasis on one assignment in a category. But if they all should count the same, just leave the factors set at 1.

Hope this made setting up your Gradebook a little easier this year and answered some questions you might have. If you found the information helpful, or even if you didn't, let me know by leaving a comment. If you have other suggestions about something you'd like me to write about, please feel free to post something back to me and I'll get to it. Till next time...

List Lady: Reasons A Class Does Not Appear in FAWeb Gradebook

Willow Schultz — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:07:00 GMT

Reasons why a class will not appear in Faculty Access for the Web Gradebook (BB76016):

Course record does not have Grading Information for the current academic year and session:

In order to check this, open the course record, go to the Grading tab and make sure there is information for the current academic year and session
If information exists, open the Grading information, and ensure at least one marking column is marked graded in the grid at the bottom of the screen

Course is not marked to be graded for the marking column associated with the selected term:

In the Course record, open the current year's grading information. Make sure the Graded? checkbox is marked for the marking column associated with the term.
Not sure how marking columns are associated with Terms? You can look at the marking column association in Configuration, Register Setup, Marking Column Sets.

Teacher is not assigned to teach the class:

In order to see the teacher assigned to the class, open the course, go to the Class tab, and double click on the class. On the main page of the class, you can see what teacher is selected to teach the class. If you would like to change the teacher for the class check out BB197906.

Students are not enrolled in the class:

Go to the class record (using the steps above), and select the Student tab. If students are checked enrolled, they should appear in Gradebook. If students need to be scheduled in the class, check out BB147150

Supervisor has not unlocked the academic year, session and marking column associated with the Gradebook:

Log into Faculty Access for the Web as Supervisor. In Setup, select the Academic Year and Marking Column and make sure the correct information is marked Yes to View and Edit.

FAWeb Categories Setup Explained

Nate Hall — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:06:00 GMT

Probably one of the most important aspects of setting up FAWeb if you are a teacher is adding assignments to your Gradebook so you can keep track of how the students are doing in your class. Lazing around on the beach and being out in the sun can start to fry your memory of how FAWeb works, (it even happens to me over the weekends and I don't get a whole summer vacation!) so here's a quick review of settings in the setup and what each means to you the teacher. I'll start with the Categories, and next time I'll cover Assignments.

When you click Categories, pay attention to the drop-down at the top of the grid labeled Determine marking column grades using: <category averages> or <assignment grades>. Now take a deep breath; I'm going to ask you to make a decision. I know it's early in the year, but you can do it! Here it is: how do you want to calculate your grades? Does each assignment have a category then each category makes up a portion of the marking column grade, or do all the assignments go into one bucket and then averaged? The category averages option might look like: homework 15%, quizzes 25%, and tests 60%.

Before explaining the Calculation type drop-down, let me cover the Factor column. Factors are used to give weight to each category relative to other categories. Using the above examples, we might set the factors for homework to 15, quizzes to 25, and tests to 60. The total of the factors comes to 100, so each category is worth its weight divided by the total of the factors. Therefore, homework would be worth 15 out of 100, or 15/100, or 15%; quizzes would be worth 25 out of 100, or 25/100, or 25%; tests would be worth 60 out of 100, or 60/100, or 60%. Although our example adds up to 100, your factors do not have to add up to 100. Remember the fun of reducing fractions in math class? We can use factors of 3, 5, and 12 for homework, quizzes, and test categories respectively and get the same results:

1. 3+5+12=20 total factor
2. 3/20=15% for homework
3. 5/20=25% for quizzes
4. 12/20=60% for tests

Keep in mind 0 is also a legitimate option for a factor and, as you might guess, it will take that factor and divide it by the total: 0/20=0%, so that category would not count towards the marking column grade at all! And of course if you leave all of the factors at zero, you might run into the problem below, so be careful !

Finally, let's look at the Calculation type drop-down. You can select Total points and Percentages. Total points divides the points a student receives by the total available points for each category. For example: you have 5 homework assignments worth 10, 10, 20, 25, and 50 points, and a student receives grades of 9, 7, 15, 17, and 34 points respectively on each assignment.

Total points grade = (Sum of points received)/(Sum of total possible points)

Grade = (9+7+15+17+34)/(10+10+20+25+50) = (82/115) = 71.3%

The Percentages option uses the percentage of each individual assignment and then averages those percentages. This calculation may sound similar to the Total Points but can give different results. For example:

Percentage grade = ((points received on assignment 1)/(points of assignment 1) + (points received on assignment 2)/(points of assignment 2) +...)/(total # of assignments)

Grade = ((9/10) + (7/10) + (15/20) + (17/25) + (34/50))/5
Grade = (.9 + .7 + .75 + .68 + .68)/5 = 74.2%

Whew...sorry, that was a little long! But hope that helps you out in making these decisions on your Gradebook settings and provides you with a quick reference to use when setting up your Gradebooks. Check back for a quick review of the Assignments page in Gradebook setup. Oh, and welcome back to school!!

The school year begins: Teacher Setup in Faculty Access for the Web

Willow Schultz — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:21:00 GMT

It's that time of year again, school is beginning. What does that mean for Blackbaud users? Faculty Access for the Web setup, of course!

We know that setting up Faculty Access for the Web is not always the pain point; you also have to train your users and offer advice on how to setup teacher's gradebooks. Not to fear...Blackbaud Support is here!

Did you know we have tutorials that you can give to your teachers with minimal edits? We cover the following information in these tutorials:

Setting Up Your Gradebook:

Setting Up Grading Scales
Setting Up Marking Column Calculations
Summary of Grade Calculations
Setting Up Categories

Managing Your Gradebook:

Entering Assignments
Entering Attendance
Entering Marking Column Grades, Comments, and Skill Ratings
Customizing the Grade Entry Grid and Setting Options
Entering Assignment Grades and Comments
Adding Shared Documents
Copying Categories and Assignments
Getting Ready to Post and Viewing Posted Information
Running Reports

Other Features in Faculty Access for the Web:
Using Spell Check
Approving Course Requests
Sending Emails

To view these helpful documents follow this link and log in to the website. If you do not have a login name for the website, please contact your site administrator.

New Stuff for 7.80: By Popular Demand in Faculty Access for the Web

Katie Infinger — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:15:00 GMT

For those of you who are regulars on the Faculty Access for the Web Ideabank, the most suggested idea has had the Planned tag on it for a while. Your wait is almost over! We're implementing a way for you to consolidate entry in version 7.80, which will be released soon!

The way to consolidate entry is on the Student View tab. It can't save the planet, but you can enter grade, attendance, skill rating, and comment for each student on one screen! There's even a Next button so you can quickly enter this information for each of your students. See for yourself!

New Stuff for 7.80: Faculty Access for the Web

Katie Infinger — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:41:00 GMT

Teacher, you'll be so proud of the Faculty Access for the Web 7.80 new features. Now that I've referenced one of my favorite Joel Plaskett Emergency songs, let's continue teaching you about those new features.

In Gradebook, you can sort student rows by first name, last name, or a custom order. If you want new students at the bottom or your Gradebook grid, select Custom in the Sort order drop-down and use the Move Up or Move Down buttons to arrange them. No matter how you sort your students, the rows are numbered in Gradebook, Attendance, and Skills so you can quickly see the total number of students in your class.

Want to see if Zack and Lisa's Friendship Bracelets or Slater, Kelly, and Jessie's Buddy Bands received a higher grade on your Economics Project? Now you can! Just click the Class Statistics button, and the project rankings are revealed.

There's one more fantastic new feature in Faculty Access for the Web. If you've visited the Faculty Access for the Web Ideabank, then you know it's the most requested feature. We'll get to that in my next post.

And if you know that Joel Plaskett song, leave a comment!

Get FAWeb Ready Ahead of Time

Nate Hall — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:49:00 GMT

I hate to bring it up too early, but the end of summer is fast approaching and before you know it, students and teachers will be crowding the halls on the first day of school. Teachers will be using FAWeb to set up their Gradebooks to track assignment grades and attendance, and they will want everything to be working perfectly the first day (and from then on) when they start entering their assignments for the year. As the school's head of IT/Help desk/Master-of-all-things-computing, this probably falls into your responsibility realm. To make sure teachers can access their Gradebooks for next year, check out a couple of options by logging into FAWeb as Supervisor or an account with supervisor rights. It won't take more than a few minutes, and it'll save you endless troubleshooting time later.

When you log in, start with the Setup button at the top. The first screen controls the available Academic Years as well as which parts of those years are available. Is the upcoming year available for Grades and Attendance? If not, it might be a good idea to turn it on. Otherwise teachers will not be able to set up their Gradebooks and they will then call you for help! Check out the other years and make sure only the years you want visible are available. For example, do teachers need to see information from 2001-2002? I'd think not, and it might save them (and you) a headache should anyone accidentally start entering/modifying grades for that year. Oh, and make sure you save your changes!!

Another area to check is the Marking Columns section. Here, you can set which marking columns are visible and/or editable for teachers. Before you change the columns, make sure the year, school, and session filters at the top are set to the correct year! It doesn't do any good to turn on the marking columns for last year, does it? If you make any changes, be sure to save them so you don't have to come back and do it again later.

While you're signed in with god rights, check out Setup. Do you need to change any email settings? What about the calculations for teachers or setting up comment reviewer options? You can adjust them here, and within a few minutes, the beginning of the year in FAWeb is ready. If you take care of this ahead of time, it'll give you a precious few more minutes to practice your vitamin D absorption technique before heading back inside the school building for the fall. Enjoy the rest of your summer and check back for more as the school year draws near.

School's Out for Summer - What Do You Do?

Katie Infinger — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:50:00 GMT

Want to get a ahead on the 2009-2010 year? Take a moment to review this list. We’ll cover many of these in more detail down the road.

Take a good look at your Academic Year in Configuration. Ensure the correct marking column set is associated with your session, check the starting and ending dates on the terms, and enter your scheduling calendar so your attendance cycle days are correct for the whole year.
Ensure the first cycle day is correct on the academic year terms. If the starting cycle day is wrong, the cycle days in attendance will be off for the entire term.
Refresh yourself on drop, withdraw, and transfer (BB134926). Be sure to enter a withdraw date on the term so you can withdraw students from classes instead of dropping them.
Activate (BB386252) the new Academic Year and marking columns in Faculty Access for the Web. Your faculty can get started entering assignments.
Learn the Walk-In Scheduler (BB146715). Even if your students are scheduled, you may get some last-minute change requests or a few new students.

Do you have some other helpful tips that will help prepare for the new year? Leave a comment!

Posting Grades, Comments, and Skills from FAWeb

Marshall Taft — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:12:00 GMT

All of the teachers have entered their grades, skills, and comments in FAWeb and are ready to go. Now you need to post them to Registrar's Office so you can run performance categories, calculate GPAs or run report cards and transcripts!

To post grades, skills, and/or comments select Administration, Post from FAWeb in Registrar's Office. Next choose the School, Academic Year, and Session. Mark the option to update the posting status, which changes the Gradebook posting status, mark the appropriate checkboxes beside the items from Gradebook you would like to post, such as Grades, Comments, and Skills, and the marking columns to post from and to.

On the Filters tab, select to filter by Faculty/Staff, Classes, Courses, Departments etc. Once you select your filters, click Preprocessing Report. This report includes any exceptions that will prevent the information from posting. Reference how to troubleshoot the exceptions to post successfully.

Two common exceptions are:

"Class not marked as ready to post"
This exception can be easily resolved by marking the class(es) ready to post individually or globally.
"Class Not Rated for [marking column]."
This should not be viewed as an error unless the class (such as a lower school English class) should award skill ratings.

Out for now...