Help for "StudentInfo"

Use your favorite spreadsheet program to create a data file that has (at least) two columns: IDNum and Total. These labels should be in the first row of the spreadsheet, spelled exactly as here (watch for upper and lower case letters).

There may be many more columns in your spreadsheet, but the ones labeled with IDNum, Total and Name are special. The Name column (or any column that has Name in the title) will never be displayed to students, to prevent "guessing" of the Name - ID number pairs. The last six digits of the IDNum is used to identify the student; the first digits are not shown. The student's Total score will be used to graph his/her position in the class. The relevant data in all other columns will be reported back to the student. Here is the snapshot of a spreadsheet file that works:

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Click on the image to download the file. You may save it and open it with Excel or any other spreadsheet program. (By the way, my Excel converted some of the ID numbers to a funny format, like 1.235E+9. Do not worry, the real numbers are still there - as long as the file is not saved as an .xls Excel file.) The rows called Max and Weight are optional. The numbers in your spreadsheet will not be re-calculated. The students will see these rows, together with their grades.

Once you are done with your own spreadsheet, it should be saved in the right format. Go to 'File' and 'Save as...' . In the window that opens select the CSV option, like this:

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The filename can be anything, as long as the extension is .csv. When you save the file, make a note of the directory; you will need it later. Close the file. Do not save it in .xls format if you want to keep the ID numbers! Just say "no" when it asks you to save it in Excel's own format.

Finally, you can log in again, and continue. There is very little to do, and you (and your students) are ready to go! Whenever you have new grades to publish, log in with your username and password, and upload the new data file.

If you wish to have this service for more than one class, you should create a separate account with username (possibly the name of the course) and password for each.

Note on privacy: You may provide the full ID, but only the last six digits will be used. In fact, it is not necessary to have more than six digits in the IDNum column. These six digits should be really numbers, not letters. For a normal class size it is very unlikely that two of the IDs will coincide. If they do, change one of the numbers, and tell the student.


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