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MicroGrade Home > MicroGrade Import-Export
Teaching vs. Record Keeping As any instructor knows, a significant amount of their valuable time can be consumed by the simple task of record keeping. Most instructors have an entirely new population of dozens of students each year. Just the single task of establishing an empty grade record describing each student (student name, gender, class period, etc.) is a non-trivial time sponge. Fortunately, MicroGrade can make this task relatively swift and painless.
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Centralized vs. Localized Record Keeping
The heading above implies an adversarial relationship between centralized and localized student information. Although the battle-lines are often drawn, it need not be. MicroGrade is a specialized tool for a specific task. It is an instructor aid for managing student grades and related information such as class rosters, assignments, attendance, grading standards, etc. Although MicroGrade can be configured with some demographic information, it does not attempt to be a full-featured demographic analysis tool. MicroGrade, by itself, is an instructor-level class analysis tool. But educational institutions have additional needs: centralized, administrative record keeping and analysis for report cards, school-wide statistics, demographic distributions, budgeting, etc. Aeries, Pentamation, Pinnacle, SASI and Skyward are some of these centralized administrative systems. The student data "locked up" within many of today's most commonly-used centralized systems is easily accessible to MicroGrade. Most of these administrative systems have the ability to export their data to a simplified text record structure. The more flexible of these systems allow for customized configuration of the export file. MicroGrade can easily be used in conjunction with many school administrative programs, both to draw student rosters from those systems (to populate MicroGrade class files) and to provide student grades to those systems (to avoid manual re-entry of student data that has already been captured in digital form in MicroGrade by each instructor). This discussion, then, is about (1) importing information from other systems into MicroGrade and (2) exporting information from MicroGrade into other systems.
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Student Rosters: Importing Student Information into MicroGrade
After you have created the shell of your MicroGrade class file with a basic configuration such as Class Name, Grading Method, and Grade Standards, one of the next things you will want to do is import basic student information from the school’s administrative system. This information will probably always include important fields such as student ID, student first and last name, and gender, but can also include such other information as student and parent/guardian email addresses, phone numbers, and some demographic information. The school system and MicroGrade do not talk directly to each other; rather they communicate by means of an intermediate text data file that has been exported from the school system. This file is then imported into MicroGrade. SASI and Skyward If you are using SASI or Skyward, all you need to do is ask the school's system administrators for a record export file for your class. MicroGrade already understands the file format for these systems.
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Once you have the administrative export file, open your MicroGrade class file and select "Import Students" from the "Students" menu. From the sub-menu select the appropriate school system (SASI or Skyward). |
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MicroGrade will display a "Select a File of Students to Import:" dialog box. Navigate
to the file you obtained from the administrative system, select it, and click on the
Open button.
That's all there is to it: your student information will become part of your MicroGrade class file.
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Aeries, Pentamation and Others
Some administrative systems have a great deal of flexibility in their export procedure. They will allow you to customize the record selection process, as well as the format of the export record. This increased power brings with it the need for a more in-depth understanding of (1) how the administrative program selection/export functions and (2) precisely what you want to obtain from the administrative database. Because you have the ability to customize your export file, you are responsible for (1) directing the program to provide only the information you want and (2) configuring MicroGrade's import routine to recognize the format of the export file. This is not as hard as it sounds. In fact, after you've done it once or twice, you'll see how easy it is. Because Aeries and Pentamation have the ability to create a customized export file, MicroGrade cannot have a one-size-fits-all import routine for these systems like it does for SASI and Skyward. However, like Aeries and Pentamation, MicroGrade has a great deal of flexibility. It can be customized to import just about any text-format file. Therefore, although we have only mentioned Aeries and Pentamation, MicroGrade should be able to import files which were exported from just about any other administrative system, such as Pinnacle, or from other database, spreadsheet, and word processing programs. Ask the school's system administrators for a record export file for your class. You will need to tell them specifically which data elements you need, such as student first and last name, student ID, student email address, parent/guardian email address, phone number(s), gender, etc. MicroGrade has only one important requirement: the file that is exported from the school administrative system must contain one record (and only one record) for each student. The order in which the data fields are placed in the record does not matter. Nor does it matter whether the file is composed of fixed-length or variable-length records. However, if possible, we recommend the variable-length format because it will produce a smaller file than the fixed-length format. If you choose the variable-length format, you may also want to specify a field separator character (if your administrative system will allow this). We recommend a tab character, but MicroGrade can accept any one, two, or three-character user-defined field separator. To terminate each record we recommend either a carriage-return (Macintosh format), a line-feed (UNIX format), or carriage-return/line-feed (DOS/Windows), but MicroGrade can accept any one, two, or three-character user-defined record terminator. We also recommend that, if possible, you request that the first export record be a header record which contains not student data but field descriptions.
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Important Note:
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If you are planning to send the student grade information from MicroGrade back into the administrative system, you may also need to export additional record identification codes from the administrative system into MicroGrade, such as course and period number. MicroGrade has four user-definable fields which can be used to hold these data elements. Without them it may not be possible to match up each student's grades with the corresponding student record in the administrative system. |
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To define these special fields in MicroGrade, open your MicroGrade class file and
select "Modify Grading Period" from the "Periods" menu. In the "Modify Grading Period"
dialog box, define the special fields "Code 1" through "Code 4" with the appropriate
key field descriptions from your school administrative system. These are the fields
that you will need to include when you export grades from MicroGrade back into the
school administrative system. Without these fields it may be impossible to match your
class file with the appropriate student records in the administrative system. The names
of these fields will be unique to your school.
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Once you have the administrative export file, open your MicroGrade class file and select "Import Students" from the "Students" menu. From the sub-menu select "User Defined". |
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MicroGrade will display a "Select a File of Students to Import:" dialog box. Navigate to the file you obtained from the administrative system, select it, and click on the Open button. |
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MicroGrade will analyze the file you have opened and report the format that the file appears to have. In most cases you will accept the format that MicroGrade has found. In some rare instances MicroGrade may mistake the File Type. If it does, you may correct the File Type by selecting the proper File Type from the drop-down menu. Click the Continue button to advance to the next screen. |
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Next MicroGrade will display the data fields it has discovered in your file. In rare instances, if MicroGrade has not recognized the proper Field Separator character, the fields it has reported may be incorrect. If this seems to be the case, correct the Field Separator. (The "Custom..." option allows you to define a non-standard separator.) The same thing is true of the End Of Record termination character(s). If MicroGrade appears to have "guessed" wrong, you can instruct it to use the correct code(s). |
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Important Note:
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In this example the contents of the export file are displayed in easy-to-understand
field descriptions such as Building, Course, Student Last Name, etc. This is because
the first record we exported from the administrative system was a header record which
contains not student data but field descriptions.
This information will be imported into MicroGrade just as though it was an actual student record. You will need to delete it from your MicroGrade class file after the import has completed.
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If we had not exported a header record, as in this example, data fields with data
values would be displayed instead of descriptive field names (as in the previous
example). This might make it a bit more difficult to know what some of the fields are.
For example, the first field, with a value of "1" is the Building field. The second field, with a value of "721" is the Course field. And, of the several fields with personal names, which is the student and which is the parent/guardian? Without descriptive field names in the first record it can be difficult to determine what is what. That is why we recommend exporting a field description header record as the first record of the export file.
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The next thing we need to do is tell MicroGrade which field in the administrative file
corresponds to which field in MicroGrade. In this example we have already defined the
administrative field "Building" as equivalent to the MicroGrade user-defined field
"Code 1".
By highlighting the administrative field "Course" (as shown) and then selecting the MicroGrade user-defined field "Code 2" from the Import Fields drop-down menu, we will instruct MicroGrade that these two fields are equivalent.
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Here we see, highlighted in yellow, the eight data fields from the administrative
system (Building, Course, Course Section, Session, Student ID, Student Last Name,
Student First Name, Sex) that will be imported into MicroGrade as the corresponding
MicroGrade fields (Code 1, Code 2, Code 3, Code 4, ID, Last Name, First Name, Gender).
At this point we can click OK to begin the import.
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Report Cards: Exporting Student Information From MicroGrade
There may be times when you will need to extract digital information from your MicroGrade class file. The most common scenario seems to be the need to obtain a digital copy of the student grades which can be imported into the school administrative system for Report Cards. In addition to the students' grades, it will be necessary to include some student and class (and instructor and ?) identification information so that the administrative system will be able to properly identify the records you will be supplying from MicroGrade.
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Important Note: The exact nature and format of the identification fields necessary for
the administrative system will depend on the requirements of your school's system. It
will be important for you to plan on including this information when you first create
your MicroGrade class file at the beginning of the school year or each semester.
Fortunately, in many cases, you can obtain this information directly from the
administrative system (see the discussion, above, on exporting information from the
administrative system and importing it into MicroGrade).
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There are three possible exports: a native export to the Skyward system; a native
export to the WebCT online course system, and a general purpose export that can be
custom tailored to your needs and will meet the import needs of most other systems,
including word processors, spreadsheets, and databases.
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Skyward
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Open your MicroGrade class file and select "Export" from the "File" menu. From the
sub-menu select "Skyward".
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MicroGrade will display a "Skyward Export Options" dialog box. The Skyward codes for
your school's Campus ID, Teacher ID, Course, and Section must be entered; they are
mandatory. There are up to seven different types of grades that you may export to
Skyward in a single export procedure; you must select at least one of them, but you
may select more than one. You can select a grade format and category/assignment for
each grade type.
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After you select the grade format and category/assignment for each grade type you want
to export, the drop-down menus for that grade type are replaced by the values you selected.
You can change these values by unchecking the grade type check box, then selecting it
again; the drop-down menus will reappear. When you are done, click on the Export button.
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MicroGrade will display an "Export Skyward File As:" dialog box. Navigate to the
directory/folder where you want to save the file, enter the name of the file, and
click on the Save button. This file is now ready to be imported into your Skyward
system.
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WebCT
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Open your MicroGrade class file and select "Export" from the "File" menu. From the
sub-menu select "WebCT".
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Step 1a: MicroGrade will display a "WebCT Export" dialog box. Select the appropriate
User ID and Initial Password for your WebCT system. You can elect to export
the entire current MicroGrade class (the default) by clicking on the OK button, or...
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Step 1b: ...you can elect to export only those student records you desire. If
you select "Your Selection" from the drop-down menu, the "Select Students for Report"
dialog will appear.
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Step 1ba: Select the students you want to export, then click the OK button.
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Step 1bb: The "WebCT Export" dialog box will now reflect the number of students
you chose to export in the preceding step. Click on the OK button to continue.
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Step 2: You come to this step when you click on the OK button in either
Step1a or Step 1bb. MicroGrade will display a “Save WebCT File” dialog box. Navigate
to the directory/folder where you want to save the file, enter the name of the file,
and click on the Save button. This file is now ready to be uploaded to WebCT.
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General Purpose
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Open your MicroGrade class file and select “Export” from the “File” menu. From the
sub-menu select “General”. MicroGrade will display the “General Export For Grading
Period” dialog box.
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If you are exporting records to another system (not MicroGrade), you can ignore the
information shown here in the red box.
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Step 1. To demonstrate the General export procedure were are going to build a sample
export format. We want our first exported field to be the Instructor name, so we
select "Instructor" from the General drop-down menu.
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Step 2. After we select the Instructor field, the dialog box will place the
<
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Step 3. After we select the Grading Period Name field, the dialog box will
place the <
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Step 4. After we select the First Name field, the dialog box will place the
<
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Step 5. After we select the Last Name field, the dialog box will place the
<
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Step 6. After we select the Semester 1 Exams field, the dialog box will place
the <
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Step 7a. The default export will create records for the entire class. If you
want to select only some of the students, choose the "Your selection" option from the
"Students to Export" menu, then continue with Step 7b. Otherwise, click on the Export
button and continue with Step 7c.
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Step 7b. Select the students you want to export, then click the OK button. You
will be returned to Step 7a. From there click on the Export button, which will take you
to Step 7c.
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Step 7c. You need to choose one of the two predefined formats (Microsoft Word
Mail Merge or WebCT) or the configurable, general purpose format. When you click the
OK button you will be taken to Step 8.
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Step 8. MicroGrade will display a “Save Export File” dialog box. Navigate to
the directory/folder where you want to save the file, enter the name of the file, and
click on the Save button. This file is now ready to be imported into your program.
Click here to see an example of a general purpose export file. The ~ character represents the field separator, such as a tab character. |
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