Is there a feature in WeBWorK allowing the students to see their individual cumulative average scores?
We have over 100 assignments, so the computation is rather tedious by hand or even by calculator.
Thanks.
Bruce
Hi Bruce,
Since no one has responded to this I'll take a crack at it.
The answer is no and I think it would be difficult to do something since different people use different scoring methods. You can count all problems the same as their WeBWorK weight (which is what I assume you are thinking), count each assignment say 10 points, count only the best 10 of say 13 total assignments, ignore the Orientation set if you have one, etc. Students might confuse an overall average for how their professor is really going to grade their WeBWorK.
There is a facility for adding a grading message (templates/email/report_grades.msg) and with some work you could probably use this to accomplish what you want but I'm not sure it's worth the effort.
Arnie
Since no one has responded to this I'll take a crack at it.
The answer is no and I think it would be difficult to do something since different people use different scoring methods. You can count all problems the same as their WeBWorK weight (which is what I assume you are thinking), count each assignment say 10 points, count only the best 10 of say 13 total assignments, ignore the Orientation set if you have one, etc. Students might confuse an overall average for how their professor is really going to grade their WeBWorK.
There is a facility for adding a grading message (templates/email/report_grades.msg) and with some work you could probably use this to accomplish what you want but I'm not sure it's worth the effort.
Arnie
It might be difficult, but hardly impossible. Because other (proprietary) on-line homework systems do allow the instructor to:
(1) specify weights for the various assignments in calculating the overall set average -- after the assignments are already posted and even after their due dates have arrived;
(2) specify a number of lowest set scores to drop before calculating such a weighted average;
(3) add to a set's score points earned for on-paper work;
(4) upload or enter directly on-line scores for categories of course work other than the WeBWorK sets, e.g., quizzes and exams, and then as in (1) and (2), calculate weighted averages for such categories;
(5) based upon specified cut-offs, calculate course letter grades; and
(5) make all of the above information available to students through the system, and optionally include statistical information across the entire class;
(6) download all the scores including such non-set scores.
(1) specify weights for the various assignments in calculating the overall set average -- after the assignments are already posted and even after their due dates have arrived;
(2) specify a number of lowest set scores to drop before calculating such a weighted average;
(3) add to a set's score points earned for on-paper work;
(4) upload or enter directly on-line scores for categories of course work other than the WeBWorK sets, e.g., quizzes and exams, and then as in (1) and (2), calculate weighted averages for such categories;
(5) based upon specified cut-offs, calculate course letter grades; and
(5) make all of the above information available to students through the system, and optionally include statistical information across the entire class;
(6) download all the scores including such non-set scores.
Dear Murray,
Here at IU, for the past decade, we've had a gradebook add-on for WeBWorK that does all of the things you mentioned plus more. I originally programmed the Gradebook for WeBWorK1 and then adapted it to WeBWorK2 when the latter appeared. Unfortunately, the Gradebook add-on is not readily portable, because we use BerkeleyDB rather than MySQL for our databases. But that could be addressed in due time.
I've included links to PDF files of some screen shots that show
Perhaps we can discuss this at the MAA meeting in Pittsburg.
Sincerely,
Bill Wheeler
Here at IU, for the past decade, we've had a gradebook add-on for WeBWorK that does all of the things you mentioned plus more. I originally programmed the Gradebook for WeBWorK1 and then adapted it to WeBWorK2 when the latter appeared. Unfortunately, the Gradebook add-on is not readily portable, because we use BerkeleyDB rather than MySQL for our databases. But that could be addressed in due time.
I've included links to PDF files of some screen shots that show
- the top-level menu for the Gradebook, which shows the functionality of the gradebook (the menu looks very WeBWorK1-ish, because that was what it was programmed for);
- the specification screen for an exam item, which shows the conversion table for converting raw scores to scores on a 100-90-80-70-60 scale via piecewise linear interpolation and also shows how to set cut-offs for assigning letter grades;
- the specification screen for computing the total of the WeBWorK WebLessons (i.e., homework sets) (there is an option for dropping a specified number of low scores, but I didn't drop any this spring); and
- the specification screen for computing a weighted average of scores (again, there is an option for dropping scores, which can be used to implement schemes in which a student is permitted to replace the lowest exam score during the term with the score on the final exam if the latter is better).
Perhaps we can discuss this at the MAA meeting in Pittsburg.
Sincerely,
Bill Wheeler