The Problem – Calculate the Average of Alpha Grades
An Alpha Grade Average Calculator was required by staff at NCAD for assessment purposes. When assessing students in
NCAD there are four separate criteria that projects are assessed under. Now that the college is part of
UCD they have adopted a standardised alpha grading system used by the university. When giving feedback to students we assign an alpha grade under each of the four assessment criteria. Assessor also need to provide students with an overall average grade based on these four alphas grades awarded. Calculating an average of four alpha grades is often tricky and time consuming for staff especially if there is a range of alpha grades and no clear consensus on the grade banding.
The Initial Solution
The initial solution to the problem was to draft an excel spreadsheet with the correct formulas to automatically calculate the overall average alpha grade based on the four grades entered for the relevant criteria. While the spreadsheet was successful in calculating the average alpha grade, limitations of this solution remained. These included:
- staff needed access to a laptop with Microsoft Excel to open the spreadsheet, some had neither
- the spreadsheet was limited to accepting four criteria only
- the spreadsheet was intimidating to some staff who worried that the might enter incorrect information
- the spreadsheet could not be centrally updated
- the spreadsheet had to be disseminated to staff via email and older, out-of-date copies may remain in circulation.
The Outcome
An online
Alpha Grade Average Calculator called
Gradey was born from the spreadsheet which provided a web-based, software independent solution that could be centrally updated and made available to all staff via web, email and mobile. The functionality was also expanded to allow averaging of 2,3 and 4 criteria. Gradey also randomly showcases an image of the work of
Logan McLain as the background. To view and use Gradey please click on this link:
www.gradey.loganmclain.com To view the github repository for Gradey please click on this link:
GitHub
