Release Notes for Class Manager, Gradebook, Grade Tracker, and Results Reporter 4.0

Published: April 30, 2009

What's new in Grade Tracker 4.0?
Known issues in this release
Site requirements

What's new in Grade Tracker 4.0?

The 4.0 release of Class Manager, Gradebook, Grade Tracker, and Results Reporter includes the following revisions.

Instructor gradebook user interface

• Activity groups are represented as tabs.
• The separate Browse and Find page has been removed and replaced with Browse and Search tabs at the top of the gradebook.
• Instructor gradebooks are automatically backed up if the site publisher updates class materials, causing the deletion of scores. A new system announcement indicates that the gradebook has been backed up. The backup file is available from the instructor My Downloads page.
• Previous and Next buttons have been added to allow instructors to browse across activities.
• A Cancel button has been added to the Create New Class page.
• Back buttons have been added to various pages to improve navigation.

Student grades user interface

• A Back button has been added to the student grades view to improve navigation.

Other changes

• The number of problemsets supported is now to 1000.
• The Grade Tracker/Class Manager Help has been replaced with a full Help system, including an index and full-text search features.

Known issues in this release

The following are known issues -- and, as available, workarounds -- for Class Manager, Gradebook/Grade Tracker for instructors, and Results Reporter/Grade Tracker for students. Unless otherwise stated, the issue applies to students and instructors. New issues specific to the latest release, or not listed in prior release notes, are flagged with an asterisk (*).

• Class names cannot include non-ASCII characters (instructor only)*
• Session timeout after 60 minutes of inactivity
• Class Info tab does not appear when the instructor creates the first class (instructor only)
• Gradebook Browse and Search tab order is inconsistent (instructor only)*
• Ungraded essay attempts are not included in an automatic backup file (instructor only)*
• Use of the Back button generates a login error (student only)*
• Grades and gradebook download errors
• Using Help links in Grade Tracker-enabled Companion Websites*
• Gradebook/Grade Tracker/Results Reporter issues on some platforms
• Display of names always in initial caps
• Companion Website registration followed immediately by class enrollment
• Popup windows displayed in the background
• Grade Tracker/Course Compass issues

*Class names cannot include non-ASCII characters (instructor only)

You cannot include non-ASCII characters in the names of class you create. If you do create a class that has non-ASCII characters in the name, you or your students may have trouble logging in or entering your class.

ASCII characters are printable English characters available from a standard computer keyboard. These characters include upper- and lower-case alphabetic characters (A-Z), numbers (0-9), and the following other characters: ! " # $ % & ' ( ) + , - . / [ \ ] ^ _ ` { | } ~, and spaces.

Pearson is aware of the problem and plan to fix it in a future release.

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Session timeout after 60 minutes of inactivity

If you view the same website page for 59 minutes, a browser message may appear informing you that your session will expire in one minute. You can respond by clicking OK to keep the session open, or you can click Log Out to end the session. If you do not respond within a minute's time, you are automatically logged out of the website. Instructors and students who have active pop-up blockers on their computers do not see this browser message. To re-enter the website, log in again.

Related information

• How to tell if you have timed out of your session: When you navigate to a quiz, you see the following (or similar) information at the top of the page:

• Timeout implications for students taking quizzes: For student quiz results to appear in the student's grades and the instructor's class gradebook (if applicable), the student must have started the quiz during an active session. If that quiz is submitted for grading after the session has timed out, the results still post to the gradebook. If your website contains tutorials, results for these are recorded upon submission, even if the student's session has timed out.
• Why does the session time out after 60 minutes? This logout protects the integrity and privacy of your personal data in the event that you walk away from a computer without logging out of the site.
• Inactivity timeout: Student Results Reporter/Grade Tracker and instructor Gradebook/Grade Tracker each time out after 18 minutes of viewing a page with no activity. No advance notice pop-up message displays. You are not timed out of your website session, so all submissions still post.

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Class Info tab does not appear when the instructor creates the first class (instructor only)

When an instructor creates his or her first class for a Companion Website, the Class Info tab does not appear. To display the Class Info tab, the instructor must log out and log back in, or use one of the following key combinations:

• Windows platform - Internet Explorer browser: While holding down the Ctrl key, click the browser Refresh button.
• Windows platform - Netscape or Firefox browser: While holding down the Shift key, click the browser Reload button.
• Macintosh platform: While holding down the Shift key, click the browser Refresh button.

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*Gradebook Browse and Search tab order is inconsistent (instructor only)

The order of activity group tabs is not consistent in Browse and Search results page.

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*Ungraded essay attempts are not included in an automatic backup file (instructor only)

When an automatic backup of grades is made (due to changes in class materials), ungraded attempts on essay activities are not included in the Excel spreadsheet. Only the graded attempts on essay activities are exported to the spreadsheet; ungraded attempts are ignored.

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*Use of the Back button generates a login error (student only)

When a student navigates from the Class Info page to Grade Tracker page using the Back button and clicks the Summary link, a Gradebook login error is displayed.

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Grades and gradebook download errors

When you download student grades or an instructor gradebook to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, some of the information is reported incorrectly, as described in this section.

Tutorial and essay scores

Tutorials display a score that shows the percent complete, not the percent correct.

A percentage score is displayed for essay-only quizzes that the instructor has graded. Fields for ungraded essay-only quizzes are blank.

Class averages in the instructor gradebook

The class average is not displayed in the downloaded instructor gradebook.

To calculate the class average in Microsoft Excel, use the Average function in Excel.

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Using Help links in Grade Tracker-enabled Companion Websites

Unlike most Pearson sites, Grade Tracker-enabled Companion Websites have two Help links, one in the Companion Website banner and one in the Grade Tracker portion of the screen. The Help link in the Companion Website banner opens Help for the site. No Grader Tracker information is included in that Help system. The Help link in the Grade Tracker portion of the screen includes both Companion Website Help and Help for Grader Tracker/Class Manager.

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*Gradebook/Grade Tracker/Results Reporter issues on some platforms

• Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows Vista: After an instructor navigates in the Browse results page of the gradebook, clicking the Back button displays the Class Picker page.
• Internet Explorer 7.0 and Safari: When a student clicks the Go To Grade Tracker link in the Attempt View page, the Grade Tracker page is displayed inside the frame. Clicking the Back button inside the frame displays the following message:

• Internet Explorer on Windows: The Microsoft Excel worksheet (.xls file) generated by the Download command may open automatically in Internet Explorer on Windows, where it is not possible to save the file. For more information, refer to Download results from the class gradebook to Microsoft Excel or Download your student grades to Microsoft Excel.

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Display of names always in initial caps

Names are always displayed with only the initial letter capitalized. For example, the names "DeCordova" and "McNamara" are displayed "Decordova" and "Mcnamara."

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Companion Website registration followed immediately by class enrollment

If you register for access to a Companion Website, a message may be displayed requesting that you wait for a confirmation email. If you do not wait for the confirmation email, you may be able to log into the website, but the Gradebook/Grade Tracker/Results Reporter and Class Manager links may not appear. If this occurs, log out, wait for the email confirmation, and log in again.

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Pop-up windows displayed in the background

The window used to display the Confirm Download page, My Downloads page, or "Max downloads reached" message does not return to the foreground if you minimize the window or put that window behind another page and later click My Downloads or Download. Maximize or bring the window to the foreground using the standard features of your operating system.

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Grade Tracker/CourseCompass Issues

If you came to this site from a CourseCompass course, you may experience the following issues:

• If you have created more than one course (instructor) or are enrolled in more than one course (student) for the same course materials, and you attempt to switch between courses, you may be directed into the wrong Class Manager class. (The name of your Class Manager class is located in the upper right hand corner of the website, underneath your name.) If this happens, close all your browser windows and log back into CourseCompass from a new browser window to access the correct class.

• If your Grade Tracker or Class Manager session times out while you are working in CourseCompass, you should close all your browsers and log back into CourseCompass from a new browser in order to start a new Grade Tracker or Class Manager session.

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Site requirements

Gradebook and Class Manager have been tested on the following operating systems and browsers. Note that some Companion Websites may state specific requirements.