The kickoff meeting for the project to integrate the Sakai Gradebook with Online Grade Submission occurred August 3, 2006 with the following agenda:
*Purpose of the changes to SmartSite
*Review the requirements
*Demo the application/Discussion from the group
*Review the milestones on the Project Plan
*Announcement: We will begin weekly meetings on the Gradebook project progress. Who are the participants?
*Adjourn meeting
Input from the attendees included the following:
*The file that is downloaded from Sakai as the first step in the grading process should have a different name. Attendees agreed that the CourseSite Title as the file name seemed acceptable to the group. This includes the subject code, CRN, section, and termcode.
*Modify Sakai to include all possible grades offered at UCD. This way, the download step should have the correct grade intended. There may still be a difference in grading mode for which an individual registered. This difference will be flagged by Online Grade Submission during the upload step.
*Include middle initial in the name for the students in the Sakai download step.
*The Online Grade Submission interface should be simplified per the mock up.
*Provide an opportunity for the faculty to pop open Online Grade Submission with ease while they're in Sakai.
*Review the instruction in Online Grade Submission with the Communications specialist.
*It was suggested that we include language in Online Grade Submission that indicates that submitting grades via the SmartSite interface was for Vet Med faculty only. This was suggested to prevent confusion.
The group is looking forward to the next phase in this project in which submitting grades via SmartSite is much easier. Our UCD team is working with Berkeley to include Web Services capabilities that will provide a more direct entry of grades into the Online Grade Submission files.