Sakai Gradebook Modifications

Purpose

The Sakai Gradebook tool currently provides 'Instructors' the ability to download grade information in two different ways.

First is the 'Roster View Download' (RVD) which downloads a list of assigmnents and some point grade information. (The Roster View Download feature is currently being enhanced as per SAK-1753 and http://bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/SG2X/Grade+Import by UC Berkeley)
The Second download feature is the 'Course Grade Download' (CGD). The CGD is the focus of this specification and the purpose of feature is final grade reporting.
The motivational factors driving change in CGD has come from both the Sakai Project community and from local exigencies. Locally, the need to provide a mechanism that fits into or replaces the current final grade submission workflow that involves both MyUCDavis and The Final Grading Tool aka the Grade Submission Tool. The current output of the CGD does not provide sufficient infomation (within the data) for the Final Grading Tool to process without brittleness.

While the primary focus of this work is on the CGD, code re-use in the original design results in some of the same methods being used for CGD and RVD. And so, it was not possible to change the first without some effect the second. This also means that final integration testing must include RVD functions.

The Sakai community expresses its preferences using feature requests and periodic requirements gathering an a large scale. The current outstanding requirements include 'make [CGD] more configurable' which primarily means to be able to reorder the columns for the output; and 'enable/disable download buttons' and, 'add section information'.

References

REQ-2, REQ-76, SAK-5444

Status and Results

Requirement: Disable/enable Download buttons - using configuration files

Status
complete

Configuration

By 'properties' file
property key: course_grade_export_enabled - default value: true property key: roster_export_enabled - default value: true compile-time path: tool/src/bundle/org/sakaiproject/tool/gradebook/bundle/Messages.properties run-time path: WEB-INF/classes/org/sakaiproject/tool/gradebook/bundle/Messages.properties

By JSF configuration file
Bean id: exportBean property: courseGradeDownloadEnabled - default value: true property: rosterDownloadEnabled - default value: true compile-time path: tool/src/webapp/common/WEB-INF/faces-beans.xml run-time path: WEB-INF/faces-beans.xml

Requirement: 'Make download more configurable' - using configuration files

Status
complete

Configuration

By 'properties' file
compile-time path: tool/src/bundle/org/sakaiproject/tool/gradebook/bundle/Messages.properties run-time path: WEB-INF/classes/org/sakaiproject/tool/gradebook/bundle/Messages.properties

A new property can be specified in the 'Messages' bundle: export_course_grade_column_order_keys
This property can be defined with a comma-separated (configurable) list of keys used to defind column titles in the same 'Messages' bundle properties file. These keys are used to define the order and consituency of the columns as they are downloaded as well.

Propery key	key value	download data
export_course_grade_gradebookid_column_name	column name, eg "Site ID"	Gradebook Id = Site Id
export_course_grade_siteprovider_column_name	column name, eg "Provider ID"	Site Provider Id
export_course_grade_sitetitle_column_name	column name, eg "Site Title"	Site Title
export_student_name	column name, eg "Student Name"	user displayName
export_student_id	column name, eg "Student Id"	user Eid
roster_course_grade_column_name	column name, eg "Cumulative"	see 'course_or_roster'
course_grade_details_course_grade_column_name	column name, eg "Course Grade"	see 'course_or_roster'
course_or_roster	none: placeholder *	'cumulative roster view grade' or the 'course grade'
assignments	none: placeholder *	All the assignment columns sorted in 'natural' order (sort specified in GUI)

* The special placeholder pseudo-keys, assignments and course_or_roster are not treated as keys with property values like the others.

The GradebookCourseGradeFeedService defines the above property (and placeholder psuedo-) keys as well as:

the name of the sort order key: export_course_grade_column_order_keys
the delimiter string for the key list: , (comma)

Two things worth noting

The properties file overrides defaults.
- If any of the keys are specified in the export_course_grade_column_order_keys property, the all the defaults are overridden.
The 'Roster View Download' and 'Course Grade Download' ulitmately share the same methods.

An example that touches on both: if the placeholder assignments is left out of the list, roster columns will not be printed.

Screen-shot of Course Grade Download buttons

UC Davis Sakai Collaborative > Sakai Gradebook Modifications Specification > GradebookExportScreenShot.jpg

Changes to Online Grade Submission, the existing UC Davis Final Grading Tool (Coldfusion application)