Final Grade Landing Page Requirements

Requirements Draft: SAK-2871

Overview

Create a new UI grade input page to the final grade submission process for grading students with multiple CRN records in a course site that has multiple section category types.

Problem to be solved:

Our Gradebook does not handle the situation in which a course site has multiple CRNs and therefore multiple section type categories within one course site. This can create a situation in which the student has multiple CRN enrollments. Gradebook will grade one of the CRNs but not the other. We need a new external tool to reveal the multiple CRNs and to allow input for end users to grade all CRNs in the course site.

Assumptions:

This will be an external tool, not integrated as part of gradebook.
We will not provide this tool for the Sakai community
We will provide this tool for an outsourcing vendor (ASP).

Process flow:

Course converter tool create output of students and grades from gradebook. No change in current process flow.
Redirects output to this new landing page tool. Change in the current process flow.
Landing page determines whether or not there are multiple section category types in the output, e.g., lecture and lab
Landing page pre-populates the UI with whatever grades end user has input.
Present the UI to the end user of student names and whatever grades have been input so far.
Apply the grades to the highest section category type which is usually lecture.
Accept further input of grades from the end user.
Allow end user to leave grade input fields blank if they choose.
Save input values, write grade file to AFS, and call the final grade submit app.
Save input values and exits.
The landing page tool is required for our current gradebook as well as gradebook 2.

UI description:

Show the IOR and the course CRN.
The UI should have the subject code, the course number, the section number, the term and the CRN (not necessarily in this order).
The UI should pre populate grades to its grade field as transferred to it by the course converter tool.
Avoid horizontal scrolling where possible. Put the grade input field in one of the first few columns.
- Target screen resolution: ??
Default sort order is by student name (Last, First Name), then CRN.
Has button to submit to final grade submission tool.
Has button to save input and allow user to exit. NOTE: If we use AJAX, this may not be applicable.

Technology Related Questions

Question	Yes Arguments	No Arguments	Answer
Is it a Sakai tool/service?	- Access to existing Data Sources - Skinning	- Dependency on Sakai
What is the requirement for storing data entered on the page?			- User needs to be able to save and retrive entered grades. - Grades are stored forever
If a user changes the grade in GB, does that newly entered/modified grade overwrite the already entered grade in the FGLP, or is it merged?			TASK (Sandra): See what MyUCD GB does in this case.
If the tool needs to persist data in a data base, should it use one the existing Sakai or UCD DataSources or should it use it's own one?
Will the unsubmitted data need to persist between user sessions? If so, do we assume the next user session is on the app server saving the data or can it be any member of the cluster?
What are the logging/auditing requirements for the app? Should logging/auditing be done in the DB or is a file alone okay? Should we be using standard sakai services(ala events/sessions/etc) to make things easier on Dave W, ITX, and you?
How can an end user input grades, save, and return to complete the final grade submission transaction?
How do we transfer data from the course converter tool to this landing page tool? - REST, SOAP, GWT-RPC, ...
What data format shall be used to transfer data from the course converter tool to this landing page tool?
What happens if the end user hits the back button while inputting grades? -- Could this be used as "undo"
At what time is user input persisted, it at all? -- using AJAX after each field edit -- once by clicking on "save/submit" button
What software development tools will be used for programming the landing page tool?

General Questions:

Question	Answer
Add the Banner student ID as well?
Since this is an external tool, do we have to skin it?	Probably but as simply as possible. TPA: Enduser experiance should set the standard
Should the landing page write the final grade file to AFS?
Do we need the Final Grade Submission tool to change also?
Can the landing page tool look up the grading option for the student's enrollment information?	We carry this information in one of our tables.
If we have the student's enrollment grading option for the course, can we reveal this to the end user? If not, we just pass along to the output file whatever grade the end user inputs.	Answer from the Reg Office: The faculty is not supposed to know about the option for Pass No Pass grading. The letter grade is supposed to be submitted to registrar's office. The option on the grading is handled when the grade rolls to history in Banner.
Does the landing page tool perform any other grade look up validation?
Can the landing page tool look up the grading mode for the course?	We don't carry this information in our external database. Need to determine if we can get this, and if so if how we would implement different drop-downs for the relevant grading mode.