At face value, Grade Book and Grading may seem synonymous, and for good reason—they fit together like adjoining pieces of a puzzle. In Blackbaud's education management solutions, they provide teachers with the ability to digitally record assignment and quiz grades, and then compile those grades into report cards. Let's take a closer look at each to better understand how they differ and work together to create a smooth grading process.
Grade Book is a component of Blackbaud Learning Management SystemTM (LMS) that enables teachers to record grades online for student assignments and assessments. Teachers can add assignment types of their choosing from homework and quizzes to final exams, and they can also determine how grades calculate.
Each assignment type can be worth a percentage, count for a certain number of points, or have variable weight added when the final grade is calculated. When an assignment is added, the teacher chooses the number of points that each assignment is worth, and whether it will count towards the cumulative grade at all.
Grade Book also gives teachers the option to allow students and parents to view their grades as they are entered in real time—no more waiting for papers with a score written in bright red pen. It creates a very interactive experience that helps students and teachers make sure they are on the same wavelength.
Grading is a feature in Blackbaud Student Information SystemTM (SIS) focused on report cards and transcripts.
Once final grades are determined, the Grading module can pull in grades from Grade Book. Administrators are able to create formulas that teachers can use to calculate their grades with the press of a button. Grading also allows for non-numeric grades so teachers can choose to grade using rubrics and comments. After these final grades are calculated, Grading allows administrators to pull student grades into a transcript.
Both Grade Book and Grading can be used stand-alone, but many schools find that using both together with Blackbaud's LMS and SIS solutions creates a seamless flow for teachers, administrators, students, and parents.
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