Dear Bev,

Every session I find managing the marks coming in from all my tutors a real nightmare. Sorting and arranging student names, IDs and marks into the format the iLearn Gradebook needs from the chaos I receive is just so time-consuming and frustrating. Importing marks drives me bonkers. Surely there’s a way that iLearn can do most of this work for me? Is there a better solution?

Yours,
Author of the (Grade)book of the Dead

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Dear Author (Grade)book of the Dead,

I see so many unit convenors with this same problem. Fortunately, there is a nifty iLearn solution! So let me breakdown the situation:

1. Create Groupings
2. Unit Level Settings
3. Hey Presto!

1. Create Groupings

You can create a Group (a collection of students / users) for, say, each tutorial group. See the #justaskbev response to Wannabe Groupie for instructions.

e.g. Tutorial 1 Group,
Tutorial 2 Group,
Tutorial 3 Group,
Tutorial 4 Group,
Tutorial 5 Group,
Tutorial 6 Group, etc.

What’s important to remember here is to: add the name of each tutor / marker to the individual groups they will be marking

e.g.
Tutorial 1 Group: 25 student names + tutor Alice
Tutorial 2 Group: 26 student names + tutor Brad
Tutorial 3 Group: 25 student names + tutor Connie
Tutorial 4 Group: 24 student names + tutor Dave
Tutorial 5 Group: 25 student names + tutor Elaine
Tutorial 6 Group: 25 student names + tutor Fred

You can then create a Grouping (a folder to contain types of Groups) for, say marking. See the #justaskbev response to Wannabe Groupie for instructions.

e.g. Marking Grouping

So, the 6 tutorial Groups and held in the ‘Marking Grouping’ container.

2. Unit Level Settings

Now that Groups and a Grouping have been created, we need to apply it at the unit level.

Important Notes:

• The group mode defined at the unit level is the default mode for all activities within the unit.
• Each activity that supports groups can also define its own group mode, though if the group mode is forced at the unit level, the group mode setting for each activity is ignored.

From your unit landing page:

Tools > Unit Administration > Edit Settings

Under the Groups section:

(a) Select Group mode

In our example, we choose ‘Visible groups’ because the groups and groupings are only being used for staff marking purposes.

Visible groups
Each group member works in their own group, but can also see other groups.

(b) Force group mode

In our example, we do not want the Groups and Groupings to apply to all unit activities, so we select ‘No’.

(c) Default Grouping

Select the ‘Marking Grouping’ as the default.

Another Example

If you wanted students to work on all tasks together in tutorial groups only, then you would choose:

Group mode: ‘Separate groups’

Separate groups
Each group member can only see their own group, others are invisible.

Force group mode: ‘Yes’

3. Hey Presto!

Now, when your tutors / markers login to your iLearn unit and view the Gradebook, only the students in their allocated tutorial group should be visible to them.

This means that tutors can easily enter their marks directly into Gradebook.

Cutting out the workload of the middleman – you.
Getting your time back – pricelesss!

So there you have it, Author of the (Grade)book of the Dead!

If you need back up, give us a shout: ilearn.help@mq.edu.au or fohs.lds@mq.edu.au, or read the iLearn Groups guide.