Creating Smart Views in the Grade Center

Overview

Smart Views are views of the Grade Center based on a variety of student criteria. This enables Instructors to create certain views of the Grade Center—based on performance criteria for gradable items such as Assessments or Assignments—that quickly track Students. There are four different Types of Smart Views that specify the Student information:

• Group allows the instructors to select a Group, which was created in the course Groups are subsections created in the User Management Area of the Control Panel. They are a collection of students selected by the Instructor.
• Benchmark allows the Instructor to select Students based on performance
• Focus allows the Instructor to select individual Students
• Investigate allows the Instructor to select from a full list of Student attributes; this is a combination of the options of the other three Smart Views.

Once built and saved, Smart Views become a selectable list item on the Current View drop-down menu of the Grade Center page, enabling easy navigation from one view to another. Any Smart View can be saved as the default view of the Grade Center. The current default view can be changed at any time.

Add a Group Smart View

Smart Views of Grade Center data can be based on Groups that have been created in a Course.

To build a Smart View based on Group Membership, follow these steps:

1. Click Manage in the Action Bar of the Grade Center.
2. Select Smart Views from the Action Link menu.
3. Click Add Smart View.
4. Enter a Name for the Smart View. This is a required field and will appear in the Current View Action Link menu on the Grade Center page. It will also appear as a link to the Smart View on the Manage Smart Views page.
5. Enter a Description of the Smart View. The description will appear on the Manage Smart Views page.
6. Select the Search Type Group by selecting the corresponding radio button.
7. Select the Condition for the Group. Selections include:

Equal toNot equal to

8. Select the value of the Group, which would be the Group name.
9. Select the Filter Results by picking which Columns to Display in Results from the drop-down menu. The following choices are possible:

• All columns
None
• All GradeCenter columns which are visible to Students
• All Columns which are NOT visible to Students
• Selected columns only, thenselect the desired columns from the selection list or list of columns.
• Selected Categories only, thenselect the desired Categories from the list of Categories
• Selected Grading Periods only, thenselect desired Grading Periods from the list of Grading Periods

10. To include hidden columns, click the check box to Include hidden information.
11. Click Submit to save the Smart View.

Click Cancel to discard the query and return to the Manage Smart Views page.

Add a Benchmark Smart View

A Benchmark Smart View is a view of the Grade Center based on students' performance on a single gradable item such as a mid-tern exam. To build a Benchmark Smart View, follow these steps:

1. Click Manage in the Action Bar of the Grade Center.
2. Select Smart Views from the Action Link menu.
3. Click Add Smart View.
4. Enter a Name for the Smart View. This is a required field and will appear in the Current View drop-down menu on the Grade Center page. It will also appear as a link to the Smart View on the Manage Smart Views page.
5. Enter a Description of the Smart View. The description will appear on the Manage Smart Views page.
6. Select the radio button corresponding to the Search Type Benchmark.
7. Select the Student Criteria (columns from the Grade Center) from the drop-down menu.
8. Select the Condition for the criteria. Possible conditions include the following:

Equal toGreater thanGreater than or equal toLess thanLess than or equal toBetweenStatus equals

9. Select the Value for the Condition. All Conditions require a number except Between, which requires two numbers, and Status equals, which requires a selection for the status of the grade.
10. Select the Filter Results by picking which Columns to Display in Results from the drop-down menu. The following choices are possible:

• All columns
None
• All GradeCentercolumns which are visible to Students
• All columns which are NOT visible to Students
• Selected columns only, thenselect the desired columns from the list of columns.
• Selected Categories only, then select the desired Categories from the list of Categories.
• Selected Grading Periods only, thenselect desired Grading Periods from the list of Grading Periods.

Note: To select more than one item, hold down Ctrl and click on the desired items.

11. To include hidden columns, select the check box to Include hidden information.
12. Click Submit to save the Smart View.

Click Cancel to discard the query and return to the Manage Smart Views page.

Smart Views of Grade Center data can be based on a simple selection of Students and columns of Gradable Items. To build a Focus Smart View, follow these steps:

1. Click Manage in the Action Bar of the Grade Center.
2. Select Smart Views from the Action Link menu.
3. Click Add Smart View.
4. Enter a Name for the Smart View. This is a required field and will appear in the Current View drop-down menu on the Grade Center page. It will also appear as a link to the Smart View on the Manage Smart Views page.
5. Enter a Description of the Smart View. The description will appear on the Manage Smart Views page.
6. Select the Search Type Focus by selecting the corresponding radio button.
7. Use the radio button to Select Criteria for All Students or Selected Students. If Selected Students is picked, hold the Control Key down and click the Students to include from the selection box.
8. Select the Filter Results by picking which Columns to Display in Results from the drop-down menu. The following choices are possible:

• All columns
None
• All GradeCentercolumns which are visible to Students
• All Columns which are NOT visible to Students
• Selected columns only, thenselect the desired columns from the list of columns.
• Selected Categories only, thenselect the desired Categories from the list of Categories.
• Selected Grading Periods only, then select desired Grading Periods from the list of Grading periods.

9. To include hidden columns, select the check box to Include hidden information.
10. Click Submit to save the Smart View.

Click Cancel to discard the query and return to the Manage Smart Views page.

Add an Investigate Smart View

Smart Views of Grade Center data can be based on a complex query of student and column attributes. To build an Investigate Smart View, follow these steps:

1. Click Manage in the Action Bar of the Grade Center.
2. Select Smart Views from the Action Link menu.
3. Click Add Smart View.
4. Enter a Name for the Smart View. This is a required field and will appear in the Current View drop-down menu on the Grade Center page. It will also appear as a link to the Smart View on the Manage Smart Views page.
5. Enter a Description of the Smart View. The description will appear on the Manage Smart Views page.
6. Select the Search Type Investigate by selecting the corresponding radio button.
7. Select Student Criteria from the drop-down menu. For example, “Grade on Midterm” A full set of available criteria is listed below.
8. Select a Condition from the drop-down menu. The possible selections differ with each type of item.

1. For Names, the condition must be set to either Begins with or Contains.
2. For Dates, the condition must be set as either Before or After.
3. For scores or percentages, the condition must be one of a number of options, such as Equal to, Less than, Greater than, and others.

9. Enter a Value for the condition. The value entry depends upon the criterion selected. Date criteria require specific Date values; Name entries require specific letter or name entries. A Value entry will specify the Student Criteria for the Smart View. For example, entering “60” as a value for a Midterm test would pull all students who scored 60 or less on the Midterm test. For more information on manually entering and editing queries, see Manually Modifying Search Criteria Formula.
10. To add a second Student Criterion, click Add Student Criteria, and make additional selections. Criteria are always added as AND statements. The formula for the query is displayed in the Formula Preview box. To edit the formula manually, click Manually Modify and enter a new formula. For more information on manually entering and editing queries, see Manually Modifying Search Criteria Formula.

11. Select the Filter Results by picking which Columns to Display in Results from the drop-down menu. The following choices are possible:

• All columns
None
• All GradeCentercolumns which are visible to Students
• All columns which are NOT visible to Students
• Selected columns only, thenselect the desired columns from the list of columns.
• Selected Categories only, thenselect the desired Categories from the list of Categories.
• Selected Grading Periods only, then select desired Grading Periods from the list of Grading Periods.

12. To include hidden columns, select the check box to Include hidden information.
13. Click Submit to save the Smart View.

Use Case for an Investigative Smart View Search Criteria

The following example illustrates the creation of Investigative Smart Views with multiple search criteria. Such detailed Smart Views can help Instructors build a comprehensive organization of Grade Center data and then use that information to improve Student performance.

An Instructor is teaching a course with two gradable items that account for the major proportion of the semester’s grade, a Mid-term Exam, and a Final Exam. In the Course, the Instructor has two Groups of students, Majors and Non-majors, as well as select Students in a group named At Risk Students. This translates into five criteria:

The Instructor is interested in seeing which students scored below a 60 on either exam, what group the Students are in, and if they are at risk. This data will give the Instructor information on whether there is a difference in the failure rates of Majors, Non-majors and At Risk Students. To enter a complex formula, the Instructor must manually edit the formula in the Formula Editor text box.

The first formula the Instructor enters is this:

([1 or 2] and [3 or 4]) and 5

This displays all Students from the At Risk group (5) with scores less than 60 on the Mid-term exam (1) or Final exam (2) with the group Majors (3) or Non-majors (4).

The second formula the Instructor enters is this:

(1 or 2) and (3 or 4 or 5)

This displays all students with scores less than 60 on the Mid-term exam (1) or the Final exam (2) and are either in the group Majors (3) or Non-majors (4) or At Risk (5).

Looking at the Smart Views that these formulas generate gives the Instructor information on who has failed either test, who in each group has failed one of the exams, and who among the students who failed is at risk. More comparisons can be made to see if Majors or Non-majors have a greater failure rate, and if at risk students fail at the same or a different rate as majors and non-majors. All of this data may help the Instructor decide that next semester the course will only be open to Majors and those who have specific pre-requisites. The Instructor can also follow up with the student services department with information on the at-risk students.

Manually Modifying Search Criteria Formula

To build complex search queries in order to create Smart Views of Grade Center data, Instructors can edit the selection formula in the in the Formula Editor text box.

To edit the formula, follow these steps:

1. Select Student Criteria from the drop-down menu. Available criteria appear in the table below.
2. Select a Condition from the drop-down menu. Available conditions appear in the table below.
3. Enter a Value for the condition. Allowed entries appear in the table below.
4. As data is selected, a query formula is built in the Formula Preview text box. The first set of Student Criteria is labeled “1”.
5. To add a second set of Student Criteria, click Add Student Criteria, and make additional selections. The second set of Student Criteria is labeled “2” and so on as criteria are added.
6. Click Manually Modify to change the operators and insert parentheses to edit the formula.
7. Filter Results in order to display only the desired information and columns.
8. Click Submit to save the Smart View.

Click Cancel to discard the query and return to the Manage Smart Views page.

Student Criteria

Modify a Smart View

Once created, a Smart View can be modified. To modify a Smart View, follow these steps:

1. Click Manage in the Action Bar of the Grade Center.
2. Select Smart Views from the Action Link menu.
3. Find the Smart View to change and click Modify.
4. Make desired changes.
5. Click Submit to save changes.

Click Cancel to discard the query and return to the Manage Smart Views page.

Remove a Smart View

Smart Views can be removed when no longer necessary. Removing a Smart View does not remove any data from the system. To remove a Smart View, follow these steps:

1. Click Manage in the Action Bar of the Grade Center.
2. Select Smart Views from the Action Link menu.
3. Find the Smart View to delete and click Remove.
4. Click OK to remove the Smart View.

Setting the Default Grade Center View

The default setting for the Current View of the Grade Center displays the Full Grade Center. To change default Current View, follow these steps:

1. Move the cursor over the Current View Action Link menu, and select the desired Smart View. Views available in the drop-down menu are the Full Grade Center, all saved Smart Views, and all defined Grading Periods.
2. Click Go.
3. Click Set as Default.

This setting will persist across sessions and selected view will display when any user enters the Grade Center. The default view may be changed at any time.