Recent MyGradeBook Upgrades That Affected Teachers
The version numbers listed below and the version numbers shown at the bottom of every screen after you log in are only for reference. MyGradeBook is a web-based product and you are always using the latest version.

Version 11.4    07/18/2010
  • Teacher session timeout reminder - Teacher sessions have always automatically timed out after 1 hour of not clicking any buttons or links and they will continue to do so. In order to help teachers remember the 1 hour timeout, we have added a reminder message that pops up every 19 minutes until the teacher clicks a link or a button.
     
  • Weekly maintenance lockout shortened and moved to Saturday - The weekly maintenance lockout has been moved to Saturdays and will start at 4:00 AM United States Eastern Time. In addition, the weekly maintenance lockout will be shorter because it is no longer hard coded to be 7 hours. The weekly maintenance lockout will end as soon as the required database maintenance routines have finished which will typically be 2 to 5 hours after they start.
     
  • Print headers on teacher reports are smaller - The print headers for teacher reports now take up fewer lines of paper than they did before.
     
  • Phase 1 of Internationalization - Teachers and Group Managers can now use the My Account screen to specify which of the three major date formats they want to use and the time zone they are in. Available date formats are mm/dd/yyyy, dd-mm-yyyy, and yyyy-mm-dd. You specify your desired date format by indicating which country you are in and your country determines the date format you will use. Please go to the My Account screen and scroll down to review and adjust the default country and time zone settings that have been assigned to customers who created accounts prior to 07/18/2010.

    Changing your date format lets you enter dates in screens in the format you are most comfortable with. In addition, all reports you and your students and parents use will show dates in your chosen format.

    Changing your time zone affects a variety of reports, functions, and defaults including but not limited to things like the following:
    • Default dates when loading attendance screens, creating assignments, creating classes etc.
    • The actual time an assignment is listed as past due in missing scores reports.
    • The actual date/time a quiz becomes available/unavailable.
    • Dates and times shown in login attempt emails, Access Log reports, Student Login reports, Undelete screen items, Integration Log reports, Finalization reports, etc.
     
  • Phase 2 of Internationalization - Phase 2 of our Internationalization work is currently in development and is focused on making MyGradeBook available in multiple languages.
     
  • Date Assigned added to Student/Parent Assignments By Date Due report - The Assignments By Date Due report that students and parents can run after they login now lists Date Assigned in addition to Date Due.
     
  • Teacher Low and Missing Scores reports modified to save paper - When teachers run the Low and Missing Scores reports with the "Display All Active Students" box checked, the report no longer lists students who have no scores that match report criteria. For example, if you run the Missing Scores report for all students, the report only displays the students that have one or more missing scores instead of showing "This student has no missing scores" next to the names of students who have no missing scores.
     
  • Student's Overall Override Automatically Removed When Teacher Removes Student's Last Override Percentage - When a teacher removes a students grading period percentage override in a weighted grading period and clicks the save button, the system will now automatically check to see if the student has no other overrides in weighted grading periods. If the student now has no overrides in weighted grading periods, the students Overall grade and percentage overrides are automatically removed and the normal computed values are used.
     
  • Class start and end dates shown when copying categories and assignments - The start and end dates of the classes that can receive copies are now shown to the immediate right of the class titles when teachers are copying classes and categories.
     
  • Usability for iPad ® users improved - The teacher, student/parent, and group manager menuing tabs, help flyouts, and print flyouts are now aware of iPad users. The system will now show the flyout list of options when an iPad user puts their finger on a tab, print link, or help link.
     

Version 11.3    02/21/2010
  • Teachers now have access to a new report named Category Grades which displays students down a column on the left, categories across the top, each students grades and percentages in each category, each students overall grade and percentage in the selected grading period or date range, and class averages for each column.
  • Account Consolidation - If you have a teacher account and a group manager account using the same email address, you will be guided through consolidating your passwords. Once your accounts have been consolidated, any changes to your email address, password, or unlock password made in either account automatically affects the other account.
  • Teachers who are in integrated groups will no longer see action buttons in the Finalize Grades screen for custom grading periods they have created.
  • Class start and end dates have been added to the Class drop down to make it easier for teachers to figure out which class to select when they have multiple classes with exactly the same name.
  • Group Managers can now update grading periods in group controlled sections without overwriting teacher defined grading periods and teacher defined weights. The Update Sections button in the Group Manager Grading Periods screen now shows options for updating the existing grading period information without removing teacher defined grading periods and teacher defined weights.
  • Group Managers can now easily undo all of the grade finalizations that teachers have done in a grading period by clicking a new button named undo finalization in Download Grades screen. The undo finalization button is useful for groups that download grades more often than the official grading periods they have defined. For example, some groups create custom "Eligibility" or "Intervention" reports of students that are getting low grades on a weekly basis and they have their teachers finalize grades every Friday instead of just at the end of the official grading periods the group has defined. The general process for the aforementioned groups is:
    1. The group manager runs the Finalization report to make sure every teacher finalizes. Many groups do this every Friday.
    2. Once every teacher finalizes, the group manager uses the Download Grades screen to get a file with all of the latest grades.
    3. The group manager uses a spreadsheet program, report generator, or some other tool to read the file and create custom reports.
    4. The group manager clicks the undo finalization button so that the teachers do not have to remember to do it themselves and so an accurate Finalization report can be run the next time the group needs a custom report or the end of the grading period is reached.


Version 11.2    12/01/2009
  • The student/parent home tab now has a system message box similar to what the teachers and group managers see.
     
  • Change to emails sent on behalf of teachers and group managers - What is changing?
    During the first 10+ years of MyGradeBook's existence, we have sent/spoofed email addresses on behalf of teachers and group managers when they used screen like the Grades Updated screen. People such as students and parents that received these emails would see the teachers or group managers email address as the "from" address. We are no longer going to spoof these email addresses for you.

    Instead of spoofing the email addresses, we will now use one of the following as the "from" email address:
    • teacher@mygradebook.com
    • group_manager@mygradebook.com
    • colleague@mygradebook.com

    The change affects the emails sent from the following screens:
    • Teacher's Share Quiz screen
    • Teacher's Daily Attendance, Weekly Attendance, and Seating Chart. The teacher@mygradebook.com is used when a teacher records an attendance event that results in an automatic email and clicks the "send email" button.
    • Teachers's Communicate screen
    • Teacher's Send Grades Updated Email screen
    • Teacher's New Quiz Email screen
    • Group Manager's Teacher Invite screen
    • Group Manager's Licenses Used screen when a teacher's license is revoked.
    • Group Manager's Finalization report when the group manager sends emails to all teachers that have not finalized grade. This report is only available to groups that are using District Integration to create class rosters, maintain class rosters, download grades, etc.

    When a person receives these emails from you, they will still be able to just click the "reply" button in their email client and your address will be automatically filled in instead of the "@mygradebook.com" email address. In addition, any delivery failures will still come back to the originator instead of the "@mygradebook.com" email address. Finally, each email sent on your behalf using one of the "@mygradebook.com" email addresses will contain a brief introduction at the top of the message indicating the message was sent on your behalf.

    Why has this change been made?
    Things have changed in the last year or so as more schools and districts implement SPF (Sender Policy Framework) tools on their email servers to prevent spoofing. Thus, spoofed emails that we were sending on behalf of teachers and group managers to email servers that had implemented SPF were being blocked. Now that we no longer spoof email addresses on your behalf, we can be sure that the emails will not be blocked due to your email administrator implementing SPF.


Version 11.1    10/30/2009
  • Output Reports In PDF Format - Teachers, students, parents, and group managers can now output reports in PDF format. When you load a report page and hold your mouse over the the "Print" link near the top of the screen, you will see at least two printing options with one of them being for PDF output and the other for HTML output. HTML format is the way MyGradeBook reports have always been printed but many people prefer PDF format because it provides additional controls over the printing.


Version 11   06/28/2009
  • Extra Credit Assignments - Teachers can now flag assignments as extra credit. You and the students and parents in your classes will see a clickable ♦ symbol in various screens and reports when an assignment has been flagged as extra credit.

    The ability to flag assignments as extra credit replaces the less effective method of defining an extra credit category. Existing categories that have the extra credit flag will be retained as they are. As of version 11, the extra credit flag can not be applied to any new categories or any existing categories that do not already have it.

    Extra credit assignments increase the number of points that a student earns in a category. Extra credit assignments do NOT increase the number of points possible in a category.

    Take as an example a Homework category in which a student has 80 points out of 100 possible points. A teacher can add an extra credit assignment worth 5 points. If the teacher gives the student a score of 4 points on this extra credit assignment, the student will now have 84 points out of 100 possible points in the Homework category.
     
  • Specify Decimal Places - A new preference in the My Account screen lets you specify 2, 3, or 4 as the number of decimal places to show when computed percentages are displayed in reports and screens.
     
  • Rounding - The results of the grading engine calculations are no longer rounded up when they are displayed in reports and screens. The grading engine calculations are and always have been computed to four decimal places and we are no longer reducing the perceived accuracy of those calculations when displaying them.

    Example: A class has a grading scale in which a "B+" requires a minimum percentage of 87 and an "A-" requires a minimum percentage of 90. The teacher is viewing two decimal points. The grading engine computes a grade percentage of 89.9999 for a student. As of version 11, you will see 89.99 in the screens and reports instead of the 90.00 you have seen in prior versions. The students letter grade in the aforementioned scenario is and always has been "B+" because the full four decimal places computed by the grading engine has always been used when comparing the percentage against the class grading scale.
     
  • Add up to 30 students at a time - The student screen now lets you add up to 30 students at a time. In addition, the student screen is now using faster auto save reminder code so it should load noticeably faster when lots students are shown on older computers.
     
  • Default Scoring Screen - You can use the My Account Preferences section to specify a different scoring screen to display by default when the Scores tab is clicked.
     
  • Class Screen Modified - The deprecated Classroom Website and Classroom Announcement fields have been permanently removed. The Post Message & Links screen listed in the Communicate tab provides replacement functionality for the two fields that were removed from the Class screen.
     
  • Scores By Assignment - The Scores By Assignment screen now has a grading period drop down which restricts the list of assignments shown in the assignment drop down. In addition, each students current overall grade and percentage is shown to the right of the score the student has earned. Finally, if you are viewing a specific grading period, each students current grade and percentage in the selected grading period is shown to the right of the overall grade information.
     
  • Scores By Student - The Scores By Student screen now has a grading period drop down which restricts the list of assignment scores shown. If you are viewing a specific grading period, the students current grade and percentage in the selected grading period is shown in the information box above the buttons.
     
  • Assignment Copying - The screen that shows a list of a potential classes to receive copies of the assignment(s) you are copying has been modified to list all classes that are active or ended less than 45 days ago. Prior to version 11, you were only shown the currently active classes.
     
  • All Scores (Compacted) removed - The All Scores (Compacted) report has been removed because very few people used it and those that did use seemed to be primarily interested in having a copy of all their data at a point in time. If you miss the All Scores (Compacted) report, you might want to consider running the Student Summary report with the all students option checked and then use your browsers File-->Save As abilities to retain copies of your data at a point in time. You might also find the Export screen under the Toolkit tab to be useful.
     
  • Copy Grading Scale - If you have more than one class that uses the same grading scale and you need to modify the grading scale, you can modify one of the classes and then copy the grading scale to all of the other classes that should use it.
     
  • Student/Parent Grading Summary For Each Linked Class - When students and parents login and they have more than one class linked, the home tab now shows them a summary of grading information from each of their linked classes.
     
  • New User Guide - The New Class Wizard has been renamed to New User Guide and has been enhanced to provide better guidance through the common things most teachers do when they create a new class.




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Teachers like the convenience of being able to work from home. Since we started using this program, homework is being turned in more regularly and grades are improving. It's great being able to communicate more directly with parents.

— Kathy Burns, Technical
Specialist, Ann Arbor Public Schools