Introduction
Tutorial
One way to learn how to use SM-Marks Online is to try out the features with real data. By using a few of the basic commands you will learn the principles behind the operation of all the commands in SM-Marks Online. The way SM-Marks Online is designed means that the skills learnt for one command can be applied to other similar commands with predictable results.
In this tutorial you will learn how to:
- Create a markbook file
- Enter classes, students, tasks, and results
- Save a markbook
- Print a class mark sheet
- Use the Average calculation
Creating your first markbook
After you log into SM-Marks Online what you see is the window of your browser with a menu, toolbar and a list of initial commands.
Choose the "Make a new markbook link" to create an empty markbook, the markbook has no classes, students or tasks. For example, to make a markbook choose the New|Markbook command, and click on the Markbook name field so the cursor appears. Then type the name of the markbook and click on the Create Markbook button.
To add students to the markbook you must first create a class. Click on the New menu and select the Class command. Click on the Class name field so the cursor appears and type,
10S1
into the Class name field. Then type,
Green
for the Teacher family name and type,
Sue
for the Teacher given name. Click on the Create Class button and a class with that name is added to the markbook. If you want to make another class, do the steps again.
You can now add students to the class. Click on the New menu and select the Student command. Type the student's family name of,
JONES
in the Family name field and then type in the Given name,
LEONIE
For the this student, the Female gender is wanted to click on the Create Student button. By repeating these steps, create the students in the following list, selecting the required gender each time
MILGRAM MIKE
JACKLIN JEAN
ALI MOHAMAD
WIRTH NIKLAUS
BLAISE SUSAN
ABBOTT JOHN
LARSON GARY
CHEN STEVEN
MCMAHON PETER
PAK TRISHA
CRAWFORD JOAN
ELLUL JACQUES
SILVA DAN
If you already have the student names in another application like a spreadsheet it is most likely that you will not need to re-type them to get them into a markbook. Normally the File|Import|Data file command is the easiest way to get information into a markbook, but for this tutorial the manual method is explained to keep the steps simple because importing names does depend on the format of your data, and may not work the first time you try it.
Entering results
To enter results, you must first create some tasks to store the results. To create a task, click on the New menu and select the Task command. Click on the Task name field and type the name of the first task,
Exam one
and press the Tab key to move to the Maximum field (or click on the field). Then type,
100
and click on the Create Task button. The task maximum sets the upper limit for results in the task.
You can create another task now by choose New|Task again and typing another name,
Exam two
and maximum of.
50
In the Task name and Maximum fields before clicking on Create Task. You could create more tasks by repeating the steps, but for now two tasks is enough.
Since there are now students and tasks, you can enter some results. To do this click on the Edit ("paper and pen") icon to the left of the flag at the top of a Exam one column.
To store some results click on the row of the first student in the task so the cursor appears. Type the following results, pressing Tab after each one (or clicking on the next row).
61
78
91
45
49
57
82
Absent
66
79
74
50.5
60
78
If you have made a mistake with a result pressing Shift Tab move to the previous row. After entering the results click on the Save button at the top of the column. It is important to remember to do this because clicking anywhere else does not save the changes in a task.
Now click on the Edit icon at the top of the second task. Click on the row for the first student in this column and enter these results.
45
31
49.5
29
34
21
47
12
35
28
32
40
38
44
After entering the results, click on the Save button.
Doing a calculation
Now you're going to do a simple calculation on the results that you have entered. Suppose you want to add the two tasks together to create a new set of results. You want the total to be an average of the two tasks as a percentage.
The Calculation Assistant, is the easiest way to do a calculation. It leads you though the steps in setting up a calculation.
Choose the Help|Calculation assistant command. This command begins with an introduction and has a button labelled Next. Read the introduction and click on Next.
You can now select the two tasks to be added as percentages, you do this by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking on the name of each one. In this example there are only two tasks to choose from, although if there are many tasks in the markbook you may need to scroll through the list to find the tasks required.
Now click on Next, here you choose whether to make a new task to store the calculation, which is the Yes option which is already selected, so just click on Next again.
In the next step click on the first field and type,
Average one two
as the name of the task to be created and used to store the calculation results. You can see the task maximum is 100, which is the maximum required, so click on Next.
The type of calculation you require must now be selected. We want to average the tasks as percentages, so select the second option Add the tasks as percentages.
Generally, most calculations in markbook affect the results in all the classes, so on the next step leave the Yes, affect all classes selected and click on Next.
The last step shows a summary of the all the steps so far. To average the tasks Exam one and Exam two, to do the calculation on all the classes, and to store the results of the calculation in a new task called Average one two.
You may also notice that the Next button has changed to Finish. If you wanted to go back and change any of the steps of the calculation you could choose the Previous button to return to a previous step. You may look at the previous steps now, by clicking on the Previous button a few times, but don't actually change anything. Then click on Next until you return to the step with the Finish button.
Note, SM-Marks Online does not use the "Back" button on your browser to go back to a previous step. This rule applies throughout the entire markbook. Clicking the browser Back actually logs you out of SM-Marks Online. If you want to stop a command you should choose the Cancel button.
Click on the Finish button and SM-Marks Online immediately averages the two tasks and storing the results in the new third task. After a moment the command is complete and the new task is filled with the results. When a calculation is added after using the Calculation assistant, the results are immediately updated on screen.
Printing results
For SM-Marks Online to be useful, it is often necessary to print the students' names and results onto paper. The Print menu has several commands that can format the information in different ways in preparation for printing. Click on the Print menu and look at the commands, Marks is the most command there.
Before actually choosing any of the print command you must select the tasks to be printed. The way you select tasks is by tagging them. There are commands in the Action menu that can tag different items in SM-Marks Online.
The tags are shown as coloured flags on the top row of the grid above the task names. (Tasks that have a black and white tag are not tagged.) If a task already has a coloured flag, choosing the Action|Tag task command again removes the tag.
There is an easier way to tag a task that doesn't require the commands in the menu. Instead, click on the on the flag above each task name for each of the tasks. Now Tag each of the three tasks by clicking on the flag for each one, and you will see each flag is coloured.
Choose the Print|Marks command. The page preview appears and shows you the information for the printed page. Before printing this information click on the Printer icon on the toolbar. This puts a clean (without the toolbar or menus) version of the information in either a new tab or window of your browser. It is this information that you can send to the printer. You do this with the Print command in your browser.
For higher quality printing, click on the PDF icon on the toolbar to open another window or tab in your browser with the pages as a PDF file. These are printed with the PDF plugin of your browser or viewer.
It is recommended that you use the Print Preview option of your browser to first check that the correct information is being printed. You may also want to check the Page setup for printing in your browser where you can set a header and footer and whether the background colours print.
Now you have an idea of the type of operations you can do with SM-Marks Online. This Tutorial gets you started, but there are many more features and ways to use SM-Marks Online. Browse the How do I section to get ideas of what is possible and then trying some of the answers based on your own requirements will further your skills. To leave SM-Marks Online you can choose the Logout link in the top right corner of the browser window showing SM-Marks Online.