MakeMusic Forum

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Posted By : don612 - 8/29/2013 8:19 PM

SM has 2 options for grading

1. Assessment by the computer

2. Assessment by the teacher after the teacher listens to the recording.

Last year, and previous years, I wanted the recording but did not want to assess each one. I wanted the recordings mostly to listen to here and there when I need to. I never graded them. Last years SM graded the students and sent me the score for the assessment. The "teacher" part of the grade was always left blank in the grade book and the final average score was an average of the of the computer assessments only.

For this year, in the new version, the two scores were combine into one and NO SCORE WILL APPEAR IN THE GRADE BOOK UNTIL I LISTEN to the recording and the resulting score will then appear as a combine point total of the two scores, the computers, and mine.

I am not going to score the recordings for this year, as I did not last year, nor have ever done. I do, however, want the recordings.

After speaking with Tech support today, we believe, although it has not been tested, that if I put a ZERO in the RECORDING points box when I make the assignment that the problem will be resolved this is kind of a work around. I have not yet figured out how to make the already assigned work (I have made HUNDREDS of method book assignments already), work out properly but I will be working on that.

WE NEED A SIMPLE WAY TO HAVE SM DO THE ASSESSMENT AND SEND US THE SCORE AND THE RECORDING. NO WORK AROUND. THIS NEEDS TO BE A STANDARD FEATURE.

Posted By : Jim Jolley - 8/30/2013 3:27 PM

When you made the assignments did you request the recordings?

Jim Jolley - Band Director - Center Hill Middle School

Finale 2008a, 2009b, 2010a, 2011b, 2012b - Smartmusic 2012b - Garritan CoMB - Vista

Posted By : don612 - 8/30/2013 4:25 PM

Yes, but the only way I know of to "request recordings" is to put a number (points) in the Recording Points box when you make the assignment. which I have always done. I think I am correct in saying that if you leave this field blank, no recordings will be sent. Once a number is place in the field when you make the assignment it triggers the recording to be sent. Last year it would send the recording and I did not score them. It would tabulate the computer assessments and issue a grade based upon those scores only. Currently, SM not is showing scores for anything until I put my grade in the recording assessment point field after the student has submitted it.

Posted By : don612 - 8/30/2013 5:47 PM

Just got of the phone with SM tech again. This is CLEARLY a problem. A bunch of us WANT the recordings, not so much to assess all of them but to refer to them when we need to. Unfortunately, I have caught a couple of kids cheating and with out the recordings I would have never known. Also, I use it to diagnose problems with students and make suggestions. I don't want to give points for my listening to each submission, simply want them to refer to when I need to.

The tech and I tried to put a zero in the recording field while making the assignment but the SM grade book still did not issue a cumulative grade for the student until we went back, opened up the submitted recording and punched a zero into the point awarded field then showing 0/0. The grade book then based the students cumulative grade purely on the computer generated score.

This was not necessary previous years.

Here's what SM needs to do in the future:

While making the assignments, there needs to be a check box: ___include recordings _____do not include recordings

Posted By : S. Boal - 9/5/2013 8:10 PM

Don612 has also described my situation with assessments and recordings. Thank you for articulating a major problem with the upgrade. Scott Boal

Posted By : don612 - 9/5/2013 10:05 PM

I have been on the phone with tech support 3 times on this issue. They assure me they are aware of it but not timeline for resolution.

Posted By : James Lund - 9/6/2013 1:24 PM

Don612 (and others),

Thanks for your feedback on this - we've heard from others as well about this and have been following the forum conversation. We are actively working on solving this for you so you can all get back to teaching and not losing time working in software. I can't give you a timeline quite yet, but we're being much more aggressive now at fixing problems and rolling out solutions.

You've pretty clearly described what you need, but feel free to elaborate if there are any other details you'd like me to know. We're still gathering as much information as we can to make sure we solve the right problem when we address this.

Thanks!

James Lund

James Lund
SmartMusic Technical Product Manager
MakeMusic, Inc.

Need to contact Customer Support? Click here to create a support case.

Posted By : don612 - 9/6/2013 1:30 PM

Thanks for addressing this. I have used SM for a long time and have been very happy with it. A few bumps with the problems mentioned above but i know they will get resolved.

Posted By : S. Boal - 9/7/2013 9:42 AM

Mr. Lund -

Thank you for your attention to this. My only other concern would be this: when the SM fix does occur, will it retain all of the recordings and assessment points that have already been submitted? And would it revert those assessed scores to the "split scores" as described by don 612 above?

Scott Boal
Gateway Middle School
Everett, WA

Posted By : S. Boal - 9/15/2013 6:55 PM

But wait - there's more!

I just discovered that previous years' student assessment & recording scores have been combined into a single meaningless score. So now not only can't we view an assessed score in our current gradebook without clicking on each student's assignment, we can't view the same informtaion from previous years.

For those of us facing teacher evaluation in data-driven states/schools, this is a serious problem.

S. Boal

Posted By : don612 - 9/15/2013 8:01 PM

EXACTLY! The problem affects all of my score going back to my first year of SM in 2010.

Posted By : don612 - 9/25/2013 2:49 PM

I was on a conference call this morning with SM and this issue is being fast tracked and will be resolved in a mater of weeks, not months.

Posted By : S. Boal - 10/5/2013 8:18 PM

Hi all -

I have followed the directions in the October 1 SmartMusic blog about the temporary fix for this problem; that is, create an Excel spreadsheet that will show student scores. The problem for me is that the scores still don't show up in the spreadsheet. Student names and assignments do appear but only a question mark displays where the individual assignment score should be.

Has anyone had success with this temporary fix? I'm needing to post grade this weekend and am back to paper and pencil - and opening each submitted assignment to see the assessed score.

Thanks!

S. Boal

Posted By : don612 - 10/5/2013 8:24 PM

No, the "fix" does not fix anything. The fundamental problem is that the new grid is not counting anything from the recording assessment score box unless the teacher physically touches each box and enters a score for every student submission. The old grid calculated the students final grade even if the teacher did not enter anything in the recording assessment box. The final score give was based solely upon the SM assessment score. Creating a report or exporting the report as and excel file does not generate the final grade that we are all looking for. I am nearly to mid quarter with 220 students, each with 45 assignments. I REALLY need this to generate a final score in the same fashion that it has since 2009.....SOON!!!!

Posted By : S. Boal - 10/5/2013 8:59 PM

Thanks for the confirmation that it's not "user error". It sounds like we have similarly-sized programs and common frustrations.

I was on one of those conference tech calls also and was hopeful for a quick lifeline after we spoke. But I'm now just hoping to salvage the rest of the year with some professional dignity. I had been championing SmartMusic in the area as a great way to collect meaningful student data but now that's at risk for me.

Lucky that I still have an old practice record template around here someplace...

Posted By : S. Boal - 10/17/2013 11:14 PM

Good news! The gradebook issues previously posted in this thread were resolved today - with some additional tweaks yet to come, I understand. Now we can see our students' submitteed assignment scores with the icon to click to hear their recordings. This makes it again possible to track individual students and assignments at a glance.

Thank you, Mr. Lund, for your on-going help for those of us with large programs who depend upon accurate assessments and data collection!

S. Boal

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