Table of Contents:

1. Creating an Assignment ⚠️ 

• Click on the + button in the top right hand corner.

• Select Assignment

• It will default to the class you are in. If you would like to add the EXACT SAME assignment to another class, click Select Classes and select other classes. Click outside the Select Classes menu to close it.

• In the box to the right of Assignment Name, enter the name of the assignment, such as Addition and Subtraction of Equivalent Fractions.

• In the box to the right of  Category, select the category that the assignment belongs in from the list categories you have created and assigned weighting to.

• Select a score type, such as Points, Percents or Collected Only

  • 1. Points - if I have an assignment that is out of 10 points (e.g 7/10)

    2. Percent - if I have an assignment that is out of a percent (e.g. 7/10 = 70%)

    3. Collected Only - choose this if you want to indicate that it has been collected or if you don’t want to have a holistic mark  USE FOR FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

• Enter the number for score entry points. You may choose points or percent. (See :"5. Points Value and Weighting Assignments")

• To include the assignment in students’ final grades, verify that Count in Final Grade is selected.

• Use the default due date of today’s date or set the date and enter a description of the assignment.

Select Students (Only if you don’t want to apply the assignment to all students)

• If you want to apply the assignment to a selection of students,

  • 1. Click the Students tab at top of box .It defaults to Show Selected Students and the entire class will show up.  . 

    2. Click Add/Remove Students.

    3. Choose the students you want included in this assignment.

Publish Assignment

• Click Publish tab to set when this assignment will be published.  Students and parents will not see the assignment in the portal until it is published.  This allows you to:

  • 1. Set up your gradebook in advance 

    2. Allows have time to collect and enter marks before it is seen by students and parents. 

    3. However, if you enter marks and have “Count in final grade”, their scores will be reflected in their grade even if they can’t see the assignment.  Unclick “Count in Final Grade” if you are not publishing the assignment but are entering grades.  Make sure to change this back once you are ready.

    4. If you want to publish the assignment but not the scores yet, uncheck “Publish Scores” and uncheck “Count in Final Grade”. Check these 2 areas when you are ready for students to see their results.

• Click Save and Close at the bottom of the Create window

2. Duplicating an Assignment

You can copy one assignment from one class to another (ie. you teach the same course more than once) or to adapt an assignment for specific students.

• Click Grading on the left menu.

• Click Assignment List.

• In the list of assignments, locate the assignment you just created and click the Edit icon (little pencil) at the right of the page.

• Click Duplicate at the bottom of the Edit window.

• Open the Select Classes pull down menu, clear the check box next to the currently selected class, and choose a different class.

• Click Save and Close at bottom right corner.

• Click outside the Select Classes menu to close it.

• Enter the assignment name.

• You can use the same category, score type, score entry points, description, and publication settings as the original assignment or you can change them as needed.

• To save the assignment and close the window, click Save and Close.

• Locate the duplicated assignment in the list of assignments (Grading>Assignment List). It will have 1 beside it and rename it as needed (e.g. Division - adapted).

3. Copying an Assignment. 

This allows you to copy all of the assignments from term to term or year to year.

• Click Grading  on the left menu bar.

• Click Assignment List.

• Click the gear icon on the top right corner. 

• Click Copy Assignments.

• Under From, open the Term menu and select the semester that you want to copy from.

• Under From, open the Class menu and select the class from which you want to copy the assignment.

• Under To, open the Term menu and select the semester you want to copy the assignment into.

• Under To, open the Classes menu and select the class or classes to which you want to copy the assignments.

• Under Copy Options, open the Due Dates menu and choose whether you want to use existing, relational, or custom due dates.

• Under Choose the Assignments, check the box to the left of the Category heading to select all of the assignments or check individual boxes next to the assignment names to choose a smaller selection.

• To complete the process, click Copy Assignments.

4. Scoring Assignments ⚠️ 

SAVE your work often!  Sign out of PTP when you leave your laptop for extended periods of time!

• Click Grading on left side menu bar

• Select Scoresheet. 

• Locate an assignment that you want to score (they are in orange to the right of the grade, most recent first. Click the title of the assignment.

• Click in a student’s blank outcome cell for the selected assignment. The Score Inspector will pop up on the right side of the screen.  

• Click in a student’s blank score cell for the selected assignment and enter the points, percent or “collected” from the Score Inspector for the assignment. You can type from the Score Inspector and mouse or use your keyboard.  

• You can add flags to each student’s assignment. Click on the icons (ie. missing, absent, collected etc.) and they will load. Note:  None of these flags will affect the student’s holistic score.

• Click Save Scores  (bottom right).

5. Points Value and Weighting Assignments ⚠️ 

You must be thoughtful about the points value and the weighting you are assigning to each assignment as the value and weighting affects the total score.

Important points for grade level discussion at your school.

If multiple teachers are giving the same assessments at a grade level, your team should determine an agreed upon format for setting up the assignment scoring. As you will see from the examples below, variations in setting up the assignment scoring can result in significant changes in the total score.

How do Assignments’ Point Values affect the overall score?

PTP calculates overall marks by dividing the total marks earned by the total marks possible -ALWAYS.  

PTP only ever uses the points value in its calculations. If you create an assignment and list it as a percent with a point value of 10, it will use 10 in its calculations for total marks. If you create an assignment and list it as a percent with a point value of 100, it will use 100 in its calculations for total marks. If you create an assignment and list it as a percent with a point value of 10, it will use 10 in its calculation. 

Examples

The following example looks at three summative assessments and how 5 different teachers entered their results into PTP. Note how the use of percent and points affect the final score. 

Note: To support interpretation, the values used in the calculations above have been italicized.

You will notice that only two of the five scenarios ended up with the same total score: Scenario 2 and Scenario 3. In Scenario 2, all assessments are valued out of 100. Therefore they are weighted equally. In Scenario 3, all assessments are valued out of 10. Therefore they are weighted equally.

*Important Note: When creating an assignment using percent, PTP defaults to a total out of 10 points. If you want the assignment to be worth 100 points, you must change it to 100 points; otherwise, it will be valued at 10 points. Remember, PTP uses the points value rather than the percent in its calculations. 

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT PERCENT VS POINTS

The decision to set the Score Type to percent OR points does NOT affect the overall value of the assessment. PTP doesn’t take the Score Type into consideration at all. PTP only uses the number entered in the Score Entry Points.

Example:

John Doe creates four assessments.  He has entered Jane’s scores, as shown below. He did not use any weighting.

If you were to determine Sally’s score, what would it be? What would you suggest to John?

Answer:

Sally’s score would be (8+2+9+3)/(10+10+10+10) = 22/40 = 55%

Recommendation:

By setting the Score Entry Points for every assessment to 10, John has made all 4 assessments equal in value, despite changing the Score Type for the Tests. If John wants the Tests to be “worth more”, he must either change the Score Entry Points value, or add weighting to the tests (described in the next section).

John should consider switching all of the Score Types to either Points or Percent. 

Considerations:

When setting up your gradebook, consider setting the Score Entry Points for your major summative assessments to a higher points value, and minor summative assessments to a lower value. This will build in the natural weighting of each assessment. 

WEIGHTING ASSIGNMENTS

There are 2 ways to weight assignments:  

POINTS: Make assignments out of different amounts. The more points, the more weight. 

• In Scenario 1, Summative 1 is worth almost twice as much as Summative 3 based on their total points. 

PERCENT:  All assignments are weighted equally. You can weight an assignment using the WEIGHT function (x2, for example).  Once you weight something, you are multiplying the numerator (total points earned) and denominator (total points possible) by whatever weighting you attach to the assignment.  

NOTE: USING a combination of POINTS and PERCENT: 

• In Scenario 3 above, Summative 2 is worth approximately 9 times as much as Summative 1 and approximately 10 times as much as Summative 3.