Re: Power.Grade and Infinite.Campus

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Power.Grade and Infinite.Campus

by rstohc

Oct 3, 2008

I am so happy to have found I am not alone in thinking that Infinite.Campus is a lousy program. There have been good programs that parents and students can use to check grades. I have no idea why a school would get Infinite.Campus. I think my school got it just because it allows parents to keep tabs on their child's progress. It was probably cheap, but I don't get involved in what we buy - don't have time to think about money. It might be good for parents and students, but it’s time-consuming on the teacher. I agree - it is not streamlined. Let me list the things that I can think of off the top of my head - stuff that happens over and over and over and I just have to accept it without complaint and try to get my job done so I don't have to go off to Siberia. Maybe the IC people will hear my complaints and be able to make some money if they can improve it. For one thing it takes up a lot of real-estate on the screen. My screen setting only goes to 1280 by 800 pixels. If they would jus...See MoreI am so happy to have found I am not alone in thinking that Infinite.Campus is a lousy program. There have been good programs that parents and students can use to check grades. I have no idea why a school would get Infinite.Campus. I think my school got it just because it allows parents to keep tabs on their child's progress. It was probably cheap, but I don't get involved in what we buy - don't have time to think about money. It might be good for parents and students, but it’s time-consuming on the teacher. I agree - it is not streamlined. Let me list the things that I can think of off the top of my head - stuff that happens over and over and over and I just have to accept it without complaint and try to get my job done so I don't have to go off to Siberia. Maybe the IC people will hear my complaints and be able to make some money if they can improve it. For one thing it takes up a lot of real-estate on the screen. My screen setting only goes to 1280 by 800 pixels. If they would just get that fancy title out of the way, that would help a lot. Is that supposed to advertise? To enter one set of grades, IC takes up more than 1/3 of the width of the screen and well over 100% of the screen if the class is more than probably about 18 students. I also use Excel to keep my grades. Excel is so much easier and helps me find mistakes - usually the wrong possible points or wrong date for an assign. I try to align the rosters of Excel along side the Infinite Campus roster so that I can key grades in all lined up. But it is difficult to line things up because you can not make the IC.window small enough. Today I was entering two classes of grades. One class was 19 students and one was 16. It took me five times as long to enter the 19 students just because I had to keep moving the window for Excel around to line up with the IC roster, and I had to scroll the IC.roster. With my small 16 student class, the whole roster fit in the IC.window and I could key the grades in rapidly, line for line without having to move either roster. With Excel I can fit class sizes of 25 to 30 on one screen. I figured out that if there are more than 15 students (I think it was), because of the limits on the IC window, I have to keep moving my Excel window to align with the IC roster so the Excel scroll bar disappears off the bottom of the screen. Then I have to keep adjusting the position of the Excel window around the IC window to line up the Excel roster up with the IC roster. IC really is hard to work around in so many ways. There's really not time to enter grades every day with IC, and then it takes even longer if you don't because you have to change the date due each time. If you are on the phone with a parent and trying to switch from attendance to grades, the IC program takes a long time to switch and a lot of times you have to log in again. That is another reason I use Excel. I use Excel as a back up for attendance and grades. I always refer to my Excel back up as I communicate student’s progress over the phone or in meetings. Well, I hope the IC programmers hear these complaints and come up with a quick update. I don’t know if I can stand much more of this. I think I was able to do grades faster by hand back in the day. One more thing, I don’t know if it is the infinite campus or what. With all the problems since getting IC, it might well be related since I didn’t have this problem before. My cursor scroll slows to a snail’s pace. When I scroll about in Excel it goes slow and choppy. I managed to correct it just once by going to control panel, but then the next day it was slow again. Then I managed to report it to Microsoft. The next day it was fast again in the morning, but by the afternoon it was slow and choppy again. Like I say, I don’t know if this is caused by IC, but the timing does seems suspicious.

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Bailey I completly agree; I was actually googling how to CHECK the grades over Infinite Campus, and it brought me to here where I read what you posted. And I apologize if I have no business here; but as a STUDENT, I hate IC. It shows everything EXCEPT my grades. I clicked on almost every link, and it's got all of my contact information--(as if I don't alr...See More

Oct 15, 2008

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c Last I checked IC was still too hard to use and I don't understand why administrations would choose such a program that is so difficult for teachers to use. I actually wonder if they want people to see how much teachers are suffering. Otherwise, it is tormenting when such lack of respect is shown toward teachers.

On 10/03/08, rstohc wrote:...See MoreLast I checked IC was still too hard to use and I don't understand why administrations would choose such a program that is so difficult for teachers to use. I actually wonder if they want people to see how much teachers are suffering. Otherwise, it is tormenting when such lack of respect is shown toward teachers.

On 10/03/08, rstohc wrote: > I am so happy to have found I am not alone in thinking that > Infinite.Campus is a lousy program. There have been good > programs that parents and students can use to check grades. > I have no idea why a school would get Infinite.Campus. I > think my school got it just because it allows parents to > keep tabs on their child's progress. It was probably cheap, > but I don't get involved in what we buy - don't have time to > think about money. It might be good for parents and > students, but it’s time-consuming on the teacher. I agree - > it is not streamlined. Let me list the things that I can > think of off the top of my head - stuff that happens over > and over and over and I just have to accept it without > complaint and try to get my job done so I don't have to go > off to Siberia. Maybe the IC people will hear my complaints > and be able to make some money if they can improve it. > For one thing it takes up a lot of real-estate on the > screen. My screen setting only goes to 1280 by 800 pixels. > If they would just get that fancy title out of the way, > that would help a lot. Is that supposed to advertise? To > enter one set of grades, IC takes up more than 1/3 of the > width of the screen and well over 100% of the screen if the > class is more than probably about 18 students. > I also use Excel to keep my grades. Excel is so much easier > and helps me find mistakes - usually the wrong possible > points or wrong date for an assign. I try to align the > rosters of Excel along side the Infinite Campus roster so > that I can key grades in all lined up. But it is difficult > to line things up because you can not make the IC.window > small enough. Today I was entering two classes of grades. > One class was 19 students and one was 16. It took me five > times as long to enter the 19 students just because I had to > keep moving the window for Excel around to line up with the > IC roster, and I had to scroll the IC.roster. With my small > 16 student class, the whole roster fit in the IC.window and > I could key the grades in rapidly, line for line without > having to move either roster. With Excel I can fit class > sizes of 25 to 30 on one screen. I figured out that if > there are more than 15 students (I think it was), because of > the limits on the IC window, I have to keep moving my Excel > window to align with the IC roster so the Excel scroll bar > disappears off the bottom of the screen. Then I have to > keep adjusting the position of the Excel window around the > IC window to line up the Excel roster up with the IC roster. > IC really is hard to work around in so many ways. > There's really not time to enter grades every day with IC, > and then it takes even longer if you don't because you have > to change the date due each time. > If you are on the phone with a parent and trying to switch > from attendance to grades, the IC program takes a long time > to switch and a lot of times you have to log in again. That > is another reason I use Excel. I use Excel as a back up for > attendance and grades. I always refer to my Excel back up > as I communicate student’s progress over the phone or in > meetings. > Well, I hope the IC programmers hear these complaints and > come up with a quick update. I don’t know if I can stand > much more of this. I think I was able to do grades faster > by hand back in the day. > One more thing, I don’t know if it is the infinite campus or > what. With all the problems since getting IC, it might well > be related since I didn’t have this problem before. My > cursor scroll slows to a snail’s pace. When I scroll about > in Excel it goes slow and choppy. I managed to correct it > just once by going to control panel, but then the next day > it was slow again. Then I managed to report it to > Microsoft. The next day it was fast again in the morning, > but by the afternoon it was slow and choppy again. Like I > say, I don’t know if this is caused by IC, but the timing > does seems suspicious. > >

Dec 27, 2008

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