Engrade

Engrade is mostly known as a completely free online grading system. However, Engrade could actually better be described as a cluster, or suite, of learning management tools. Engrade offers teachers free online flashcards, wikis, calendars, quiz-makers and many other very useful classroom and learning management software apps.

Engrade's most popular feature - it's gradebook - is intuitive, even though the initial set-up can be a little cumbersome (but, what software set-up is not). Engrade is class-centric as I would describe it. The teacher has to create a "class" before they can use the gradebook (even though the other applications, like wikis and quizzes, can be created independently of the classes). Once a teacher creates their class and adds their students (which is done by essentially creating a space-deliniated text file), the teacher then has plenty of great options for customizing their gradebook. For example, through their individual settings, teachers can decide what type of grade scale they will use for the year (i.e. 0-100, traditional letter grade starting with "A" through "F", or custom features, etc.). Engrade's gradebook even lets teacher create assignment categories with weights, meaning that tests can account for 70% of the final grade while homework assignments will account for the remaining 30%. In fact, Engrade's gradebook is so accurately representative of real-life grading that it even gives the option to "drop the lowest grade" from an assignment category, which is a common and generous practice among many teachers.

Once a teacher creates their first class and sets up their gradebook, maintenance is easy. The whole Engrade interface is very reminiscent of Facebook's admin site, so it is simple and easy-to-navigate. When you have to report new grades, you simply create an "assignment".  An "assignment" is just a general term Engrade uses for any classroom activity that is graded, like a test, a book report, or anything else. While creating the assignment, you can then enter the "student" scores". Below is screen-shot of what the interface:

As I said before, Engrade also offers other learning management tools, like wikis, flashcards,  and an original app called "Allthink", which is basically a combination of a wiki, a set of flashcards, and a quiz. Like the main gradebook feature, all of these apps are easy-to-use. There does not appear to be any limit to the amount of wikis, flashcards, etc. that a teacher can create, but teachers can only upload 250 mbs of documents in the Engrade cloud (which is better than Engrade offering nothing at all of course.  


Overall, Engrade offers single access point, where teachers can not only use a great, free online gradebook, but also other useful learning management tools. The software is intuitive, and teachers should have a stress-free time managing it and making updates. The interface for teachers is convenient, consolidating all the apps in single place.

With its built-in attendance and discipline modules, Engrade could definitely replace some expensive SIS and learning management tools that school districts purchase. I think its a very valuable tool for schools.

The software is just slightly buggy in some places, which would really confuse less technology-savvy teachers. For example, while I was playing with the wiki feature, I incorrectly added a Youtube link while trying to add video to one section of my wiki. When I realized my mistake, I attempted to edit it, but apparently I "broke" the entire section. I had to delete it and start from scratch - which is not big deal, as in the teacher attempting to update it would not lose much work. But, it was a little confusing.

Lastly, and I do not think this is too fair to consider this a "disadvantage", but the UI engineers have not really figured out a creative way for displaying most of the content (grade and attendance reports) for the end users, i.e. the students. Students have to be added to the class roster by the Teacher. Once the teacher adds the students, Engrade will then assign each student a unique ID that the student will use to create their accounts. Once the student creates an account, then the student will be able to access their grades, attendance reports, and other information (that the Teacher has inputted) from an interface very similar to the teacher interface. Below is a screen-shot from Engrade that a student would see:

Engrade offers a great way to deliver content like this. It would be great to see a more creative way to deliver it. However, this does not take away from the communication value Engrade provides.