SBGBook Help & Documentation
@DeltaGPhys
https://www.sbgbook.xyz/gbook/login/
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SBGBook Tour
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About SBGBook and This Documentation
SBGBook is a labor of love, a purpose-built gradebook designed to help teachers give excellent and timely feedback to students and advisors.
SBGBook has been operating in a semi-public mode since 2016, and continues to gain features, speed, and reliability constantly. As the site is still in development, occasional bugs may arise, but we make every effort to fix them within 24 hours, and no data has ever been lost at SBGBook.
There is a brief tour of features, accessible from the account menu on the main gradebook page.
Report bugs and ask questions via email or by the support chat feature ().
SBGBook is a labor of love, a purpose-built gradebook designed to help teachers give excellent and timely feedback to students and advisors.
SBGBook has been operating in a semi-public mode since 2016, and continues to gain features, speed, and reliability constantly. As the site is still in development, occasional bugs may arise, but we make every effort to fix them within 24 hours, and no data has ever been lost at SBGBook.
There is a brief tour of features, accessible from the account menu on the main gradebook page.
Report bugs and ask questions via email or by the support chat feature ().
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Organizing Courses
Courses are the largest level of organization within a school. Biology, Physics, Calculus, French 3, etc. are typical courses. Groups of students that meet at different meeting times and/or with different teachers are sections. The gradebook displays by section, and teachers are assigned by section. Teachers of different sections typically do not see each other's gradebooks of other sections. Announcements can be broadcast to students by section. These announcements display on the student's gradebook page. Courses share standards, rubrics (the scale by which feedback is given to students), and grade policies (the method by which overall grades are calculated from scores on individual standards). Sections may be made inactive after their conclusion, which can declutter the course selection menu. When all of a teacher's sections of a course are inactive, the course itself will move to the inactive menu. Watch the video to see how to add sections to a Course.
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Organizing Standards
Standards and Scollections are individual learning objectives set out for students, representing content and skills that we wish for students to demonstrate understanding and facility with. Each standard is associated with a calculation method, by which individual scores are combined to produce a single grade for a given standard. Several calculation methods, including using the most recent score, the highest score, and aveage of those, an average of all scores, a decaying average of the last three (the most recent worth the most, the score before that worth less, the score before that worth less, scores before that not counting), and a few others. If you have an idea for a new method, you can submit it via email or the support chat. Within a course, standards may be grouped into scollections (standard collections). The gradebook view for both students and teachers is organized by scollection. A standard may be in multiple scollections, and "All Standards" is a scollection that is present by default. Overall grades (if a grade policy has been selected) are also calculated for scollections. It is potentially useful to calculate these grades by scollections organized by content (a grade for mechanics, another for electricity, etc.) and/or temporally (fall term, spring term, etc.). If you stop using a scollection permanently, you may delete it (unless it is the last remaining scollection). If you may use it again in the future, you can make a scollection inactive, which will hide it from students and teachers (unless there are no active scollections). The calculation of overall grades for each scollection may be allowed or disallowed by the teacher. This is controlled on the scollection editing page and affects all sections of the course. |
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Assessments and Feedback
An occasion to provide feedback (conference, assignment, quiz, test, etc.) is an assessment. Assessments are associated with a date and take place over a set of standards. Each student may receive a score for each standard (or not), as well as a narrative comment and an uploaded evidence file (typically an image, such as a .jpg or .pdf file). Assessments may be created for a section or edited (and, optionally, for all active sections of a course associated with the creating teacher) using the assessment menu on the gradebook page. An individual assessment is created for a single student, focused on a set of standards. Create an individual assessment by clicking the add button just below a student's aggregate grade for a particular standard. When an individual assessment is created, the chosen standard is selected by default, as are any standards which have been selected as default standards in the standard editing window. This is useful for standards which are common to many assessment. For example, an algebra standard which may be present on nearly every assessment in a physics course. These assessments show up in student feedback in the assessment view and when clicking on an individual standard to view the student's history related to that standard. The single-standard view also contains the link to access an individual assessment for editing scores, standards, date, or title. |
Adding Courses, Sections, and Teachers
Courses and sections may be created via the editing menu on the main gradebook page. When adding a section, it will be added to the course currently selected, and you may choose any teachers from the school to add to it.
Adding teachers may only be done by a school's SchoolAdmin, and it may be done individually or via import from a spreadsheet. Instructions for both are in the editing menu. Each teacher needs a unique email address, which will be used as his or her username. The default password for teacher accounts is 'feedback.'
Courses and sections may be created via the editing menu on the main gradebook page. When adding a section, it will be added to the course currently selected, and you may choose any teachers from the school to add to it.
Adding teachers may only be done by a school's SchoolAdmin, and it may be done individually or via import from a spreadsheet. Instructions for both are in the editing menu. Each teacher needs a unique email address, which will be used as his or her username. The default password for teacher accounts is 'feedback.'
Adding Students and Advisors
Any teacher in a section may add students and advisors to it. Advisors have access to views of student grades and feedback similar to that which students see. Advisors may have multiple advisees and select from among them and from among their courses. Adding students and advisors may be done individually or via import from a spreadsheet. Instructions for both are in the editing menu. Each student and advisor needs a unique email address, which will be used as his or her username. The default password for student and advisor accounts is 'feedback.' Add students before advisors, so that advisors ma be assigned to the existing student accounts.
If a student or advisor already exists (the email address is already registered in SBGBook), then the student or advisor will be added to the section. Duplicate accounts will not be created. If importing, the confirmation window will show which students or advisors were created and which were previously created, but added to the section.
You can edit or create individual students in the edit window; in order to remove or add students (those existing and within your school) from the roster link on the editing menu.
Student receipt of assessment result emails is enabled by default (they may opt out), and advisor receipt of emails is disabled by default (they may opt in).
After you add your students or advisors, you can (on the student or advisor edit list page) send a welcome email to them, with login instructions. Note that, in the advisor editing window, you see all of the advisors in your school, but it will only email advisors of students in that section.
Any teacher in a section may add students and advisors to it. Advisors have access to views of student grades and feedback similar to that which students see. Advisors may have multiple advisees and select from among them and from among their courses. Adding students and advisors may be done individually or via import from a spreadsheet. Instructions for both are in the editing menu. Each student and advisor needs a unique email address, which will be used as his or her username. The default password for student and advisor accounts is 'feedback.' Add students before advisors, so that advisors ma be assigned to the existing student accounts.
If a student or advisor already exists (the email address is already registered in SBGBook), then the student or advisor will be added to the section. Duplicate accounts will not be created. If importing, the confirmation window will show which students or advisors were created and which were previously created, but added to the section.
You can edit or create individual students in the edit window; in order to remove or add students (those existing and within your school) from the roster link on the editing menu.
Student receipt of assessment result emails is enabled by default (they may opt out), and advisor receipt of emails is disabled by default (they may opt in).
After you add your students or advisors, you can (on the student or advisor edit list page) send a welcome email to them, with login instructions. Note that, in the advisor editing window, you see all of the advisors in your school, but it will only email advisors of students in that section.
Choosing a Rubric and Grading Policy
All sections of a course share a rubric and grading policy. The rubric defines the possible scores and, using the associated calculation method, how to calculate an aggregate score for a standard.
There are several rubrics from which to choose, and custom rubrics can be created. Request rubrics via email or support chat. Each rubric consists of a series of levels, which may be identified numerically or textually. Textual rubrics display 1-3 character abbreviations (P for 'proficient' or Ma for 'mastery,' etc.), and those abbreviations are what is visible to the student. There is also an underlying numerical value for each score which is hidden from the student. Each rubric level is associated with a color as well. Different standards can combine these score values in different ways, using the established calculation methods.
Grading policies convert the average score across standards into an overall grade for a student. These may again be numerical (0-100, for example) or textual (A/A-/B+, etc.).
All sections of a course share a rubric and grading policy. The rubric defines the possible scores and, using the associated calculation method, how to calculate an aggregate score for a standard.
There are several rubrics from which to choose, and custom rubrics can be created. Request rubrics via email or support chat. Each rubric consists of a series of levels, which may be identified numerically or textually. Textual rubrics display 1-3 character abbreviations (P for 'proficient' or Ma for 'mastery,' etc.), and those abbreviations are what is visible to the student. There is also an underlying numerical value for each score which is hidden from the student. Each rubric level is associated with a color as well. Different standards can combine these score values in different ways, using the established calculation methods.
Grading policies convert the average score across standards into an overall grade for a student. These may again be numerical (0-100, for example) or textual (A/A-/B+, etc.).
Standards, Scollections, and Exports
Standards can be added individually or via import. The import process is similar to other imports; instructions are included in the import window, and standard information is pasted from a spreadsheet. Be careful about non-standard characters from Excel and Google Sheets. Pasting raw ASCII values is the easiest method. It is fine to include html here; lists can be especially helpful in the student-view standard display popups.
After standards are added, scollections are added individually, via the editing menu.
Standards, student information, and grades can also be downloaded in .csv files for storage, backup, and reuse, via the editing menu.
Standards can be added individually or via import. The import process is similar to other imports; instructions are included in the import window, and standard information is pasted from a spreadsheet. Be careful about non-standard characters from Excel and Google Sheets. Pasting raw ASCII values is the easiest method. It is fine to include html here; lists can be especially helpful in the student-view standard display popups.
After standards are added, scollections are added individually, via the editing menu.
Standards, student information, and grades can also be downloaded in .csv files for storage, backup, and reuse, via the editing menu.
Accounts
Account information for teacher accounts is viewable from the account menu. Passwords may be changed here as well. Remind students, and advisors, and teachers to change their passwords as soon as they access their accounts.
Subscription information - time remaining on a trial or a paid subscription - is available in this menu as well.
Account information for teacher accounts is viewable from the account menu. Passwords may be changed here as well. Remind students, and advisors, and teachers to change their passwords as soon as they access their accounts.
Subscription information - time remaining on a trial or a paid subscription - is available in this menu as well.
Support
In addition to this documentation, there is a 'tour' of features, accessible from the support menu.
Additionally, there is a support chat feature () on the support menu. When new messages are received, the support menu icon will animate and change color.
Report bugs and ask questions via email or by the support chat feature. When reporting a bug, please send a paste of the complete error code.
In addition to this documentation, there is a 'tour' of features, accessible from the support menu.
Additionally, there is a support chat feature () on the support menu. When new messages are received, the support menu icon will animate and change color.
Report bugs and ask questions via email or by the support chat feature. When reporting a bug, please send a paste of the complete error code.
