1st Class Help

Getting Started

Class Information

Student Information

Activity Information

Marks

Reports

Graphs

Customizing 1st Class

Support


Getting Started

Before you are ready to begin entering marks into 1st Class there are three steps you must follow:

1) Create at least one Class

2) Create Students for your Class

3) Create Activities for your Class


Class Information

Creating a Class

Deleting a Class

Modifying Class Information


Creating a Class

1)  Enter Class Information

a)  From the first screen click on the Class button. This will bring you to the Class Information screen.

b)  Click on the first blank line in the Class Name column.

c)  Enter the name of the class.  Press TAB to move to the next column.

d)  Enter a brief description of the class.  Press TAB to move to the next column.

e)  Enter the day of your school`s cycle.  Press TAB to move to the next column.

f)   Enter the period.  Press TAB to move to the next column.

2)  Define the letter grades for this class.

a)  Click on the first blank line in the Letter Grade column of the Letter Grades table.

b)  Type the first letter grade you wish to define.  Press Tab to move to the next column.

c)  If the letter grade you typed has been defined in the Letter Grade Setup 1st Class will automatically enter the pre-defined letter grade range.  If you would like to over-ride the pre-defined letter grade range type in the low value of the range .  1st Class will automatically calculate the high value of the range by looking for the low value of the next highest letter grade range.  If there is no higher letter grade then 1st Class sets the high value to infinity.

d) Repeat steps a through c as required.

3)  Define the possible activity types and the corresponding weighting you desire.

a)  Click on the first blank line in the Activity Type column of the Activity Type table.

b)  Click on the downward arrow button.  A drop down selection box will appear containing all the possible activity types you may choose from.  Select an activity type by clicking on it.  You may add an activity type which does not appear in the drop down selection box by following the instructions covered in the topic  Activity Type Setup.

c)  Press the TAB key to move to the Weight column.  Enter the weight you wish to assign to this activity type.

d) Repeat steps a through c as required.


Deleting a Class

1) From the first screen click on the Class button. This will bring you to the Class Information screen.

2) Click on the class you would like to delete.  Click on the Delete button located at the bottom right of the Class Information Table

3) Confirm you would like to delete this class.


Modifying Class Information

1) From the first screen click on the Class button. This will bring you to the Class Information screen.

2) Click on the class you would like to Modify.  Click on the column you would like to modify.  The information you clicked on will become highlighted and the cursor will appear.  Type in the appropriate information.

3) If you would like to modify the Letter Grade definitions or the Activity Weighting for this class you may click on the appropriate information in either of these tables.  You may now edit the information you clicked on.


Student Information

Creating a Student

Deleting a Student

Modifying Student Information


Creating a Student

1) From the first screen click on the Student button. This will bring you to the Student screen.

2) The currently selected class is displayed in the top left hand corner of the screen.  Click on it to see a list of classes to choose from.  Select the class you wish to add an activity to by clicking on it.

3) Click on the first blank row of the Student Name column.

4) Enter the name of the student.  You may wish to place the last name first so that when 1st Class sorts the students they are ordered by their last name.  Press TAB to move to the next column.

5) Enter the student ID

6) Enter the Homeroom of the student.

7) You have a choice of either typing in a comment or using a canned comment.  To use a canned comment click on the Downward Arrow Button.  A list of available canned comments will appear.  You may add to the list of canned comments by following the instructions covered in the topic Canned Student Comments

10)  Repeat steps 2 through 7 as required.


Deleting a Student

1) From the first screen click on the Student button. This will bring you to the Student screen.

2) Click on the Student you would like to delete.  Click on the Delete button located at the bottom right of the table

3) Confirm you would like to delete this Student.


Modifying Student Information

1) From the first screen click on the Student button. This will bring you to the Student screen.

2) The currently selected class is displayed in the top left hand corner of the screen.  Click on it to see a list of classes to choose from.  Select a class by clicking on it.

3) Click on the student you would like to modify.  Click on the column you would like to modify.  The information you clicked on will become highlighted and the cursor will appear.  Type in the appropriate information.


Activity Information

Creating an Activity

Deleting an Activity

Modifying Activity Information


Creating an Activity

1) From the first screen click on the Activity button. This will bring you to the Activity screen.

2) The currently selected class is displayed in the top left hand corner of the screen.  Click on it to see a list of classes to choose from.  Select the class you wish to add an activity to by clicking on it.

3) Click on the first blank row in the Activity column.

4) Enter the name of the activity you wish to add to this class.  Press the TAB key to move to the next column.

5) Click on the downward arrow button to see a list of available activity types.  Select an activity type by clicking on it. You may add an activity type which does not appear in the drop down selection box by following the instructions covered in the topic  Define Activity Types

6) Press TAB to move to the OUT OF column.  Enter the number of marks this activity is out of.  Press TAB to move to the next column.

7) If you already know you want to Bell the marks you may enter the amount you wish to bell each students mark by.  The value you enter will be added to each students mark.  If you would like each students mark decreased you may enter an negative Bell value.  You can change the Bell value at any time in the future.

8) Press TAB to move to the Date column.  1st Class has already placed today`s date in this column.  You may change it to another date as required.  Press TAB to move to the next column.

9) You have a choice of either typing in a comment or using a canned comment.  To use a canned comment click on the Downward Arrow Button.  A list of available canned comments will appear.  You may add to the list of canned comments by following the instructions covered in the topic Canned Activity Comments

10)  Repeat steps 2 through 9 as required.


Deleting an Activity

1) From the first screen click on the Activity button. This will bring you to the Activity screen.

2) Click on the Activity you would like to delete.  Click on the Delete button located at the bottom right of the table

3) Confirm you would like to delete this Activity.


Modifying Activity Information

1) From the first screen click on the Activity button. This will bring you to the Activity screen.

2) The currently selected class is displayed in the top left hand corner of the screen.  Click on it to see a list of classes to choose from.  Select a class by clicking on it.

3) Click on the activity you would like to Modify.  Click on the column you would like to modify.  The information you clicked on will become highlighted and the cursor will appear.  Type in the appropriate information.


Marks

Entering marks into 1st Class can be done in either of two ways.  The most common way is to use the MARKS screen.  It is the most `feature rich` way to work with marks for a given activity.  The alternative is to use the QUICK MARKS screen which allows you to enter marks into more than one activity at a time.  This screen is useful if you have marks for several activities recorded on a Blank Mark Sheet.

Entering Marks

Quick Marks


Entering Marks

1) From the first screen click on the `Marks` button. This will bring you to the Marks screen.

2) The currently selected class is displayed in the top left hand corner of the screen.  Click on it to see a list of classes to choose from.  Select the class you wish to work with.

3)  The currently selected activity is displayed in the drop down selection box labeled `Activity`.  Click on it to see the list of activities for the selected class.  To change the activity simply click on it.  If you would like to narrow down the list of activities displayed in the drop down selection box you can click on one of the TABS near the top of the screen.  Each TAB is labeled with an activity type.

4) Click on the Student you wish to enter a mark for.  If you want to enter a `raw mark` simply click on the Raw Mark column.  If the mark you are entering has already been belled manually you can enter it into the Belled Mark column.  1st Class will automatically calculate the Raw mark and Percent.  If the mark you are entering is a percentage you can enter it into the Percent column.  Again 1st Class will automatically calculate the other columns.

Absent Students

If a student is absent for a given activity you can record this in 1st Class by clicking on the Status column in the Marks screen.  A drop-down selection box will appear.  Click on Absent.  Alternatively you can simply press the letter A in any one of the three mark columns. (Raw Marks, Belled Marks, or Percent)

It is important to enter Absent instead of a mark of 0.  Although Absent is equivalent to 0 when calculating a student average 1st Class will omit this mark entirely from the Class average.  1st Class assumes you do not want to bring down your class average because some students were absent.

Excusing a student

If you would like to excuse a student from a given activity you can record this in 1st Class by clicking on the Status column in the Marks screen.  A drop-down selection box will appear.  Click on Excused.  Alternatively you can simply press the letter E in any one the three mark columns.  (Raw Marks, Belled Marks, or Percent)

Using Excused causes 1st Class to exclude that student from both student and class averages.

Belling Student Marks

Belling an activity`s average can be done in one of three ways:

1)  From the MARK screen click on the text editing box labeled `Bell`.  Enter the amount you would like to either add or subtract from each student.  Note that students who were either Absent or Excused from the activity will not be affected.  Click on another area of the screen when you are finished. 1st Class will immediately re-calculate each student`s average and the over-all class average.

2)  From the MARK screen click on the text editing box labeled `Average`.  Enter the average you would like the class average to be belled to.  Click on another area of the screen when you are finished.  1st Class will immediately calculate the required bell to adjust the class average to your specifications.  Each student`s average and the over-all class average will be re-calculated to verify the adjustments made to the Bell.

3)  From the MARK screen click on the text editing box labeled `Out Of`.  Change the amount the test is out of.  Click on another area of the screen when you are finished.  1st Class will immediately re-calculate each student`s average and the over-all class average.


Quick Marks

Note:  The primary benifit of Quick Marks is it`s ability to allow you to rapidly enter marks for multiple activities.  For example:  Let`s say you have recorded the last 3 activities on a Blank Mark Sheet  Instead of entering marks for each student one activity at a time you are free to enter all three marks for each student before moving on to the next student.

1)  From the first screen click on the `Quick Marks` button. This will bring you to the Quick Marks screen.

2)  The currently selected class is displayed in the top left hand corner of the screen.  Click on it to see a list of classes to choose from.  Select the class you wish to work with.

3)  The TABS near the top of the screen allow you to display only the activity types you are interested in.  Click on the TAB for the activity type you wish to limit the display to.

4)  Note that the students for the currently selected class are listed down the left most column and the activities are listed along the top most row. To enter marks click on the appropriate row and column in the table and edit the mark.  The marks displayed here are `raw marks`.  To work with belled marks you must go to the Marks screen.

5)  To indicate that a student was Absent or Excused simply type `A` or `E` respectively.  1st Class will automatically expand the letter you typed into the word Absent or Excused appropriately.


Reports

To produce a report do the following steps:

1)  From the first screen click on the `Reports and Graphs` button. This will bring you to the Reports screen.

2)  The names of all the available reports are listed in the box in the upper left hand corner of the screen.  Click on the report you wish to run.

3)  Some reports allow you to choose from several printing options.  For example:  The `Activity Detailed Report` allows you to choose to sort the report by the Student`s rank or by the Student`s name.  It also allows you choose to print the report using the Student`s name to identify the student or to print the report using the student`s ID.  Simply click on the options which are appropriate for you.

4)  The next section is called `Filter`.  In this section you can narrow down what information you would like to appear on your report.  By default all of the records in the 1st Class database are selected.  To exclude records from your report just click on the item you wish to de-select.  1st Class will respond by removing the highlighting from the item you click on.  To re-select it simply click on it again.  To clear all the selections in a given box simply click on the `Clear All` button located just beneath the box.  Similarly you can select all the items in a box by clicking on the `Select All` button also located just beneath the box.

5)  Click on the `Run Report` button located on the lower right hand of the screen.  If this is the first report you run after entering the `Reports` screen a `Caculating` status window will appear as 1st Class gathers statistical information.  After calculating, a preview window will appear with your report in it (See picture below).  After pre-viewing the report you can choose to print it by clicking on the printer icon located at the top of the preview window.

Blank Mark Sheet

Hint:  If you do not have access to your computer while you are marking you can record grades on a Blank Mark Sheet.  You can produce the Blank Mark Sheet by running the `Blank Mark Sheet` report.

Note:  The teacher`s name and school appear at the bottom of every report.  You can enter your name and school in the General Information section of the Setup screen.


Graphs

1st Class has a very flexible and powerful graph generator.  You are presented with several options which will allow you to produce almost any type of graph.  You should be aware, however, that it is possible to choose options which don`t necessarily make sense.

To produce a graph in 1st Class perform the following steps:

1) From the first screen click on the `Reports` button. This will bring you to the Reports screen.  In the lower right hand corner of the Reports screen there is a button labeled `Graphs`.  Click on the Graphs button.

2) The currently selected class is displayed in the top left hand corner of the screen.  Click on it to see a list of classes to choose from.  Select the class you wish to work with.

3) In the upper left hand corner of the screen there are two sections labeled X-axis and Y-axis.  Clicking on the student selection of the X-axis section causes students to be graphed according to their mark.  Similarly clicking on the Activity option will cause activities to be graphed along the X-axis.

4) Clicking on a selection in the Y-Axis section will cause 1st Class to display the graph in either marks or percent.

5) There are two boxes located on the left hand side of the screen.  The top most box lists all the students in the currently selected class.  The box below lists all the activities for the currently selected class.  Click on the students and activities you which to graph.  To select all of the items in either box simply click on the `Select All` button located just beneath the box.  Similarly click on the `Clear All` button to de-select all the items in a box.

6)  At the top of the screen is a box labeled `Graph Type`.  Choose the type of graph you would like to produce.

7)  At the top of the screen is a box labeled `Graph Style`.  Choose the style of the graph you would like to produce.

8) At the top right hand side of the screen is a box labeled `Statistics`.  This selection box will allow you to choose from various statistics.  Note that the statistics are calculated based on the records you have selected.  For example:  If you have only selected two activities and click on the `Mean` option your graph will only show the mean for those selected activities.

9) Just above the pre-view of the graph is a box labeled `Report Title`.  It defaults to the name of the class you have selected.  Depending on how you have designed your graph you may want to change the title to reflect the information the graph is showing.

10) To view your graph click on the `Calculate` button at the bottom of the screen.

11) To print the graph simply click on the `Print` button located at the bottom right hand side of the screen.


Setup

General Information Setup

Letter Grade Setup

Activity Type Setup

Student Comments Setup

Activity Comments Setup

Mark Comments Setup


General Information Setup

1) From the first screen click on the `Setup` button. This will bring you to the Setup screen.

2) Type in your name and your school name.  This information is printed at the bottom of all reports you generate with 1st Class.


Letter Grade Setup

1) From the first screen click on the `Setup` button. This will bring you to the Setup screen.

2) Click on the `Letter Grades` TAB.

3) Type in the letter grades you would like 1st Class to provide as defaults in the `Class Information` screen.


Activity Type Setup

1) From the first screen click on the `Setup` button. This will bring you to the Setup screen.

2) Click on the `Activity Types` TAB.

3) Type in the activity types you would like 1st Class to provide in the drop down selection box in the `Class Information` screen.


Student Comments Setup

1) From the first screen click on the `Setup` button. This will bring you to the Setup screen.

2) Click on the `Student Comments` TAB.

3) Type in the student comments (Canned Comments) you would like 1st Class to provide in the comments drop down selection box in the `Student` screen.


Activity Comments Setup

1) From the first screen click on the `Setup` button. This will bring you to the Setup screen.

2) Click on the `Activity Comments` TAB.

3) Type in the activity comments (Canned Comments) you would like 1st Class to provide in the comments drop down selection box in the `Activity` screen.


Mark Comments Setup

1) From the first screen click on the `Setup` button. This will bring you to the Setup screen.

2) Click on the `Mark Comments` TAB.

3) Type in the mark comments (Canned Comments) you would like 1st Class to provide in the comments drop down selection box in the `Marks` screen.


Support

You can reach 1st Class Software at:

Phone: (905) 302-9988

Fax: (905) 608-2422

Please have your serial number ready for the service representative.  You can find your serial number in the `About 1st Class`  option in the `Help` menu option.


********************************************DEFINITIONS***********************


Letter Grade Range

Letter Grade Range - Any value that is greater than or equal to the low value and less than the high value

Low Value - The lowest possible value in the letter grade`s range

High Value - The highest possible value in the letter grade`s range

Example

Let`s say we would like to define the letter grade B as the range 70 to 79.9999999   The low value would be 70 and the high value would be 80.