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[luckychance]

I've checked both my computers and all my flash drives. In my Excel grade files for a class, I don't have the grades for our first quiz entered, and I'm trying to figure out what to do. (I think I probably replaced the new with the old file rather than the reverse when transferring the grades from my flash drive to my work computer.) I've thought about the following:
A) Just not counting that quiz
B) Giving everyone a 100 - this probably sounds like I'm desperately seeking their approval
C) Giving everyone an 85 and telling them that if they got above that and can show me their quiz, I'll adjust the grade
D) Asking everyone to show me their quiz and their grade. The quiz was about a month ago, though, and I'm sure some people will have lost theirs.
 
My guess is I could cover this up and not tell anyone but I'd have discomfort with doing that. Each quiz is worth only about 2% of the final grade and it's highly unlikely that this would negatively impact anyone's grades but I still feel like an irresponsible idiot.

I appreciate any suggestions about what to do.

[anon99]

Simply ask the students to email you their grade.  Most are honest.  You can either tell them you lost the file or that some of the marks got mixed up and you want to ensure you have the correct grade (ie imply that you have some to reduce the chance of them giving you a different mark).  Even if students lost their quiz, they probably remember their grade.

Options A and B result in *almost* the same end point for grades.

[luckychance]

Simply ask the students to email you their grade.  Most are honest.  You can either tell them you lost the file or that some of the marks got mixed up and you want to ensure you have the correct grade (ie imply that you have some to reduce the chance of them giving you a different mark).  Even if students lost their quiz, they probably remember their grade.

Options A and B result in *almost* the same end point for grades.

Wow, I think those are great ideas. Thank you.

[zuzu_]

Simply ask the students to email you their grade.  Most are honest.  You can either tell them you lost the file or that some of the marks got mixed up and you want to ensure you have the correct grade (ie imply that you have some to reduce the chance of them giving you a different mark).  Even if students lost their quiz, they probably remember their grade.

Options A and B result in *almost* the same end point for grades.

Yep--I've done this. Worked great.

[oldadjunct]

I've checked both my computers and all my flash drives. In my Excel grade files for a class, I don't have the grades for our first quiz entered, and I'm trying to figure out what to do. (I think I probably replaced the new with the old file rather than the reverse when transferring the grades from my flash drive to my work computer.) I've thought about the following:
A) Just not counting that quiz
B) Giving everyone a 100 - this probably sounds like I'm desperately seeking their approval
C) Giving everyone an 85 and telling them that if they got above that and can show me their quiz, I'll adjust the grade
D) Asking everyone to show me their quiz and their grade. The quiz was about a month ago, though, and I'm sure some people will have lost theirs.
 
My guess is I could cover this up and not tell anyone but I'd have discomfort with doing that. Each quiz is worth only about 2% of the final grade and it's highly unlikely that this would negatively impact anyone's grades but I still feel like an irresponsible idiot.

I appreciate any suggestions about what to do.

I would do this without a second thought. First because I assume quizzes are numerous, and any one of them has a tiny impact (2% in your case) on the final grade.  Second, over the course of the semester the grades on quizzes probably don't vary all that much from one to the next, or from overall performance.  Finally, I tend to doubt many of us grade a semester's worth of performance with a margin of error <2%  At the end of the semester plug in the quiz average for that one missing grade, moving you well below even that margin of error.  If you are posting all grades on a CMS answer the one or two questions that you might get with an "Oh I don't know that happened, send me over your quiz and I will correct that entry."  If that one mistake goes viral across the class, say roughly the same thing and proactively announce that you will plug in the quiz average for  each student.

I think we tend to overestimate the numeric precision of our grading as a sorting mechanism.  Attemting to reduce your already shaky margin of error below 2% isn't worth the risk of raising your own credibility as  keeper of records in front of tyhe entire class, let alone the time and trouble for all involved to correct an inconsequential error.

[voxprincipalis]

B) Giving everyone a 100 - this probably sounds like I'm desperately seeking their approval

When this happens to me, I choose option B. It costs me nothing, since if I really feel like someone is in effect getting a higher grade than they would have earned, it's easy to correct that by bumping up the difficulty level of the next couple of quizzes. Plus, it is a valuable and memorable (subtext: course evaluations) demonstration of your "fairness" (according to students' definition of the word, which is that "fair" = "what's most beneficial for me personally").

VP

[_touchedbyanoodle_]

I'd fill the column with 100s, not say a word, and never think twice about it. Not only was the score minor, it was also the first quiz.

[oldadjunct]

I'd fill the column with 100s, not say a word, and never think twice about it. Not only was the score minor, it was also the first quiz.

Nor do I disagree with this because this one grade just isn't that important in the scheme of things.

[luckychance]

I'd fill the column with 100s, not say a word, and never think twice about it. Not only was the score minor, it was also the first quiz.

Nor do I disagree with this because this one grade just isn't that important in the scheme of things.

Darn, I wish I'd posted this earlier and gotten all your feedback. I went with Anon's approach but felt nervous and don't think I pulled it off well. I think they were shocked about my oversight. Oh well. Hopefully they won't remember this 9 weeks from now when they're doing course evaluations.

[melba_frilkins]

I'd fill the column with 100s, not say a word, and never think twice about it. Not only was the score minor, it was also the first quiz.

Nor do I disagree with this because this one grade just isn't that important in the scheme of things.

Darn, I wish I'd posted this earlier and gotten all your feedback. I went with Anon's approach but felt nervous and don't think I pulled it off well. I think they were shocked about my oversight. Oh well. Hopefully they won't remember this 9 weeks from now when they're doing course evaluations.

Yes, tban's suggestion is brilliant.

We can all file it away for next time.

Actually, I was thinking, what can/should all do to avoid the possibility of losing grades by overwriting a file? I use Dropbox and I think the go-back feature might save me, but I wouldn't want to rely on it 100%. Maybe I have to look into something like Time Machine (for non-Mac). Thoughts?

[luckychance]

I'd fill the column with 100s, not say a word, and never think twice about it. Not only was the score minor, it was also the first quiz.

Nor do I disagree with this because this one grade just isn't that important in the scheme of things.

Darn, I wish I'd posted this earlier and gotten all your feedback. I went with Anon's approach but felt nervous and don't think I pulled it off well. I think they were shocked about my oversight. Oh well. Hopefully they won't remember this 9 weeks from now when they're doing course evaluations.

Yes, tban's suggestion is brilliant.

We can all file it away for next time.

Actually, I was thinking, what can/should all do to avoid the possibility of losing grades by overwriting a file? I use Dropbox and I think the go-back feature might save me, but I wouldn't want to rely on it 100%. Maybe I have to look into something like Time Machine (for non-Mac). Thoughts?

That's a great question. I do wonder about that.

[voxprincipalis]

I'd fill the column with 100s, not say a word, and never think twice about it. Not only was the score minor, it was also the first quiz.

Nor do I disagree with this because this one grade just isn't that important in the scheme of things.

Darn, I wish I'd posted this earlier and gotten all your feedback. I went with Anon's approach but felt nervous and don't think I pulled it off well. I think they were shocked about my oversight. Oh well. Hopefully they won't remember this 9 weeks from now when they're doing course evaluations.

Yes, tban's suggestion is brilliant.

We can all file it away for next time.

Actually, I was thinking, what can/should all do to avoid the possibility of losing grades by overwriting a file? I use Dropbox and I think the go-back feature might save me, but I wouldn't want to rely on it 100%. Maybe I have to look into something like Time Machine (for non-Mac). Thoughts?

If I make a suggestion, will it count the first time, or do I have to wait for someone else to echo it and then see it count as their brilliant suggestion? (I am kidding, and not poking at TBAN.)

(Of course, the following suggestion may not be so brilliant, so take it for what it's worth.)

If you make a separate Excel worksheet for each graded assignment, you can then link the data to a master grade document that looks up the info for each assignment from that assignment's worksheet. This way you can save a copy of each set of grades (in multiple places if it would make you feel better) and then just use the master document to add them up. If you accidentally did something screwy with the master document, you wouldn't actually lose any data.

Here is a little bit more info on this:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/create-and-manage-links-to-other-workbooks-HA001054812.aspx

VP

[seventhyear]

I'd go with the 85 option.  The kids that earned more will point it out to you.  The kids that earned less, won't. 

I manage to do something like this nearly every term.  I just look at the average that they earned on that type of assignment and plug that in.  Again, if I've cheated anyone, they tell me. 

[bartislartfast]

If you make a separate Excel worksheet for each graded assignment, you can then link the data to a master grade document that looks up the info for each assignment from that assignment's worksheet. This way you can save a copy of each set of grades (in multiple places if it would make you feel better) and then just use the master document to add them up. If you accidentally did something screwy with the master document, you wouldn't actually lose any data.

Here is a little bit more info on this:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/create-and-manage-links-to-other-workbooks-HA001054812.aspx

VP

VP's suggestion is what I frequently suggested to people in my previous life in IT, particularly for larger courses or in assessment periods.  Now, of course, there are a couple other options, though.  One could use DropBox or Google Docs (or similar file-synchronization app) to remove the need for a flash drive, and let the software handle copying the document (in its most current state) to whatever workstation you needed it on.  Similarly, after using your spreadsheet of choice, you could update the grades on a CMS, even if that grade is not marked to be revealed to the student. 

Another option that I've seen people use is appending a version number to the file name itself each time there is a grade change.  So after creation, the file name would be Course_Section_Semester_Year_v1.xlsx, and increment the v# each time.  A bit more cumbersome, but has the benefit of the most backups in case something happens that you don't catch for quite a while.

Hope this helped.

[nucleo]

Actually, I was thinking, what can/should all do to avoid the possibility of losing grades by overwriting a file?

I, um, just print out a hardcopy of my marks sheet every time I enter any scores.  (Too obvious?)