Engrade makes grading (and tracking grades) easy!
Setting up my class list on Engrade.com was far easier than I would have thought possible; it took just a few minutes to input my make believe class roster. It was so simple to type in the names and assign each a number that even those who are as technologically simple as I should be able to do it.
The one thing I didn't like about the site was the time it took to process all of my requests. The site seemed a bit slow, and I wondered whether or not that's because it's popular or because it's still being changed. I absolutely loved the calendar and attendance tools. Having an electronic way to track these things can make life much easier for teachers. I also liked that the site had an option for teachers to add comments about students. That could be a great way for educators to keep track of thoughts, assignments, and goals concerning specific students.
Engrade could be a better tool for teachers if it were a bit faster in processing requests. It would be hard for a teacher to take attendance in the classroom with Engrade if it is always as slow to respond as it was when I tried it. Many teachers now use online tools provided by their schools for attendance; Engrade could be a good subsitute in a school that doesn't offer this option, but it would have to be faster to prevent teachers from having to use paper backup. Other than increasing its processing speed, the only thing that could make Engrade better is the addition of number breakdowns for various grading systems - so that we teachers don't have to do the math ourselves. Although, I must admit - being able to add the percentages for each assignment will be very helpful.
Engrade could be very useful for classroom teachers in that it provides a place to keep and track grades, attendance, and student comments from any computer - anywhere! Teachers could duplicate the information they input into school systems so they would be able to grade at any time and from any place - as long as their schools will allow it. Teachers could also use it to communicate with parents. Parents and students would like the software because it would allow them to access grades at any time, which would make it easy for both parents and children to keep track of how the children are doing in school, check grades, and read teacher comments.
All in all, I found Engrade to be a very valuable tool. I'm going to add my current classes into the system to help with my own grading.
