I use the iOS app GradeBook Pro to take attendance and keep track of grades through the course of the semester. I was pleased, therefore, to see two new features appear after I upgraded to the latest version: letter grade assignments and behavior tracking. The first simply allows you to assign letter grades to percentage scores by recording the lowest valid numerical score per letter grade (so, 93% as A, 90% as A-, 88% as B+, etc). It’s also extremely easy to copy grade scales from courses, which means you really only have to input the scale once.
The second new feature allows you to quickly note student “behavior” (read: participation) in class. In small seminars, I tend to take notes and am able to assess student participation fairly consistently. In larger classes, where I still ask students questions and hold discussions, but which also tend to go a bit faster and involve more students participating (and more students not participating), this will be a useful tool for quickly noting who has and has not participated.
The screenshot shows the default labels for behavior. They can be customized in the GradeBook Pro tab of the iOS settings app.
GradeBookPro can be downloaded from the iTunes store for $9.99.