If you’re a teacher, don’t imagine you are done when you’ve finished grading the exam, because you’ve still got to enter the grades. Which is easy enough if there is only one grade per student. But woe betide you if you have grades for different components from different systems (Osiris, Brightspace, ANS and of course your own Excel files). You have to merge those grades, and that’s when the trouble starts.
In theory, it’s easy. But I spend half a day every year fiddling around. I always feel a bit ashamed of myself, because why can’t I do this right the first time? After all, I work in Computer Science! To combine the grades, the student lists have to be complete and of the same length, but they never are. Some students drop out and others join the course. Some were only resitting the exam, and so you have to find their coursework grades from last year. And there are phantom students. Linking the lists requires meticulous cutting and pasting. You always end up losing a few students or having some to spare.
Some lists are ordered by student number, and others by user account, or, even worse, by name alone. This makes combining the lists a perilous undertaking. Suppose you have James Bond with student number 007, and Hermione Bond with student number 008. You are combining two lists, one ordered by student number (Number1), the other by name (Number2). Then this may happen:
| Student number | Grade 1 | Name | Grade 2 | Final grade |
| 007 | 6 | Bond, H | 10 | 8 |
| 008 | 8 | Bond, J | 6 | 7 |
The minute differences in the name are not noticeable, but 007 comes off well here, while 008 gets short-changed. This may look fictional, but it happened to me once. Fortunately, Hermione asked for clarification and I was able to rectify it. James was less pleased. And it was embarrassing for me.
When I confessed spontaneously to a few random teachers, I discovered that I am not the only one who struggles with grades. They poured out one terrifying example after another. This mishmash of lists is frustrating, time-consuming, and error-prone. Of course, I will never get it wrong again myself. But how many Hermiones have already been short-changed by WUR’s numerical registration?
Sjoukje Osinga (55) is an assistant professor of Information Technology. She sings alto in the Wageningen chamber choir Musica Vocale, has three sons who are students and enjoys birdwatching with her husband in the Binnenveldse Hooilanden.
