SimpleGradebook Support Forum

Please add the option to have more letter grades in a column, I dont have enough for my curriculum. Thanks.

Hi there,
Just letting you know that a couple of students have come to me today saying that their classes are not showing up on Simplegradebook anymore.  Both students told me that they had seen their marks earlier in the day, but not now.  Charlotte Bell and Sophia Morton are the students.
Thank you,
Jessica

Ever since my password expired, I have been having an issue after viewing the assignment list in my classes.
By 'assignment list' I mean the list of all the assignments that comes up when I click on the 'Assignments' button and all the assignments for the course appear (with dates, scaling, whether or not they are hidden, etc).
Any time I go into that assignment list and then hit the finished button (or any button to leave the screen) it kicks me out saying my password is invalid or expired.  I can log back in fine, and do everything else, but I cannot use that Assignments screen (it does not save anything I do when it kicks me out).

This upgrade addresses a number of security issues.

There have been attempts recently to access teacher accounts by exploiting a long-term vulnerability in the Simplegradebook login system.  The vulnerability was introduced through a bug in a security update performed in January of 2021. 

What happened is that the password recovery system was compromised - when the password recovery system was used, the email sent to the user was displayed in a large blob of text.  The text contained the new password assigned to the user. 

This introduced the possibility that if someone knew, or could guess, a teacher's userid, they could issue a password recovery for that userid and get the new password.  If the teacher then continued using the new password sent to them in the email, and didn't subsequently change it, the account would be compromised.

How Would I Know If My Account Was Compromised?

If the following sequence of events occurred, it is likely that your account was compromised.

• You received an unsolicited password change email from Simplegradebook between January 15, 2021 and January 26, 2022.
• You continued using the password in that unsolicited email, didn't change it to something else at the time it was received, and don't regularly change your password.
  

How Widespread is the Problem?

It isn't possible to determine that from the data in Simplegradebook because it isn't possible to distinguish a legitimate password recovery request from a non-legitimate one, and due to volume, outgoing emails are only kept on the system for a week.  If you think your account was compromised, please send an email to info@simplegradebook.ca so we can determine the extent to which the vulnerability was exploited.  So far (February 3, 2022) three attempts to compromise accounts have been reported.  To date no reports have been received about marks being changed.  This note will be updated if additional information is received.

What Actions Have Been Taken?

First, the problem was fixed as soon as it was reported.  Second, a notice was placed on the system asking teachers to change their passwords if they had received an unsolicited password recovery email.  Third, the login software is being re-written to cause the temporary passwords sent in the recovery emails to expire so they can only be used for a short period of time.  That update will happen in the new few days.

What Can I Do Now?

If you haven't changed your password recently, go to the Profile link under the My Simplegradebook tab and change it now.  Change your passwords frequently - once a month at least.  There are other ways that students can obtain passwords, such as watching you type it in.  If you think that your account has been compromised and marks have been changed, check them against your written records.  If you notice that they have been changed, please send an email to info@simplegradebook.ca so the extent of the problem can be determined. 

If anything unusual happens on Simplegradebook, please feel free to report it in an email to info@simplegradebook.ca.

What Else?

As the developer for Simplegradebook, the responsibility for this issue lies with me.  Users have come to trust Simplegradebook to be available, responsive, and secure.  I can't apologize enough for allowing this to happen.  Teachers have enough to worry about without anything added to their plates. As a retired teacher, the thought of adding to another teacher's burden gives me determination to make whatever changes necessary to ensure this never happens again.

Tim Daniel

It is possible to copy grades between assignments in the same class.  To copy grades from another assignment, select the Fill button below the assignment you want to copy grades to:

After pressing the Fill Button, the following screen is presented:


Once the Fill from Assignment checkbox is clicked, the assignment dropdown will appear:


Use the dropdown box to select the assignment to be copied from and press the button.

The user will be asked to confirm that they want to copy the grades. 

Note that when grades are copied between assignments, by default only empty grades will be filled in.  If there are grades present they will not be overwritten. 

If the user wants to overwrite the existing grades, unclick the "Fill only empty grades" checkbox on the Fill Column page.

A new checkbox has been added to the assignment entry display that enables student self-assessment using rubrics.  Prior to this, self-assessment was enabled by default. 

The assignment entry display looks as follows after the change:



Self-assessment by students is now automatically disabled unless the checkbox is clicked.

Note that teachers can also disable rubric self-assessment for an individual student on the rubric marking screen shown below by clicking the "Disable Further Student Self-Assessment" box.  These screens are accessed by clicking the "Enter" buttons on the gradebook beside the student names or under the assignment names.

The new performance scale from the British Columbia Draft K-9 Student Reporting Policy has now been added to Simplegradebook as a built-in performance scale.

The new scale is called BC Standard (2019) and uses the following wording:

Emerging
Developing
Proficient
Extending

You can use the new built-in performance scale for your class by selecting it in your class settings:



To get to class settings, open the class and click the gear icon in the top right corner.  Or, click the button on the main classes page.

There is no need to change anything in current or archived classes.  However, if you wish to use the new scale in current or archived classes, just change to the new scale in the class settings.

Note: the older BC performance scale has been renamed to BC Legacy

When printing report cards, the URL and page numbers may show up at the bottom of the page:




To remove these, disable the printing of headers and footers in your browser as follows:

• Chrome/Brave: When viewing the reports, right click the page and select Print OR click the Menu icon (three hotdogs - ) in the top right corner of the browser then select Print. Uncheck Headers and Footers under the Options section.


• Firefox:When viewing the reports, click the Menu icon (three hotdogs - )in the top right corner of the browser. Click Print. Uncheck Print Headers and Footers at the bottom of the More Settings section - you may have to scroll down to see it.


• Edge: When viewing the reports, right click the page and select Print OR click the Menu icon (three dots - ) in the top right corner of the browser then select Print. Uncheck Headers and Footers under the Options section.


• Internet Explorer: Click the Gear icon in the top right corner of the browser. Place your mouse over Print, then click Page Setup. Change each value under Headers and Footers to -Empty-.  Then generate the reports and print by right clicking on the page and selecting Print.

There may be several causes for this. 

1) The first thing to check is that your notifications are turned on. Go to My Simplegradebook and check that the notification checkboxes are ticked and that notifications have not been paused or turned off:



2) Make sure that you have a current access code in your account.  Log into your Simplegradebook account and check that you can see your classes.  If you don't see your classes when you log in, ask the teacher for a new access code and enter it using the Classes->Add or Edit Classes menu item.



3) If the above does not resolve the problem, please email support at info@simplegradebook.ca and let us know about the problem.  We can usually resolve any problems quickly.