New to SPAplatform version 1.8.3 is the Sitting Tags feature, which makes it easier than ever before to analyse your SPAmarkbook results by allowing you to “tag” sittings in order to group multiple dates under a single “round” of tests for analysis purposes. Previously, if for example you marked half of a class on one date and the other half on another date, these two dates would show separately in the SPAtracker. By tagging both of these dates as belonging to the same “round” of tests, you can group them into a single column and graph point, cutting down on clutter and making your data easier to understand at a glance.
How to Tag Sittings
When marking or analysing a test within SPAmarkbook, look for the “By Date / By Tag” toggle:
Clicking “By Tag” will organise the sittings by the tags they are assigned.
By default, all sittings will start out under “(No Tag)”, which means they have not been assigned a tag:
By clicking the “Add New Tag” button, you can add a new round of tests for the selected year and then drag-and-drop sittings into it:
Clicking the “Add New Tag” button multiple times will continue to add further rounds to that year. If you add too many, you can click the “Remove Tag” button to remove the extraneous ones. (Any sittings currently under the removed tag will be returned to the “(No Tag)” area).
- When dragging a sitting to a new tag, aim for the empty space below the name of the tag. When this space appears to “expand”, you can let go of the sitting.
- Click the name of a tag to collapse the display of any sittings under that tag. Click the name again to expand the display again. You can also use the “Collapse All” button (which will change to the “Expand All” button) to collapse or expand all tags at once.
When you’ve finished assigning tags to your sittings, don’t forget to click the Save icon:
Otherwise, your changes will not be recorded. You can also click the ‘Cancel’ button next to it to discard your changes instead.
Analysing by Tag
It is now possible to analyse your SPAmarkbook data by tag in SPAtracker. The “By Date / By Tag” toggle has been added to these pages as well:
By selecting “By Tag” on the Markbook Single Year Analysis, Markbook Growth Analysis, or Markbook Trend Analysis tabs, the analysis view will be organised by tag instead of by date. Please note that:
- If a student has been marked multiple times under the same tag (e.g. on two separate dates that were both tagged with ‘2019 Round 1’), the most recent mark will be used.
- If you have not yet tagged your sittings for the test in question, all results will show under a single “(No Tag)” entry until this is done.
- Markbook Growth Analysis requires at least two separate tags (i.e. rounds) per test, so that both a pre-test and post-test can be used. If at least two tags are not available then the test will be excluded from the view.
- As it is currently not possible to tag Basic Tests, these will continue to be shown under the date of testing, even when By Tag is selected.