Creating Accelerus Comment Banks

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There are three different ways in which Accelerus comment banks may be created:

•Adding a new comment bank and creating it from scratch.
•Importing an existing MarkBook comment database (.cdb file).
•Importing a CSV file of comments.

The steps to creating a comment bank are basically the same, whether creating a school or teacher comment bank, except for the initial manner in which the creation of comment banks is accessed by different users.

 

Warning

In order for Accelerus administrators and those with a subject level comment bank role to create school comment banks, whichever of the above methods are used, they must be logged into the Accelerus database. They may not create school comment banks in offline files or via Accelerus Web.

 

minusAdding a new comment bank

To add a new comment bank, whether a school or teacher one, follow the steps below, although to begin with these may vary, depending on the method you wish to use and your role:

•From the File menu choose New and then either School or Teacher Comment Bank.

Note that the School Comment Bank option will be disabled if you do not have privileges to create school comment banks.

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OR

•Bring up the Comment Bank Explorer:
➢If you are an Accelerus administrator, go to the Explore menu and select Comment Banks.

OR

➢From the Welcome Screen, for all users, click the Comment Bank Explorer icon.

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➢In the Explorer, click the new school or teacher comment bank icon, as appropriate.

The first icon adds a new school comment bank and the second, next to it, a teacher one.

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•Name the comment bank:
➢Double click where blank comment bank name is displayed in the top left pane.

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➢Type in the name of the comment bank.
➢Click the Save icon or press Ctrl S to save the comment bank.
•Create categories:
➢Keep the comment bank name highlighted and click the Add category icon below the top left-hand pane.

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➢In the blank field that appears, enter the category name.

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➢Add further categories by clicking the Add category icon.
➢Move the categories that have been added into the correct order, if necessary, by clicking the Move up and Move down icons.

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•Create values for each category:
➢Click the category to which you want to add values and then click the Add value icon.

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➢Enter the name of the value in the blank field below the selected category.

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In the example shown above, the Work Habits bank has a category called Homework which has two values, so far – Excellent and Very Good. There are also Preparation and Behaviour categories without any values as yet.

➢Continue adding values, as required.
➢If necessary, move any values into the correct order, by clicking Move up and Move down.
•Compose comments for category values:
➢With the value belonging to a category highlighted, click the New comment icon.

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Above, a comment will be added for the value Excellent for the category Homework.

➢Type in the comment required in the Comment cell.
➢In the locations where the student’s name or appropriate pronoun should appear, click the Insert student name/pronoun icon.

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➢In the Name/Pronoun Substitution box which appears as shown here:

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®Select the required pronoun and name option buttons required, with an example of the substitution text appearing in the bottom left corner, eg {He/She/Name}
®Click the Pronoun Only or Name Only checkboxes, where you want to limit the substitution, eg {he/she} or {Name}.
®Select the correct case option, eg lower case {he/she} where it is to appear in the middle of a sentence.
®Click the OK button to insert the selected substitution text in the comment.

OR

➢You may manually enter the required substitution text:
®Type the open brace icon, ie {.
®This will bring up a dropdown list of available options from which you may choose the correct substitution, eg {His/Her/Name’s}.
®Type as much of the substitution text as you wish and, as you do so, the dropdown list will only reflect the options that match.

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➢Continue adding comments, as required.
•Click the Save icon or press Ctrl S to save your comment bank.
•Spell check the comment bank:
➢Click the comment bank name in the left category/value pane.
➢Click the Spell check icon in the toolbar or press F7 to start the spell check operation.

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➢Work through any errors brought up in the Spelling and Punctuation window, choosing to ignore errors, add the spelling to the dictionary, select from suggestions or enter replacement text, as appropriate.

 

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By clicking the comment bank name, all comments in the comment bank will be checked.

However, if you click on a category, only that category will be checked for spelling and punctuation errors. Likewise, if you click a particular value, only the comments for that value will be checked.

 

•Print out the comment bank:
➢If you require a printed listing of the comment bank, go to the Comment Bank menu and select Comment Bank Listing.
➢Preview the listing, moving through its pages and performing other preview processes required.
➢Click the Print icon in the preview window and make your print selections, as required.

 
minusImporting a comment bank

Two different formats of comment banks may be imported into Accelerus, as either school or teacher comment banks:

•Schools that have MarkBook or Quick Vic Reporting comment databases, ie.cdb files, may import these into Accelerus.
•Comments stored in CSV files may also be imported.

 

In order to be able to import a comment bank that is stored in a CSV file, the following requirements must be met:

•There must be three columns of data, with the first line of the CSV file containing the following header:

Category, Value, Comment

•For each comment, you must insert all three fields, one comment per row.

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•You should insert correct substitution text where you want to substitute the student’s name or a pronoun, eg {He/She/Name}, {his/her}, etc.
•The Accelerus comment bank will be named using the file name of the CSV file being imported, eg English 7.csv will result in a comment bank called English 7.

 

The same steps are followed whether you are importing a MarkBook comment bank or a CSV file of comments:

•Go to the File menu and select Import and then either School or Teacher Comment Bank.

Note that the School Comment Bank option will be disabled if you do not have privileges to create school comment banks.

OR

•Bring up the Comment Bank Explorer:
➢If you are an Accelerus administrator, go to the Explore menu and select Comment Banks.

OR

➢From the Welcome Screen, for all users, click the Comment Bank Explorer icon.

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➢In the Explorer, click the appropriate icon to import a school or teacher comment bank, as required.

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•In the Import Comment Bank window:
➢Find the location and the file that you want to import.

It can have either a .cdb or .csv extension.

➢Click the Open button.

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The comments will be imported and displayed in the Comment Bank window, with the name of the file as the name of the newly imported comment bank.

•Make any changes to the imported comments, eg change the name of the comment bank, if required.
•Click the Save icon or press Ctrl S to save the imported comments, in the Accelerus database or offline file, as the case may be.