how do I hide grades on student posts?

Hmm haven’t seen a plugin before (although I’ve seen alot of people asking)

I don’t know if there would be a way to make it so you could display there essay and not your comment (grade)

Best solution I could think of would be to make everyone a contributor by default, that way they can only post stuff as private or draft.

Then download this plugin:

https://fortes.com/projects/wordpress/postlevels

Set it so by default all users are say a level 1
and also that private posts need level 2 access

That way they cannot see anything that is marked as a private, except their own posts ofcourse.

Set yourself as a level 10 or whatever something 2 or above, so you can see all private posts thus only one who can comment/grade besides the post author ofcourse.

If you really want all students to be able to view others work but not see comments then you could set it up in that plugin so RSS feeds only display title, content not comments and there is probably a really easy way to get RSS feeds to display.

You could always do a table on a Page and list it by student ID numbers and their corresponding grade. That way all the grades are all together and nothing too personal is in the post.

Either that or you can password protect the posts after it has been submitted with their grade and comments in there.

Yeah, protecting posts with a password seems to be the best idea.

If I might add my opinion, I as a student wouldn’t feel comfortable knowing that my essays were being published to the internet, is using WordPress really the best solution to your problem?

I would email the grades.

WordPress isn’t really a private message system. Even the fact that they will submit essays via wordpress is a problem, as another student could view their essay and copy ideas from it etc. I don’t think wordpress is the right solution for your task.

I will mention this, as it would work, but would be rather, um, awkward.

You could create a category for every student. And then use the Category Access plugin to assign each student access to just their category. They could post privately (other students can’t read), but you could have read access to everything. You could also respond with a comment. This would work for you, but it could get a bit awkward if you’re talking about hundreds of students. That would mean hundreds of categories. You might find it a lot to read and be clear on, but I guess you could have nested categories. I.E. Classroom 1, Student 1. Just watch the defaults of Category access to make sure they are ‘off’ for new users, new categories etc.

I appreciate all your responses to my post about grades. Maerk, you said you would feel uncomfortable knowing your essays would be published on the Internet. That might be a problem. I know a lot of teachers have been starting blogs for their students, so it is a growing trend. I suppose I could give students the option of posting privately or publickly. However, I imagine most students want their essays to be read. I may run into administrative issues too — I will be sure to check on that.

I also want other students to read my feedback. I am hoping that when students can read other student writing, and see teacher feedback applied to that writing, and then also add their own comments every once in a while, they will learn better, be more engaged, and feel more involved in a learning community.

I think the best solution is as peiquiglong suggested — to create a table of grades, listing student’s as numbers rather than by name.

You know, there are some major software companies out there — WebCT and Blackboard — who could be quickly run out of business if someone tweaked a WordPress theme for academic purposes.

If I password protect a post, will it still show up in search results?

Tom

Personally, I would first take a poll in the class to see if every single student were willing to accept grades publically displayed. I would also make my blog login only above and beyond before anything else, ex. https://www.thefabhouse.com .

I would have my blog login only so the world can’t see the essays, then just email the grades, otherwise passwording the entries would be just fine.

**edit… Actually, I would just create a catagory for grades and then password that post so there’s no issues with searching for passworded posts that are being graded. Keep in mind also, not everyone wants others to read their writing. I wouldn’t.

But isn’t that what a blog is? I mean, people read my “essays” every day. And in a way, my work is graded by each of my visitors. What’s the difference?

I know it’s possible to password protect pages, but is it possible to password protect an entire site? Or to password protect an entire folder within a web directory?

When you password protect posts, or make them private, do they still show up in searches?

I hadn’t anticipated so much hesitation about the public display of one’s academic essays. Why would students not want others to see their writing? The only reason might be if the writing is poor or personal. But you guys are bloggers, and you’re expressing concern about it, then hmmm. I’ll have to give this issue more attention.

I blog, but I would not want my assignments made public. The intent is very different. Just because it happens on a blog, doesn’t suddenly make a blog. An assignment is between the student and the teaching staff.

What I write in a letter to my mother I would not write in a blog. What I write in a note to my landlord, I would not write in a blog. What I write in an assignment to be graded, I would not write in a blog. At best, knowing others can read it will serious inhibit what I write. At worst, I might be reluctant to do the assignment in the first place.

If you gave your students a choice, then it would be fine I suppose. The ones that are ok with having their assignments made public could use that method. But even then, I don’t think it will take long for some to regret their decision after they get teased the first time.

I just thought I’d let you know I’ve finished with the prototype customization of my classroom writing site (based off the Beeblebrox theme) and am going to introduce it to my students tomorrow to kick off a new quarter. Check it out at https://www.idratherbewriting.com/itt and type guest as the username and password to get it.

If you click the About link in the upper-right corner, you can see what I hope the site will deliver as well as possible risks with using WordPress.

I welcome any feedback.

good stuff! i like it. you’ve addressed my own personal concerns. you’ve given them an option for privacy if they want it, while encouraging them to participate openly if they choose.

Are you going to package this up as a theme? My brother is a teacher for grade 8, and might wish to experiment with this kind of system.

congrats!

Yes, I have plans to package it up as a class writing theme and write some instructions for teachers, but I want to make sure it works well first.

How are you letting students do the private post thing if the students choose that? I thought the normal “private” option on a post prevents even the admin from reading it? (could be wrong about that). Are you using an extra plugin?