De Anza College students received a message through MyPortal at the end of the fall quarter stating that final grades would be available via the campus web interface MyPortal beginning January 3. While some students received their grades before that, by the end of the first week of the winter quarter, there were still students unable to see their final grades.
Over the summer, a new software system called Banner was introduced. It replaced the old Legacy system, more commonly known as SIS. Faculty members are getting adjusted to the new structure and process of entering final grades into MyPortal.
“The actual grade process is different from the old system in that it requires several long jobs to be processed by admissions staff prior to the grades rolling into the student portal,” said Kathleen Moberg, dean of Admissions and Records. “This means that when an instructor enters final grades, the information is not automatically reflected on each student’s MyPortal. There are intermediary jobs that run between the time that instructors input grades and when the grades are displayed on students’ My Portal accounts.”
English department chair Ken Weisner said that he has not had any problems using the self-service component of Banner. The self-service feature allows instructors to access their class rosters, e-mail students and input grades.
“New technology like Banner is supposed to help make inputting grades easier,” Weisner said. “But while we’re still learning the software, there will be bugs.”
According to Moberg, the first step for students seeking to correct an error in MyPortal is to alert the instructor. Oversights are common with so many sections, and many times a faculty member who is inputting grades may skip a person by accident. Other times they may think they submitted a grade that didn’t actually go through.
In most cases, the instructor is not aware of the problem until it is brought to their attention. At the end of the quarter, Admissions runs a missing grade report and then contacts the corresponding faculty members who usually respond and make the necessary corrections. If that does not solve the problem, the division dean and vice president of Instruction are contacted, Moberg said.
“I had originally signed up for a pass/no pass class,” Chris Choi, a 24-year-old environmental studies major said. “When I went to check my grades in MyPortal, it was wrong. I guess the teacher made a mistake. I emailed her and now it’s fixed.”
“Part of the challenge is that we have a couple thousand sections to review and very little time between quarters, which sometimes makes reaching faculty difficult, especially during a holiday break,” Moberg said.
Moberg encourages students who are missing grades or have grading errors on MyPortal to contact their instructors to alert them of the situation, so that they can help fix the error.
