1004-f18

Resources for running COMS W1004 @ Columbia

Environment Setup

I would recommend using a virtualenv. Here are the installation intructions:

Most of these grading scripts are written in Python 3.

Be sure to install:

Python 3
pip

Once you have installed Python and Pip, you need to install the following libraries:

pip3 install canvasapi

pip3 install pandas (Archived)

pip3 install pytz

Descriptions for all three programs

latehours.py

usage: latehours.py [-h] -d DUE_DATE -r ROSTER_FILENAME -e ENV_FNAME [-p PUSH]

Updates the late hours against the submission times of the provided assignment
id. Posts directly to CourseWorks after if argument -p is set.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -d DUE_DATE, --due-date DUE_DATE
                        The date-time for due date: Y-m-d-H:M:S
  -r ROSTER_FILENAME, --roster ROSTER_FILENAME
                        The current roster downloaded from Courseworks
  -e ENV_FNAME, --env ENV_FNAME
                        JSON file that contains Canvas parameters
  -p PUSH, --push PUSH  Push update to courseworks

assign_tas.py

usage: assign-tas.py [-h] -r STUDENT_ROSTER -t TA_ROSTER [-o OUTPUT]

Script for building the spread sheet for grading assignments

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -r STUDENT_ROSTER, --roster STUDENT_ROSTER
                        File downloaded from courseworks Grades tab
  -t TA_ROSTER, --ta-roster TA_ROSTER
                        csv file for with the list of TA's
  -o OUTPUT             optional output filename

Student Grades

You need to provide information on students in the class (for this section, we'll call this students.csv). To get this, login to Canvas, go to the class you're working with --> Grades --> Download Current Scores (.csv).

postgrades.py

Script for posting grades to canvas through the Canvas API.

NOTE: Script expects your headers to look something like:

name,uni,id,ta,1.10 (5 pts),1.11 (5 pts),...,3.33 (5 pts),comments,total

usage: postgrades.py [-h] -f GRADING_SHEET -e ENV_FNAME -p PUSH_GRADE

Program for posting grades to Canvas using the Canvas API. The last command
line argument determines whether or not to push the grades to Canvas or do a
trial run to see what the output would be. Note that the COURSE_ID global at
the top is specific to the course that you're tryin to push grades to.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -f GRADING_SHEET, --file GRADING_SHEET
                        File with updated grades for postgrades.py to push to
                        Canvas
  -e ENV_FNAME, --env ENV_FNAME
                        JSON file that contains Canvas parameters
  -p PUSH_GRADE, --push PUSH_GRADE
                        post to Canvas True/False

Misc

`API_URL`

This should be the link you use to access Canvas.

An example is: https://CANVAS_LINK.com

For projects at Columbia, at time of this README, the API_URL is "https://courseworks2.columbia.edu"

Canvas API Keys

To make your life easier, the grading script pulls submission times from Canvas and can automatically mark whether a given submission was late or not (it also takes into account a grace period that you can set). To do this though, you need to generate an API key for Canvas. To generate an API token, login to Canvas, click on "Account" on the top left, go to "Settings", scroll down and click on "New Access Token". Use whatever configurations you want, generate a token and set api_key in the canvas_env JSON file to be that token.

`COURSE_ID` and `ASSIGNMENT_ID`

Along with the Canvas API Key, you need to specify the course id and assignment id that will be used. To find these values, go to the link for the specific assignment.

An example link looks like this: https://CANVAS_LINK/courses/COURSE_ID/assignments/ASSIGNMENT_ID. Fill those variables in as appropriate.

The grading script is currently configured to support two sections. Modify the code as needed based on the number of sections you are handling.

For every COURSE_ID and ASSIGNMENT_ID, replace the values in the canvas_env JSON file with the appropriate values:

'course_id' = 'COURSE_ID'

'assn_id' = 'ASSIGNMENT_ID'

Deadlines and Time Zones

In order to tell if a submission is late, you need to provide the time the assigment was due. The format should be %Y-%m-%d-%H:%M:%S. An example of this is 2018-03-21-23:59:59. In addition, by default Canvas runs in GMT. To make sure the assignment deadline you set above is in EST standard time, you need to also provide the hour time difference between the assignment deadline's timezone and GMT. You can find this time difference using a Google search. It's normally 4 hours when it's daylight saving time and 5 when not. Set GMT_EST_TIME_DIFFERENCE to this value.

Grading Sheet Example

You'll need to download the grading sheet (in .xlsx format) to be able to push grades. For 3134 purposes, this is normally in a Google Drive folder. This repo also includes a template grading sheet that is in the format needed to use this grade push script.

Vaguely, the grades spreadsheet should look like this:

Name	ID	UNI	Late (TRUE/FALSE)	W1 (10)	...	Comments	Total
Alexander Hamilton	812739	ah1789	FALSE	2	...	You must've worked non-stop!	97
Celie	783453	ce1922	TRUE	5	...	Your code was too beautiful for words.	100
Pierre	289374	pb1812	FALSE	10	...	I liked the comet art!	95
.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.

pattersongp/1004-f18