Feature Overview

You might run into transferring issues if the platform you are grabbing from has variations of the student names in the platform you are filling to. For example, there could be typos, middle names, or dashes in the grabbing gradebook that do not appear in the filling gradebook. This is where the Name Discrepancy Fixer comes in! This feature allows you to save a list of rules that will fix the discrepancies.

Examples: Grabbing ➝ Filling

"John McSmitth" ➝ "John McSmith"

"John James McSmith" ➝ "John McSmith"

"John Mc-Smith" ➝ "John McSmith"

Where is this feature?

The Name Discrepancy Fixer is part of GradeTransferer's Advanced Settings, which can be accessed by first clicking the hamburger menu. See below 👇

Example - Different Names on Different Sites

Some students have multiple names (or different spellings) on the different sites that I use. If they already have a "fix" associated with their name, and another variation is necessary, could multiple variations be entered for the same 'fill' name within the gradebook?

Yes, the Name Discrepancy Fixer can be used for multiple variations. Since there is only one "correct" final version of the name (the one that's in your gradebook, where you need the data to go) you can set up multiple ones for various "grab" locations.

For example:

"John Doe id:1223" ➝ "John Doe"

"Doe M. John" ➝ "John Doe"

"URbestStudent<3" ➝ "John Doe"

The student may have a different username or writing in the three different places you need to grab their data, however in the one place where you need to fill it, it's always "John Doe", so you're able to set up all three and things will still work 🙂

Make sure you don't accidentally re-map the gradebook name!

For example:

"John Doe id:1223" ➝ "John Doe"

"John Doe" ➝ "Jonny Doe"

In the case above, "John Doe id:1223" will get turned into "John Doe" and will then be turned into "Jonny Doe", since you've set up a mapping of "John Doe" to be "Jonny Doe". This issue seldom happens. Just know that you should get rid of any mappings that you don't actually need because GradeTransferer will process all of them that are in there.

General Rules to Keep in Mind

• Do not include commas in the naming rules, as they are intentionally filtered out by the extension. Ex: "Mickey, Mouse" should be entered as "Mickey Mouse".

• Each student should only have one 'fix' on the list. This is because the fixer goes through the list in order, and once it finds a match for a specific student it might not reach any further versions of fixes you may have set up for that particular student.

• To check if the Name Discrepancy Fixer is finding the 'grabbed' data correctly, look at the summary popup that appears after clicking 'Grab Data'. If it worked correctly, the adjusted name should appear in the popup

  

Name Matching Algorithm Settings

GradeTransferer was intentionally designed with a flexible name matching algorithm to help you transfer between platforms where names might be formatted differently.

By default, GradeTransferer would view Dan Lee as a match for all of the following: Dan Kim Lee, Lee Dan, Danny K. Lee, Lee Daniel K, Dan Lee, and Dannie Lee.

If you need to make the matching algorithm stricter, you have 3 options...

Rigid Character Match - Custom Overrides

This setting is located under the Custom Overrides tab in Advanced Settings.

When ON, the algorithm will require that the amount of characters in a name match.

Ex: Dan Lee will not match to Danny Lee or Lee Daniel K

Ex: Dan Lee will match to Dan Kim Lee and Lee Dan

Troubleshooting Use Case: When a student has a very short and/or common name that is identified in other names, the extension can have trouble making the right identification. For example, the student "Al" might be identified as the student "Allison". At this point, the extension will stop filling because it can not apply both Al's and Allison's grades to Alison. Sometimes, both student's scores will be filled into the same cell, for example a 10 and a 10 will fill as 1010 for one student.

Rigid Segment Count - Custom Overrides

This setting is located under the Custom Overrides tab in Advanced Settings.

When ON, the algorithm will require the amount of segments in a name match.

Ex: Dan Lee will not match to Dan Kim Lee or Danny K. Lee

Ex: Dan Lee will match to Danny Lee and Lee Dan

💡Enabling both Rigid Character Match and Rigid Segment Count would only allow Dan Lee to match to Dan Lee and Lee Dan. If you need to restrict matching further, see Absolute Match in the next section.

Absolute Match

If you need to restrict matching even further, you can setup an Absolute Match in the Name Discrepancy Fixer tab by adding a rule that the grabbed name will only match to exactly itself by adding an asterisk at the end.

Like this:

Dan Lee Kim ➝ Dan Lee Kim*

This helps GradeTransferer understand that these are especially similar cases and need more stringent evaluation.

Tip: Ensure the order of first, middle, and last name in your rule matches the exact order that appear in your grabbing gradebook (left side of rule) and filling gradebook (right side of rule).

Tip: Remember to leave commas out of naming rules as they are intentionally filtered out by the service.

🎯 Remember to always review transfers for accuracy and completion. The GradeTransferer service can significantly speed up the transfer process and cut down on errors. However, just as with manual grading, it is the teacher's responsibility to verify that grades are correct within their gradebook.