Program Overview

The instructor can launch the software from the Grade Nudge website. The first time the program is run it will ask your permission to access your Google account. Once you grant the program permission, you will be forwarded to the program interface.

The interface is broken into five major sections: delivery, files, assignment value, messaging options, and e-mail. The nudge application can deliver the treatment to the students in four different ways: the instructor can send the nudge via e-mail without the assignment, share the assignment as a Google document, attach the assignment as a PDF or save the nudge to a column within the gradebook spreadsheet. The most common is to send message over email.

The 'Nudge' interface running within Google Chrome. An exported LMS (e.g. Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle) gradebook is dragged onto the files section of the software.

After selecting the delivery method, the instructor must provide gradebook information to the software. This information can be provided in two ways: upload the exported LMS gradebook or use a manually created gradebook saved in Google Drive.

If your institution uses Canvas, Blackboard, or Moodle, the user can simply drop the exported gradebook CSV onto the Grade Nudge interface. In the above figure, an exported CSV gradebook file is dragged on to the files section of the Grade Nudge interface. This file is automatically interpreted by the software and the user is presented with dialogue box similar to the figure below. The user can then select which column contains the total points for the class. If full email addresses are included in the file, the software will use this information (and not alert the user). However, in many gradebook files the full email address of each student is not provided. However, the email address can be created by combining the login or username field with a domain name. If this is the case, the software will ask for the domain name.

A dialogue window asking the user which column contains the total points in the class. In many gradebook files the full email address of each student is not provided. However, the email address can be created by combining the login or username field with a domain name. If this is the case, the software will ask for the domain name.

A default gradescale file can be created and selected by clicking the "create default gradescale" button (see where the black arrow is pointing in this first figure on this page). This is the standard gradescale used by most institutions. If you need to modify this gradescale, once the file is created, a link to the file will appear near the top of the interface.

Below the files section, the user must specify the value of the upcoming assignment and the total number of possible points in the class (not including the upcoming assignment). This is due to the fact that the gradebook does not contain either piece of information (it contains how many points each student has earned so far in the class, not how many points were possible).

Finally, the instructor can modify both the e-mail sent to the student and the elements of the nudge. By default, the student is informed of both positive and negative grade outcomes. However, if the instructor chooses, the message can be adjusted to include only the desired components by selecting or deselecting the boxes in the lower left corner. The treatment message immediately follows the e-mail message optionally written by the instructor in the middle column.

Once the instructor has completed filling out the interface, clicking 'Send Nudge Messages' will deliver the treatment to the students.