‘Infinite Campus’ causes headaches

New grading system has new features, but is more complex to use

By Melina Singh
Staff Writer, Senior

After first semester ended, the Pinnacle Internet Viewer that has allowed both parents and students to view their grades online was replaced by “Infinite Campus,” a change that many find fault with. To begin with, no teachers were involved in the process of developing this new system, they have had tremendous difficulty in entering grades. As a result, students are currently unable to stay updated on their progress.

Logging in for the first time, the changes from the previous grade viewer are immediately apparent. While the previous grade viewer was simplistic but extremely easy to navigate, Infinite Campus has a lot more detail regarding class information but is unpleasing to the eye and difficult to manage. Infinite Campus was installed district-wide and for unknown reasons.

This new portal gives teachers access to their students’ home telephone numbers, addresses, names of parents and siblings, email addresses, attendance records, previous test scores,  doctors’ phone numbers, racial backgrounds, and even photographs, perhaps in the event that a teacher momentarily forgets what their student looks like. Granted, this information was always available to teachers, but now it is presented to them nicely on one convenient page. The new system also allows students to view upcoming tests and due dates, teacher contact information, missing assignments, and most importantly, their grades for each class.

Seeing as how most teachers haven’t been quite able to upload any new grades, student opinions on the matter are currently nonexistent. English teacher Mr. Peterson, who is something of an expert in grading systems, calls Infinite Campus “a good idea, but one that is unfortunately ugly, inelegant, and hard to use.” Bernhardt agrees, stating, “The new Infinite Campus system has substantially increased capabilities but substantially decreased efficiency.” Both teachers agree that “user interface is terrible.” It is unclear how long this system will last, seeing as how it has made no improvements in grade management as of yet.

In case you have yet to log in, here’s how to find your ID and password:

Login = current ID number with four zeros in front of it: 0000_ _ _ _     
Password = first and last initial and your birth date: MD09/21/95 (example)

LINK TO STORY: http://pioneerhigh.org/high/school/more/18523/