Actually a GPA calculator is not as trivial as it sounds at first.

One of my projects at a mid-size 4-year regional school was to transition our paper transcript system to an electronic one. The old system had everyone's transcript on paper. New grades were printed on sticky labels every semester and each transcript had the label stuck to it by hand. If a grade was changed the records clerk used white-out and a typewriter to alter the transcript and a calculator to redo the GPA.

When I went about creating the GPA module, I ran into all the wierd "what ifs" that occur for the 1% of the students. For instance, if a student graduates with an undergrad degree, comes back and takes more classes but is not in grad school, does their overall GPA start over with the new classes or does it include the undergrad degree courses? Scary answer: different clerks in the office did it different ways!

The lesson? a) Rarely is anything as simple as it seems. b) Solving a problem requires that you understand it FULLY, including all the crufty parts people like to avoid. It is these two items which make "Learning by Doing" so powerful!

In reply to Re: Re: Learning by Doing by husker
in thread Learning by Doing by jweed

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