Creating Academic Scales - SAP Documentation

Use

You need academic scales when:

Setting up and grading modules
Setting up programs
Setting up average grades
Setting up external subjects and external organizations
Creating external academic achievements for a student

You set up academic scales in Customizing for Student Lifecycle Management in the section Start of the navigation path Student Lifecycle ManagementMaster Data Next navigation step Academic Scales Set Up Academic Scales End of the navigation path .

You can manage different types of academic scales in Student Lifecycle Management. You can also convert between scales. In this way, you can use different scales at your university and switch between scales without losing data.

You can define different types of academic scales, for example, quality scales (A, B, C...) or quantity scales with stepwise increments (1,0; 1,1; 1,2...5,9; 6,0). Each scale you create is converted to a standard scale and stored in the system. The system converts each grade on a user-defined (customer) scale to a value on the internal standard scale, and stores this value. On the standard scale, you can define a universal threshold value which denotes the “just passed” value that applies to all customer scales. This enables you to define that grades below a particular value are failures without explicitly specifying this in the customer scale.

Prerequisites

You must maintain the following data when creating a scale:

Scale type (quality scale, quantity scale, etc.)
Highest and lowest values, and the increment for quantity scales
Values for quality scales
Description of scale sections and/or values (for example, 1.0–1.49 = Excellent; 1.5–2.49 = Good, etc.)
Base value for mapping the customer scale to the standard scale

For more information, see Start of the navigation path Student Lifecycle ManagementMaster Data Next navigation step Academic Scales Set Up Academic Scalesin End of the navigation path Customizing for Student Lifecycle Management .

Base Value of Scales

You need the base value when you set up customer scales inCustomizing for Student Lifecycle Management . The base value of a scale takes into account the universal threshold value of the standard scale. If the calculated base value is negative, you have to increase the universal threshold value on the standard scale, and then create all scales again using the new (positive) base value. You set up the universal threshold value of the standard scale in Customizing for Student Lifecycle Management in the section Start of the navigation path Student Lifecycle Management Master Data Next navigation step Academic Scales Define Universal Values and Scales End of the navigation path .

Note Note

Calculate the base value for all customer scales manually before defining the universal threshold value of the standard scale in Customizing to avoid obtaining negative values.

End of the note.

Calculation of the Base Value

Given Values:

a=Highest value on the customer scale (numeric)
b=Lowest value on the customer scale (numeric)
c=Lowest value on the customer scale which corresponds to the lowest passing grade; this value must have at least one decimal place

You must always enter the lower threshold value as a decimal number with one decimal place even if you use a customer scale without decimal places (for example 1, 2, 3...). Enter the decimal number that can be rounded to the lowest scale value for “just passed”. (Let us assume the lowest scale value for “just passed” is 1 . The lowest threshold value for “just passed“ therefore has to be 0.5 because 0.5 is 1 when rounded).
d=Threshold value defined on the standard scale (see Customizing)

Required Value:

e=Base value of standard scale

Prerequisite:

a – d is not equal to zero.

Formula:

e = (d x (a – b) + 100.000 x (b – c)) / (a – c)

Base Value Concept

The standard scale contains a universal threshold value for a “just-passed“ grade. Every standard scale value which is equal to or higher than the universal threshold value denotes a passing grade. Every standard scale value which is lower than the universal threshold value denotes a failing grade. This comparison with the standard scale is based on the idea of standard achievements. For example if a student’s grade is 60 percent on the standard scale, (s)he passed irrespective of which customer scale is used for evaluation.

As the system maps every grade on the customer scale to the standard scale, the customer scale must be adjusted to the standard scale. This is done by mapping the universal threshold value on the standard scale to the threshold value of the customer scale in Customizing (for example, universal threshold value = 50.000, threshold value of customer scale = 4,9). The system uses a base value which raises the customer scale values to bring the universal threshold value of the standard scale and the threshold value on the customer scale up to the same level.

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text.

Table 1

Examples

Table 1

Scale	Standard scale	Scale 1	Scale 2	Scale 3
Scale increment		1	1	1
Highest value on customer scale (a)	100000	100	1	4
Lowest value on customer scale (a)	0	1	6	0
Lowest value which counts as “just passed“(c)	(d = 50000)	49,5	4,5	0,5
Required base value	0	1980,19802	28571,42857	42857,14286
Remarks		50 = Just passed	4 = Just passed	1 = Just passed

Table 2

Scale	Standard scale	Scale 4	Scale 5	Scale 6
Scale increment		1	1,0 / 1,3 / 1,7 / 2,0...	1
Highest value on customer scale (a)	100000	1	1	800
Lowest value on customer scale (b)	0	5	5	200
Lowest value which counts as “just passed“(c)	(d = 50000)	4,5	4,2	420
Required base value	0	42857,14286	37500	21052,63158
Remarks		4 = Just passed	4 = Just passed 4,3 = Next lowest value 4.2 becomes 4.0 when rounded, and therefore counts as “just passed“. 4.3 denotes a failure on the scale; 4.2 therefore is the required value.