The IT department is responsible for backing up the 'whole Zangle package'. If the main computer goes down, it should be resurrected in a timely manner. But what about teachers who want their own electronic backup that they can look at and say 'This is what my gradebook looked like on this date' ?
Arguably, Zangle will be able to produce this, but as teachers start with a new grading paradigm, they might wish to save something of their own.
If you create a report as a pdf file, you can save electronically all grade information in your gradebook with only a few clicks.
When you have the report, save it (as a pdf file) in a folder where you wish to keep your backups. You might wish to place the current date as part of the filename.
Note that a second page for each class includes the categories and weights. If the entire district system failed, if you had this file, you could regenerate your entire grades.
Note that you can also click on Create Export. This saves the same grade information as an Excel spreadsheet which is more convenient to work with, but it does not appear to include the categories and weights, or the information about missing and late work. (sample Excel grade spreadsheet) In my opinion, the pdf file makes a better backup.
You can do the same thing for attendance.
When you have the report, save it (as a pdf file) as you did your grades. You might wish to place the current date as part of the filename.
In my opinion, if you save these files in two out-of-district-computer locations (eg. on your flash drive and on your home computer), you have a complete backup of your gradebook. And it might turn out that after we have more experience with Zangle, we will feel that this is superfluous, but at this point in time, I would do it. But remember, these files will NOT allow you to re-populate Zangle electronically. If you had to recreate Zangle, you would have to type everything in again. You could set up a spreadsheet to recalculate grades, but it would be relatively complex and I do not plan to do it.
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