The MSPE Assistant in Leo, provides a solution that allows you to bring together data from various components of the system (Evaluations, Course Gradebooks, Academic Portrait) to create a draft version of the MSPE Letter.
Follow the steps below to enable and begin using the MSPE Assistant in Leo.
Enable the MSPE Assistant
To enable the MSPE Assistant for your institution, navigate to the Account Manager: Admin Toolbar > Advanced > Account Manager > Modules > MSPE.
Check the box next to Enable MSPE Assistant. This will make all other MSPE options available within other components of Leo.
Additionally, you also have to option to allow faculty mentors and students to view the Academic History and Comparative Analysis Screens in the Academic Portrait. If enabled, they will get read-only access and wil not be able to make changes to the Academic History, exclude (or even view excluded) Eval responses, or export the MSPE letter.
Leaving this box unchecked still provides access for administrators to the MSPE section of the Academic Portrait.
Turn on Custom Gradebook Settings
To ensure that the custom gradebook settings in Leo are enabled, go to the Account Manager: Admin Toolbar > Advanced > Account Manager > Modules > Gradebook > [Program] > Custom Grade Type. This setting should be turned in order to utilize the MSPE Assistant in Leo.
Adjust the Official Institution Name
This name will appear on the draft version of the MSPE letter export. To adjust this setting navigate to the Account Manager: Admin Toolbar > Advanced > Account Manager > System Admin Options > Official Institution Name.
For each course that you want to include in the MSPE, you'll need to navigate to the Course Template level and adjust the Custom Gradebook Settings: Course Section Screen > Course Template > Assessment > Gradebook > Custom Settings.
To include the course in students' MSPE letter, change the first option to Yes.
The Grading Description is a component of the MSPE letter as well and should be included. If left blank, the MSPE Assistant will show a missing Grading Description when accessing the Comparative Analysis screen for students enrolled in this course.
The MSPE Assistant also requires the use of a Grade Matrix. You can set a default grade matrix for your program in the Account Manager. Optionally, you can also set a course-specific grade matrix for each course using this screen.
Narrative comments from preceptors are a huge component of the MSPE letter, and the MSPE Assistant can retrieve those for you! Once you have determined which evaluation questions you would like to retrieve narrative feedback from, navigate to the Evaluation Editor: Admin Toolbar > Assessment > Evaluations > Eval Listing > [Click the name of the Eval form(s) you want to edit] > [Click the edit icon of the questions you want to include in the MSPE].
Note: Only responses from Text questions can be included in the MSPE.
1. Click the edit icon for each text question that you want to (potentially) include in the MSPE letter.
2. Choose "Include in MSPE". Note: If selected, the question will automatically be flagged as a required question.
Additionally, if you are creating a new evaluation form for use with clinical courses, be sure to consider which questions you may want to use to capture narrative comments from evaluators for use on the MSPE.
It is best practice to take caution when editing evaluation forms that have already been used and submitted. You should never make changes to an evaluation questions or responses that affect the meaning or the question/responses or adjust the response values. However, changing the MSPE setting to Include in MSPE is an acceptable change to an existing evaluation form. Feel free to change this setting on existing forms that have been used without affecting the completed/approved eval forms.
Once the MSPE Assistant is enabled, and you have included courses and evaluation questions. You are ready to use the MSPE Assistant!
A couple of notes regarding the MSPE Assistant:
(1) The MSPE Assistant will only retrieve Approved evaluation questions. Please consult the User Guide if you have questions about approving evals with the Evaluation Workflow or Auto-Approving evaluations.
(2) The MSPE Assistant will only include Finalized final grade scores for students in courses that are included in the MSPE. If you have not finalized grades for a course section, you can complete this task by navigating to the Course Section > Assessment > Gradebook > View > Options > Finalize.
The MSPE Assistant will inform you via the Comparative Analysis screen if any information is missing, whether it is a specific student's final score or if the course section grades have not been finalized.
Finalizing a gradebook will not prevent you from making further changes to student scores. It is a flag to indicate that the course is complete and student scores have been made available to students. It will also add a label to the course gradebook indicating that scores are final and include a notation regarding when the gradebook was finalized.
Also, as mentioned previously, the MSPE Assistant will only retrieve Finalized grades for use on the MSPE letter.
Access the MSPE Assistant by navigating to a student's Academic Portrait: Profile Icon > Student Portraits > [select a student] > MSPE.
Users of Leo with a level of 95 or higher will have access to make changes to the Academic History, Exclude Eval responses, and export the Comparative Analysis.
The MSPE Assistant utilize 4 sections of the Students Academic Portrait:
- Characteristics: This is where students and faculty mentors can collaborate on crafting each student's noteworthy characteristics. These will be included on the export of the draft MSPE from Leo.
- MSPE > Academic History: Use this screen to enter basic information about the student's academic history at your institution including when they matriculated, expected graduation, information about dual/combined degree programs as well as indications and explanations regarding leaves of absence, remediation, etc.
- MSPE > Evaluation Responses: If you determine that any approved evaluation responses should not be included in the MSPE letter, you can check the box on this screen to make sure they are are not included. By default, all approved eval responses for questions flagged with "Include in MSPE" will be included.
- Comparative Analysis: This screen will give you a "preview" of the MSPE letter. It includes all enrolled courses for this student that are included in the MSPE. If any information from a specific course is missing, you'll see this indicated in red. Expanding each course will show the included, approved eval responses, grading description for the course, as well as the comparative analysis chart that shows the student's performance based on their final grade and those of their peers.
To learn more about each of these features, refer to this article.
Exporting the MSPE Letter
To export the MSPE Letter for each student, navigate to the Comparative Analysis report, Student Portrait > MSPE > Comparative Analysis.
It is recommended to use the (Re)build Comparative Analysis button (2) if any scores have been updated since the previous day. These charts are rebuilt each evening as part of Leo's nightly processing routines. However, if any grades have been entered since the previous evening, then the charts will need to be updated before exporting the student's MSPE letter.
Use the Export button (1) to download a word document (.docx) of the student draft MSPE letter.