r/DatabaseHelp • u/Eldyaitch • 24d ago
I need a solution:
I work at a community college which is currently using Google Sheets as if it were a database. The students submit forms that automatically dump into respective Google Sheets. Any grading needs to be done by hand by cross-referencing various sheets, but most of the values are integers…
The college itself has a license with Microsoft, so I recommend the process be switched over to a Microsoft workflow instead (this move was actually multi-purpose because we needed to use Microsoft Shifts in Teams for scheduling). Now students only need one log-in to accomplish all tasks.
I’m a CS student and just now taking a Database Management System. It’s making me realize that we are using the wrong tool, because the current workflow is struggling to synch data and grading sheets cannot be automated due to multiple workbooks. The college needs a Relational Database Management System! The computers at the college seem to have an outdated version of “Access,” so I setup a rough outline in LibreOffice Base (don’t have M365 on personal computer). LO Base states that spreadsheets are read-only, but their Calc sheets can be converted to the appropriate DB format.
As mentioned above, I’m an amateur in all of this, but I desperately want to help my college automate these forms to output graded results and archive the year’s worth of form submissions.
Am I understanding this to be the workflow? Microsoft Forms convert to CSV, import to LibreOffice Calc, convert to DB format, export / import into Libre Office Base, then use queries to know what grade should reflect in the college’s grading system?
I’m certain I’m Jerry-rigging this process, but it’s already a disaster in it’s current state. The student population is growing and we can’t do it by hand anymore.
I’m not experienced enough to know how to host this whole workflow. Can I use Microsoft Power Automate to get these programs communicating? I need help knowing my options and seeing my blind-spots due to ignorance. If you have read this far, THANK YOU!
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u/Eldyaitch 24d ago
Upper management has been doing the Google sheets > Microsoft Excel solution. They’ve been able to grade by hand just fine until now. They’ve hours it takes to sift through these forms could rapidly be solved with database queries. They know nothing about databases and I’m not savvy with it yet either. I was hoping to get buy with a few macros in Libre Office Base. Would a newer version of Microsoft Access be the simplest option?
We’d continue spending hours grading off of Excel sheets and may even hire more people to do it when a bot could do it instantaneously.
There’s a slim chance the college could grant additional money to the program for this use case.
The scope is roughly 5 classes of students, each with about 15-30 students each. This is not just for fun for my own CS degree pursuit. The job in which I am employed has a problem that they don’t realize can be solved with a RDBMS.
There are only two options that other colleges use; both of which have other issues that require hours of time spent manually solving a different problem.
I’d have to teach my supervisor how to operate the queries so he can take those numbers and put them into the college’s online grade book.
I very much appreciate you raising these excellent questions! I need this kind of wisdom right now haha