Comment Banks
Comment Banks 
Closed vs. Open Comments
There are two ways of entering Comments in Compass Reports and Learning Tasks - either through a Comment Bank or by typing (or pasting) directly into Compass. Closed Comments are restricted to the use of pre-determined comments, saved in a Comment Bank. With Open Comments, a Comment Bank can also be used but it is not the only option; comments can also be manually typed in, and edited.
Whether your comments are Open or Closed is decided during setup - for Semester Reports this is done within the Semester Reports Configuration, and set by either the Reporting Coordinator at your school or your Faculty Manager, and for Learning Tasks is set when the grading components are added during the task setup, typically by the classroom teacher.
Organising Your Comment Bank
To set up your Comment Bank, go to the Teaching and Learning menu (pencil icon), and select the Comment Bank Editor from the drop-down menu.
On the left side of the page, you can see the folders into which your Comment Banks are sorted.
These are split into 'My Private Comment Bank' and 'School-Wide Comment Bank'. On this page you can set up comments that will be available within the My Private Comment Bank.
All comments that are available from the School-Wide Comment Bank are set up and created by the Reporting Coordinator at your school, or another reporting administrator.
Your comment bank is organised by Comment Groups, and the comments are stored in Comment Lists, which inhabit the Comment Groups. Much like how documents are stored in folders on your computer, the folders themselves are simply labels, whereas the documents contain all the information. In this case the comment lists are documents, which contain a selection of comments, and the comment groups act as folders.
To create a primary folder, for example 'English' or 'Maths', click the first icon at the top of the table - the folder with a green plus symbol that says 'Add Comment Group' when you hover over it. This will create the folder and allow you to name it. Clicking the Enter key on your keyboard will save what you have typed in. You can always edit the title later by right-clicking on it.
You can create a subfolder by clicking on the name of the folder you want the new folder nested under, and then clicking that same 'Add Comment Group' button you clicked before. If you wish to delete a folder simply click the folder icon with the red minus symbol that says 'Remove Comment Group' when you hover your cursor over it.
Creating Comments for the Bank
To create a comment, ensure you have clicked on the correct Comment Group, then click the 'Add Comment List' button (the icon of the document with the green plus). This will make a new row under the folder you had highlighted when you clicked the button, and you can name it in the same way that you named the comment group.
Once the list is created you can add individual comments by clicking the 'Add Comment Option' link at the top.
Clicking the 'Add Comment Option' opens a box where you can type in a new comment that will be available from your private comment bank. The comment will commit to the page when you click out of the box. To delete the comment you can click the red X () on the far right of the row. If you wish to edit the comment, just double click on it. This page will auto-save as you enter comments and make changes to your Comment Bank.
You can also input student and gender specific placeholders into the comment which personalise the comments; this is explained more thoroughly below.
Student and Gender Specific Placeholders
You can tailor your comments to the student by using the Student and Gender Specific Placeholders at the bottom of the screen. If you include one of those placeholders in your comment the system will choose the correct word and automatically fill it based on the students name or gender. You must use the exact formatting found in the list, so ensure that you use the proper curly brackets or braces, as well as the relevant punctuation - or simply copy and paste the appropriate option from the bottom of the screen into the comment box.
"{firstName} always brings {hishertheir} materials to class. {HeSheThey} has applied {himselfherselfthemselves} very well this semester."
For a female student named Sarah it would appear as
"Sarah always brings her materials to class. She has applied herself very well this semester."
Re-arranging Your Comment Bank
Exporting your Comment Bank
If you want to bulk review your Comment Bank you can export it by clicking the 'Export' icon. This will open a pop-up. You can select the exported file to be either pdf or csv format.
Click 'Export' and the file will download to your device.
Importing your Comment Bank
To import your Private Comment Bank, you will need to have the content in a csv file. Click the 'Import' icon and then complete the details in the pop-up including selecting the applicable csv fie from your device.
Please Note: The school wide comment bank can be updated by staff who are Reporting Administrators at your schoolEntering Comments
To enter comments for semester reports double click on the result box for the comment field. For Learning Tasks just single click on the comment box. Once this is done a popup box will appear, like in the image below.
You can navigate between comment groups and lists by expanding them from the left hand column. To add a comment from your comment list to the Comment box for the specific students report, either double click on the comment from under the Comment Bank Options section, or click the green plus symbol.
Open Comments
If you are using open comments the comment will appear in the comment box wherever you have last clicked within that box. You do not need to add all comments exactly in order, you can always click further back in your comment and then add a comment bank option from above - it will appear exactly where you last clicked in the comment box. You will also be able to type directly into the comment box if that is your preference. This gives you the option to add additional comments or add comment bank comments and then edit them to be more personalised. Open comments are published like they are displayed when you are writing your report - in paragraph form. The character limit for Open Comments is set by your Reporting Coordinator when setting up the reports. A count for how many characters are remaining can be seen at the bottom of the comment entry field.
How open comments display while writing semester reports:
How open comments display on the published semester report:
Closed Comments
If you are using closed comments then you need to add your comments in the order that you want them displayed, and the comments that you choose from the comment bank must be stated exactly as you want them to be displayed, as they cannot be edited. Below is a screen capture of what entering closed comments results in. As you can see they are displayed like a list. You can remove a line by clicking the X in the row. The rows cannot be rearranged once they are added, so if there is some intended order you should add the comments in this order. Closed comments publish in the format of bullet points. Your reporting coordinator may limit the number of comments you can add, you will see a count of how many comments you have remaining at the bottom of the comment entry field.
How closed comments display while writing reports:
How closed comments display on the published semester report:
Student Grade Overview
Within the comment popup box in the far right column you will see all the other results you have already given the student for this reporting cycle. From this section you can also edit these results, or provide results for sections you have not yet filled in. To navigate between students use the arrows at the top of this section.
Saving
Once you begin entering comments on this screen you will see the 'Save', 'Save and Close' and 'Save and Next' buttons become accessible. There is also a notification in the bottom left of the window that tells you whether you have any un-applied changes on the screen. You must click one of the Save buttons for the information to be saved to the system.
Save allows you to save your work and continue editing the comment for this student. Save and Close saves your comment and closes the Comment Editor popup box. Save and Next saves your comment and navigates to the comment entry screen for the next student in the list.
Once you've clicked either 'Save', 'Save and Close' or 'Save and Next' the buttons will no longer be clickable and the notification at the bottom left will say 'All changes applied.'
If you attempt to navigate to a different student without having clicked any of the Save options, the system will prompt you to either Apply or Discard Changes, as seen in the image below.
If you close the window without clicking Apply Changes or choose 'Discard Changes' this information will not be saved and cannot be retrieved.
FAQs
Will I need to rebuild my Comment Bank every reporting cycle?
If you have any further questions please feel free to contact our Support Team at support@compass.edu.au or on (03) 9005 5217.
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