This year, Oakmont switched from Plus Portals to a new grading system called Infinite Campus. The change has brought mixed feelings, with students and staff sharing both positive and negative reactions.
With the new grading system, there come some growing pains. “I have to apply a lot of my energy to learn a new grading system, spending 1-2 hours a day on the program, and taking my time away from teaching and spending my time with the kids,” said Assistant Principal Mr. Michael Buswell.
Infinite Campus was a program founded in 1993, with its goal of making a bigger difference. Infinite Campus is led by CEO Charlie Krasch and is based in Minnesota. The company started in the basement of Centennial High School. Today, its headquarters are in Blaine, Minnesota, and it has more than 600 employees.
When learning new systems and transitioning, it can all transpire into how teachers can learn and figure out how to use the system. “I have been here long enough to see how other systems are when learning. This system is much easier, smoother, and the last time we switched was in 2015,” said Guidance Counselor Amy Doubovick.
After four weeks with Infinite Campus, there are some concerns. We had used Plus Portals since sixth grade, and it always seemed to work. Infinite Campus feels more confusing, and there have been technical problems. Some students can’t see their assignments or grades, and it loads more slowly than Plus Portals.
When choosing between the two systems, either Plus Portal or Infinite Campus, students pushed more toward Plus Portal. “I would rather have plus portals, the layout was easier, and I was able to see more information about my grades,” said sophomore Lucy Davieou.
Students in Mr. Nevard’s D-block journalism class were asked how often they visited Infinite Campus. As reported, 6 students are checked daily, 17 weekly, and 1 monthly. Even if students don’t check their Infinite Campus, parents have full access within the app.
Infinite Campus was one of the three choices among 3 other grading software. “Out of the three software, Aspen wasn’t able to link with Google Classroom, SchoolBrains had a boring layout, and Infinite Campus was looking promising,” said Mr. Buswell.
This isn’t the first time Oakmont has changed its grading system. Over 15 years ago, Oakmont made a switch from mms grading system to Plus Portals, which lasted them over 15 years. It worked really well. Students really liked it for a long time, including Mr. Dehays.
So if a platform worked for so long, why get rid of it? With time plus portals started to run slower and harder for teachers to put in grades, and Infinite Campus is making it easier for everyone. Starting with teachers being able to put in grades for multiple classes at a time, and students get to see their grades faster and easier.
Although many growing pains are happening, mostly affecting teachers who are just getting introduced to this program.“Wish they didn’t have to worry so much, wish that they could just be teachers. I was sitting with Mrs. Brown and Mr. Kostich, helping them figure out the grade book. We couldn’t figure out if it was calculating grades right, frustrated that it’s more than teaching.” Said Mr.Buswell.
While students find the program challenging, teachers face even more difficulties. Figuring out how to manage attendance, grades, and assignments, especially when communicating with parents, has been tough. However, Director of Technology Mr. Eric Dehays said that “Teachers learned the program faster, and the support is better than with Plus Portals.¨
Most school districts are switching to Infinite Campus after a data breach in 2024 with SchoolBrains. SchoolBrains’ data breach gave out about 312,000 teachers’ social security numbers, and 900 students’ in South Carolina. With this information, many schools switched over to Infinite Campus. Infinite Campus promises features such as mobile accessibility, seamless user-friendly experience, and fostering a better grading system to help parents communicate with teachers more effectively.
Infinite Campus is occupied by 8-10 million students, and is being used by 10 state agencies. Within Infinite Campus is an e-hall pass system, a lunch system, and a payment process throughout. When being used, Infinite Campus is composed of 1,500+ core tools for school systems to use.
There are a lot of dislikes with the new grading system, with some positive outlooks. “When using this system in the future, I think it will be much easier, much quicker, and a more modern feel within the system,” said Ms. Dubovick.
Even though we may have a lot of struggles trying to learn how to use Infinite Campus. As a whole school, it has been an easier learning process on how to use the program, and for administrators navigating their way throughout the system. Although overall, students would still rather have Plus Portals.
