Hi Marcus,
Yes I have seen that thread. I have actually been using your BTEC plugin and I really like what it does. However it doesn't quite fit with the way that I want to assess. I can cetainly see why so many people love the way it works though.
For my own particular grading method I would like something which would work like a crossover between a grading form and a rubic. I want the students to see a grid like the one in my original post because that's how Edexcel present them in the spec and it's the way they should ideally be presented in paper based assignment briefs. Its also the style of grid we use to assess. The way that the BTEC qualification works to score each unit based on lowest column score from multiple rows is the driving force behind wanting to use the rubric. In addition (as you alreay know), you must first of all achieve pass critera before achieving merit etc.
I'm trying to keep the interface that students see as simple as possible. I really like the way that Rubric uses the hightlighted green block to show progress. I also like the way that your plugin uses the functionality of quick comment buttons like an advanced grading form and the way that it already does the grading aggregation as the lowest grade. However because of the way that your plugin carries forward a numeric value based on PASS, MERIT, DISTINCTION it does't quite carry forward the correct numeric value for my purposes.
Once in the grade book I have a category set up for each unit, with the calculation for each unit carrying forward the lowest grade towards the course total. With a few other calulations thrown in along the way it adds up course totals very accurately and provides an end of year grade for the student in the grade book. For this to work each grade is assigned a numeric value P=70, M=80, D=90. This is the way that Edexcel calulates the end of course grade based on those final scores for each unit (along with a final weighted multiplication based on the the value of each unit - as some units are double scoring). It sounds fairly long-winded on paper but in reality it actually works really well. I have also had to set up some very strange grading scales for this to work in a way that displays text/word based grades rather than just numbers. I'll try to put together a video demo and some screen shots as soon as I get time.
I would welcome you thoughts as you have been developing your own plug-in very successfully. I know that my ideas would need to some tweaking for other BTEC courses (rather than just music) as I know that many units use partial grids where certain criteria have a highest possible score of PASS. With this in mind the idea of just a simple lowest score aggregaion would obviously not work for everyone.
I gather that you are based in the UK - I'd be really happy to have a more detailed chat if you are interested - perhaps over skype. I'm sure I have a solution that many people who teach BTEC would welcome even if it may only be limited to Music Courses and I'd be happy to share all of the resources I have with others.
I know that Bedford College are developing a system for BTEC and I'm really looking forward to seeing how this works (I believe it will be due for public release fairly soonish).
Thanks for you interest so far Marcus. It was your own work on the BTEC plugin which has inspired me to create this post in the first place.