As a planning and preparation tool, I agree with you. It is much easier to be organized with all the assignments and tracking in a single place. Having the work organized helps to bolster student confidence in the learning process. They see that you too are very serious about their achievements.
In addition to having the prep work organized, I put as much in excel in the form of class achievement matrices so that I can use the information during the class session. Students often ask where they stand on a particular assignment. Although I use rubric that are passed out before and after the speech assignments, I use excel to demonstrate how to effectively translate information into graphs...or to make it visually appealing. The students tend to pick up on the techniques when they are asked to prepare a presentation.
