Grades
Numerical Breakdown
| Assignment Type | Number this Semester | Percentage |
| Warmup Questions | Almost every day; drop 2 | 15% |
| Daily Activities | Almost every day; drop 4 | 60% |
| Exams | 3 [5%, 5%, 10%] | 20% |
| Unit Reflections | 5 | 5% |
| Total: 100% |
Course Curve
We start with the customary scale: 90 = A+/A/A-, 80 = B+/B/B-, etc. I have no idea if we will need a course curve this semester. In the face-to-face versions of the course, it has typically been only 1 or 2 points.
My goal for the grade distribution is to make it similar to previous E144 classes, or better. In the past, at least 25% of students have been in the A category; and about 75% of students end up in either the A or B category. If necessary, I will move the cutoffs to your benefit to meet those percentages.
Warmup Questions
The bottom line: Weekly reading assignments outside of class are required for success this semester.
Explanation: Our class time will not be spent rehashing the recommended reading – instead, our in-class discussions will build upon it. Prior to almost every class, I will ask you to complete two or three short "warm-up questions" about the reading and the upcoming class discussion. These questions are designed to get you thinking about the day’s topic so that the in-class conversation will be a little more lively.
How it works: Questions will be posted to our Canvas site at least 24 hours prior to class, and you will have until noon on the day of class to complete them. Most every day, if you answer them – and write something beyond "I don't know" – you will get credit. On some days, though, your responses will be graded for accuracy. We may also do some similar questions in class, especially the day after an exam.
Missed warm-up questions: Because we will end up with 20 or more of these, and you can do them at any time in the 24 hours prior to class, and you get opportunities to drop them there are no "make-ups" for missed questions without written documentation of incapacitation or serious illness. These start during the first week of class.
Daily Activities
To get better at something, we have to practice it every day. So there will be opportunities for us to work with course content every day.
After each class, I'll create a few questions (2 or 3 open-ended, or 6 or 7 multiple choice, something like that) so that you can demonstrate your learning. When they are multiple choice, you'll be guaranteed two tries (it's about the learning, not the grading!).
In a face-to-face class, we typically have 7 or 8 quizzes, and 5 big homework assignments each semester -- so most of those questions will be spread out into these daily activities.
Exams
This semester, we'll use exams as a way to wrap up some of our major topics before moving on to new things.
In the online version of the course, the exams are much "lower stakes" -- each is only a few percent of your course grade, compared to what you might have in other classes (25% or more, each... ugh!). I have kept "exams" in the online version of the course, so that we have some natural breakpoints to our semester. Without exams, I felt like it would just be a slow, steady, 15-week stream of information, with no real punctuation in the middle. Hopefully, the low percentage value of these removes some of the test anxiety you might have.
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A past student said, of the in-person course: "His tests were hard. If you did not attend class you were pretty much lost." My response, for the online era: Take your time. Read every word. Use your notes. Ask for clarification. |
Unit Reflections
Think of these as mid-semester feedback, where can talk about what's working and what's not.
I'll be honest, this is only the second time I've taught this course online -- fall was the first. So I need your help in improving it for the future. What were the readings like? What could have made the class discussions more lively? What is the hardest thing to learn about a particular topic? I will want you to reflect on how you are working through the course, so that I can improve it in the future. I'll provide the prompts, you provide the feedback.