This class has many different parts. While the Workbooks are the main thing, we will have In-class Activities and Exams. This page tries to explain them all, how we will assess them, and how we will put them together to form final grades.

Overview of Grading

While students will ultimately be given a grade on the A-F scale, we will not use that for any of the components of the class (except the exam).

Each part of class has a simple, coarse scheme for scoring work. It is described below.

Final grades will be based on the achievement and completion levels for each of the components of class. It is primarily based on the in-class Activities and the 7 Workbooks, but will be adjusted by other factors, including the following:

• 3 Exams (can be used to replace In-class Activities grades for the corresponding parts of the course)
• Interviews (can be used to increase the points on Workbooks, but with possible deductions if you are unable to explain your work)
• Misuse of AI and Large Language Models, especially without giving proper attribution, and the use of AI to modify the submission scripts will lead to lower letter grades.

See Computing Final Grades below.

Due Dates and Late Policies

In-class Activities are due at the end of class (5:15, although we will usually give a “grace period” until 6:00).

The Exams can only be taken in the Exam window.

All other due dates and cutoffs are given on a specific day. Days end at the end of the day (midnight). 12:01am Wednesday is not Tuesday. Note: Canvas is not consistent in how it treats the time between 11:59pm and 12:01am. To be safe, submit things before 11:59pm.

Late submissions of Workbooks will be accepted within two weeks, but the student must book interviews with a course staff to explain the work.

Some Grading Process

We do not have the resources to grade all parts of all assignments.

We will spot check assignments. We will assume that students turning in assignments have completed them acceptably. We may check some things - if we find that students didn’t complete these spot checks, we will assume there are other problems and reduce the grade.

This also means that we won’t necessarily see all great answers. If we spot one, the grader might score it as “notable.” This doesn’t affect your grade directly, but if you end up at a boundary case in final grading, we might consider it.

The Parts of Class… And How We Grade Them

Workbooks

Workbooks are the main work in class. They are small websites with pages that have explanations (they serve as the textbook), examples and demonstrations, links to the videos, as well as having “form” assignments (where students fill in forms) and “box” assignments (where students write or edit programs).

Workbooks are delivered by GitLab. At the beginning of each module, there will be an “Introduction Video”.

Students turn in workbooks by (1) using the “checkpoint” and “submit” buttons embedded in the workbook (to upload form data); (2) committing and pushing their work to their repository on GitLab (for the boxes, but also as a copy of the form data). Students may also submit pictures or videos of “creative” assignments using separate Canvas Assignments.

Workbooks have rubrics that explain the main required work. Rubric elements are marked as “standard”, “advanced” or “creative”. Form elements do not have rubric checkboxes.

• Creative: Fills the “Advanced” requirements, and has sufficiently “creative” solutions for the “Creative” rubric items.
• Advanced: Fills the “Standard” requirements, and successfully completes most of the advanced rubric items.
• Standard: Successfully completes most of the standard rubric items and the form requirements.
• Late Extended: Like late, but not turned in before the cutoff. Only available with permission of the instructor.
• Late: Like standard, but not turned in before the deadline.
• Insufficient: An assignment was successfully submitted, but it does not complete enough rubric items or form requirements to be considered standard.
• Not submitted: Submission requires both parts (correct “submission” with the submit button, and a push to the repository)

Workbook grades are determined by multiple course staff based on the performance described above:

• 10: Creative or technically challenging, obviously not created entirely by AI.
• 8: More than satisfying the requirements, not created by AI with just the Workbook instructions as prompts.
• 6: Satisfying all requirements, not created by AI with just the Workbook instructions as prompts.
• 4: Satisfying some requirements.
• 2: Missing important exercises.
• 0: No submission.

Note: after the due date, the students must explain their work in an interview.

• +1.5 or +3.5 (capped by 10): The student is able to explain creative and technically challenging submissions that course staff missed during grading.
• +1.5: The student is able to explain their submission and answer the questions about the Workbook.
• -1.5: The student does not know what they did in the Workbook.

Late assignments are accepted for 2 weeks after the due date, with interviews booked within the 2 weeks.

Checkpoints

Checkpoints are the way we make sure that students are making progress in the workbooks. They happen “automatically” while students are completing the workbooks. We recommend that students submit checkpoints (pressing the checkpoint button) and commit/push their work to GitLab periodically.

For Checkpoints, we will look to see if a checkpoint submission and a push have been made by the due date.

There are no explicit penalties for missing a checkpoint deadline. The penalty is that if a student falls behind, they will have a hard time completing the workbook. We might send them a reminder. If a student is having problems completing workbooks on time, we may look to see what their progress was over the course of the module.

In-class Activities

During the lecture on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we will have an in-class activity. This will be a small assignment given out at class time, that we expect students to complete by the end of class time at 5:15. We will not allow late submissions after 6:00.

The activities will be submitted to a Google Sheet on the course website. The grade will be based on relevance, not correctness or creativity. Points will be deducted if the submissions are unrelated to the instructions given during the lectures, and identical submissions from multiple students, or submissions made by AI agents.

There is one or two activities each week, worth 2 points in total for that week, for a total of 30 points over the semester.

The Exams

The class will have three exams given in person using the Computer-Based Evaluation Facility (CBEF). More details will be sent out by CBEF.

The exam grades can be used to replace the In-class Activities grades (and Workbooks given instructor permission) for the corresponding part of the course.

• Exam 1: Lectures in the first 5 weeks (under special circumstances, Workbooks 1 or 2)
• Exam 2: Lectures in the next 5 weeks (under special circumstances, Workbooks 3 or 4)
• Exam 3: Lectures in the last 5 weeks (under special circumstances, Workbooks 5 or 6) The last Workbook (final project) cannot be replaced by an Exam. Any In-class Activities or Workbooks with academic misconduct issues cannot be replaced by an Exam.

Computing Final Grades

We will determine a final grade by considering the In-class Activities and Workbook scores.

• A: 91 to 100
• AB: 86 to 90
• B: 81 to 85
• BC: 76 to 80
• C: 71 to 75
• D: 61 to 70
• F: 0 to 60

All grades are integers, so no rounding will occur.