Surveys

We will have regular (usually once a week) surveys or quizzes as a way for us to get a sense of how things are going and to help you self-assess.

What: A weekly survey/quiz
Why: To provide us with a mechanism for getting feedback on how things are going for students. Questions about content help us check what we might need to review, but also help students self-assess.
When: There will be a survey/quiz most weeks. While the quiz is given on Friday, you can do it over the weekend so it will generally due on Monday. Surveys will be announced as part of the “week in Vis”.
How: An online quiz/survey in Canvas
Assessment: we will keep track of who completed the surveys/quizzes. Consistently missing them will hurt your participation grade.
Late Policy: The deadlines are strict: we need the feedback to adjust class.
Drop Policy: Drop 2 applies.

In an online class, we get less feedback about how things are going. We don’t see puzzled faces. We don’t hear chatter about what aspects of class are (or are not) working. This applies both to the material (what is confusing people) as to course operations (how are things going).

Therefore, we will use Canvas quizzes and surveys (the distinction is subtle - a survey is basically a quiz where the answers aren’t checked) so we can get feedback.

Usually, these will be “graded anonymous surveys” - that is, we will know which students have completed the survey, but we will not be able to connect the surveys to who did them.

We will not be using these quizzes to assess your knowledge for grading. If students can’t answer the quiz questions, we will use that to adjust how we are teaching.

Questions about the material will help you self-assess if you are understanding the material. It will help us get a sense of what people understand (or not) so we can review things as necessary. It also gives us a way to check that people have done the readings.