Final Grading

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While we had a different set of assignments than I originally planned, and scored assignments differently than I expected, the original grading scheme still works out. I have adapted it in a way that I think is generous.

The original plan from the syllabus is:

  • 25% (Seek and Finds and Content Surveys, drop lowest of each) + 40% small DE (drop lowest) + 35% large DE

The new version is the higher of:

  • 25% (Seek and Finds and Content Surveys, drop lowest of each) + 75% (DE drop 1-late penalty for DE)
  • DE drop 1 - late penalty for DE

Since the way we scored S&F and content surveys made it difficult to get a “strong A” we made sure that it didn’t hurt anyone (providing that you turned in enough of them, which everyone did).

  • Design Exercises: Rather than having “large and small” we had module-sized assignments. I am counting each module equivalently. If a module has multiple parts, they are averaged. (modules 4 and 6 had 1 part, 7 had 3 parts)

    • Late penalties are subtracted.
    • We drop the lowest (as promissed)

  • Late Penalties for Design Exercises: There was supposed to be a 1 point per day after Sunday. What I did was compute the number of hours late. I then subtracted 60 from the number of hours (effectively, the late clock started ticking during class - I gave people 12 hours). I then computed the 1 point per day (although, the latest possible was 4.5 days). Because each assignment is worth the same, I simply averaged the lateness across the assignments.

  • Seek and Finds and Content Surveys - the way we scored these, it was very difficult to get an A. Therefore, we only use your grade on these if it helps. If your score on this part is lower than your DE grade, we use your DE grade.

    • If you scored a 90 (this was over half the assignments) we have you a bonus on each assignment of about 1/2 a point. This was because we often just gave 90 (and never gave 91) - so there’s a chance that your assignment was actually better than 90.

  • Class Surveys: Everyone turned in enough (some people missed 1). So no one received a penalty for not doing it. We can’t grade these (since they were anonymous). They were really useful for me.

  • In-Class Engagement: we had intended to penalize people for poor engagement, however, or ways of measuring this turned out to be problematic. Therefore we are not penalizing people for lack of in-class engagement.