Parts of Class and Rubrics
This class has many components (assignment types). There are Lectures, In Class Activities, Reading Surveys, Content Surveys, Anonymous Surveys, Seek and Finds, Design Warmups, and Design Exercises.
All assignments are turned in via Canvas and are due on Fridays at 12:15pm, Madison’s time zone (the same time as the end of class). We accept late assignments until a hard cutoff time (cutoffs vary by assignment type). Generally, being late (before the cutoff) is not penalized unless it is a chronic problem. For Design Exercises, there are rewards for timeliness. Some historic graded samples (currently, of Seek and Finds and Content Surveys) are shared at Sample Assignments.
Note on Grading 1: Everything is graded on a 100-point, 90=A system. Grades above 95 (A+) are rare. Sometimes Canvas gets confused and shows percentages (so it might think 90 points = 100% of something). Ignore it.
Note on Grading 2: In general, Canvas will give students a 90 (A, but borderline) for completing an assignment: it assumes that everyone does good work. Later, someone might look at your assignment and give you a higher or lower score. But, unless someone has reason to give you a different grade, you get to keep the 90.
Note on Grading 3: If you think we’ve made a mistake on assignment grading, please use the Regrade Request Form.
Lectures
We will have “lectures” in each scheduled class period. Attendance is required. If a student misses class, they should use the Missed Class Form.
Classes will include some traditional “lecture” (staff monologues) but also interactive activities.
Class experiences - lectures and activities - cannot be “made up”.
Late arrivals are disruptive to class. Please try to come on time. Students who come late may be considered as missing class.
We may penalize a student’s final grade if their attendance is problematic, especially if they fail to use the form.
Generally, we do not explicitly take attendance, but rather use In-Class Activities as a proxy for attendance (it’s a sparse sample).
In-Class Activities
In-Class Activities (ICAs) are written activities in class. Often these will involve sketching or writing based on interacting with other students.
In the past, these were called “In-Class Experiences”—but that acronym now has negative connotations.
If you miss the activity, you miss the activity: they cannot be made up. The activities are designed as interactive experiences: if you miss the experience, you’ve missed the experience. Students who arrive late may miss the experience.
We determine completion by collecting the sheets. Please put your name and UW account (e.g., usually your @wisc.edu email - mine is mlgleicher) on the paper clearly. If we can’t figure out the name, we can’t give you credit. If you think we’ve made a mistake, use the Regrade Request Form.
We collect the papers because we are genuinely interested in seeing the variety of things students come up with. We also use it to check for completion.
Grading: Participation grading. You get the 90 for turning in the paper. We may deduct for things that are obviously insufficient. A “real A” comes from consistency, not from any particular assignment.
Late Policy: Turn papers in when we collect them. You cannot turn them in after class.
How it affects your final grade: We will penalize students who do not complete “enough” ICAs. Generally this means rounding down for final grades near a border. Missing 1-3 ICAs over the semester is not a problem. More than that might be.
Reading Surveys
Reading surveys are intended to help students check that they have gotten the key concepts from the required readings before those concepts are used in class. We use them to confirm that people are keeping up, and to identify places where students need help.
We are asking for your understanding, and often phrase questions about your opinions. If we wanted an AI’s opinion, we would ask it (actually, we usually have). Please do not use AI for these surveys. We much prefer an honest “Here’s what I didn’t understand from this reading” to trying to fake a response or tell us what an LLM thinks.
Due: Fridays at 12:15pm
Cutoff: 1 hour before the next class (usually, 10am Monday) - We need students to be ready to use the material in class.
Grading: Automatic 90, manually adjusted according to the rubric
How it affects your final grade: This is a graded component of class and accounts for a percentage of the grade. We will use drop-1 grading.
Content Surveys
Content surveys give questions that allow a student to think through the class topics. These usually require answers in a written form.
Content surveys will include questions about the “required readings” for the content weeks.
We are asking for your understanding, and often phrase questions about your opinions. If we wanted an AI’s opinion, we would ask it (actually, we usually have). Please do not use AI for these surveys.
Due: Fridays at 12:15pm
Cutoff: 1 hour before the next class (usually, 10am Monday) - We need students to be ready to use the material in class.
Grading: Automatic 90, manually adjusted according to the rubric
Anonymous Surveys
Anonymous Surveys are meant to give the students an opportunity to reflect on the class and content and to provide feedback to the course staff.
Canvas will tell us which students have completed the surveys, but will not allow us to connect the responses to their authors.
Due: Fridays at 12:15pm
Cutoff: 1 week later at 12:15pm
Grading: Automatic 90; we have no way to connect responses to students, so there is no additional assessment. We appreciate that most students take these surveys seriously.
How it affects your final grade: Students who do not complete “enough” Anonymous Surveys may be penalized (by minor adjustments downwards near borders). Missing 1 is generally OK.
Seek and Finds
Seek and Find Assignments give students an opportunity to see how the class concepts apply in the real world. Students must find a visualization that meets some criteria and answer some questions about it.
For these assignments you must bring us a … (data) visualization!
Sorry, this is a reference to an old Monty Python movie – if you don’t know the reference, that line won’t be funny. Even if you do know the reference, it might not be funny.
Each module, we will ask you to bring us a visualization (we will have these seek and find assignments every module). There will be some specification of what you need to find. We might ask for a certain kind of data, or an example of the use of a specific technique.
You will be asked to answer some questions (including where you found the visualization).
You must upload an image. It can be a screen shot from a paper or web page. It could be a photograph of something that you saw in real life. Whatever it is, it should be a standard picture file (.PNG, .JPEG, .WEBP, etc). If you can, include the title, caption, and labels in the picture - but do not give the “whole page” (for example, if the picture is a figure in a paper). Please do not upload files in Apple .HEIC format.
Due: Fridays at 12:15pm
Cutoff: Monday at 11:59pm (12am Tuesday is not Monday)
Grading: Automatic 90, usually checked against the rubric.
How it affects your final grade: This is a graded component of class and accounts for a percentage of the grade. We will use drop-1 grading.
Design Warmups
Design warmups are small assignments that ask you to create things (visualizations, critiques, etc.). I call them “warmups” because they are generally practice for the bigger exercises in the following week.
Due: Fridays at 12:15pm
Cutoff: Monday at 11:59pm
Grading: Automatic 90, usually checked against the rubric.
How it affects your final grade: This is a graded component of class and accounts for a percentage of the grade.
Rubric: A rubric will be provided for each assignment. Generally, these assignments will be graded “loosely.” Assignments that are complete and show understanding of the concepts will typically receive 90. The way to excel is through consistency.
Design Exercises
Design Exercises are the primary graded component of the class. They allow students to demonstrate their mastery of the material by creating visualizations using the concepts in the class.
Design Exercises include the opportunity for giving and receiving feedback, which is part of the design process. However, in order to have the feedback be timely, students must be timely in their participation.
Assignments turned in on time will be given the opportunity to participate in the feedback process. The details will be provided with the assignment.
The benefits of turning things in on time:
- Students may resubmit their assignments until the cutoff, applying the feedback they receive to improve their submissions.
- The assignment will allow students to reflect on how the feedback helped them. (extra points)
- Students will be allowed to provide feedback to others (which gives practice at critique, as well as more feedback to the recipient). Useful critiques will be rewarded (extra points). For a critique to be useful, it must be both informative and timely.
- Critique practice (giving and receiving) is valuable pedagogically. This is an opportunity to do it in a real setting.
Due: Fridays at 12:15pm
Cutoff: Wednesday at 11:59pm - we give extra time because these assignments are so important. The Wednesday cutoff gives sufficient time for students to consider feedback and update their assignments.
Grading: Automatic 90, will always be manually adjusted.
How it affects your final grade: This is a graded component of class and accounts for a percentage of the grade.
Video (and other) Experiments
I plan to try some experimental assignments, such as asking students to turn in videos. I’ll refer to these as Video Experiments since I don’t know what else there might be.
The goal of these assignments is to create experiences for students that we cannot create in the normal assignment structures. For example, being able to answer questions orally is an important skill to practice.
Due: Fridays at 12:15pm
Cutoff: Monday at 11:59pm
Grading: Automatic 90, generally participation grading. Any reasonable submission gets the 90.
How it affects your final grade: Students who do not complete “enough” Experiment Assignments may be penalized (by minor adjustments downwards near borders).