1. Introduction

Your grade in the course is earned by demonstrating evidence of skill on the main concepts in the course and by showing appropriate engagement with the course. And this is done by completing the assignments outlined above, at a reasonably high level of quality.

In our class, there are no points or percentages on any items. Instead, the work you turn in will be evaluated against quality standards that will be made clear on each assignment. If your work meets the standard, then you will receive full credit for it. Otherwise, you will get helpful feedback and, on most items, the chance to reflect on the feedback, revise your work, and then resubmit it for regrading.

This feedback loop represents and supports the way that people learn: By trying things, making mistakes, reflecting on those mistakes, and then trying again. You can make mistakes without penalty as long as you eventually demonstrate evidence of skill.

This grading setup originates from https://github.com/RobertTalbert/modernalgebra/blob/master/course-documentation/mth350-w2021-syllabus.md

2. Checklist

Your final grade in the course is determined by the following table. Each grade has a requirement specified in its row in the table. To earn a grade, you will need to meet all the requirements in the row for that grade. Put differently, your grade is the highest grade level for which all the requirements in a row of the table have been met or exceeded. Grade of F is given if none of the rows are fully completed.

Plus / minus grades will be awarded at the professor’s discression which includes, but is not limited to, how close you were to completing a row.

Table 1. Letter grade checklist
Letter zyBook Homework Project Lab ECDP

A

□ □

□ □

B

□ □

□ □

C

□ □

□ □

D

□ □

□ □
zyBook

≥90% score on a zyBook assignment

Homework

E or M grade on a non-zyBook assignment

Lab

activity E or M sign-off

Project

deliverable E or M

ECDP

Engineering Career Development Program

2.1. The thoughts behind this

The zyBook assignments operate (as far as I currently understand) such that you can eventually get 100% on every item.

Lab time activities are already being “scored” in a binary-like way and include a form of resubmission anyway. Maybe it takes a token to do so??

You should do >0 ECDP activities in order to at least pass, and earn a significantly good overall score to get an A (maybe also B).

If things were given points in the traditional way, the letter grades would end up to be about the same as this system.

3. Revision and resubmission

Instead of earning partial credit, on most assignments you will have the opportunity to revise and resubmit your work based on feedback that I provide, if the work doesn’t meet its standard for acceptability. Mistakes, and work that does not meet the standard for acceptability, are typically not penalized. Instead, if your work has enough errors that it would benefit from redoing parts of it or the whole thing, you’ll get the chance to do so. This again is because human beings learn from making mistakes and fixing them with feedback and reflection.

The common term for this in engineering is Continuous Improvement.

Also please note that I do not typically look over student work before it is submitted. Requests to review student work prior to submission will usually be declined. Instead, when you are submitting work, make sure to double-check your work prior to submitting it, to make sure that all required components are present and that, to your understanding, your work meets the criteria for acceptable quality. If you submit your work and it needs revision, you can revise it.

4. Tokens

Each student starts the semester with 5 tokens, which can be used to purchase exceptions to the course rules. The token “menu” is below. To spend a token, go to the Token Spending form (TODO: INSERT TOKEN FORM LINK), fill it out, and submit it. Once the form is submitted, the item you purchased is yours; you do not need permission or confirmation. Everything listed here costs 1 token:

  • Revise a lab thingy.

  • Submit a zyBook assignment late.

  • Convert a No Pass on a _ to a Pass.

  • most things in the course

5. Other policies

Attendance

You will need to participate actively in each class meeting to get the most out of the course and avoid having to teach yourself the material. Attendance will be taken but not graded; I will follow up with students with excessive absences, but no direct penalty is incurred. You do not need to seek permission to miss a class. However, realize that excessive absences will severely limit your ability to learn the subject.

Deadlines and late work

Deadlines are generally strictly enforced, and late work will not be accepted. However, you can spend tokens to extend deadlines. and deadlines cannot be extended, but you can spend a token to change a grade on those to Pass if needed.