FIT 100 Fluency with Information Technology

Syllabus — Grading

It is important for you to work on the material as we discuss it in class. Keep up with the readings, attend lectures and labs, post to the online discussion board, and do the homework and the projects! If you do these things, your grade will take care of itself, and you will enjoy the class, too.

The breakdown of your grade for this class is shown in the table.

Deliverable	Total Points	% of Total	Notes
Project 1 (A & B)	150pts	≈13.8%	Part A is worth 50pts. Part B is worth 100pts.
Project 2 (A & B)	150pts	≈13.8%	Part A is worth 50pts. Part B is worth 100pts.
Project 3 (A & B)	150pts	≈13.8%	Part A is worth 50pts. Part B is worth 100pts.
Labs	225pts	≈20.6%	Ten labs total each worth 25pts. The lowest lab score is dropped.
Clicker Quizzes	160pts	≈14.7%	Quizzes are worth 8pts each. Your best 20 scores (out of approx. 25) are totaled.
GoPost Discussions	90pts	≈8.3%	Ten weekly discussions that earn up to 12 points each. See posting grading below.
Participation	60pts	≈5.5%	See participation grading below.
Miscellaneous	105pts	≈9.6%	Other assignments not included in the above.

Grading Scale

You are not in competition with other students in the class for your grade. We do not grade on a curve. Your grade is essentially calculated by taking the number of points you earn, dividing by the total possible points (≈1100 pts) to get the percent correct, then multiplying the percentage by 4. The resulting decimal grade between 0 and 4.0 is your grade.

Additionally, I do not expect students to get perfect scores on assignments as the lost points help you in identifying what aspects of your work need improvement. Your final grade will be a reflection of what you have learned over the quarter. Thus, I offer multiple opportunities for extra credit and will potentially increase eveyone's scores equally.

Gradebook

Your scores on the various graded tasks in the class will be available over the web through MyUW. Use your UWNetID and UW password for access the course's Catalyst Gradebook.

Evaluation of Student Work

You may expect to receive comments on and evaluations of assignments and submitted work in a timely fashion. All work from the course will be returned, with comments, within two weeks of the last class of the quarter.

Your written work will be graded based on its clarity, organization, balance, amount of pertinent detail included, depth and clarity of evaluative and analytical comments, and preparation. It will also be graded on the extent to which a good understanding of the material presented in the course is shown and on the extent to which directions are followed. If evaluative or analytical comments are required, they should be supported by factual evidence, either from readings or other documents. Other aspects of individual assignments may also be included in the grading.

Written work that shows a lack of understanding of subject matter, is unclear or poorly organized, contains few or irrelevant details, does not follow directions, contains little or unsubstantiated evaluative commentary, or is poorly written, prepared (e.g. typos, grammatical errors), or documented will receive low grades.

Students are encouraged to take drafts of their writing assignments, such as the Weekly GoPost Discussions, to the English Department Writing Center for assistance with using citations ethically and effectively. Information on scheduling an appointment can be found here.

Grading for Labs and Projects with Associated WebQs

Many of the labs and projects have accompanying Catalyst WebQ quizzes. For those assignments, your grade will be the total of the points you earn on the WebQ and on the lab or project. To do well on the assignment, you must do well on both the hands-on work and in answering the questions.

Grading for Clicker Quizzes

Clicker quizzes will be given throughout the quarter during lecture after the first week. Questions will be scattered throughout the lecture. If you arrive late or have to leave early, you will NOT be able to make up the missed questions.

Students are expected to bring their clickers every lecture day. If you forget your clicker, you can still submit your answers by writing them down on a piece of paper with your Name, UW NetID, and the date. You must turn in said sheet at the end of the lecture to the instructor; no late answer sheets are accepted. The instructor is not responsible if said sheet is lost. Additionally, submitting paper answers will incur a 2 point penalty after the first incident.

Grading for GoPost Discussions

Each week, there will be a discussion area on the course's GoPost message board. In this area will be threads provided by the instructor as well as discussions started by students. For each o fthe 10 weeks, your contributions will be evaluated on a 0–12 point scale as follows:

• 0 points:
  The student did not participate in any of the week's discussion.
• 1 point:
  The student made only minimal, nonsubstantial posts. Examples of such poor postings include saying "I agree," "This," and "+1."
• up to 6 points:
  The student contributes decent posts but largely repeats what has been stated by earlier posters. Posts which report incorrect information, have serious grammatical errors, or are difficulty to comprehend will score less than 6 points.
• 7 points:
  The student contributes a decent post that is novel to the discussion, thus encouraging and developing the ongoing conversation. Such posts include replying to a previous poster and expanding upon what they said.
• 8 points:
  The student contributes a link to relevant material but does not go into details about it (e.g., Here is a link to a study on ___). Or, the student asks a question but does not offer a motivation for why he or she is asking that question.
• 10 points:
  The student contributes significantly to the discussion. This can include providing a link to external information and discussing said link, asking a question with a stated purpose, or answering another poster's question in a constructive fashion.
• 12 points:
  The student makes exceptionally strong contributions to the discussion through the act of engaging in multiple posts, facilitating conversation, etc.

In addition to the above, multiple posts in one week may lead to increased score. For example, three separate posts that would earn 7pts each would lead to the student getting a score of 9pts for the week. This is because the goal of the GoPost discussions is to encourage conversation and discussion about topics related to IT and fluency. The instructors and TAs will be engaging in the conversations as well to help motivate topics and suggest alternative lines of debate.

Overall, a student can earn up to 120 points from the GoPost discussions. Since the total points considered for the GoPost discussions is only 90 points, this provides students a chance to earn up to 30 points of extra credit.

Grading Participation

Course participation is required because it is only when we engage with the material that we truly begin to understand. While the instructor has important information to impart, each member of the class has knowledge to contribute that can inform everyone's learning experience. Your class participation grades comes from

• participation in lecture and course overall—clicker quizzes, answering questions, raising issues of interest to the class
• participation in lab sections—asking questions, helping other students
• participation in the GoPost online Help Desk—raising good questions, posting useful answers

Class participation is an important part of any course. The Help Desk on the GoPost online discussion forum is where you can request help from others in the class. Commenting on a post with "me, too" does not constitute active participation.

Late/Missed Work Policy

This class moves fast. It's better to just move on then to be constantly trying to catch up. In life, sometimes things happen. They might take the form of a medical or family emergency or simply staying up all night for a paper due the same day as an assignment for this class.

No late work is accepted for GoPost discussions or clicker quizzes.

All other assignments (labs, projects, and other assignments) may be turned in up to two days late. However, this lateness does come with penalties:

• Assignments (labs, homeworks, and projects) turned in one day late will automatically lose 20% of their possible points.
• Assignments (labs, homeworks, and projects) turned in two days late will automatically lose 50% of their possible points.
• Assignments will not be accepted if more than two days late.

In general, labs are due by 10pm on Thursdays (for labs given out on Monday/Tuesday) and 10pm on Mondays (for labs given out on Wednesday/Thursday/). If you miss a lab, you can make it up by attending a different lab section and telling the TA that are making up a missed lab. If you do not checkin with the TA but still turn in the lab assignment, you will receive a 5 point penalty (earning only 20 out of 25 points).

Cheating

Students should review the course's policies on collaboration and cheating. In addition, students should read the UW's Statement on Student Academic Responsibility to learn about plagiarism, collaboration, etc. If at any point you have questions about what is permitted, ask your instructor or TA.

If a student is found to have plagiarized and/or excessively copied work from another student (currently or previously enrolled in the course), the consequences will be as follows:

• For the first offense, the student will receive a zero on the assignment and will receive a warning. Such zeros will not be considered when dropping the lowest score.
• On the second offense, the student will be reported to the Office of Academic Affairs and will fail the course.

Additionally, students who abet cheating will also be dealt with in a similar fashion. On the first offense, the student who permitted another to copy from him or her will receivie at worst a zero on the assignment.

Questions about Grades

If you believe that we made a mistake in grading a quiz, lab, or project, please do the following:

1. Write an email to your TA (cc to the professor) describing what you think is the problem.
2. Read the TA's response carefully. If you still think there is a problem, reply to the email and tell the TA you would like to discuss it.
3. Have a discussion with the TA.
4. If you disagree with the outcome of that discussion, tell the TA and then set up a meeting with the professor.
5. Discuss it with the professor. Presumably we can come to a resolution at that time.