The following policies all relate to grades, grading and late dates. Please view canvas for your actual grades in the course.
Grade Assignment
The assignment of letter grades will be made as follows:
| Letter Grade | Points |
|---|---|
| A | ≥ 90% |
| B | ≥ 80% |
| C | ≥ 70% |
| D | ≥ 60% |
| F | < 60% |
In general, we will not assign lower grades than shown. We reserve the right to change the grading cut lines.
Point Distribution
| Activity | Weight |
|---|---|
| Reading Assignments | 18% |
| Labs | 22% |
| Knowledge Checks & In-class | 10% |
| Online Essays / Discussions | 17% |
| Exams | 25% |
| Practical Project/Final Paper | 8% |
Grade complaints will be considered only for two weeks immediately following when the assignment grade appears on Canvas!
Assignment Categories
Reading Assignments
Reading assignments are to be done in Zybooks, and are meant to be done before the associated lecture. Additionally, for the next assignment to open in the module (labs, practicals, quizzes, exams), you must first complete the associated reading. The readings often start out longer at the start of the semester, but decrease in length when we return to topics. We will drop the two lowest reading assignment grades, but due to submission requirements, all readings need to be submitted at least once to progress in content.
To complete a reading, it suggested you use the link in canvas every time you login as compared to going directly to zybooks. Due dates for the assignments are in Canvas, and are the night before the associated lecture.
Accommodation Window / Resubmissions
You may resubmit assignments until the unit exam. Due to how technology interacts, the official “cutoff” date is in zybooks which will allow you to submit anything done before that date to canvas at a later time. Please note, it is still recommended that you complete most of the reading by the due date in canvas!
For accommodations, the resubmission window takes into account most accommodations, as it will allow anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks of extra time. While the expected time is the due date in canvas, we understand that everyone can occasionally need accommodations, so having this resubmission window helps show competency at your own rate.
Labs
Labs are a major component in learning coding content, designed with variation and interweaving of topics in mind. We will drop the two lowest lab grades. They are meant to be done after the lectures, so the structure is reading -> lecture + knowledge checks + labs. Most labs are worth 10 points, but a few are worth more than 10 points. These are critical labs to the final project, and may not be dropped.
Accommodation Window / Resubmissions
You may resubmit labs up to 5 times until the unit exam. Due to how technology interacts, the official “cutoff” date is in zybooks which will allow you to submit anything done before that date to canvas at a later time. Please note, it is still recommended that you complete most of the reading by the due date in canvas!
Also, remember you can run in development mode as many times as you want, you are just limited your times to submit for grading. Your submission count can be found in zybooks after clicking the submit mode tab.
Knowledge Checks & In-class
Knowledge Checks and in-class activities supplement the lecture, by interweaving recall and instruction with the lecture content. In-class is only available in-class, and not able to be made up. Knowledge checks are available on canvas, required to progress content and may be redone as many times as possible until finals week. During a standard semester, we will have a max number of participation points for this category (not possible to go over 100%). This will allow you to make up missed in class days with knowledge checks.
Accommodation Window / Resubmissions
In class activities cannot be made-up. However, with knowledge checks it is possible to make up missed activities. Knowledge checks may be resubmitted as many times until end of the semester.
Study Suggestion
You should go back to older knowledge checks each week, and interweave your study habits. For example, during week four, pick a knowledge check from 1, 2, and 3 to redo. This will help solidify content, and help with retention of information.
Online Essays / Discussions
Online essays and discussion assignments represent your understanding of the culture content in the course. They are meant to be help you elaborate on topics and reflect upon them. You will have five total assignments in this category, four of them are worth 25 points, and the fifth is worth 100 points. The 100 point assignment is your midterm essay, and will be graded by the TAs and Professor. The other assignments will have a peer graded component.
Accommodation Window / Resubmissions
There is an accommodation window of 3 days after each discussion. Please note that due to the nature of providing prompt feedback and peer grading, we cannot extend past this window. The window is automatically taken into account in canvas by the until by date. You should try to follow the due date unless something comes up, and just submit before the until by if something does come up.
Exams
Exams are broken into two components, practice exams and the exam itself. The practice exam is opened up at th beginning of the unit, and it is suggested you take it every week until the exam. They have enough content that every time you take it, it will be different.
At the end of the unit, after all readings are submitted (at least once), and the practice exam is submitted (at least once), the exam will open. You will need to have this done before the assigned exam day - or you will not be able to take the exam. Exams are taken in our testing lab during your assigned lab time - not during the lecture.
Accommodation Window / Resubmissions
Practice exams can be resubmitted at any point in the semester, and as such, you should strive to get full points on them. It is also recommended that you go back to older practice exams before each exam, as programming is always cumulative.
For exam accommodations, we will need accommodation letters, and to arrange accommodations before the exam.
Mastery Path Assignments
Based on your raw exam score, you will be assigned an extra assignment. This assignment may also require that you visit with th TA to help with the assignment. For mastery path assignments, you have 3 submission attempts. The accommodation window is built into the assignment based on due dates and until by submission windows.
Please note the mastery path assignments are not optional, and they are applied to your exam scores. For way the scoring works out, is as follows:
Assume you earned a 60 on the exam, as the exam is 95 points, that would be 63%. You would be assigned a 12 point mastery assignment, given 3 submission attempts, and a working with the TA, you should strive to earn a full 12 on the assignment. That would be (12+60) / 107, making your percent 67%. However, if you choose to not do the master assignment, your grade would be 60 / 107, or 56%.
The goal of the mastery path assignments is to help you learn the information you missed on the exam, as you will come across it again. It is due two weeks after the exam during a 16-week semester, or 1 week after the exam during an 8-week semester.
Practical Project/Final Paper
You can learn more about the practical project by going to the practical project page. The practical project has both a coding and written component.
Accommodation Window / Resubmissions
The code is graded by TA review, but you need to submit it for grading in zybooks. You can submit as many times as you want. The paper has a week accommodation window between the due date and the until by date. Please note, due to the timing in the semester and needing to get them graded, there will be no submissions after the accommodation window.
Extra Credit
There are a number of extra credit assignments. The most notable are coding assignments based on the content of each unit. The extra credit won’t be applied to your grade until after all assignments are in for all students, and after any class curves are applied.
The goal of the extra credit is to provide an opportunity for students to show competency in programming skill. It will be applied to the labs category, and if a lab due date is missed, it is recommended students complete th extra credit assignments.
Additionally, completing extra credit helps provide additional practice, as learning to program takes practice.
While there are also a number of extra credit opportunities, the most that will be applied to your grade is 100 points. For reference, an units worth of labs is about 100 points.
Topic Mastery
As way to track mastery of topics, we reserve the option to add additional assignments based on your performance on previous assignments. The goal of these assignments is to encourage mastery of topics. Grading for the additional assignments will be factored into the total for ZyBooks, thus increasing your overall grade for that area, and reducing the impact of previous performance.
Course Workload Expectations
You are expected to work every night on this due to daily assignment due dates. This is to encourage good study habits, and the importance of repetition. As it is a 3 credit course, you should expect to spend 9 hours a week for a standard semester (or 18hr for an 8 week) completing content in this course. However, this various greatly based on the path you take when solving problems.