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 | 0% |
| Formative: Lab Submissions | 12% |
| Formative: Knowledge Checks | 20% |
| Formative: Exams 1-3 | 20% |
| Summative: Attendance / Discussion | 8% |
| Summative: Reflections | 5% |
| Summative: Practical Project | 12% |
| Summative: Final Coding Exam | 8% |
| Summative: Final Exam | 15% |
Grade complaints will be considered only for two weeks immediately following when the assignment grade appears on Canvas!
You will also want to view our information about Formative and Summative Grading.
Assignment Categories
Reading Assignments
Reading assignments are ungraded, but essential for your learning.
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.
To complete a reading, use the link in Canvas every time you login instea of going directly to zyBooks. Due dates for the assignments are in Canvas and are the night before the associated lecture.
Accommodation Window / Resubmissions
Reading assignments are ungraded. However, to retake a formative assessment exam,
you have to show 100% in reading assignments. As such, we track the grade for that reason.
Formative Assessments
Learning is difficult and mistakes are part of the process. Formative assessments are ones you can redo until you get it right! They are broken up as follows:
Knowledge Checks
Knowledge Checks are quizzes generated from randomized question banks. They are different every time you take one. Knowledge checks are available on Canvas, required to progress with content, and may be redone as many times as possible until finals week. They are your primary way to study for exams, and should ideally be done nightly.
Accommodation Window / Resubmissions
Knowledge checks may be resubmitted as many times as you want until the final exam.
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.
Labs
Labs are a major component in learning coding content and designed with variation and interweaving of topics in mind. They are meant to be done after the lectures, so the structure is reading -> lecture -> labs.
Tuesday (Warm-up) Labs are broken up into two parts:
- Self-Explaination: There are a number of activities that require you to write out answers or draw figures. These help you better understand what is going on “under the hood” of the computer. For on-campus students, TAs will mark that you have completed this section of the lab, and it goes towards your Summative: Attendence / Discussion grade. For CSU Online students, you will have discussion posts in which you post your answers and drawings. The grade will simply be based on completing the task and not the correctness.
- Autograded Submission/Coding: There will be a coding porition that is autograded. This goes towards your Formative: Lab Submissions grade.
Thurday (Application) labs are purely based on code submission, and are often much longer than the Tuesday labs. They go towards your Formative: Lab Submissions grade.
Accommodation Window / Resubmissions
You can run in development mode as many times as you want, and you may also submit for grading whenever you are ready.
For accommodations, the resubmission window takes into account most accommodations, as it will allow anywhere from 3 days to 15 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.
For the attendance grade, if you are unable to attend the lab time, you will need to arrange a time with your UTA to have your self-explaination graded. They only have limited hours each week, so make sure to be proactive.
Formative Exams
You have three Unit Exams throughout the semester. Each assessment is made up of two components: Coding Exam and Proctored Exam.
Coding Exam
The coding exam is a lab in which you have a single submissions attempt. This means you have to make sure you test thoroughly and know the code is correct before submitting for grading. You can then resubmit once every 5 days, until the end of the semester.
Proctored Exam
The proctored exam is exactly what you would assume for a class exam. It is cumulative and taken in a proctored environment.
Accommodation Window / Resubmissions
As the coding exam and proctored exam are meant to be formative, you may request an additional attempt. However, before
an additional attempt will be granted, you must first show 100% on all knowledge checks and readings
leading up to that assignment (i.e. the units before) and 80% on all the labs. This informs us that you have gone back and studied for the exam, and not just playing the odds on randomly assigned questions (yes, exams are different for everyone).
Summative Assessments
This course focuses on mastery of the topic, your summative (final) assessment is your opportunity to demonstrate that mastery. This category involves your final assessments in each major area and is a major reflection of your grade.
Attendance / Discussion
Lab attendance will be taken by way of self-explaination assignments. As there is really no “redoing” these assignments, they are considered summative, though they can be turned in late unlike the other summative assignments which have hard deadlines. CSU online students will have discussion assignments in place of these attendance assignments.
Furthermore, there will be an attendance grade between lecture and help sessions for on-campus students. CSU Online Students will also be free to attend an online Help Session, but it is not required.
Reflections
You will have five reflective assignments throughout the semester. They are ‘do or don’t assignments, but they must be done correctly. Meaning you will need to write in full paragraphs, and have about a page for the submission. There is a ton of research on the benefits of reflection, especially for coding / programming. These are considered summative assignments as you can only do them once. They also have a ‘hard deadline’ as they are point in which we can make sure you are progressing at pace in the course!
Accommodation Window / Resubmissions
There are no resubmissions. However, we do allow for a 3 day accomodation window, meaning you can turn it in up to three days after the due date and recieve full credit. Anything after that day will be a 0, that cannot be fixed except under emergancy circumstances.
Practical Project
This is a large project that involves multiple files you must put together from scratch. It is a challenge, but students often say it is one of the more rewarding achievements in the course. You will have ten (10) submission attempts, and the project is notably hard.
Final Coding Exam
You will have a final coding exam that is a two submission attempt lab. We allow for two submissions in case there is a cut and paste error to zybooks, not for general debugging purposes. This is a hard cap on submission attempts, and we will not be able to increase it.
Final Exam
You will have a proctored final exam, that is worth more than a letter grade. This exam is based off the knowledge checks throughout the semester, and will be a different exam for everyone.
Extra Credit
As you can resubmit most assignments, there is very little reason to offer extra credit (you have the entire semester to earn it!). However, to honor students who regularily attend help sessions, there will be up to 5% extra credit based on attending and participating in help sessions or other activities. We will track these as acitivity points throughout the semester, and calculate them after the grading curve is calculated.
Topic Mastery
As a 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 the category, 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 class due to daily assignment due dates. This is to encourage good study habits and the importance of repetition. As it is a 4 credit course with a lab, you should expect to spend 12-16 hours a week for a standard semester (or 24-32 hrs weekly for an 8 week) completing content in this course. However, this varies greatly based on the path you take when solving problems.