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 |
|---|---|
| Formative is 60% of your grade | |
| Formative: Knowledge Checks | 30% |
| Formative: Application Lab Submissions | 12% |
| Formative: Exams 1-3 | 13% |
| Formative: Reflections | 5% |
| Summative is 40% of your grade | |
| Summative: Practical Project | 11% |
| Summative: Coding Exams (1-4) | 14% |
| Summative: Final Exam | 15% |
| Ungraded: Reading Assignments | 0% |
| Ungraded: Labs (Warmup) | 0% |
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 instead 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-Explanation: 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. As Warmup labs are ungraded, you will not need to do these, but research shows just taking a moment to write it out helps with understanding.
- Autograded Submission/Coding: There will be a coding portion that is autograded. While they are ‘ungraded’, we track these for exam resubmission purposes.
Thursday (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.
Formative Exams
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
Proctored exams 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
- 100% on all readings
- 80% on all the labs for that unit.
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).
Reflections
You will have four 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.
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.
Coding Exams
The coding exam is a lab in which you have a limited submissions attempt. This means you have to make sure you test thoroughly and know the code is correct before submitting for grading. Additional submission attempts will not be granted.
Accommodation Window / Resubmissions
As long as you have submission attempts, you can resubmit throughout the semester. As the semester progresses, your submission attempts decrease
for each coding exam, leaving only 2 submission attempts for your final coding exam.
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 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 regularity 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 activity points throughout the semester, and calculate them after the grading curve is calculated. Note: that summer sessions there are no activity points or extra credit points.
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.