This course uses the grading policy known as specifications grading. It has been demonstrated to provide much greater equity in the classroom and as a result improves achievement of learning objectives. However this system may be new to you. It does take some time to understand and we are ready to help you with any questions you may have. Please take advantage of office hours.
This course does not have exams or the concept of "points". Instead there are bundles of assignments, that when completed that earn letter grades. Every individual assignment is marked as "meets spec" or "does not meet spec yet". In order to understand what "meets spec" every assignment is accompanied by a single-level rubric that outlines three things:
- The purpose (Why am I doing this?)
- The task (What am I going to do?)
- The criteria (A detailed description of the necessary components of a "meets spec" submission)
The goal is to make the assignments as transparent as possible and not withold information from the students. For example in a traditional exam the students are told a list of subjects that may be on the test. The uncertainty causes anxiety and wastes an immense amount of time. Instead of giving exams this class provides clear instruction on tasks to perform which yield the same result (mastery of learning objectives) without the anxiety and timewasting of studying for the unknown.
Each assignment has a rubric to indicate the purpose, task, and criteria for the assignment. They are grouped into several categories summarized below. Details of how the assignments map onto course letter grades is presented in Grading Policy Summary. Alignment to the learning objectives is shown in the individual rubrics.
The 5 assignment categories:
- Project Milestones - These assignments describe milestones in the project cycle and help guide the student through the process of working a project from start to finish.
- Critiques - These assignments are about providing critique to others and to yourself.
- Documentation - These assignments serve two purposes. The first is to practice communicating the technical details of your work by documenting your code. The second is to highlight the contributions you made to each project cycle.
- Case Studies - These assignments are about reproducing, reviewing and producing projects.
The following table summarizes the assignments required to "meet spec" to earn certain letter grades.
| Assignment | C | B | A |
|---|---|---|---|
| (MI 1) Project Goal | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| (MI 2) Establish your data and register your analysis plan | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| (MI 3) Perform Analysis | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| (MI 4) Prepare Results for presentation | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| (PR 1) Present Results (orally) | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| (CC 1) Constructive Critique of Others | 3 | 3 | |
| (CC 2) Constructive Critique of Self | 3 | 3 | |
| (ID 1) Individual Documentation | 3 | 3 | |
| (CS 1) Case-study: results reproduction | 1 | ||
| (CS 2) Case-study: review & reflection | 1 | ||
| (CS 3) Case-study: create a case study | 1 |