Grading Information
I hope you will focus less on your grades and points, and more on your learning and improvement overall. Nevertheless, it is a college course and part of my job is assigning grades (though I like to think of it as you earning grades). I am slowly moving towards ungrading as a practice, so this is another step on that journey.
HOW will we be graded?
I threw out my normal system this semester for my own strange version of standards-based grading. You will have 6 points worth of assignments due each week (only 4 in Week 16) and a 6-point final exam for a total of 100 points this semester.
You can find the things you will be graded on below. All components can be revised and resubmitted until full points (i.e. the standard has been met) or overall deadline for that material. Weeks 1-6 must be completed by Week 8 and Weeks 7-11 must be completed by Week 14.
💬 Discussion Boards
There will be a weekly discussion board posted on Canvas to unlock the week's module. The goal here is to get you to be comfortable with not knowing and see what we do already know about the coming topics.
✅ DeltaMath Knowledge Check - 2 points each
After you attempt the knowledge check, you will have the ability to correct it, if needed. This is the only assignment with a hard deadline prior to our class meeting.
🧩 Class Work
The class work will be graded, but only used as a grade modifier. This means that if you're close to a grade level at the end of the semester, I can use your work from class to determine whether or not to 'round' your grade up.
📝 Worked Problem - 2 points each
There will be a worked problem due each week in class for me to see your written work and thought process.
💡 Creative Contribution - 2 points each
These may be video examples / explanations or even memes or review notes, it will depend on the week.
🏁 Final Exam - 6 points
The final exam will reflect on your growth as a learner and math enthusiast.
Note, these components are all set up to test your understanding of the material in different ways. Since you need only to get to 90 points for an A, my hope is that you can stumble in a particular way to show understanding on a weekly topic and still achieve the grade you want in the class.
DROP FROM CLASS
WARNING!
You may be dropped from the course after missing 1 week worth of class. Please reach out as soon as possible if you will not be submitting anything for a week.
I do hope you use each other to learn the material, but I ask that all items worth points are your own thinking and work. For all assignments, you may be called into office hours to explain your work or discuss. Since you can revise and resubmit, I hope that you will feel comfortable submitting something that isn't there yet for feedback!
Evidence of cheating - getting help from a PERSON or online tutor for one of those components will result in a 0 for that week's worth of contributions until we have met and discussed how you will demonstrate your understanding of the concepts tested.
For further clarification and information on these issues, please consult with your instructor or see Procedure 3100.2, Student Disciplinary Procedures.
Final Course Grade
If you're new to Mesa, there are no +/- grades.
Your final grade in the class will be based on your overall points:
A: ≥ 90 points | B: 80-89 points | C: 70-79 points | D: 60-69 points | F: < 60 points
Learning from Mistakes - my mantra
A bunch of high stakes exams in a class seems unreasonable to me. All of the points in this class are from ‘formative assessments’ - they are intended to help you understand what you do and don’t know about the material and to grow from your mistakes. However, they all become 'summative assessments' - showing what you know at the end, when you show your mastery of the material. As such, everything can be resubmitted until you have a perfect score.
I do plan to cut off resubmissions for Weeks 1-6 after Week 8 and Weeks 7-11 after Week 14. My thought here is that if you get too far behind, you won't be able to catch up (and I'll get buried in grading), so we will see how this works!