Final Grades

Some notes on final grading…

DC3

You will receive feedback on DC3 - it has been posted in a Canvas comment, but we know those are hard to read and we may try to get it to you other ways.

Generally, people did well. There were some exceptional assignments, and there were many that were good.

Final Grades

The plan was at: Grading

I redid grades many different ways, they all came out about the same. Whether you view it as penalties for missing things, rewards for doing things, etc.

Here’s the one that’s probably easiest to explain (and used in the end):

  1. Design Challenges (1/3)

    • each “week” counts the same
    • 4/10 DC1, 1/1 DC1-5, 5/10 DC3
    • I did an experiment where I added a bit for “which ever of DC1 and DC3 you did better on” - it didn’t change anything
  2. Online Discussions (Initial Posts) (1/3)

    • We computed your drop-2 mean OD and SF quantitative scores (these were on a 1-5 scale)
    • We weighted them equally, and used them to give a base grade
    • We used the qualitative grade as a modifier - if you got above 2, you were rewarded, below 2 subtracts (uncommon)
    • For example, 5/5/3 (OD,SF,qual) = A, 5/5/2 = solid AB
    • Note: this does not include anything for discussion beyond the original post
  3. Other Stuff (1/3)

    • Everyone started with an AB
    • you were rewarded if you participated in online discussion well
    • you were penalized if you totally ignored online discussion beyond initial posts
    • you were penalized if you did fewer than 12 surveys (of 15)
    • you were penalized if you missed a lot of classes (5 or more without telling us, this was only 2 people)
    • you would have been penalized if you were chronically late (but the only problematic people already were penalized enough for things above)

We adjusted people (upwards only) around the border.

I am finding grading really hard. It’s always hard, but this semester is even harder since I didn’t get to know many students. Normally, I can have a sense of whether the numbers reflect what I know of students. This semester, I have to rely on numbers more than usual.