I was asked again, so let me clarify more.
With the “smaller assignments” (reading discussions, design exercises, seek and finds, …) we’ve been having so far:
You cannot get an A on an individual assignment. Getting an A is about consistently doing well in all parts.
So far, we’ve been grading things nocheck/check/check plus (1,3,4). If you’re consistently getting 4s, that’s as well as you can do.
(The 5 is more a notation for ourselves that we want to come back to something, than a statement that its “better than a 4”)
We might change the scoring system in the future. We will probably want to have a richer rubric for larger assignments.
If you’re wondering, I am really pleased with the quality of things being submitted so far (admittedly based on sampling). The vast majority of what I’ve seen is good. I have no problem with a class where everyone does well. I have no problem giving lots of good grades.
See also: online discussions update; grading, discussions, participation, …
